Three Happy Girls At Home

I can’t seem to figure out how to upload pics.  Bummer.  I have some real neat ones of our Monterey trip I would love to share.

I am finding it hard to add all the extra fun stuff into our studies.  As you have read, we follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy and for A’s age, she is 8, she should be doing a lot more extras.  For example, she should be learning a foreign language, study a famous composer, study a famour artist, drawing, nature journal, and handicraft.  WHEW that is a long list!  Now that I see it written down in a list it does seem like a lot.  I do have it broken down throughout the week, but for some reason these components get forgotten about.  I wish I knew a long time CM follower who lived close to me because I need some serious face to face advice.  What would make everything so much easier is if I had a magic tree that grew green fruit in the shape of money.  Then I could buy everything I needed and it would be right there all the time!

~Nikki

I can’t believe how long it has been since I posted!  I swear I have been busy…..really.  We went on a much needed vacation to Monterey, CA to visit my sister in law.  Everyone had so much fun and there were a lot of tears when we left.  The weather was perfect, the food was to die for, and the beach was heavenly!  SIL lives three blocks from the beach so everything was in walking distance.  I heart Monterey.  My husband promised me we will live there someday, and he doesn’t brake promises so YAY for me!

So now that we are home and settled I will post more this weekend about what we have been up to.

~Nikki

This morning I didn’t wake up until 8:00!!  I couldn’t believe it!  Baby girl has gotten into the habit of waking up at around 2 in the morning and scoot out of bed by herself.  The other night I found her in the dining room just sitting there in the dark.  Way odd…

Before I went to bed last night I got some banana bread made for breakfast so I had some extra time this morning for folding laundry before we started lessons.  Our first lesson of the day is Miquon Math for 20 minutes.  I am having A go through all the books so she doesn’t miss anything, and we are breezing right through them.  She is currently doing simple subtraction and addition.  Way easy for her, but it is good practice.  After math we did our Wednesday copywork which is science.  We use Happy Scribe copywrite about birds and then look in our bird field guide to see a picture of it.  I have this really good used book store ran by the library where all the books are SO cheap and this is where I get all my field guides.  Our bird guide was .50!!  You can’t beat that!  Our history for today was read from Trial and Triumph.  It is a book about Christian history and boy is it violent.  The first story we read was about the Christian persecution during the Roman Empire.  This man Polycarp was burned alive in the arena!  It’s a good thing A has a strong stomache.  We also read from A Childs Garden of Verses and an Aesop.  Those are my favorite!

I tried to get A interested in learning Spanish, but it was just not happening.  She kept unknowingly talking in French!  Since French is a difficult language to learn, especially without a French speaking teacher, we will probably learn Italian.  I told A that she will be required in later years to learn Spanish….Daddy’s request.

I checked out Signing Time from the library and have been watching that.  It’s amazing how fast the kids pick up the signs!  Even baby girl was trying to do them!  I will definetly be checking more of those out.  When I worked at Rite Aid we had this regular customer who was deaf and I always regretted not knowing ASL.  It is very important to me that my children know how to converse, even a little.

Later tonight we will be going to Walking With the Dinosaurs.  YAY!  C is extremely obsessed with dinosaurs and I was hoping and praying we would be able to go.  My prayers were answered when we won tickets!  I couldn’t believe it!  Hubby and I are more excited than the kids!

Until next time,

Nikki

Today my friend Janet came over with some friends to play with the girls, so we didn’t get much done today. We did do our Miquon Math for 20 minutes, copywork for 10 minutes, and that’s about it. My check off boxes are sad today. At least they went outside and played in the dirt for a while. That can count for something! Baby girl has a friend her same age and it was so funny to watch them try to play together. I swear toddlers do nothing small. A hug was a let me choke you hug, and “Oh I like you hair let me pull it.”! So cute!

A, my 8 year old, is enjoying her short lessons. She really retains a lot more with 20 minutes of math then a whole hour. I also enjoy the lack of whining and teeth baring. It is much more enjoyable when we are all happy! A has also memorized three poems and is working on memorizing a proverbs and famous sayings. The little lady has a dang good memory on her! I have to keeping looking at the book to remember the next line! I blame the kids! Anyway, the only thing she is having a hard time with is narration. I am thinking I wont have her narrate every story. Maybe just one or two. We’ll see.

C, my four year old, has just been playing with her toys. I don’t think she is ready for any formal teaching, and she is happy to just sit there playing with her dinosaurs. Occasionally she wants in on the learning, but it isn’t on a regular basis. I do take out our puzzles, picture cards, drawing paper, and she loves all that. I little at a time with that one.

Sometime this week I will post about my daily and homeschool schedule.

~Nikki

It’s hard for me to write down in a journal so maybe, just maybe I can log what we learn this way. I am on the Internet anyway and this gives me something valid to do!

So, a little introduction. I am a homeschooling stay at home mom to three daughters 8,4,1. We schooled trough CAVA, which is a charter school, up until this last year. We found it to be too much, and the worksheets were just not interesting anymore. So I found Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online. CM’s philosophies are simply amazing. Nature journals, Book of Centuries, living books…..these sound much more interesting then the usual workbook, assessment, cut and paste activities.

This blog will show all of what we do in a day, and hopefully it will be full of fabulous wonders! I really hope you will find some inspiration, cool ideas, or just a good read.

Nikki

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