Our Education Style

I am the queen of taking the parts of an idea that I know will work for me and my family and changing it to fit us exactly.

That's why you'll quickly find that my inspiration for our home education comes from a little bit of everywhere.

- Narration (Charlotte Mason)
- Work periods and presentations (Montessori)
- Individual-inspired projects (Project-based learning or Reggio Emilia)
- Main lesson books (Waldorf)
- Practical life work (Montessori)
- Copywork (Charlotte Mason)
- Unit studies (that aren't really unit studies)


All these pieces come together in a way that works well for us, and we change any part that ceases to be useful.


For quick definitions:

Daily work: This is the work we do every day, even when there is no currently active unit or project. It includes faith, memory work, phonics and math.

Math: our math "program" is comprised of 3 parts.

1. Gain a skill or continue work on the current skill. This is usually verbal I present a new skill Montessori- style and Ender has time to work with the material on his own. Not all of the math materials are the exact materials that the Montessori method calls for, but they use the same principle. We work on this skill each day until it is mastered, whether that is only 2 days or a few weeks. Sometimes this work will pogress into writing, but right now it is mostly manipulatives. I try to keep this time short(about 10 minutes) unless he'd like to work longer.

2. Math journal to review. Ender has 1 task each day in his math journal. I write the date and a prompt at the top of the page and he draws his response below. A prompt might be something like, "Draw 2 tall building and 2 short buildings. How many buildings are there all together?" This is a way to review skills he already has and also to encourage a bit of pencil work. Math journal time is probably his favorite portion of our daily work.

3. Active review. We also review 1-3 skills in active work each day. These are his choice a la Montessori and can include any work he's already learned. This work period lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on his choices that day.


Unit: Our units are not units in the traditional sense of encompassing as many learning areas as possible. Our science units focus on the science topic and social studies units focus on social studies. If math, art, music, health or something else plays a part in the unit we certainly use it! I just don't bend over backwards trying to find some way to get an art lesson out of a human body study for example. Our units are not all-inclusive, but they do make connections with other subjects as they naturally occur.

Fresh Start

Hello again!

We're making a little switch from wordpress to blogger. I'll be working on moving posts over from the old blog to here in the next several weeks, but it will be quite a process after 2+ years in that place.

So why did we move? Well, blogger is a little more user-friendly for my particular set of technical skills and it offers a few features that I didn't have before.

So hang out a bit, get used to the new digs and let me know what you think!

New Beginning

I've been blogging with wordpress for over 2 years and it's time for a little change. If you'd like to visit our family's new space, you can visit us at Calling It Progress!

The posts here will be left up for awhile, but I will be moving information from here into the new space over the next month or so.

I hope to see you there!

Big Plans

Last week we finished up swimming lessons for the summer and t-ball wrapped up on Saturday. Before swimming lessons Ender was more than reluctant to get in the water. His big fear was wrapped up in putting his face in the water, and we’d tried to show him easy ways to do it, but he was too scared to try. The teachers for his class were great- they didn’t push him to do anything he was too scared to try, but they did get him to make big steps forward. By the last few classes he was putting his face in! It was really quick each time, but he was trying it! Now he has the rest of the summer to practice.


We are spending the next few days getting ready for a trip to New York. The boys are both very excited about riding on a plane for the first time- I fully expect Ezra to tell us we can go right back home the second we land because his dreams will have been fulfilled.

We have plans to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, a Yankees game, the Museum of Natural History and Wicked on Broadway. We’re going to Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. And maybe most exciting of all (for me): Purlsoho! I’ve wanted to see their shop for the longest time and now I finally get the chance to go in person instead of spending time drooling at their online shop.

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This Week

Last week we finished up swimming lessons for the summer and t-ball wrapped up on Saturday. Before swimming lessons Ender was more than reluctant to get in the water. His big fear was wrapped up in putting his face in the water, and we'd tried to show him easy ways to do it, but he was too scared to try. The teachers for his class were great- they didn't push him to do anything he was too scared to try, but they did get him to make big steps forward. By the last few classes he was putting his face in! It was really quick each time, but he was trying it! Now he has the rest of the summer to practice.

 

We are spending the next few days getting ready for a trip to New York. The boys are both very excited about riding on a plane for the first time- I fully expect Ezra to tell us we can go right back home the second we land because his dreams will have been fulfilled.

 

We have plans to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, a Yankees game, the Museum of Natural History and Wicked on Broadway. We're going to Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. And maybe most exciting of all (for me): Purlsoho! I've wanted to see their shop for the longest time and now I finally get the chance to go in person instead of spending time drooling at their online shop.

 

And the last little thing to mention here is that there will be changes in this spot soon. I'll be sure to share more after the trip!