Hi there! It’s hard to believe, but we have just a few short weeks left until we begin a fresh year of homeschooling. Before we do, I thought I would share a few fun highlights from last year! In no particular order…
Family Century Charts
Because we are all studying the same time period in history, we chose to do a large-scale collaborative century chart for Forms 1-4 this past year! This was in addition to the various other history tools my students were keeping, depending on age: timeline, Book of Centuries, small century charts, etc.
We used some large colored sheets we had on hand (different colors for each century), but I think posterboard would be perfect for this project! Another option would be to use a roll of butcher paper and do the centuries on one long sheet (which is what we will try this coming year, I think!).
I assigned entries weekly by Form. I had two students in Form 1, two in Form 2, and two in Form 4 last year. Each Form made an entry each week, switching between the older student in the Form and the younger student in the Form. So each week, three entries were made on the charts. My students were free to choose whatever they wanted to add from that week’s reading — usually history, but sometimes literature, composer study, picture study, biography, religion, etc. (Occasionally, my Form 1 kids did not have any new events or people to add since we spent several weeks on the same story at times. So it wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.)
It was neat to see how the different ages chose to represent their selected people and subjects.
Art, Art, and More Art
Thanks to the support of the CMEC, we had a blast in art this year! It was the focus of our Fall Mini-Retreat, so we took it up in earnest. We dove into chalk drawing, brush drawing, and clay modeling. We loved the variety and the calm, delightful process of working through these lessons week by week.
One of the best things about the PNEU’s approach to art instruction is that the assignments are free enough that students of various ages can all work to their ability. This is so helpful in a large family — or in a co-op setting, where we plan to do some art lessons this coming year. I can’t wait for continued work in each medium!
Speaking of art, this was our fourth year keeping small painted narrations weekly using Artist Trading Cards. (I have written about this more here: Our Weekly Paintings.) We had to start a new binder to house them all, and soon I will need to give each student his or her own binder because our collection is growing as the years pass and as I add more students!
A few pages from this year’s studies…
My older girls (and my older sons too) have lots of practical experience in the kitchen and have been helping with family meals for years. But their repertoire has been mostly limited to our regular family rotation of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts.
Since then, they have been cooking quite a lot! They have handled all the birthday desserts so far this year and have added several delicious dinners to their rotation.
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The real life in our homeschool comes from living materials and living methods — these are my tried-and-true and make the biggest difference to “joy in living” in our home! But we always seem to have a couple experiments or unexpected additions that blow fresh air into our days.
As you look back at the past school year and plan for the next, what were some of the fun additions that brought joy to your homeschool?
1 comment
As always, dear Celeste, so inspiring, and encouraging! Thanks for sharing!