Showing posts with label 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair. Show all posts

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Seeking Beauty Through the Arts (Week 4 - Virtual Curriculum Fair)


Welcome to the fourth and final week of the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair. This week we are looking at The Arts and Everything that brings beauty to your world and adds something good to your homeschool. This year I am co-hosting with  Kristen over at Sunrise to Sunset and Laura over at Day by Day in our World. Over the last couple of years I have embarked on a journey to learn more about the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. 



"We all have need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life." ~ Charlotte Mason

This statement by Charlotte really impacted me earlier this year as I was reading Volume One of the Homeschooling series.  The ability to see and take note of beauty in the every day is not something that is natural and inherent it is something we need to be trained to do. The world around us is structured  to focus on the negative and it takes some work and a little bit of practice to look for and see the good. 

One of the catch phrases in the Charlotte Mason circles concerns Twaddle.  I love that term. It so aptly describes that we need to be seeking quality literature.  One of my passions is directly linked to this.  I feel that often we are hung up on content that we forget to check for beauty when assessing a book.  What's the point of an ugly twaddle free book ?  Children are visually impacted. The images they are given set the tone for how they will look at the world around them. Children are children for such a short period of time before they are confronted with the sin in this world that it is a shame to not surround them with beautiful twaddle free books!

Beauty and the arts are intertwined.  They cover anything that impact us through our senses.  You don't need any fancy curriculum but you do need to be intentional to learn to use your senses in order to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you. 

Books we love
(Libraries are an excellent resource to teach for FREE)

Read more of my thoughts on the arts here:

For more information on the Arts you can read the posts from past fairs here:

 We should always have something worthwhile to think about, that we may not let our minds dwell upon unworthy matters.
Charlotte Mason
(p. 21) from Ourselves

What others have to say on Exploring Our World

If you missed the last three posts from the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair they can be found here:

Week ONE - Language Arts
Week TWO - Thoughts on Math and Science
Week THREE - Exploring our World through Social Studies

Blessings
Chareen

 It's YOUR Turn
What are your thoughts on Seeking Beauty Through the Arts?  If you have a blog post on any of the subjects at hand add them below and if not then please leave me a comment and lets chat.


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Tuesday 15 March 2016

Week 3 Social Studies a Science of Relations {2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair}


Welcome to week three of the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair.  This year I am co-hosting with  Kristen over at Sunrise to Sunset and Laura over at Day by Day in our World. I'm on a mission this year to read the original works of Charlotte Mason and to implement her philosophies in our homeschool.  One of the things she often talks about is that education is a science of relations.  This idea really resonates with me because nothing in life truly stands in isolation.  EVERYTHING is interwoven and affected by everything else. Over the years I've grown to understand and see the benefit of immersion in education and the deep impact it has on the student.

In week one we looked at language arts and in week two we covered math, science and logic.  This week we will take a look at things like history and geography.

My personal passion is teaching/learning history chronologically. My reasons for this are: dates help us to anchor our learning and every single subject happened somewhere in history.

The stories of history are my personal favourite and I have shared more thoughts on this  here: Teaching History Revisited

Over the years I have found that geography is one area that is mournfully neglected in the home school community.   There are a few ways of teaching this interesting subject after all everything that has ever happened in history happened somewhere in our amazing world!

On This Blog

You can find full internet linked lists covering Pinterest, Curriculum Choices, on the www, and freebies for the following subjects (click on the graphic to see the post)



From the last Curriculum Fair
What others have to say on Exploring Our World

Yvie @ Gypsy Road - Bringing It to Life! History, Geography, & Science 
 Jen Altman @ Chestnut Grove Academy - Virtual Curriculum Fair 2016: Exploring Our World, How We Do Social Studies and Life/Earth Science 
 Laura @ Day by Day in Our World - Learning About the World Around Us 
 Lisa @ GoldenGrasses - Exploring & Discovering Around the World 
 Annette @ A Net In Time - Science and Culture Around the World and at Home
 Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break -  Exploring History and Geography 
 Laura @ Four Little Penguins  - Going Around the World at Our Kitchen Table
 Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory - Our Tackling of the Social Studies and Science
 Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset - Encouraging Curiosity about the World

It's YOUR Turn
What are your thoughts on Exploring Our World.  If you have a blog post on any of the subjects at hand add them below and if not then please leave me a comment and lets chat.

