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Bethany
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Joined: Oct 16 2006
Location: Texas
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| Posted: May 30 2013 at 6:00am | IP Logged
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Oh Sally, I'd be honored to have you as a kindred spirit  ! I was so happy to read your response last night after a not great evening with my extended-blended in laws. The group includes my anti-homeschooling former school teacher MIL, a step SIL with a PhD. in Child Psychology  , and my completely opposite SIL. That's not to included other personalities involved. They just believe that dealing with children needs to be completely antagonistic and that they need someone to tell them what to do constantly  . Oh well  .
Yes, I have calmed down. This summer will be mostly reading aloud and working on those core subjects. It's so miserably hot in TX, so summer is a great time to do lessons. Then in the fall when the weather breaks, we spend a lot of time outside. We read the Book of Angels this years, along with saint stories and next year we'll read A Life of our Lord and maybe Saints and Heroes. Still trying to decide on some Science/Nature read aloud's. I have Burgess's Seashore Book, which we haven't read yet, so maybe that would be good. We've also been working on CCM Gamma year, albeit slowly, and will probably just plug away and move to the next level when we finish. The girls like that fairly well.
I need to just keep myself away from too many blogs and such. I'm more of a "go with the flow" and "life learning" type, so when I see too many lapbooks, perfectly organized list and extensive "hands on" projects, it gives me some anxiety. I begin to think I'm a horrible homeschool mom because I don't do alll these things. It takes me a while to come back down and realize that my way is ok too and that I prefer my way 
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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SallyT
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| Posted: May 30 2013 at 9:17am | IP Logged
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Bethany, your account of your family encounter makes me think of a conversation I had at a party the night before my oldest daughter turned 13. I was talking to various extended-family friends (i.e. not particularly friends of mine, though I know them through my family) who were all assuring me that when my daughter got up in the morning she would have transmogrified into a monster. "She'll have a tattoo by the end of the week," one man told me in tones of great authority.
So, my daughter was standing right there while all these prophecies were uttered. On the way home she remarked mildly, "I didn't think that was very nice. I don't think I'm going to turn into a monster."
She didn't turn into a monster -- actually, her teen years (which come to an end in January, snif) have been far easier and more pleasant than most of the years preceding them, and she's a delight to know. And to this day I'm intrigued that all these people were so absolutely sure that to have a teenager is to enter into a years-long battle. Not . . . really . . . inevitable, obviously.
My own family has relaxed a lot about the homeschooling thing, actually, as they've seen my older kids thrive -- oldest daughter is flourishing at a good college, older son is . . . well, unusual in his intellectual gifts, but it sure is good P.R. for the rest of us. My family have been far less critical and far more actively interested in our homeschooling as they've seen two teenagers so far not turn out to be losers or weirdos*, and to have normal, happy, healthy social lives and activities.
And yes, I have to stay away from a lot of blogs, even though I blog myself and I'm happy that people post things about their homeschools. I'm just way too prone to compare myself, and way too prone to be intimidated by beautiful *products,* which we just don't turn out. That's in no way to criticize the people who do, but it's not us -- I'm far more concerned with what goes in, which is the part I can plan for and make decisions about, than what comes out, in any formal sense. What the kids do with the things I feed their minds with is up to them, largely. We are definitely CM-influenced, but I'm very open-ended even about things like narration, which is kind of open-ended to begin with. Plus I have the kind of kids who would be like Jessica Mitford, in her memoir Hons and Rebels -- she was an English aristocrat-turned-Communist, brought up in the 1920s by a mother who educated her according to CM principles. One day her mother asked her to narrate a chapter, and she claimed not to remember anything. "Oh, come now, can't you remember a single word?" "Very well, then -- THE," she said. I have very "Very well, then -- THE" children.
So I plan mainly just by making booklists, to ensure that we always have plenty to read. We have three main blocks to our day --
1. "Basket" read-alouds
2. "Table work" -- math, copywork, any other written work (minimal)
3. Independent reading
And that's it. Even those blocks are movable and flexible, but as long as we get in at least two out of three (or at least basket reading, if nothing else), we're good.
It really doesn't have to be complicated! And again, I think what you're visualizing is great.
Sally
*I should really put "losers" and "weirdos" in quotation marks, since those are hardly objective classifications of human beings. But I hope you know what I mean!
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Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 12 2015 at 6:34am | IP Logged
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Just bumping this thread to make sure you ladies know about the effort to put Mater Amabilis into weekly plans. If any of you could offer just a bit of your time to help, it would be wonderful and make this happen that much faster!
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: I need help!
