Charlotte Mason Homeschooling On A Budget Part 1

So, we have begun to follow the Charlotte Mason curriculum Higher Up and Further In (HUFI), put together by Linda Johnson. Most of the homeschool day posts so far have been about our HUFI work, but we also have our Core Knowledge and Singapore (and other) materials.

Following Charlotte Mason education on a budget is not hard to do. Often, Charlotte Mason living books (and her own books) are available free online. What follows is what I have learned as a Charlotte Mason newbie, so there is still much to discover and learn.

Reading her Original Homeschooling Series, one can see her examples for how to teach beginning geography and nature study for no money at all. (They include careful observation, helpful but rare comments from the teacher, measuring a student's stride and then using that as a measurement for distances near the home, and observing and naming the sun's movements during a day, among others.) I was able to find several of her recommended books for free online (list to follow in Part 2). The study of artists and composers can be well done using library resources.

Another example from the HUFI curriculum: We have not set aside money to buy Paddle to the Sea, at least not yet, but I found the short film free here. Xander loved it (in fact both boys did) and we were able to track Paddle's progress with a clay canoe moving across our laminated map (though we did a much-abbreviated version using the film, I can tell).

I am still looking for and collecting resources, but this is what we bought this year for the HUFI curriculum:

• two nice photo albums for the boys' Picture Studies (will be used for years)
• one deck of Go Fish for Art Renaissance Artists (should have bought two if I wanted a copy of each picture for each of the boys)
• two small sketchbooks
• one deck of vintage Norman Rockwell playing cards
• a small globe
• 1 pack of nice watercolor pencils
• James Herriott's Treasury for Children
• Progressive Recorder Method for Young Beginners (tip: the CD does not come with this book, only instructions for ordering one for $10)
• Yamaha recorder
• 3 binders (will be used for years)
• 1 large notebook (will be used for years)
• Learning Spanish & English flashcards

The approximate total we spent for this was $94.00 (USD).

Here is what we already had that is compatible with HUFI:

• control notebook for me
• index cards
• The Nutcracker
• iTunes and various classical music albums
• Doctor Dolittle
• Tales from Shakespeare
• The Aesop for Children
• Pippi Longstocking
• The Children's Book of Heroes
• A Child's Garden of Verses
• When We Were Very Young
• lots more literature that will be appropriate at older ages
• computer and Internet access
• small dry-erase boards
• pencil boxes
• a printer
• a small chalk board
• some art supplies and paper
• several books by C.S. Lewis
• several books by Madeleine L'Engle
• several books by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Story of the World, Volume I 
• one trees nature guide
• two birds nature guides
• buttons, coins, beans, etc. for math manipulatives

In Part 2, I'll type up what we've borrowed from the library for HUFI and give links to free online sources I've found.

Weekly Goals

Here is what I did in terms of my goals last week:

Last week's goals:

Personal

1. Go to church on Sunday.
2. Run at least 5 miles this week. {Ran about 7.}
3. Start keeping a morning journal. {Where is my journal, by the way? That is what kept me from starting. :)}

Marriage

4. Have another wine tasting and game playing night. {I really like our new game, bought for Erik's birthday: Through the Ages.}

5. Focus on Erik when I get home from running and have nightly chores done. Forget about what I haven't yet completed for the day, or the week, or the month. {I think I did this; maybe I should ask him!}

Children/Homeschooling

6. Take Nick to preschool - with homework finished.
7. Go on a nature hike as a family.

Service/Family/Friends

8. Finish my first Mother Bear Project bear.
9. Call both my mom and dad this Sunday.

Financial

10. Call insurance company. !!

Finished 7 out of 10!

10 Goals For This Week:

Personal

1. Go to church on Sunday.
2. Run at least 6 miles this week.
3. Start keeping a morning journal.

Marriage

4. Focus on Erik when I get home from running and have nightly chores done. Forget about what I haven't yet completed for the day, or the week, or the month.

Children/Homeschooling

5. Take Nick to preschool - with homework finished.
6. Show Xander where on our history timeline the knights will fall - since he got to play with them ahead of time as part of his recovery from the tonsillectomy.

Service/Family/Friends

7. Call my mom, my dad, my brother, and my sister this Sunday.
8. Work on letters/thank you notes/projects for friends.
9. Let at least one friend know how special they are to me by picking up the phone to call or doing something else out of the way.

Financial

10. Work on a No Spend policy for the month of October.

Nick's Funnies

"Halloween says...Yes Sir...to...a great day."

This is what he said to Grandma Bonnie on the phone just now. Much of what Nick says on the phone to people makes sense, but much is just stream of consciousness phrases. They may be sentences in his mind, but they don't really make sense to us. If he is walking around his room while on the phone, for instance, he might say, "And play with bugs the figure is like locust skins with camouflage to sit on Cars bed. I say 'pew pew pew' to shoot him. And he is like car tracks with the fish books like this with camouflage."

And on and on. He usually will not stop the conversation until we do.

