My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

Back to Homeschool Gifts

by Leave a Comment

Starting up our homeschool year requires very little back-to-school shopping. Of course, I've been scouring book sales and sites for the past six months (full disclosure- since forever) to put together our curriculum. But buying shiny school materials and clothes is a right of passage that my children mostly miss out on. This year, in order to get everyone excited about what they'll learn or do, I bought each of my children a back to homeschool gift. 

Why Back to Homeschool Gifts?

I am not a "buy my kids a bunch of things" type of person. They almost NEVER get toys beyond their birthdays or Christmas, unless they received a gift or some money from another family member. Their back to homeschool gifts had two purposes this year. 

For my six-year-old, who started her first year of formal lessons last week, I wanted to make the first day of school special for her. Gifts often signify an important event or milestone, and being first grade is both of those things. 

For my younger boys, I wanted them to feel included in our homeschool.  Their learning is play, so I wanted to get them gifts that reflected the special season, the early years, that they're in.  

I've used affiliate links to share back-to-homeschool gift ideas with you. You can read more about my affiliate links here.

Bird Gifts

Miss H received this beautiful bird bingo set, as we're learning about birds by using resources from Simply Charlotte Mason and The Burgess Bird Book for Children.

She was SO excited to receive this, and she wouldn't put it down for our "back to homeschool" pictures. We've played it several times together, and we've both enjoyed looking up the exotic birds, or celebrating the birds that live in our backyard. 

I also bought these bird flash cards, which was not part of her back to homeschool gift, but she will be so excited to use them as we continue to learn about birds.  


Magformers

For my younger children, I wanted to get them open-ended toys that they could spend hours playing with. I posted  a great deal on Magformers on Amazon Prime Day. I snagged it up, and then held onto it until our first day of school for E's back to homeschool gift. 

E LOVES to build, and he often tells me, "I'm a creator, Mama." I wanted to encourage this creativity, and also give him something fun that he can do while his sister and I are working together. 

Cleaning Set

This final back to homeschool gift is probably the most surprising. My littlest, almost two (already!) would much rather play with remote controls, brooms, or tools than toys. I thought long and hard about what to get him, and when I was in the store, it became blatantly obvious: this broom and mop set from Melissa and Doug!

There have been several occasions already this year where my little guy started to get fussy during lessons, so I handed him his broom and said, "Go sweep for Mama!" He happily obliges. 

Other Back to Homeschool Gift Ideas

If this sounds like a back to homeschool tradition that you'd like to adopt, you of course aren't limited to my gift ideas. I've created a new section of my Amazon store filled with Back to Homeschool gift inspiration. 


Why Our Charlotte Mason Preschool Is Different This Time Around

by 5 Comments

We've been preparing our son, three-and-a-half, for preschool at home for several months now, excitedly telling him how he's going to be preschool age and doing "preschool things." We did this, not because he will be starting something formal and serious in the fall with us at home, but because we wanted  him to know that he is included. Homeschool is not just something for his big sister and me, it's a family event. 

It's for this reason that I believe our early years homeschool will be much different the second time around. 

Preschool, The First Time Around

With my first child, I tried to follow Charlotte Mason's advice for the early years very closely. We went outside for hours a day, gave careful attention to natural objects, practiced a foreign language, and read good books. All of these things were enjoyable and lovely, until my daughter started to crave more. 

I added in some reading lessons and math games, at her request. I even pieced together a Charlotte Mason-style kindergarten for her, desperately trying not to be too formal. 

For awhile, I missed the point. 

The objective should not be to avoid formal lessons at all costs. 

The point in delaying formal lessons is not to hold back an eager child, but to protect a reluctant one.

Charlotte Mason Preschool, The Second Time Around

This time,  I'm not going to feel guilty for following my little guy's lead. I'm not going to try to hold him back from learning when he's interested and ready. I will let him participate in lessons with his sister if he wants, in order to make him feel wanted and included. In Home Education, Charlotte Mason said that the younger siblings will want to join in-- and to let them. 

“There is no distinction between big and little; the latter love to follow in the wake of their elders, and, in lessons or play, to pick up and do according to their little might.” Home Education, page 45

This time around, we're going to spend much more time inside. With big sister doing her first year of lessons, we just won't be able to pack up and get into nature as much. We will, however, spend a lot of time in our backyard, holding lessons on a blanket beneath our apple tree. 

This time around, I'm not going to stress so much about the books that I read. The bulk of the books read will be for his sister, and I chose them so that he might listen in and enjoy them, too. I won't have hours a day to sit and read to him, like I did his sister when she was younger. But, the ideas will still fill our home and surround him in truth, beauty, and goodness. 

