An Atmosphere, A Discipline, A Life…

A Charlotte Mason Education

I’m loving notebooking instead of worksheets. The kids can be so creative!

Bible Study

I believe in a good foundation and being open to questions and conversation about God and the Bible.

Here is Elizabeth writing her daily Bible journal.

I got this devotional for her. We have the Hands On Bible, but she uses her KJV. She’s been doing well with the readings and answering the question each day.

She just recently completed the kids’ version of The Bible in 90 Days. I introduced her to the SOAP journal method from Mom’s Toolbox. She loved that. She has a desk, but she always writes with her notebook in her lap.

Good Habits

Big sister is a mother’s helper.

Elizabeth spends much of her time with her siblings, helping with preschool and watching the baby.

She does well teaching them and often makes it more fun than I would do!

Here are Victoria and Alexander playing with the alphabet on our magnet chalkboard. Elizabeth is there mostly making sure that Alex doesn’t eat all the letters. He is Babyzilla. :)

I want all my kids to love each other and get along well and we instill good habits and love through free time and play. Good relationships are important.

We often have tea time to wind down in the afternoons.

Exercise

So, we went bowling one day…Victoria won! We are continuing ice skating lessons. The girls are all getting much better! I want the kids to be active and healthy.

Natural History

We went on a nature walk and were excited to see winter plants and birdies. We have never lived anywhere to experience winter before! It was nice that the temperatures have been in the 40s so we could get outside and look around.

Geography

We’re all loving geography…We’re studying Russia this week and working our way through the US states. We learn with books, maps, drawing and coloring.

History

We roughly use Ambleside Online for Elizabeth’s curriculum. She is in Year 4. She loves to read and loves history, so it’s a good fit. We love the reading lists for living books in history. It helps it come alive for us and I learn so much too!

Music

Liz takes piano lessons and we learn about composers, hymns, and folk music along with our history timeline.

Art

We love art and learn about artists and create our own crafts and projects.

Language

We’re learning Latin, and I introduce some vocabulary weekly in Spanish, French, and German. I feel it’s super important to learn languages.

Literature

I love poetry, Shakespeare, the classics. I have a degree in English, so I love to read and instill a love for reading in my kids. We can never have too many books!

We started off using The Well-Trained Mind and have felt more comfortable with the eclectic approach lately. I have much of Liz’s reading material on our new iPad and that’s working out very well that it’s so portable and we’re not worrying about carrying lots of books when we’re out and about. We have some really cool educational apps too!

Pin8

8 Shares

Year 5 can be tough. Bodies and minds and attitudes change. It’s a hard time for a child, asserting her independence and discovering who she might be.

I try to allow for interests while guiding the curriculum for what I want her to know. She has a lot of freedom and few rules.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow is What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Fifth-Grade Education by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

5th Grade Curriculum

Geography and History

This week, we started geography learning about Kenya. I bought the Expedition Earth curriculum and we love it! I’m teaching future missionaries with our new books and prayer cards!

We’re also studying a U.S. state a week with the Nifty Fifty states flash cards from A Beka and other U.S. books I’ve had since I was a kid. We did Alaska last week and this week we did Montana. Yeah, no rhyme or reason. They just picked those out of the stack.

We love the PowerPoint shows at 1+1+1=1. The membership is well worth it!

Literature

She loves to read, so I have no worries there. Just trying to find appropriate and interesting books to read and discuss can be a challenge sometimes. We love the book lists from Ambleside Online.

Music

Liz has studied piano for over 2 years and here she is practicing! She loves classical music and opera and adores Broadway musicals. We learn about composers and music all the time.

Math

Liz is working on Singapore Math 5B. She does really well when I can work with her, but does not do well independently in math. She loves reading and will do almost everything else on her own…Life of Fred is a great supplement that incorporates fun stories with sneaky math.

Latin

She did her Latina Christiana II lesson right after math with very little help. We have the DVDs and CDs for those and they’re great.

Notebooking

I love notebooking for assignments and narration and evaluation. I print notebooking pages as we need them based on our history and reading assignments. I don’t force writing formally.

Life Skills

Liz helps a lot around the house and with her siblings. She’s becoming a great mother’s helper.

5th grade is a fun transition year – before middle school!

My middle girls in 5th grade:

Singapore Math 5
Tapestry of Grace Year 2
Studying God’s Word F
Spelling Workout E
Apologia Botany
Latina Christiana I

The last time I teach 5th grade!

My son:

I can hardly believe my youngest is doing 5th grade work this year, y’all! He’s only 9 but keeps moving along at a quick pace and I won’t hold him back.

Singapore Math 5
Tapestry of Grace Year 4
Studying God’s Word D
Spelling Workout C
Apologia Human Anatomy
Latina Christiana I

Pin33

33 Shares