This is my first Weekly Wrap-Up in three weeks! Things have just been getting away from me lately. I’m glad to “be back!”

Here I am, at the beginning of March, and my well laid out school plans have been pushed aside.  I feel disappointed in myself, and yet I see that adjustments needed to be made.  What I am missing right now though, is Charlotte Mason.  I spent last summer reading all about her, and planned our curriculum with her methods in mind. Now I am finding myself reverting back to old habits… not necessarily good ones.  Time to pull out my Charlotte Mason books once again!  We break for the month of April, and I will definitely be doing some mid-course corrections.

Some mistakes thus far:

Expecting too much seatwork, and not enough hands-on work. I enjoy hands-on things with the boys, but I do not enjoy preparing for them.  This is something I just need to get over and DO. Somebody kick me or something!  If I can get a lapbook all printed out with all the little books cut out, then I have no problem getting the actual project done as we go through a study. If I have to piece it together day by day, it just doesn’t happen. There has been a lot of “just doesn’t happen”  happening around here lately.

Unrealistically expected us to be able to get through double the reading material than was actually possible.  I am a bibliophile: I confess. I love books! I love book LISTS!  This is where my problems come in. If there are two dozen books on a curriculum list, my brain (being the legalistic brain that it is) thinks we must read them. All.  We did end up ditching all of the mythology books on our list this year except The Children’s Iliad, and that has been a very good thing!

I slipped into old habits and quit using the timer for math and penmanship.  We used to do 20 minutes of math and 10 minutes of handwriting per day, with the “no matter how much you get done” philosophy.  Also Charlotte Mason’s “Slow, careful practice…” theory to which I added “…makes nice handwriting”.  And it does. And I’m a dufus for forgetting that.

Grammar.  We haven’t. Done. Any.  Not this term! First term we did grammar 2-3 days a week. It’s not like it took us very long, either.  I use Shurley English, just the grammar portion, and we do the sentences together on a white board. The boys enjoyed it and were beginning to really “get it”.  When we began 2nd term we just never got back in with grammar.  We will when we start back up 3rd Term!  It only takes us about 10-15 minutes.

I need to get back into learning more about Charlotte Mason and her teaching techniques.  Her ideas on teaching children SO resonated with me, and the way I feel children should be taught, and I was so excited when I discovered her!  Her teaching style fits my special needs child so perfectly, that it seemed she wrote it all just for him.  Now it’s been so long, that I have forgotten most of what I read. Time to pull out my books once again and get reading!

My reading list includes:
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

A Charlotte Mason Education by Katherine Levinson

More Charlotte Mason Education by Katherine Levinson

and the Charlotte Mason Study Guide by Penny Gardner.  I REALLY need to go back through this one!

For the rest of our term, which is the month of March, I am going to do the two unit studies that I agreed to review.  It should be fun for a change of pace, but I feel sort of guilty for my well-laid plans taking a detour. I know, it’s my school.  I shouldn’t feel guilty. I should just go with it.   I should take my own advice.  And when we start back up again in May after our break, I plan on being refreshed and have my purposes renewed once again!