My children asked me today: when can we start school again?
I had planned to pick back up with things next Monday, but can see no reason not to start sooner, since they were asking to start today! So we'll start tomorrow!
I've had so much fun on this cool, rainy afternoon, going through my books and deciding where to begin, jotting down my plans as I nibble on some Valrhona chocolate (a brand I highly recommend and that you can find well-priced at Trader Joe's!).
Obviously there are the basics: math and grammar for Finn (just continuing books we already have) and math and copywork for Annie.
A few books we plan to use together this year are:
Pilgrim's Progress with both children (and using Riverbend Press narration notebooks for pretty drawing narrations)
Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet by Opal Wheeler (chosen because I think Annie will be in the Nutracker this Christmas season)
Who was King Tut? by Roberta Edwards (a fun toe-dip into Ancient Egypt), followed by Pyramids by David Macaulay
Birdwatchers and Birdfeeders by Glenn Blough (as we watch--and hopefully draw-- birds at our feeders!)
and, as always, we are reading a chapter each day from The Child's Storybook Bible by Catherine Vos. I have done this for a long time, and I don't really take summers off from this or count it as "school." We narrate it each day. We're now in the New Testament. I read it to the children as they eat breakfast. Some days a narration will suffice, but on some days--like today--we get into a Big Theological Discussion. I love that! I made myself a second cup of coffee--decaf this time--and sat down with Finn for lots of talking.
In addition, there are books we'll use separately:
Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes), Stowaway (Karen Hesse), The Storybook of Science (Fabre), The Young Citizen's Reader (Paul Reinsch) for Finn; these books cover literature, geography, natural history and citizenship.
An Eliza Pinckney biography (later, a Maria Tallchief biography), Children of Other Lands (Watty Piper), Plant Life in Field and Stream (Arabella Buckley), and Fifty Famous Stories Retold (James Baldwin), which cover history, geography, natural history, and a touch of citizenship.
As we finish a book in a certain subject area, I'll poke around on my bookshelves and find the next book! We are fortunate to have an large collection of great books.
For our evening read-aloud, we're currently reading a biography of Booker T. Washington. After that I'm going to probably pick a book of historical fiction to read (with my husband listening as well), and I'm eyeing The Golden Goblet by Eloise McGraw.
And none of this includes our Shakespeare or Plutarch studies, which I am not picking up just yet--we'll do those once co-op begins again in September. But I'm looking forward to The Merchant of Venice and Coriolanus!
We are also doing some recitation: Robert Browning for Annie, Robert Frost for Finn, and William Butler Yeats for me.
I decided to choose a few books for myself in these basic categories, so I'm going to read Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes (geography), West With the Night by Beryl Markham, (which I've already begun--it's wonderful!!--and is a bit of geography, history, and biography all in one), Ourselves by Charlotte Mason (citizenship), and A Countrywoman's Year by Rosemary Verey (for natural history). Once I finish the Verey book, I may read a little Annie Dillard. And I'm going to read Natasha Tretheway's book of poetry, Thrall. I love her work.
{This year Finn will be in 7th grade (!) (Form 3 for all you Charlotte Mason aficionados) and Annie will be in 3rd grade (Form 1)}
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