Blessings
Chareen




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Tuesday 8 March 2016

Week 2 - Thoughts on Math and Science {Virtual Curriculum Fair}

Welcome to week two of the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair.  This year I will be co-hosting with  Kristen over at Sunrise to Sunset and Laura over at Day by Day in our World.

If you have any posts on the topic of maths, science, logic and critical thinking please add your link to the linky at the bottom of this post we look forward to seeing what you use to address these areas in your homeschool.

We have finally found a good fit for our Math now.  We are using Teaching Textbooks.  I'm still trying to find a good way for Nathaniel to work on his math facts.

For science we are following a number of pathways. I have shelves and shelves of wonderful science books that this year I've decided to work my way through these and as I do so I will be sharing the living books we choose what we will read and learn from on Instagram. We will be continuing to use our Learning Journal this year.  I discovered this fabulous resource on Instagram last year and really loved the concept.  You can samples of the authors work here: Learning Journal on Instagram.  Nathaniel really enjoys watching anything to do with Science so we often check out a couple of channels on YouTube. (Tested, Chris Hadfield, Slow Mo Guys, How It's Made and Brit LAB)

For logic this year my aim is to blow dust off the board games pile and use these as well as teach Nathaniel how to work his way through Sudoku.  I will be using this to do it: Sudoku Training Kit for Children {FREE Download}
 
On This Blog
The sciences are my favorite subjects here are some posts about science, mathand logic

Read posts from the last two fairs here

More on Math and Science this week

You can find last weeks Language Arts posts here and if you have posts relating to Science, Math and Logic which are related to Week 1 - Language Arts link up below.
Blessings
Chareen


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Tuesday 1 March 2016

Words, Words and more Words

Welcome to the fifth annual Virtual Curriculum Fair. Today is week one of the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair. This week homeschool bloggers from around the world are sharing their language arts recommendations. They will be sharing their perspective on how to teach: phonics, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, literature, Latin and foreign language studies.

This year I will be co-hosting with  Kristen over at Sunrise to Sunset and Laura over at Day by Day in our World.  If you have any posts on the topic of Language Arts please add your link to the linky at the bottom of this post we look forward to seeing what you use to teach language arts.

Language Arts

Have you ever stopped to think about it our whole world runs on communication and to communicate you need words.  Words take on many forms they can be both verbal or non verbal.  When you start home educating you are faced with the task of finding a way to teach your children to communicate in a multitude of ways.

Then the questions start:
  • What are you using to teach grammar ?
  • Are you doing a second language ?
  • How are you tackling literature ?
  • Are you using phonics ?
  • Which spelling program are you going to use ?
  • How do you teach your children composition ?
  • Will you be joining the local speech and drama club ?
Some days it feels as though the questions are never ending.  Each time you do a google search you discover that there's a new program that promises to do it all for you!  (If only they could go to sleep on a magic pillow and wake up well educated ...) Do not let these sorts of questions fluster you or make you feel as though you can not teach your children well.

The most important question to get settled in your mind is:  What is my my homeschool philosophy? Once that is settled then start looking for programs that will help you school your students within that framework.  Personally I am leaning towards a Delight Directed and Charlotte Mason approach in my homeschooling.  Now that I know that I look for products that will help me educate Nathaniel in that manner with the long term goal of addressing the areas in the questions above.

Every year new products appear on line and I'm so grateful to companies that provide updates to their products too. The downside is I keep wanting to buy something new ...

In the past I have used and been pleased with the following items and will be continuing to use them this year:
On this blog
We enjoy great literature and are trying to follow a Charlotte Mason approach with reading twaddle free literature.  I share a new book each week on a Tuesday called Tuesday's Treasures.  Be sure to come back each Tuesday for a new book.

Second Language Resources
For more information on Language Arts you can read the posts from past fairs here:
We have some wonderful homeschool bloggers sharing their thoughts and inspiration on Language Arts and your homeschool.

Be sure to grab a cup of coffee / tea and take some time over the week ahead to read over these posts:
Add your posts about anything Language Arts related to Week 1 - Language Arts link up below.

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