Charlotte Mason {in Church} ADVENT

I promised I would write about the Advent plans for Children's Church, so here goes. I hope this will be helpful to someone looking to add in ideas to their own Children's Church ministry or Sunday School!

{UPDATE: READ ALL THE POSTS IN THIS SERIES.}

Charlotte Mason {in Church}

{ This is the third post in a series about starting a CM program in our church. }

The past six weeks have flown by - probably because I haven't been doing as much of the teaching as I did in the first six weeks! I do love to watch the kids interact with Scripture and engage in nature study and I am so encouraged by their Scripture memory work! The regular attenders are solid in their memory and the newer kids are really trying!

Embroidery {Handicrafts}

This term we are working on embroidery for our handicrafts! I love hand embroidery and was excited to introduce it. I thought I would share what resources we have been using in case others are interested in trying it out!

I started the girls off with the same pattern- a heart embroidery sampler. This was great practice for learning different stitches. You can find it here. They turned out so sweet

Charlotte Mason {in Church}

I thought I should update regularly on how the children at our church are responding to a Charlotte Mason Sunday School, in case it might help someone else who is looking to start a new approach or are just curious if it is possible in a church setting.

Six Weeks In

We've just closed up 6 weeks of Term 1 for the year! It has gone fast and been very good to get into a routine again, to sharpen our brains and to learn so many great things.

Some highlights around here:

First official nature walk of the year

Sunday Reading Recommendation

We know Charlotte recommended a disciplined, focused Sunday day of "rest" (which kind of sounds like an oxymoron) but I think she was spot on with this.

"Having made the principle of Sunday- keeping plain, make the practice pleasant. Let it be a joyous day- everybody in his best temper and gentlest manners. Put anxious cares aside on Sunday, for the children's sake; and if there be no "vain deluding mirth," let there be gaiety of heart and talk.

Charlotte Mason {in Church}

Exciting news... Charlotte Mason has entered our Children's Church ministry at our church! I was asked to take over the ministry this year as the previous director was burnt out on time and energy. After much thought and prayer, I committed and started looking at curriculum, but quickly got discouraged.

First Week Almost Done!

Well, we may be limping to the finish line... but we are almost done with our first week of the school year! We're limping because of a stomach bug that made its way through our house, but thankfully, none of the school girls caught it...

Kailyn: 8th, Louisa: 6th, Julia and Judah really wanted to show off their fingers and Aleah might consider participating next year...

Circle Time Plans 2019

Circle Time is where we gather around and enjoy school together! This is probably one of my favorite times because it includes all the riches and extras that make homeschool unique and special. We essentially have two Circle Times here because it makes sense to utilize naptime for things that require more concentration and quiet-- if you know what I mean.

Planning Year 6 (Form II)

And now we are getting to Louisa and all the wonderful books in store for her. When I look at the curriculum lists for my girls, I am kind of in awe of all the learning they get to do! What a privilege to learn with real, living books and ENJOY learning all the while!

So, here are the plans for Year 6 - this is all thanks to Ambleside Online, with a few tweaks here and there specific to Louisa.

Little Ones and School

We have three children who are not technically in school yet. Twin 2 year-olds and a daughter who will be 5 in September. Many moms wouldn't hesitate to start their almost 5 year old in Kindergarten (and ultimately it is a very individual choice) but we are pushing the pause button for one more year. Mainly because, we see no need to hurry up the learning process and because Charlotte Mason firmly encouraged 6 full years of childhood!

Planning Year 8 (Form III)

It's that time of year where the planning is in earnest! How am I typing Year 8?! I really am amazed that we have made it this far... when we very first started homeschooling, my thought was to take it a year at a time and don't commit for the rest of our lives but now I don't see any other way for our family. It really is a blessing despite the challenge of five children and all the work it takes to make it happen smoothly.

2018-19 in review

The girls had a very successful year and completed Years 5 and 7 with Ambleside Online! After posting my last review of the previous year, I feel much less frazzled and overall much happier with how the year turned out compared to last year this time.

For our Circle Time sessions in the morning, I had set out to accomplish quite a bit but it took me an entire term to realize that it was not going to work with the younger kids needing so much attention. I was listening to a podcast or reading something that reminded me that the younger kids are just as much a part of our school as the older ones who are actually doing the work. It's not like I can expect them to sit still for long or explain to them why they need to be quiet, so instead of fighting with the situation in frustration, we made a switch that saved our school from extinction. We included the younger kids as much as we possibly could. I didn't really want to give up my quiet time during the afternoon nap but it was the only way we could make progress and make it all work. 

S

A Look Back at Form II

I have neglected our poor homeschool blog for too long and recently found this post that I had compiled last year around this time, but never actually hit "Publish!" So, I am posting it now, especially because it is encouraging to me (a year later) as we have made some good progress on quite a few things that I was up in the air about or unsure of! I plan to do another similar post for this past year too and will definitely try to be more consistent in posting here!!!

**FYI: Form II is grades 4-6, usually ages 4-12 (sometimes over 12)

We finished our school year at the beginning of June, but I thought I should write a review here for my sake. We followed AO almost entirely but did make a few adjustments here or there...