Shakespeare is the master of the English language. My goal for introducing Shakespeare to my kids is that they grow accustomed to lilting language and skillful constructions. I believe it is one of the best preparations for good writing, a skill which often doesn’t blossom until junior high or high school – when they are…
Last month I wrote about a 5-step plan for introducing Shakespeare to my kids. It’s what we did last year with three plays and what we’re doing again this year. Just today I heard my 9-year-old wandering around the house muttering, “murder most foul” and “O, my prophetic soul” to himself – Shakespeare has great…
Shakespeare can be an intimidating subject to introduce. Isn’t the language archaic and the doesn’t high quality mean high difficulty? Actually, the language isn’t that difficult when it’s read (that is, interpreted) by an experienced reader. The profound themes within plots were created not as pure art, but also to entertain the masses. Shakespeare was…
In what ways have you let your materials be the driver in your homeschool instead of yourself? What ways have you tweaked your curriculum to make them work for you instead of you for them? When we talk about not being slave to the materials and using wisdom to apply them to your situation and…
As a homeschool grad myself, my first “real” classroom experience was college. This was interesting, because it meant I was old enough to be aware of what was going on and it was strange enough (to me) that I was curious. As a previously homeschooled college student, I overheard and took part in many conversations…
I recently finished Laurie Bestvater’s The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason, and I loved it. I bought it based on Brandy’s reviews, and I’m glad I made the leap-of-faith, even though I am only a Charlotte Mason admirer and not a strict adherer. I think this book, with the history behind commonplace books…
This year I start teaching writing again. I have taught several writing classes over a scattered 5 years from 2001-2010. I started off using the old IEW teacher training materials that the mother who wanted me to teach gave me and my mother-in-law’s IEW teacher manual. Every year that I taught, I deviated more and…
Timing is a funny thing. When I made our Elementary Lesson plans and our Circle Time plans, I considered, but decided against, using The Young Peacemaker. I heard about it a few years ago, purchased it, and used it during Circle Time. We worked through about a third of the 12-lesson book before I ditched…
At the time of this writing, I have a 9yo, 7yo, 4yo, & 2yo. As with history, I believe science in the elementary years should be geared toward awareness and interest rather than the acquisition of a testable bank of particular knowledge or facts. So far this has served us well, mostly because I do…
My third-born child just turned 5 last week and my fourth-born will be 3 next month. I am in my second round of pre-k now, and although I have a plan, it doesn’t resemble a conventional preschool or kindergarten scope and sequence or curriculum. I liken the pre- and beginning-reading years to the pre- and…