moms love spring

I experienced a completely new emotion the other day. I call it, "Moms LOVE spring!" It's hard to describe the feeling. Part of it was relief at being done with "the worst winter in 75 years," as the Times and Transcript called it. Part of it was love that welled up in my heart as I saw my children's glee; playing outside without their coats. Part was gratitude to God, who sends the seasons. Part was surprise; I hadn't realized how much I wanted this!

CM E-Course

I've recently been thinking that I don't know enough about Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy. Oh, I know enough to teach my children, but not enough to impress people, when I talk about my homeschooling!
So, in order to become more articulate on the subject, I am taking a free Charlotte Mason E-Course. 
On the one hand, I wish this wasn't necessary, but on the other hand, having done one lesson already, I am finding that it has already improved our school time!
Katherine wasn't ready for math, but I was doing a bit with her anyway. This course reminded me of what was important in these early years (lots of time outside), and inspired me to completely drop the math and spend that energy on nature time!

Math

Last week, in order to reassure kevin that we are do kindergarten right, I printed off a summary of what kids usually know by the end of kindergarten.
We are doing well in reading, using progressive phonics,  but had a little ways to go in math and in writing. The list didn't mention art, but I'm sure we have reached greater heights in that area than the average kindergartener.
Thinking it over, I decided to look up math curriculum. Nelleke at Education is a Life pointed me towards free MEP math, and we have begun our spiralling journey towards an understanding of maths.
 Somehow, however, between printing the standards for kindergarten and printing out the first bit of MEP, I found that Katherine could do simple addition and subtraction. Which was all I needed for kevin, anyways.

on (not) sleeping through the night.

I'm tired today. As I was yesterday. And the day before that. You see, I'm trying to teach O to sleep through the night. He's almost 1, and it's about time.
I remember doing this much earlier with my girls; there's something about having a third child makes me delay tackling the issues. I'll have to be careful to be aware of his character training. Sleeping through the night is not a big deal, but it would be terrible to delay tackling, say, an unkindness problem he could have.
Charlotte Mason managed character training with whole schools of children. I wonder... I expect she was just very organized.

I'm praying that he'll stay asleep (and not need rocking) soon!

Drawing Monday

I really like these kids. God is good.

Our drawing, using the Monart Method, has been progressing wonderfully.  We've been getting together with Nanny and her home-care worker every Monday and enjoying a drawing time.
Today, Katherine drew a fabulous parrot. Unfortunately for me, she gave it to Daddy to take to work.

The 'drawing tip' of the day was "Use the whole paper," because it looks more like art if you do that.

Es.

She's fascinated by biology. Skin, blood, teeth, what's inside your bones, where babies come from, and lately, milk bottles. Last week she told me that she "couldn't sleep well, because when people have small milk bottles they can't sleep well."

Days

We are a couple of weeks into this school year. I hadn't meant to keep track; I thought it would be inconsistent of me, since my philosophy is 'education is a life.' However, school start times, subjects, and finished accomplishments are so important to Kevin that I find myself noticing the days.
It's okay; they've been good days.

We practice reading, which is, at this juncture, practicing letter sounds. We try to put them together, but K just can't, yet. It will come.
Piano lessons are not going very well. Part of the problem is K's age, I suspect. The other part is K's mom. She hasn't figured out how to mix having authority and being exciting as she teaches. K is going to have to learn how to sit and work at it for at least 10 minutes, and how will she learn if I don't teach that? I've been focused on keeping her attention and enjoying the process, but am going to have to insist on obedience. K does like the music, and being able to play, but doesn't like the work it takes to get there.
We started our sketch books last week. I'm so pumped about those! I have to admit, this is more about me than the girls. Though, I think Charlotte Mason would approve of the drawing, because she's all about appreciating beauty, and drawing helps draw the attention to the beautiful.
I've been worrying myself about nature study, since I didn't have anything planned other than lots of time outside. However, I had a nice talk with Nelleke, who pointed out that K is only 4, after all, and perhaps, being outside is enough. She suggested starting with what I know myself (the plant and bird names, etc). Later on, I can add to that. It makes sense. And it's easy, which is what I need right now.
Why? Because Nanny is coming home today.