Free E-Book!

Has the new school year started with gusto at your house? Or guesses?

“I guess we’ll use this curriculum. I guess we’ll start on Monday. I guess we’ll use this folder, and I guess we could try unit studies this year.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

Time for a change?

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Happy Learning!

Blueberries For Sal

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” -Robert McCloskey

This post is honestly more of a collection of links that I'm sharing simply to save time for others. I didn't have any greatly profound or original ideas when it came to sharing this book with my children. Instead I drew on the creativity of others and trust me there is a lot out there. I hope you find something here that you can use.

Extend through reading and writing:

1. The Scholastic site has a spelling lesson about changing "y" to "ies" to make words plural.

2. Here is a vocablary list for Blueberries For Sal. This book could really be a great lesson in verbs.

3. Enjoy a literature guide with journaling and writing worksheet ideas included. This is a very helpful and well done resource.

4. Homeschool Share supplies Alphabet blueberries that are free to download. Use them to practice matching letters of the alphabet with younger children.

5. Hands of a Child has prepared a Unit Study Lapbook based on Blueberries For Sal. You can purchase it here for $17.50.

*Yes, I am aware that Charlotte Mason did not support the use of unit studies. I don't really follow her method in a frantic "letter of the law" sort of way. I think her methods reflect boundaries within a fairly flexible educational structure. Her ideas provide the core of our learning, however, I'll adapt anything that I find educational, enlightening and lovely. This study is all of those.

Extend Through Math:

1. Homeschool Share has a Math Mat activity that cooridinates with this story.

2. I have a cute felt idea I found, but I haven't made it yet. I'll add a photo of it to this post once I complete it. If you can't wait . . .e-mail me and I'll give you the details.

Extend Through Life Skills:

1. Here you will find baking ideas to go with the blueberry theme. Yummy!

Extend Through Science:

1. Here you can purchase a very affordable TOS E-Book WE-Book titled Blueberries for You by Amanda Bennett.

2. You could also choose to learn more about bears. I found several studies and free downloads about bear at currclick.

Extend Through Geography:

1. You could study Maine

2. Learn about "forests", "woods" and "hills"

Extend Through Art and Creative Play:

1. This site has ideas for narration, role play, and performing arts using a mural backdrop for acting out the story.

2. Here you'll find a great bear craft using pony beads. This craft would be best suited for older children.

*Whatever you choose to use to extend this story I advise that you not overdo it. This book is so visually beautiful that it's a pleasure to read. You won't want to overwhelm kiddos with extra "work" that distracts from the beauty of the story.

Wonderful Blog Posts about Blueberries For Sal:

1. http://www.feehanfamily.com/homeschool/homeschoool/

2. Visit http://mamahomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/10/blueberries-for-sal-other-activities.html for some really cool ideas from another blogger. I especially liked her link to the Life cycle of a Blueberry and her cork stamp craft is adorable!

3. Wondersome Story Time is a blog I follow. She also has some neat ideas concerning this book.

I promise I'll be more original in my next post :)

Plans for a New School Year

Our School Year 2009-2010 Fall Term

Our "official" school year has begun. I thought would share our plans for this first term. I've included links so you can click on the items for easy access. Of course there are downloads and smaller less frequent supplements that I'll be adding in as fillers, but this is the main outline that I'm working from. I am actually schooling year round so some of this term's activities were already completed in the summer months. For example, Chloe is way ahead on math. She's completed all of this term's math requirements over the summer. I'm holding her off for a while so she doesn't get too far ahead. I hope that this is helpful to someone. The total cost of this term (if you use Internet links and not the hard copy versions) is approx. $49 (plus the $35 for Apologia which I'll use all year). Not too bad!

