Cultivating Childhood

As we near the end of our first month on this blog, I'm wondering what people think of it.  So, I'm asking for your input.  What would you like to see more of on here?  Photos of the kids doing the different projects?  Book Reviews?  Recipes?  Something else all together? I'm enjoying the accountability that this blog brings to our lives right now.  I think that it is helping me to actually think through what I want to do with Noah instead of just "winging" it.  But, right now, it seems like it is just a lot of words on a page.  What do you think?

Continuing on our kindness theme, we are going to be talking about serving and helping others this week. This is our last week of the month so we are going to be concluding our time with this month's music and memory verse.  It's going to be sad to say "good-bye", but it is nice that I have the flexibility in our "homeschool regime" to revisit and/or review these at any time.  I know that Carnival of the Animals  is going to always stay a favorite, and I need to buy the book that Noah just can't seem to get enough of. I think we've done pretty well with our memory verse of Philippians 4:13.  Noah definitely recognizes it, and if prompted, he can say it.  Although at two and a half, I'm not certain he understands yet what the verse is saying.  He's not yet into the "Why" stage, so he doesn't ask things like "Who's Christ?" or "What does 'strengthen' mean?".  I hope though that it will help him in t

This week was so much fun!  Almost everything worked out as planned, and nothing felt too overwhelming. Monday was probably the hardest day.  Our local library system went down for a whole week while they implemented a new catalog.  This was very  difficult for me since I think I log into my library account from home a couple of times a day.  It meant that I couldn't make holds for books I want, and the books I had on hold were not going to come in while the system was down.  This caused some problems for our "sharing" books.  Since most of them weren't available by Monday (still learning my lesson on that one from last week), I had to actually go through the catalog and pick books off the shelves.  When my kids are older, this won't be a big problem.  However, my one-year old did NOT want to stay in the stroller and decided to make some, well let's say "not library appropriate" noises.  When I took him out, he either wanted to pull all the books off

This week is sharing week. We are going to be reading a number of books that encourage children to share. I found that there were a lot of books about sharing that focused on fixing a negative attitude. Although we got a few books along that line, I tried to instead get more books that showed kids wanting to share out of a cheerful heart. I think a positive book would accomplish better what I'm trying to convey to my preschooler. For our music , we will continue listening to the Carnival of Animals. My son enjoyed it so much this last week. Playing it during lunch seemed to work really well when I propped up his book to look at while he ate and listened to the music. We are going to wait do our art appreciation until October. I do want to start doing crafts though a couple times a week. One day we will do baking and another day we will do art. I found a great book with the obvious title, Preschool Art: It's the Process, Not the Product . I like that we aren't g

We have officially completed week one of our adventure of home education. However, as I think more about what we are doing, I think it is more like "structured parenting." Not a lot of actual teaching is going on, but I think that is okay. It's more about "Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life" as Charlotte Mason would say. It was definitely hard to get started this week. We did make it to the library on Monday and the store on Tuesday, but that was about it. We didn't get a chance to read our books on Monday because by the time naptime was over, it was too nice and sunny outside not to go out and play. And considering that the weather hasn't been as nice the rest of the week, that was probably the best thing. I realized late that doing the emergency kit with my preschooler wasn't going to work out the way I planned. We really didn't need anything special from the store since we pretty much had everything already. I did buy some batteries for

Charlotte Mason makes a big deal that education is about the whole person and that includes what our children eat. I discovered once at the grocery store that it was near impossible to find granola bars that didn't include high fructose corn syrup - even the considered "healthy" ones. I've seen that since then some brands have gotten better, but they are still very expensive. So, I went on a hunt to find a healthy recipe. I'm trying to avoid white sugar as well, so I came up with this recipe based off Playgroup Granola Bars . Ingredients 2 Cups Rolled Oats 1/2 Cup Sucanat (or brown sugar if you don't have sucanat) 1/2 Cup Wheat Germ 2 T Flaxseed 3/4 t Ground Cinnamon 1 Cup Unbleached White Flour or Wheat Flour 1 Apple cut up in small pieces 3/4 t Salt 1/2 Cup Honey 1 Egg 1/2 Cup Olive Oil 2 t Vanilla Extract Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9x13 inch baking pan Mix all dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix well. Transfer t

So, here we go. Our Weekly Topic is about starting school and making friends. This may seem a poor choice considering this is a homeschooling blog, but I think it makes sense for us. Noah will be starting his once-a-week preschool this week, and I want to help ease the transition. I'm sure this same topic could work for moms who wanted to put their children in some kind of sports or music program in the same way. Our Composer of the month is Camille Saint-Saëns of Carnival of the Animals fame. We have been listening to this great piece in the mornings. I also just got a couple of books by the same name that I hope will be intriguing and start some conversations about the music. Our Artist of the month may not begin until October. I'm not a very creative person, so this is going to be a bit of a struggle for me. I'm also trying to figure out how I can make the Charlotte Mason approach to art study work for us in a preschool setting. Our Bible verse of the month is

As a novice teacher with a novice student, I've been trying to figure out what exactly I want to accomplish with my son for this first year. I have to keep reminding myself that he isn't even 3 yet, so my goals can't be too ambitious. At SimplyCharlotteMason.com, they have a wonderful Early Years Guide that shows what can be realized during the preschool years. I particularly love the focus on habit training for "smooth and easy days." (For a free e-book by the same name, go here .) I wanted to make my goals attainable and somewhat measurable. I found breaking them up into segments was helpful. So here they are... Daily Focus on obedience. Review numbers 1-20. Review letters by singing alphabet song and showing the letters as we do so. Try to spend time outside (weather-permitting). Weekly Focus on our weekly topic by using books and practice (i.e. if our topic is kindness we will practice being kind to our friends and family and read books about being kind

The next step of my great adventure is to figure out what method of homeschooling will work best for our family. There are so many theories floating out there in cyberspace and probably even more within the confines of individual homes and communities. I had planned on putting short (and probably poor) descriptions of some of the most popular methods, but instead I thought I'd just focus on what we are going to do. I was really pleased to learn through my research about the Charlotte Mason Method . It focuses on educating children as whole persons. Atmosphere is important as children absorb information from what is going on around them. Discipline in forming good habits is essential. Academics should be "living" and not just dry facts. Experience of the world around them should be crucial to a child's development. Another method that really appeals to me is the idea of Classical Education or the Trivium . This theory is based off the idea that there are three s

What mother doesn't want to give her child the best education possible? The debate over the decision to put one's children in private school, public school, or to homeschool can often be heated. I truly believe that each option has its place, and that each option has its advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I've struggled with the decision a lot, and my oldest isn't even 3! (This probably has something to do with the fact that I'm a firstborn, and therefore wish I could plan out every moment of my life RIGHT NOW). After a lot of prayer and talking to some very wise people (on all sides of the issue), we have decided to *mostly* homeschool our children for now. I say this with two caveats. First, my oldest will be attending a private preschool in the fall. However, he is only 2 1/2 so his one-day-a-week preschool is basically a practice in socialization (and giving this mama a chance to do errands with only one child instead of two). I do not expect thou