Another funny: When I told him, "I love you," he said, "I love you, soon."

Procedure Completed

Xander did great today. His tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy went smoothly and the nurses said he did very well and was brave. He had his kitty with him the whole time, but I'm not sure that he really noticed. I read The Hobbit to him while we waited (from about 5:30 am until almost 7:00) to keep his mind off what was coming up. He never showed the nervousness or fear that I expected.

It took him quite a while to stop being groggy and vaguely irritated in the recovery room. Ever since then, though, he has done better than expected. He even wants to eat more than I want him to eat. We've already moved on to mashed potatoes and yogurt from jello, sherbet shake, and juice. I think I'll let him try a finely diced piece of shrimp for dinner tonight along with the other mushy stuff. If he wants to.

He's on hydrocodone mixed with Tylenol and I've been advised to wake him up in the middle of the night to keep him on a dosage schedule. It's possible he'll feel worse tomorrow or the next day than he does today. It's also possible he'll lose up to ten pounds before he gains it back again, which would be ridiculous on Xander's frame.

One strange side effect of the procedure that we were warned about was that some kids' voices go up an octave and become very nasal for about a month. Then they go back to normal. This seems to have happened to Xander's voice.

Nick had a great time playing with his friend at her house this morning. He was glad to see us when we picked him up, though. I don't know why it is really hitting me today rather than any other day, but he is a HUNGRY kid! He is always wanting something else! I mean, right now he is eating cold refried beans, so it's not just that he wants continuous treats.

I allowed Xander to play with his new knights today. That was the first thing he wanted to do after getting home. I'm also allowing as much TV/DVD watching as he wants in order to keep him as still as he is supposed to be. Total stillness and the absence of jumping is just not going to happen, I'm afraid. I plan to keep him inside for about a week, but I catch him running down the hallway to his bedroom or the bathroom.

So it might be PBS and knights this week. I'll try to get them drawing or painting, too.

Materials

We went geocaching as a family on Saturday. The cache Erik looked up for us to find was great for us. It took us to a beautiful park and playground about 15 minutes away. We went several meters down a gravel path and arrived at the GPS location of the cache. I was able to find it in one of the wooden blocks supporting the edge of the path. Xander found a bird's feather.

I showed Nick a huge acorn cap that had been flattened, and he said, "Hmm," and put it in his mouth. No, Nick. That's not what I meant to happen.

Then we played on the playground for about a half hour. It had a few nice playground set-ups plus a house with an actual stairway and windows plus swings plus a picnic table plus a ball field. Next to this area was the pool, which has been closed for the season. Next to that is a set-up meant to model a homestead, complete with a pioneer wagon. Very cool.

Today we got up, ate, got dressed, did a chore or two, played a computer game (Xander), and went to preschool. At preschool, Nick:

• "signed" in
• went straight for the shell tables - a light table and a preschool table with four colored trays that each had their own supply of shells, magnifying glass, and popcorn fork
• played with different colors of Moon Sand
• painted a painting that he later told Xander was an apple - I doubt it, because Nick just happened to be eating an apple as he said that, but it was made with lots of red paint and then some yellow :)
• played a magnet sorting activity
• introduced himself to someone's grandma to whom he took a liking
• played with shells a ton more
• played with Moon Sand some more
• looked at The Very Hungry Caterpillar instead of participating for part of group time
• participated in part of group time, but was also resistant for half of it, and was acting and looking so.very.sleepy

It was just so cool to be in this place with all these quality materials and games.  The teacher/coordinator came by and asked what our goals were for Nick (to give him practice at a structured group environment and to give him one-on-one attention). She assured us we would meet those goals. Other people that I overheard had goals like having their child know and say their full name or to speak more clearly the "y" sound or something having to do with writing, etc. I would love for Nick to learn how to make the "s" sound instead of this nasal-"h"-plus-lispy-"s" sound that he has made since babyhood, and I would love for him to grip a pencil or paint brush the right way, and I would love for him to participate fully in group time...but I don't think those are really my goals for this situation. I know he will learn new things at preschool and that's great with me. Do I sound like the mother of a second child or what? My attitude was a little different when it was just Xander.

Here's our journal page from today:

 Our homework for next week is to have Nick talk about his time at preschool today and to have him draw about it in his journal. I already had him tell his favorite thing to Xander, but I'll try again tomorrow or the next day so we can use terms like "yesterday." Right now he uses "tomorrow" and "this afternoon" and "right now" pretty much interchangeably.

Xander decided to listen to six sections of The Story of the World today. He colored, cut out, and pasted relevant pictures to put on our timeline. He began the part about ancient Egypt, and by coincidence, this month's online Lego class was about Egyptian pyramids, so he watched that as well.

I decided he can finally play with his knights from Hobby Lobby this week after his surgery. We are having a Grace Week instead of school because of his surgery and recovery. I'll be showing Xander where on his wall timeline the knights would fall so at least he has an idea of how far in the "future" it is compared to his studies.

