In our homeschool, we use the Charlotte Mason method. Over the years I have tried homeschooling in several different ways. We have tried the whole brick and mortar at home thing, classical with all it’s memorizing, and the open and go curricula that have left the children's personality blowing in the wind. When I read about Charlotte Mason's method encouraging individuality, with her “children are born persons”, I knew this was something we needed to try. That was five years ago and we have not looked back. I love how I can present the feasts to my boys and they take from it what God wants to teach them. I also love the living book list and all the help Ambleside online has given me. They have shown me that living books are as important and that this whole homeschooling thing doesn't need to break the bank.

In this series of blog posts I would like to share with you what books and curricula we are using more and more about Charlotte Mason. I will break down each of my boys terms and give some advice about each book we read. A term in our homeschool is 11 weeks of schooling with the 12th week being exam week. Our schedule also does not correlate with a traditional school schedule. Because we are a family that is very involved in growing and harvesting our own food, we revolve our schedule around our busy seasons of planting, harvesting, and preserving. We do not start school until mid-september after our annual elk hunt trip. Fluctuates with what the weather is like so the date is not set in stone. This is also when we are in the kitchen preserving our Harvest so we are very busy. Turn one runs to mid-December, where we do take the traditional Christmas Vacation.

Turn 2 starts in January and runs for another 12 weeks. In this term we take two weeks off for mental health breaks. Here in Wyoming, it is cold and gloomy in February, we also don’t get much outdoor play. We seem to get over stress during these times. So we take a week off when we need it. These weeks are not scheduled. This gives us the end of March. April is when most of our goats kid. I have found lack of sleep from all-nighters with newborn goats not conducive to a healthy and happy teacher. We take 2 to 4 weeks off depending on if we can get outside and get some garden prep and homestead builds done.

Turn 3 goes from the end of April to the first week of July. Our schedule also changes in this season to doing school in the afternoon or late morning. I like to get the kids outside. It is cool so we can work in the garden and work on projects around the homestead. The focus of our growing food increases in the spring and summer so our morning chore time grows with the added animals we raise for meat, like Cornish Cross chickens, turkeys, and a pig.

I'll be writing a post that will walk you through every subject my boys do per term and details on their books and progress. I have three boys, one in 3rd, 7th, and 9th grade. I'll split each post by grade and term. Next time, I will share my third grader’s term one. Enjoy!

Pray, Just Plant!