Homeschool Me!

Archive for September, 2009


Posted on September 28, 2009 - by

Year 1: Week 5

(September 28 – October 2, 2009)
Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

Planning Day

  • Literature – Free Reading: The Three Little Pigs, by David Wiesner. (Caldecott Winner that starts off with the traditional story. Then, as each little pig gets “huffed and puffed” right off the page of the story, the explore other stories. In the end they return to their own story, with a few new friends, and a different happy ending. Great book for teaching kids that they can change their own “story” in life by having a different perspective.)

School Day

Library Day

  • Poetry – Free Reading: Please Bury Me in the Library, by J. Patrick Lewis. (Book of poems about language, books, and libraries. Fun way to introduce all sorts of different types of poetry. Very cleverly written and illustrated,too.)

School Day

Field Trips/Nature Study

  • Nature Study: Go for a nature walk through our neighborhood. Collect pine cones, acorns, etc…
  • Handiwork: Make a pinecone votive.

Posted on September 21, 2009 - by

Year 1: Week 4

(September 21-25, 2009)
Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

Planning Day

School Day

Library Day

  • Nature Study – Free Reading: Actual Size, by Steve Jenkins (Fun book that illustrates lots of different animals in real size. One page is nothing but a giant eyeball – the eye of a giant squid! Great for learning bigger/smaller than me/Daddy/refrigerator.)

School Day

Field Trips/Nature Study

  • Science – Free Reading: One Giant Leap, by Robert Burleigh. (Beautiful book that tells the story of the Apollo astronauts first landing on the moon.)

Posted on September 14, 2009 - by

Year 1: Week 3

(September 14-18, 2009)
Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

Planning Day

  • Literature – Free Reading: Kate and the Giant Beanstalk by Mary Pope Osborne (A cute retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk where the heroine outwits the giant.)
  • Science – Free Reading: A Drop of Water, by Walter Wick (A beautiful book with close-up photography and explanantions of the different phenomena of how water works. We mainly looked at the pictures and then I would paraphrase the science behind what we were looking at. Probably best suited for mid to upper elementary students.)

School Day

  • To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
  • Natural History: Record our observations of the Monarch caterpillars we’re rearing.
  • Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
  • Science: Do experiment “Evaporating Water”, from Science Projects About Rain, by Robert Gardner. Observe a saucer of plain water and a saucer of salt water over the next few hours and days to see what happens to the water and what’s left behind.
  • Literature: “The Donkey (Ass) and His Driver”, Aesop’s Fables (Milo Winter Edition), (also here online)
  • Bible: “The Girl No One Wanted” (Leah and Rachel), The Jesus Storybook Bible, pgs 70-75.
  • History:
  • Phonics:
    • Hard or Soft “G” and “C”, from Barbie Phonics Workbook, pg 28
    • “Soft or Hard, Let’s Find Them All” activity, from Better Phonics and Beyond in 5 Minutes a Day, by Lisa Deters. (Finding and cutting out words in a newspaper with g’s and c’s and placing them on a chart that shows soft vs hard.)
  • Nature Study: Start Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu. (A true story about the friendship that developed between a baby hippo named Owen and a 130-year-old giant tortoise named Mzee.)
  • Copywork: Finish writing out the second sentence of our Memory Work passage.
  • Math: ABC Math Riddles, by Janelle Martin
  • Poetry: “Foreign Lands”, A Child’s Garden of Verses (during Tea Time)
  • Geography: Chapter 1, Paddle to the Sea, Chapter 2 (listen to audio during nap time)

Library Day

  • History – Free Reading: Helen Keller: The World in Her Heart , by Lesa Cline-ransome. (A biography of the incredible deaf and blind woman, Helen Keller, and her impressive teacher, Annie Sullivan, as they learned how to communicate through a system of sign language done in Helen’s hands.)

School Day

Field Trips/Nature Study


Posted on September 8, 2009 - by

Year 1: Week 2

(September 7-11, 2009)
Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

Planning Day

School Day

Library Day
  • Math – Free Reading: Museum 123 by The (NY) Metropolitan Museum of Art (A book of artwork from the museum that asks students to find the number of objects in each picture. Some pictures are more difficult to figure out which object to count, which makes it great for reading to a group that’s mixed in age.)
  • History – Free Reading: Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story Of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way To Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History! by Shana Corey (A really inspiring story of the lady who invented water ballet and the modern swimsuit. My dd really loved the great illustrations and the encouraging story of this book.)