The kids have been playing Duplos together. I was interested to see what kind of creations Nick made. He hasn't played with the Duplos in a while, and in the meantime, he has become more sophisticated at imagining play scenarios.

I've been spending the day preparing for the surgery tomorrow, and calling the insurance company again.

Ha ha! Just found a great acorn cap craft on Pinterest. I showed Xander and asked if he thought we had any acorn caps in our yard. He said, "Come on, Nick!" and ran right outside to look and see.

Friday Fun

I went running last night and it felt marvelous. I ran twice as much as I had planned. I was on the park trail and it was about 70 degrees and cloudy. Friendly people jogged, walked, and biked past me. I felt strong. It was the most fantastic experience.

I followed some tips from an athlete and drank an Airborne fizzy drink in the morning, then had a Muscle Milk drink (with glutamine) plus a tiny bit of dinner right before going for the run. I don't know if the drinks had anything to do with my feeling strong - more likely it was the weather - but I will keep that in mind.

Xander and I had a Picture Study yesterday. We looked at a painting by Raphael Sanzio ("St. George Slaying the Dragon," of course) and he described it in detail to me while I covered my eyes. I read a few bits about the artist that I thought would be interesting. Then I gave a postcard of the painting to Xander to place in his Book of Masterpieces (the photo album he picked out at Hobby Lobby last week). I am thankful to Linda Fay of CharlotteMasonHelp.com for the idea. Having a Book of Masterpieces for each child is meant to encourage them to treat the works of art as precious possessions. I noticed that after we placed that painting card in his book, Xander held it closely to his chest until it was time to put it away.

We also listened to a few minutes of Peter and the Wolf. Xander liked playing around on the kids section of the San Francisco Symphony website as well.

Nick and I played outside a little bit, and the kids played around inside a lot. We all laid down for a few minutes together and read Saint George and the Dragon (retold by Margaret Hodges).

We had Sandy come hang out with us in the evening. I took a video of him making happy chirruping sounds and climbing around on the papasan chair. Then I took a quick video of Nick reading to himself. The humming is representative of his "reading" style. {Both videos had errors uploading so I won't be able to include them, at least not today.}

Here are a few pictures of the day:

Mom's Best Day Ever

It's not just Xander. Nick has been doing plenty these days, too. He loooooooves the A Child's Celebration of Folk Music CD I borrowed from the library. I like it because the songs are attractive to children but arranged and sung in a "real song" kind of way rather than a cheerful, infant, children's album way. The artists include Pete Seeger, Taj Mahal, Jerry Garcia, Woody Guthrie, and Michelle Shocked.

Nick also seemed to like the "Carl" book I borrowed.

We've been putting together puzzles and erasing dots I draw with dry-erase markers and drawing lines in certain directions and painting and coloring a face while talking about the different body parts. He's been doing lots of pretend run-around play with his brother. We've done the activities in a Dinosaur Train lapbook. I even helped him try out finger knitting when he got interested in a finger knitting video on Youtube.

He listens to the music Xander studies and looks at the art Xander looks at and hears a lot of the same stories, especially the Spanish picture books and chapters from The Hobbit.

Erik is working from home today. He received a text that cousin Bailey got through her surgery this morning and is recovering nicely.

Because Erik is at home, I got to pick up my hold book at the library and grab some other educational books for the kids without bringing them (the kids) with me. The construction at the library has encountered delays (surprise, surprise) so this week's story times are canceled. I just assumed they would be. Has a construction project ever ended on time?

We had a lovely day so far. We:

• read a chapter of The Hobbit
• finished the story of Leif and the Vikings in This Country of Ours
• had Xander draw a picture of something he remembered from the story
• memorized more of "Summer Afternoon"
• had Xander do two more hole-punching cards
• played and read with Nick off and on when we had extra minutes
• saw Xander begin to draw a "book" of extra Vikings drawings
• read "Happiness" by A.A. Milne
• read the Aesop fable "The Crab and Its Mother" and Xander narrated back to me the gist of the story
• read about the Wigglers in Among the Night People, about the life cycles and habits of mosquitoes (in fictional form)
• did a quick clean-up in which both boys (or should I say kittens, because they were meowing the whole time, even when I said they could sing while working) helped me wipe the kitchen counters, sink, the stove, the dining room table, and Nick's booster seat - they truly did a quality job - and cleaned up Nick's floor so we could use the Mint floor cleaner on it
• put Nick down for nap by singing to him and tucking him in
• read the first half of the chapter about Columbus in This Country of Ours
• had Xander nicely write, "They cast their arrows..." underneath his Viking battle picture

Xander is now off playing, but if his recorder arrives today like it should, I will also teach him a quick first lesson on it (basically, how to play the note "B" and how to tongue several quarter notes of  "B" in a row). I will also make sure he knows how to clean it and where to keep it.

Update: Recorder won't be arriving until Monday or Tuesday, at which time Xander is having his tonsillectonomy (and adenoidectomy). I don't think we'll be practicing recorder for another couple of weeks.