I believe I've mentioned here before that we have decided to homeschool. Through much research the past several years, I have really been drawn to the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. Thus, we decided to use the curriculum found at Ambleside Online. This is our first year of “real” school, as the HoneyBee is now in year 1 (aka 1st grade). We are currently in week 6 of the first term and things are going fairly well.
One of the main aspect of a CM education is narration. This is where the student is to tell back a story once he/she has heard/read it. It is not as simple a task as it sounds at first, and the HoneyBee was really balking at it. I was doing a great deal more prodding than I felt I should be and neither of us were enjoying it. So last week, we tried out something new I'd read about online: a narration jar. Instead of simple asking for her to tell me the story once we've read it, she now gets to choose a slip of paper out of a jar. This slip of paper tells her the manner in which she gets to narrate the story. Here's some examples:

• Create a short comic strip based on the reading.


• Act out events in the reading.


• Give a puppet show of one or more interesting parts of the story.


• Write and perform and original song that tells the story.


• Narrate into the recorder.


• ...and many more.

She loves this new method. So much so, in fact, that she was begging me to use it on things I wasn't planning to have her narrate. Narration has now become an enjoyable time instead of like pulling teeth. And it's enjoyable for both of us. The HoneyBee is so creative, that she comes up with some wonderful responses to some of these ideas. It has helped to improve our whole school day!

In addition to the history and literature readings each week, we are also doing Bible, learning a hymn (one/month), memory verses, poetry, handwriting (we're starting cursive this week because she *really* wants to learn “how to write with all the loops” ), math, Spanish, art appreciation (Raphael this term), and composer study (Bach this term). I'd really like to add in nature study soon too. Many of these aren't really study, just exposure at her age. We're finally starting to fall into a regular routine, but I'm not holding my breath for after the baby comes...we'll probably have to start all over again.
We also started Pizza Hut's Book-It program this month, for which I set the goal of 5 chapter books a month. The HoneyBee was so excited about it that she read 4 in the first 3 days...at which point I decided to also put a goal on the number of pages in each book. Number 5 is taking a bit longer.
And the local homeschool co-op is starting up again this week. The HoneyBee will be getting additional art, science, and gym (and socialization) there, and I got roped into teaching a sewing course to the older girls. I'll post on that later.

I'm not doing anything official with the Little Chimp yet, but he picks up quite a bit just being around while we do school. The HoneyBee also really enjoys reading to him--she's recently introduced her own story time for him--and they've created dramas together to act out some of the books we've read. The Little Chimp seems to be picking things up just as quickly and unconsciously as his sister did.