School Day

  • To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
  • Natural History: Record our observations of the Monarch caterpillars we’re rearing.
  • Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
  • Copywork: Write out the second sentence of our Memory Work passage.
  • History:
  • Natural History: “Safety First” pgs 14-15, from Follow the Trail, by Jessica Loy
  • Phonics: Rhyme Collage Activity, from Phonemic Awareness Activities for Early Reading Success, by Wiley Blevins. Have student cut out magazine pictures of objects whose names rhyme and then make a rhyme collage with the pictures.
  • Literature: “The Eagle and the Jackdaw”, Aesop’s Fables (Milo Winter Edition)
  • Math: Card Game – War. Use “greater than”, “less than”, or “equal to” skills to play the card game War. (Click here for how to play)
  • History:
  • Artist Study:Raphael Sanzio’s “The Knight’s Dream”
  • Poetry: “Foreign Lands”, A Child’s Garden of Verses (during Tea Time)
  • Foreign Language: Watch Signing Time!: ABC Signs DVD during nap time.

Field Trips/Nature Study
  • Poetry – Free Reading: Scranimals by Jack Prelutsky (A cute collection of poems about imaginary animal mash ups like the HippopotaMushrooms, RadiShark, RhinoceRose, etc. Great book for inspiring imaginative playing with words.)
  • History – Free Reading: What Charlie Heard by Mordicai Gerstein (A biography of Charles Ives – the Modern American composer who wrote music made to sound like every sounds of life. Great artwork to accompany the storyline helps the reader to better understand the way that Charles wrote and ‘heard’ the music in his head.

Posted on September 3, 2009 - by

Year 1: Week 1

(August 31 – September 4, 2009)

Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

Planning Day

School Day

  • To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
  • Bible: “A New Beginning” (Noah’s Ark), The Jesus Storybook Bible, pgs 38-47
  • Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
  • Phonics: Review Long and Short Vowels, Phonics Grade 1 Workbook, pgs 17-19
  • History:
  • Copywork: Start writing all ABCs, upper and lower case, in journal to get a baseline of handwriting for this school year.
  • Poetry: “Bed in Summer”, A Child’s Garden of Verses

  • Math: Addition using a number line, Disney Addition and Subtraction Workbook, pg 9
  • Literature: “The Wolf and the Kid”, Aesop’s Fables (Dover Edition), pg 22-23 (also here online)
  • Poetry: “A Thought”, “At the Seaside”, A Child’s Garden of Verses (read during Tea Time after picking up ds from Mother’s Day Out. Click here to read the post where I got this fun idea.)
  • Literature – Free Reading: Today is the Birthday of the World, by Linda Heller and Alison Jay
  • Geography: Chapter 1, Paddle to the Sea (listen to audio during nap time, then draw a picture narration)

Library Day

School Day

  • To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
  • Natural History: Record our observations of the Monarch caterpillars we’re rearing. We released our second Monarch butterfly today! So exciting!
  • Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
  • Copywork: Finish writing all ABCs, upper and lower case, and numbers in journal to get a baseline of handwriting for this school year.

  • Literature: “A Lesson of Faith”, Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Alfred Gatty
  • Math: Single Digit Addition – drawing marks (x’s) to count, Disney Addition and Subtraction Workbook, pg 10
  • Literature: “The Tortoise and the Ducks”, Aesop’s Fables (Milo Winter Edition), pg 8 (also here online)
  • Phonics: Matching game – match beginning, middle, and ending sounds on matching cards with drawings of words, from Phonemic Awareness Activities for Early Reading Success, by Wiley Blevins
  • World History:
    • “The Stories of Albion and Brutus”, Chapter 1 of Our Island Story
    • Find “Albion” (Britain) on the globe.
  • Artist Study: Term 1 for this year we will be studying Raphael Sanzio (1483 – 1520) of the Italian Renaissance period.
    • Add Raphael Sanzio to our Book of Centuries.
    • Read portions of his biography online here.
  • Poetry: “Young Night-Thought”, A Child’s Garden of Verses (during Tea Time)

Field Trips/Nature Study