Though our first “official” day of school was August 25th, some light schooling actually started for us the week of August 16th because that is when our Beyond Five In A Row co-op started with our very first week of “rowing” Betsy Ross! It was oh so much fun!! Soon I will share some pictures of the co-op, but for now I just wanted to share how our lessons will work this year.
Ambleside. Ambleside. I tried it last year and here’s what I found. I am a Charlotte Mason kind of teacher at heart, and therefore what I do is generally a Charlotte Mason sort of style without really trying too overly hard. I love the Ambleside book lists. From those, we found some great books that became part of our school curriculum last year. However, with my work schedule and my eclectic bent, I found it impossible to 100% stick to the reading schedule. This year, we are still using Ambleside, but, again, Beyond Five In A Row will be our #1 focus. From Ambleside we’ll take book suggestions, support and ideas from the e-mail loop, and once again I’ll be reading from Charlotte Mason’s own writings, as time allows.
Now let’s talk about Beyond Five In A Row! Our co-op has scheduled four books for the upcoming school year (2010-2011). Betsy Ross, Homer Price, Thomas Edison, and The Boxcar Children. If the books seem “young,” don’t worry. There will be so many lessons surrounding this and so much other reading, I don’t consider it a problem for us. And actually, Michaela has never read these books!
Each book will cover 8 weeks and from each book there’ll be 4 co-ops. The co-ops rotate from home to home with 2 of the moms volunteering to teach at each co-op. We spread the work out so that each mom teaches and hosts the same number of times. Lessons are taken from the Beyond Five In A Row manual, with children learning unit-study style from home and at the co-ops each week.
Since we started with Betsy Ross, I have made the focus of our first 8 weeks of school, Colonial America and the American Revolution. Here are some things we’ll be using.
In the Charlotte Mason style we do these: copywork, cursive, and spelling, all from Queen Homeschool; old books with reading selections covering early American historial figures; old record albums with traditional American and traditional European music from the 1700s, as well as famous composers from that time period; a journal for daily writing (dictation) covering what we’re doing.
We started with Mozart, but plan to listen to all selections before we are done, placing musicians and music on our timeline as we go.
My mother-in-law had a wonderful collection of books in her time. From those books, I was given a book called More Minute Biographies.
From this I was able to copy several pages that featured men to know from American Revolutionary times. We color in the pencil drawings while we listen to music from the 1700s, then they get pasted around the timeline.
Things are going well so far. We plan to make some very old-fashioned recipes from our Cooking in the Young Republic.
Week #1 In Review, 08/16 – 08/20/2010 (very light week):
Read Betsy Ross chapters 1-4
Watched Episodes #1 and #2 of Liberty’s Kids on you tube.
Attended co-op: sensory awareness, quakers, kindness.
Week #2 In Review,08/23/2010 – 08/27/2010 (started on Wednesday and had some celebrating, so, again, not a full week):
Took School Pictures
Review of Betsy Ross week #1
Math Review
Lesson #41 Saxon 7/6
Copy work lessons 1-2
Cursive week 1
Spelling week 1
Read and talked about Mozart.
Listened to Mozart.
Added Robert Morris, Betsy Ross and Mozart to timeline.
Colored page and talked about Robert Morris.
Journal entry Wednesday.
Journal entry Friday.
Fieldtrip at Harris Park – Thursday
Happy Homeschooling!
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
You have quite the layout. What a great time frame to study. My girls love, love, The American Girls Series. My books are barely held together by the binding as they’ve been through so many hands. Have a blessed year.
Tricia, thank you! I am going to try to post our actual lessons and add links to some things as I go. Hopefully!
Sounds like a great co-op! I have been following your journey with Ambelside and am thinking about using it. Just need to find the courage to do it
Many blessings to you and your family
Sue, it really works for me on *my terms.* It is a great resource. I felt a bit guilty at first for not liking a few of their book selections and not adhering to the reading schedule 100%, but hey, I’m the principal!
I think it’s a great resource and we’ll be pulling from year 6 and maybe 7 this year. The art study is great too! We did print those out last year in an 8×10 glossy format and really enjoyed learning them.
Lynn,
One thing that gave me an UNBELIEVABLE peace about my children reading “easy” books was that MOST ADULTS read often WAY BELOW their reading level…I know that often, when I am reading something hard, I really work to read it, often only reading one page in a setting and laboring through it reading sections multiples of times…I don’t know about the other two, but the Boxcar Children and Homer Price are both such sweet books…I think it will be time well spent.
Would you happen to want a set of little books I have…they are called “Little Biographies” and there is about 27 or so of them for Composers…Strauss is the one i have sitting in front of me…copyright is 1922 and they are so sweet…I just know I will not use them…it is adorable…this is the inside cover:
Little Biographies are published with the following points in view:
To be within reach of EVERYBODY, therefore the low price of 25 cents.
For Home and COncert
Favorite Composers and Musicians to be had seperately
Assisting to teachers
Helpful to Pupils
Instructive for Class work, schools, clubs, etc
Indispensable for research work
FURTHERMORE, – each book contains illustrations, a glossery and a complete list of the composer’s compositions.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, for the layman, who will find a summery of all important historical facts, written interestingly and briefly.
Let me know!
Love,
C~
Carrie, you are so sweet to encourage! And to offer the books. You know my weakness. Truly. Books.
I will get in touch with you ’bout them. I, too, enjoy “easy” reading. The older I get, the more I love the simple. Grand things can be simply said. And read. That’s what I like! xoxo
Hi Lynn,
I am re-reading your FIAR posts, as we started Betsy Ross yesterday–do you have a web resource for that era music?
If you do it would save me some time and googling.
Thanks!
Right off hand, I cannot think of one. We have a turn table on which I play albums, mostly from the thrift stores where you can find a ton of old music to fit any time period at all. There was one site that I found that had midis to let you hear snippets of music from period composers. If I find where I wrote it down, I’ll post it. I’m sorry! I’ll see what I have.
Hi again, Lynn! Have you discovered http://www.myaudioschool.com/ yet?
There are some wonderful resources there that work for CM. The first thing that comes to mind is the Nesbitt Shakespeare for children. . . and audio files from the revolutionary period. . .you might find it helpful! I apologize for all the exclamation points; I got excited and thought you might like it, too!
~april