Piney Woods Homeschool

 This is from Wordsworth's "Prelude", quoted in Charlotte Mason's Volume 3, Chapter 19 : <<     "That common sense           May try this common system by its fruits,           Leave let me take to place before her sight           A specimen pourtrayed with faithful band.           Full early trained to worship seemliness,           This model of a child is never known           To mix in quarrels; that were far beneath           Its dignity; with gifts he bubbles o'er           As generous as a fountain; selfishness       ...

Sometimes Ambleside Online seems daunting to implement, and usually it's the scheduling that seems difficult.  However, the scheduling is really already done for you--it's just a matter of finding a method of recording the schedule and your progress through it. I use the chart-format schedules (new, up-to-date copies soon to be available on the AmblesideOnline website ).  I then edit them to add things that I want to be sure we do daily or weekly that aren't already listed.  I take out what I don't want to do.  For things that need to happen more than once a week, like copywork, I put little checkboxes in the weekly chart box.  Then each day, we look at the column for the week. We start with the things at the bottom of the column, the work that needs to be done daily or multiple times a week, and we do those in whatever order we choose, marking them off as we go.  I look at the readings for the week and figure out how many readings we'll need to do ea...

Last spring my dh bought me an iTouch.  One of the first apps I looked for was a planner, a task manager.  I looked at quite a few, tried out a couple, and settled on an app called 2do.  This has become a mainstay of my life organization.  I use it to keep track of general tasks that need to be done, kids' school schedules, kids' chores, whose turn it is to do various things for which the kids take turns, gifts I need to buy, prayer requests, trip planning, event planning--you name it, I'm tracking it here! I'm going to try to describe *how* I use 2do to track all of this. First, I set up my "calendar tabs".  These sort the tasks on my list into various separate screens, each with its own colored label.  When I choose a view that includes all the calendars together, each task item shows a colored bubble identifying the calendar to which it is assigned.  Therefore I defined my calendar tabs as people in my household, so that I could easily...

We know well that "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." In other words, we know that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere) to forward his sound education; should train him in the discipline of the habits of the good life; and should nourish his life with ideas , the food upon which personality waxes strong. Charlotte Mason, Volume 3, p. 182 This sums up what we are called upon to do.

I just found an interesting preschool handwriting resource.  I have not yet had time to look through it more than cursorily, but I'm going to pass along the link anyway.  This is from the Peterson Directed Handwriting website, where they have other free resources in addition to their fee-based materials. Read Write Ready I'm also looking at their guide for working with lefties: The Left-Handed Writer

This is our plan for the Christmas season, for Christmas day and following up through Epiphany: Christmas Music:            Messiah Part I, No. 13-17 Joy to the World Art:                   The Adoration of the Shepherds, Rembrandt The Nativity, Durer Symbol:          Nativity Crafts:              Make garlands for birds Make Light of the World mural Write thank you notes December 25 Scripture:         Luke 2:1-7 Crafts:              Cut out shapes such as stars or candles from construction paper, two copies for each shape, and cut various holes in both copies.   Glue tissue paper over the holes on one shape, then fit the other shape on top and glue both to...

Here are some ideas for Christmas gifts for kids, from things I'm giving or thinking of giving this year. For a primary school or older girl, a set: Just the Right Words , a book of sentiments to write in cards Blank notecards Perhaps some fancy pens Or alternatively, these books by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume Two: On Life As a Pioneer Woman Writings to Young Women on Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume Three: As Told By Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors For an older preschool or elementary child, another set: The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air   (I cannot vouch for this particular edition because mine is an old, old copy, but looking at it on Amazon it appears that this should be a decent reproduction.  Old copies can be found on Alibris , but make sure you get the first book in the series an...