This year, we'd like to incorporate more CM methodology and philosophy into our home school life. Below are some ways in which I plan to do this. As the year progresses and as I might observe readiness and a keen interest for new skills, concepts or habits, I will add them to our informal learning time.
Step 1- Educate self
I chose the month of May to focus on planning the academic year as we had a few social events lined up and were going to have a hectic month anyway; a birthday, a visit from the maternal grandmother and a 5 day church conference.
I started educating myself by listening to the Charlotte Mason Core values series on Simply Charlotte Mason podcast on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dkiqiPgI6M&list=PLhkD5hzLjrk0JMDLWqsekOnyr9qN4yDGz
There are a total of 19 videos in this series that really helped me shape my perspective and take away a few things that I can immediately incorporate in my own attitude through interactions and gave me ideas for new practices to add to our home life. I studied these videos and took notes in my notebook.
I also watched the "Did you have a good year" video and focused my reflection goals on their recommended criteria . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSIuy3pR2Sg
Step 2- Reflections and planning
4 areas of growth- Physical, Intellectual, Moral and Spiritual
I reflected on last year and made goals for Ahna for this year in these 4 areas.
Physical-
Balance bike cycling with smooth turns
Skating or skipping
Dress self entirely
Bathe self/clean and brush
Intellectual-
Continue reading, letter names, sounds, blends, gardening, any other ideas and new interests that come up.
Add singing hymns
Art study (means to an end)
Moral-
Continue application for 'character growth project' focus from last year on servitude and start with the gratefulness jar for gratefulness this year.(1 Thess 5:18)
Spiritual-
Memory verses, Bible reading, Songs, Bible character study
Step 3-
I looked through our collection of books and chose some for this year and separated them physically from the pile into a box(temporarily, hopefully) and went on to plan which books I'd read in which months.
Step 4-
I combined all areas of growth and plotted it on a working draft for each month of the academic year.
I love following Ahnas developing interests and abilities to also shape our learning time so a lot of the learning that we will do may not follow this initial blueprint and that is perfectly okay!
Since she had a birthday in May, we bought her some new living books as a present and are so eager to use them!
Here are 'some' new practices I'm adding to our routine for Ahnas overall development and growth this year.
- Family read aloud during snack time
- Chore time+chore list
- Gratitude jar before bedtime
- Game bowl for mental habits (check out the HABIT TRAINING PACKAGE 1)
Happy planning!
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