LA Term 1
Understood Betsy
Tales From Shakespeare
Pilgrim's Progress
Parables from Nature
Poetry of Walter De La Mare
Tons of independent free reading too

History Term 1
An Island Story- Ch. 22-32
This Country of Ours- Ch.1
You Are There! Charlemagne
Famous Men of the Middle Ages

Math Term 1
Mammoth Math 2A

Science Term 1
Apologia Flying Creatures of . . ./ Apologia book extras
The Burgess Bird Book for Children/ online extentions *
Bird Children (Poems)
Creation Illustrated Magazine
The Handbook of Nature Study
The Outdoor Hour

Geography Term 1
William Carey biography
Amy Carmichael biography
Map of U.S. (choose 3 states)

Art&Music Term 1
My Name Is . . .Leonardo da Vinci by Antonio Tello and Johanna A. Boccardio
Russian Nationalists
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsavo- Scheherazade
- Symphony 2 Antar
- Cappricco Espangnol
Alexander Borodin- Polovtsian Dances
Modest Mussorgsky-Pictures at an exhibition
- Night on Bald Mountain

* I'll be posting a ton about the literature side of our study on birds in a future post. Keep your eyes out for it.

Happy Learning!

Lovely Blogs

I received an award today!

Isn't it pretty?

This award was given to me by SmartPumpkinsMom. Be sure to swing by her blog and say "hi".

As part of receiving this award I had to claim it, post about it, pass it on to 15 other great blogs and let them know about their award (I'm still working on this part) so they can do the same. If you are one of my fifteen here to claim your award-- those are the instructions you will need to follow as well.

I had so much fun surfing tons of blogs and I found 15 blogs that I'm happy to give my award to:

1. Serendipity

2. Life is Not a Cereal- check out her lesson plans category and look at her ideas for Caps for Sale and her free 36 week art curriculum post!

3. Higher Up and Further In -Check out her literature section. There are some incredible posts here!

4. The Snail's Trail - Great Literature section and I love her Living Math ideas.

5. The Book Chook

6. My Family Life: The Itty Bitty Bookworm

7. Teaching My Little Bookworm - she already has this award I know, but I really agree that she deserved it!

8. Storytime and more- I LOVE her blog template! Also, be sure to check out her literature based posts.

9. Small Things -check out her good reads for kids category

10. CM With A Twist - This looks like a brand new blog. There isn't a lot there yet, but I like her concept and wanted to encourage her.

11. Rose Cottage

12. Katie's Homeschool Cottage

13. Charlotte Mason & Home Education

14. A Peaceful Day

15. Raising Little Shoots

A Great Free CM Resource

It's been one of those crazy days today where I want to pull my hair out. But I found something today that I thought you would enjoy, so I'm stopping my hair pulling momentarily to let you know about a great free resource.
In my Internet bouncing today (I don't surf I bounce), I found a special freebie.
If you stop by Write From History and sign up for their newsletter, you can receive a free e-book download titled A Charlotte Mason Writing Plan. This forty page e-book covers dictation, copy work and a lot more. Sign up and get it for free today.

Hope your day is great and free of hair pulling stress. :)

Happy Learning!

Literature-Based Curriculum Options

"The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived." - Howard Pyle


There are many options when it comes to Literature-based homeschooling. I thought I'd share a bit about these options with all of you.

Five in a Row was my very first adventure in learning with a literature-based approach. In studying with Five In A Row you are expected to read the same book over and over for a week, gleaning new insight each day. Sometimes the tasks suggested were challenging and other times I felt like there wasn't enough to do. I began to use the books as springboards for other ideas and we extended many topics that way. My only real complaint with Five In A Row is the difficulty in finding many of the books on the reading list. When we did The Carrot Seed unit I was ready to pull my hair out. We went to several local libraries and a few book stores and no one had it! If you live in a small town like I do it can become very difficult to hunt down each book. If you have a good local library you should do fine. It's a very good curriculum for homeschoolers who are just starting out. The best part about FIAR is tat it's a homeschool family who created and run the business. They've shared what worked for them and many families have benefited from their effort. Check out Five In a Row here. To see books on their reading list look here.

