Adventures in Homeschooling 7/25
July 25th, 2008I’m starting to feel as though our adventure in “online academy schooling” is (or should be) coming to an end.
Perhaps it was a great transitional tool for us. Maybe the structure and schedule was good for me to have in order to get a good idea of what homeschooling 3 kids entails.
Now, however, we’re exhausted. The K-12 curric is great, dont get me wrong, but its just sooo over the top as the kids get older. The kinder and 1st grade currics are great, IMO…but after that, its just brain melting. I feel bad saying that as I have referred 2 mothers to the program, but their children are young, and I still stand by the fact that the programs are good for K-1. 
I am also wondering if my kids’ passion for reading (and not just cheezy books, but classics) isn’t being fostered properly by me. I’ve been investigating the Charlotte Mason style of schooling, and as I prepare to start Kinder with Ms. P in September, I find this list quite useful.
“A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six”
A reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890’s. from Summer 93 Parents Review pub by Karen Andreola
1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read–what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own “pets”–rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.
I think this is a pretty fabulous outline for P and I. The recommended booklist for kinder is as follows:
Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne and Ernest H. Shepard (Winnie-The-Pooh, the House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six). Accept no substitutes for the original stories!
Beatrix Potter series
The Little House by Virginia Burton
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Ox-Cart Man by Barbara Cooney
Stone Soup and other folk tale retellings by Marcia Brown
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (CM idea of duty in bringing beauty to the world)
The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman or other retelling of the Sambo story with more appropriate illustrations
Brer Rabbit books by Joel Chandler Harris, read the online etext
Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha Alexander
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Eulalie, Jessie Wilcox Smith, or Alice and Martin Provenson)
A good collection including classic stories and folktales such as The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. (Joseph Jacob’s versions online here and here)
A good collection of Aesop’s Fables, such as the one illustrated by Milo Winter
A nice Mother Goose collection, such as The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright Mama Goose, a collection by Edelen Wille, or versions such as those by Rojankovsky, Marguerite De Angeli or Tasha Tudor Illustrated classic poetry such as Poems for Young Children compiled by Caroline Royds
A good collection of classic children’s poetry such as The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse edited by Peter Opie
I was referred to the website www.amblesideonline.org, which is a free online Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum outline. I think its perfect for our family, and I’m praying for a few details to work out so that I can move forward with this plan.
I can smell freedom…
Maybe Red Robin cuz they’ll sing to her 