This time around, I will not worry so much about social development. All of those "what about socialization" questions had me worried before. We spent lots of time with homeschooling groups, even before we were homeschooling. This time around, I see that my three-year-old is socially developing quite well, and that spending time with his siblings has been the best social development possible for him. 

This time around, I'm going to worry a little less about what other people think, and focus more on what the Holy Spirit has for our family. In the past, I too often made decisions based on what I was "supposed" to do rather than what I was called to do. In our Charlotte Mason preschool this time around, I'm learning to pray and trust rather than discuss and worry.  I will give myself a little more grace, knowing that my children are always learning, just through the life we have together. 

And for these reasons, I know my little guy will be off to a great start. 

​

The Mindful Alphabet Preschool Literacy Lessons

by Leave a Comment

One of the biggest misconceptions that people hold about Charlotte Mason's philosophy during the preschool years is that there is no literacy instruction. Because formal lessons wait until the age of six, some people believe that we don't introduce early literacy skills at all- even when a child is very interested. It makes me sad when people try to hold their eager child back from reading. 

I believe that a mother's most important role in a Charlotte Mason education is to be her child's friendly ally- a collaborator and planter of seeds. When my daughter was eager to learn how to read at the age of four and a half, I wondered how I could be her friendly ally in this, while also honoring Charlotte Mason's philosophy. 

What I realized is that Charlotte Mason said there were many literacy skills we can, and should, teach our children without it being considered "formal lessons," beginning with introducing the ABC's, and ending in phonics skills and word building (I wrote more about the scope and sequence of reading skills in this post). Since reading instruction is right in my wheelhouse, (my Master's degree is in reading curriculum and instruction!) I created the Mindful Alphabet to help guide moms with playful early literacy lessons. 


The Mindful Alphabet

The Mindful Alphabet helps to build a firm foundation for reading. I used Charlotte Mason's advice for the early years, as well as research-based activities that help your child develop a deep, mindful understanding of letters and their sounds. By approaching it this way, it is my hope that when it does come time for your child to learn how to read, he or she will be fully prepared.

The Mindful Alphabet is broken into five parts: 

Part 1: Introduce letter sounds and uppercase letter forms through playful lessons centered around nursery rhymes. Engage your child's senses through various letter-building activities, and help them develop important phonemic awareness skills by blending, segmenting, and rhyming.  

Part 2: Review the letters and sounds through playful games. Then, introduce long vowel sounds. 

Part 3: Introduce lower case letters using Froebel's recommendations, and games. 

Part 4: Begin learning more advanced phonics patterns by building word families. 

Part 5: When your child is ready for formal lessons, The Mindful Alphabet includes first reading lessons to get them started. Either use this as a guide to make your own additional reading lessons, or continue on with Reading Printable Packs, available here.

Who is the Mindful Alphabet For?

I intended this lesson guide to be for any child who is eager to learn the ABC's, from ages 3-6. I have no doubt that older children would enjoy it, as well. Given Charlotte Mason's advice, it would be best to wait until your child is interested. But, if you are required to teach kindergarten language arts in your state, this is a delightful way to do it!

If you're feeling daunted by the task of teaching your child to read, The Mindful Alphabet will equip you and your little one in a sweet, Charlotte Mason way. 


Handicrafts for the Spring and Summer with Rooted Childhood

by Leave a Comment

This question has been asked at least a dozen times in my local community Facebook group: What am I supposed to do with my kids all summer long? With school coming to a close for the summer, traditional schooling families suddenly have lots of time to fill. This is not often a problem for homeschoolers, who can fill all that time and still feel like it wasn't enough. But, as we've phased out lessons for our unofficial Kindergarten year, I'm looking forward to filling our time with handicrafts, cooking, and being outside. 

This post contains affiliate links. You can read more about them in my policies.

This year for handicrafts, we used Rooted Childhood. Each month's collection contains eight handicrafts, three recipes, book suggestions, songs and finger rhymes. While we aren't going to do year-round schooling (for now at least!) Rooted Childhood will be a wonderful way to keep some structure in our days and give us some big projects to work on so we're passing the time intentionally. 

Spring and Summer Handicrafts

Although I've written about Rooted Childhood before, I wanted to share with you the projects we've done this spring and will work on this summer. I love that these handicraft ideas are seasonal, so they are always changing and help us celebrate each season. 

In April, we made beautiful string-wrapped Easter eggs. We had friends over for a tea party, and made the eggs together.  It took us a bit to realize that if we coated the string in clear glue, it would wrap around the egg and stay much more easily. But once we got that down, everyone, even my middle guy (3.5) enjoyed making them! 

My husband even got involved with May's collection of Rooted Childhood. He tracked down wood, screws, and bolts to help us make flower presses. My children are so excited about these! Ours are a little bigger than the presses modeled in Rooted Childhood,  but in a way, that adds to their impressiveness. And of course, they can hold many, many flowers because of their size! 

