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...

Ordinary Things

"The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children. "

I recently read this quote by G.K. Chesterton and thought how appropriately this applies to our ordinary, everyday, homeschooling lives. We don't get to see flashy test scores or receive standing ovations or applause from a crowd for being faithful in little things but these little things do add up over time and I think we all need to be encouraged to be faithful.

Summer break & George Washington

We have been enjoying our summer break but Louisa asked me this morning if we can start school again at the beginning of August! I was pretty surprised but she said she misses it and likes it. But, we aren't ready (I'm not ready!) to start yet. We have about four weeks left till we officially begin.

I thought I would post some pictures from a day trip we took to visit George Washington's headquarters (when we were in NJ). He wintered in Morristown, NJ over the winter of 1779. They have preserved the "mansion" he lived in (along with all his commanders and staff) and it really is beautiful.

Louisa was given the privilege of unlocking the front door so we could all enter. She had a massive key.

This was George & Martha's room

We took a peek in all the rooms and tried to imagine 40 or so people living in this little mansion. 

It was fun for Kailyn and I to tour the mansion and learn more because we had read about it during our Year 4 history readings but things like this always help history come alive.

Some things to know if you decide to visit:

• There is a great documentary video that you can watch while you are waiting for your tour to start.


• It's a National Park, so if you have a fourth grader, you can get in free!


• Parking is free.


• Tempe Wick's farmhouse is within a close driving distance and provides more living history!

Our average day

Thanks to the internet and other well-experienced homeschool moms, I learned that I should create an "average day chart." This is meant to keep us all on task and give us a daily schedule so we know what in the heck we are supposed to be doing next. At first it was overwhelming to try and come up with a plan since I am also trying to work around Julia's nap schedule, lunchtime and get the girls going on their daily chores instead of waiting till after lunch to start... which we know will never happen.... so this is what I came up with and what will work best for our family:

7-8:15 am Eat breakfast and get ready for the day (including chores)

8:15-9:30 am Circle Time! This involves Bible survey, Bible memory work, poetry readings, copywork/handwriting/dictation, drawing exercises, picture study (1x/week), and hymn study.

9:30-10:00 am Louisa & I do math together; Kailyn reads history books & narrates when done.

10:00-10:30 am Kailyn & I do math together; Louisa reads history books & narrates when done.

10:30 am Snacks for everyone

10:45-11:25 am Science or Geography readings for both girls and Kailyn and I also study Plutarch (this term we are reading about Marcus Cato).

11:45 am Lunch for everyone

In the afternoons (when Julia takes her second nap) we read aloud a literature book and also have a rotation as follows:

Monday: Handicrafts and Kailyn types

Tuesday: Drill and Louisa types. We also do a nature walk on Tuesdays and Kailyn studies Latin with Steve in the evenings.

Wednesday: Drill and Kailyn types. We also learn one folksong each week.

Thursdays: Handicrafts and Louisa types. Kailyn studies Latin with Steve in the evenings.

Fridays: Drill and the girls also will be going to Enrichment classes.

In case you are wondering what in the world Handicrafts are - just think of lifelong skills and creative, useful things that you can be doing with your hands. This term we are working on a quilt - the girls each picked out their own fabric and will be putting it together as well as using the sewing machine... which may or may not have been more than I should have committed to... we'll see.

"Drill" is just like exercises.

That about covers it!

Let the learning begin

We officially began our first year of homeschooling last week and it went very smoothly for the most part (aside from a few protests about re-doing work!). The girls are both enjoying our new style of learning and especially Kailyn, is eating up all the reading she gets to do!! Louisa enjoys (so far) being home with everyone all day and they both get a huge kick out of J who does her best to distract us every waking moment.

We are following Ambleside Online's curriculum with Louisa doing Year 2 and Kailyn in Year 4. The only things I am changing from their curriculum are the composer/artist rotation, folk song suggestions, hymn selections, Bible readings, and Year 4 natural history selection.

For composers/artists, I chose composers that I am more familiar with (since this is our first year!) and artists that I could buy picture study resources from Simply Charlotte Mason's website. I didn't want to have to think too much about this and theirs seemed like a well-thought out portfolio, with easy downloads to my iPad.

For the folk songs, I bought an American Song Treasury book because I would rather my girls learn the old American songs & tunes that they might hear more often.

As far as hymn study goes, I selected hymns that I want my girls to know and learn and that are meaningful to our family. They are as follows (for anyone who's interested): I Sing the Mighty Power of God, To God be the Glory, Crown Him with Many Crowns, Once in Royal David's City, Holy, Holy, Holy, Fairest Lord Jesus, Be Thou My Vision, and My Jesus, I Love Thee.

Instead of reading through the Bible (both girls are already reading the Bible on their own and we have family reading time at dinners) I chose to purchase this great program called Picture Smart Bible that is basically drawing, coloring and surveying each book of the Bible. It was a little labor intensive with printing out all the teaching pages and collating the teacher's guide but I feel it was worth it. I didn't want to stare at a computer screen and read every day from it.

Instead of Year 4 Natural History assignment, Madam How and Lady Why, I last minute changed my mind about it. I just did... instead I replaced it with Ann Voskamp's Explore His Earth. I'm sure we will give MHLW a shot next year but this year I just decided not to pursue it.

And for my records, we are planning to study J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin for our composers and Giotto, VanGogh and Millet for our artists this year. So far, the girls are really enjoying Giotto and Bach. They did wonderful narrations about Giotto's Lamentation: The Mourning of Christ and are really enjoying listening to Bach and reading his story in Wheeler's book.

Anyways, these are our curriculum picks for the year!!