Ambelside is what I am currently using. They are a free Charlotte Mason/ living books curriculum advice website that has been a blessing to any families by making homeschooling very affordable. If you are a single parent or in a financial bind, Ambelside really helps to make it possible to continue in your vision to homeschool despite what the bank account reads. They provide a book list and a schedule, but being Charlotte Mason, they are very flexible and easy to adapt to any schedule. The key is short lessons and lots of great reading. I am really enjoying the older living books that have found a place on the Ambelside list. Heidi and Robinhood are pretty well known books for childhood reading, but we have also enjoyed jems like Understood Betsy which I probably never would have found on my own. Click here to visit Ambelside. Look here to see the Ambelside reading list.

Another popular Literature- Based Curriculum is Sonlight. I subscribe to their e-mail newsletter, but I have not used their curriculum. I think their reading lists are great, but their package cost is a bit high for my budget (example: a full year's Kindergarten curriculum will cost you $777.56). Sonlight is a homeschool supplier and books can be ordered separately as well. I usually keep a current catalogue on hand because teir prices for individual books are sometimes better than other places. As someone who doesn't use Sonlight, one of the things that is most intrieging to me about this curriculum is the amount of support that Sonlight users can get. If you chose to use Sonlight you won't be alone. If you get stuck they have support boards available and I've heard wonderful things about their customer service from Sonlight users I know. I've found them to be very friendly vendors at homeschool conventions as well. You can learn more about Sonlight here.

Itty-Bitty Bookworm is a curriculum I just became aware of recently. My blogging friend , Carisa is reviewing them over at 1+1+1=1. This curriculum is built for Preschoolers and Toddlers. Baily's Curriculum covers ages 18-36 months and Bo's Curriculum covers ages 3-5. Itty-Bitty Bookworm costs $25/ unit or month for their CD or $20 for download. That's about $300 for a full 12 months (plus the actual cost of the books). Not too bad. This is something I'm really praying about purchasing for my little ones. If you have little ones like I do, it's worth it to visit their website whether you order their products or not. They have wonderful downloads available for free. Check out Itty-Bitty Bookworm here. See their book list here.

The Noah Plan is a biblical approach that uses literature in it's study. They call themselves a literature-based curriculum, but from what I saw of their site is looks more bible-based. However, they do use wonderful literature selections like Snowflake Bently and Little House on the Prairie. Subjects other than literature look a bit classical and possible challenging to some. You can see their catalogue here.

Heart of Dakota is a wonderful homeschool resource and supplier. They are also bible based stories. Teacher guides are all under $50. Pretty good price. Go here to learn more about Heart of Dakota.

Veritas Press Classical Home School Curriculum is another catalogue that I like to have on hand. They are a classical approach, but many of their literature selections can be found on other lists. Go here to request a catalogue. Tapestry of Grace is also a popular classical choice. I've tried this for a review and quickly learned that I am not a classical style homeschooler. If you are you might want to check them out here.

There are many other options that, honestly, I know very little about. I'll list them anyway and you can visit sites and form your own opinions.

Popular Lit-based curr. I know little about:

My Father's World
Winter Promise- has anyone used this? I'm really interested in this one.
Beautiful Feet
Epi Kardia

Others I found:

Footprints on our Land and Love 2 Learn are two South African based curriculum choices that I found.
Robinson Curriculum looks morality heavy.
Student of the Word is Bible- centered.
Living Lessons has a Classical approach.

The biggest challenge in having so many choices is that you have to choose what fits your family (and your budget) best.

Please let me know if you've tried something I haven't, or if you know of something great that isn't on my list. Comments are always welcome. What have you tried and loved? Please feel free to share .

Carnival Time

The current Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival started July 21st over at Hearts and Trees. I'm very excited to be a part of this edition with my post on Frog and Toad.

Click on the button in this post (my sidebar button won't connect you) and head over and check out the wonderful contributers.

I really like the artwork that the host posted as well. One thing that I thought would be of special interest to us is Kris's post on resources for finding affordable deals on Charlotte Mason style books. Be sure to check it out. Anything that can save us money in this crazy economy is a huge blessing! Have fun at the carnival and don't forget to submit your own posts so we can learn from each other.

Happy Learning!