Each collection comes out the month before on the 15th (if you have the subscription) or you can seasons or even months separately. I've organized each collection in a binder, so we can revisit the projects for many years to come. 

Continuing Story Time Throughout The Summer

We need to get into a new summertime rhythm for reading books, singing folk songs, and listening to poetry and rhymes. These things are a fantastic way to calm anxious little ones, interrupt quarrels, and as an added bonus,  they allow rich learning opportunities without our children even knowing it.

Every month when we get our new Rooted Childhood collection, Miss H flips through and looks for books and short stories that she'd like to read. Last month, she was really excited to learn the folk song, "I Love the Mountains." It's such a blessing when our children are eager to learn and participate in literacy-building activities!

Little Chefs

Miss H loves to cook. I often hold back from trying new recipes with her, because I'm not sure how they would work with a six-year-old, plus two little guys who love to "help." (By the way, I've learned that giving the little ones a bowl of flour and some water to pour in there is the BEST way for them to help. They stir and have so much fun, and the real recipe still turns out to be edible!) 

Rooted Childhood has three recipes in each collection. They are real-food recipes, which I love! These almond-flour cookies (see below) that we made were really delicious. We ate them pretty quickly, which was okay with me, because they are healthier than a lot of things that my boys eat! 


 

Make sure to download the beautiful Sunrise Collection for free. If you decide you want to add beauty to your days through Rooted Childhood, you can use the code mylittlerobins for 10% off. 


Picture and Composer Study in Home Education

by 1 Comment

For the past several years, in our Charlotte Mason preschool at home, art and music have come by-the-way. I've tried to incorporate them into our home to create an atmosphere where beautiful music and art are normal, everyday things to be enjoyed. But, aside from having a deBussy station playing on Pandora over and over again, we are seriously lacking in this area. 

I'm looking forward to our first year of formal lessons, so that these areas become a regular part of our days. And, I'm especially excited that my younger sons will get to experience these things as an atmospheric bonus. 

For our first year of official homeschooling, I planned out our curriculum based solely on Charlotte Mason's first volume, Home Education. Although this doesn't take into account all of the recommendations that she made in 30+ years of sharing her philosophy, it simplified things for me, and overall, it feels like a rich and thorough feast. You can see the rest of the posts in this series here.

Charlotte Mason Picture Study

"The six-year-old should begin both to express himself and to appreciate, and his appreciation should be well in advance of his power to express what he sees or imagines." Home Education, page 307

"When children have begun regular lessons, (that is, as soon as they are six), this sort of study of pictures should not be left to chance, but they should take one artist after another, term by term, and study quietly some half-dozen reproductions of his work in the course of the term." Home Education, pages 308-309

In this part of Home Education, Charlotte Mason described these intentional picture study lessons. The child is presented with a reproduction of the art, and then looks at it intently. He then tells back, or narrates, what he sees. But, Charlotte Mason said that the ability to narrate is not the important part. The picture can make an impression on his sense of beauty whether or not he's able to communicate it. 

In the time I've spent planning our curriculum, my plan for art has changed. I was hoping to study Mary Cassatt and Benjamin West using beautiful books that I tracked down, and printing off pictures from the Internet. But, I changed artists, and my approach. 

Picture Study Curriculum

I've used affiliate links to share our curriculum choices with you. You can read more about them in my policies. 

As much as I wanted to study Benjamin West (because he painted Benjamin Franklin, whom we are also studying, and because of the amazing book Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin that I can't wait to read with Miss H), but I decided to move him out of the way in order to study Monet. This seems a little more disjointed, but there is going to be a Monet exhibit at our local museum in the fall. I would love to take my children there and let them have some understanding of his art!

To simplify, I decided to use Simply Charlotte Mason's art portfolios. I had the opportunity to see SCM's resources at a homeschool convention recently, and I realized that they would be perfect for us as we piece together our own curriculum. The art portfolios have beautiful prints inside, as well as an artist biography and "leading thoughts" about each painting. 

Mary Cassat portfolio

Monet portfolio

Composer Study

In Home Education, Charlotte Mason didn't mention composer study. She talked about helping children form the habit of music, by constantly hearing and producing it, But, I wanted to incorporate some kind of composer study, so I chose The Story of the Orchestra to introduce my children to genres, composers, and pieces. This is a beautiful book that Miss H is very excited about. She has pulled it off of the shelf a couple of times already, but we're both practicing self-control by saving it for the fall. 

In the future, I'll officially do composer study as Charlotte Mason recommended in other works, but at this point, I am content with simplifying one more thing in our days together. 

This brings me to the end of my series on a curriculum pulled straight from Home Education. Once I pace it all out, and inevitably have some changes to make, I'll share another post. 

Explore More Posts

%d bloggers like this: