I’ve always known my son is very smart – just not book smart.  He has a hard time applying himself because he would rather be outside.  He knows a lot about many different things, can express himself well and is creative.  I have him in Ambleside Online Year 8 and he enjoys the reading he’s given and comprehends it well. You give him simple computation of math facts and he’ll have calculation errors.  Because of this, I started him in a low level of Math-U-See.  About a month and a half ago, I wrote into a Charlotte Mason Yahoo group I belong to expressing my discouragement with my 15yo son.  The responses I received were so…

We’ve finished our first term! (3 children out of 4).   Most of our distractions have come in the form of company, but company is a fact of life around here.  This is our first year to use Ambleside Online and my kids are truly learning to be more accountable.  In the past we did a lot of things together. This year everyone is working pretty much independently.  Thanks to Lindafay and her 12 week checklist, they can see what they need to do everyday for 12 weeks. I did have a problem earlier on with a couple of my boys dawdling.  One Both of them are still needing improvement in this area but one is starting to apply himself…

My oldest son,  has resigned been banned from meal preparation.  All is not lost, however.  I have two other sons, Zachary and Wesley, who are eager to get in there and prepare scrumptious offerings for their family.  So, I have assigned Wesley to help in the mornings with breakfast preparations and Zachary is going to try and make supper one night a week. Each of the boys made their own Recipe Books using a 3-ring binder.  They designed their own covers using a computer graphics program.  Inside they will put recipes they have learned, or are learning to make.  This is Zachary’s Book.     I had him write out his recipe by hand. (This doubled for…

I got this book while in Pennsylvania at Thanksgiving.    The author discusses shapes and sizes, training your artist’s eye, the seasons and in the back of the book there is a field guide giving information on many of the leaves used to make the animals in the book.  While in Pennsylvania the kids collected leaves to bring home since where we live has mostly pine trees. Here are some of the pictures the kids made.  I’m hoping to frame them before they get ruined.  But I took pictures, just in case! Can you figure out what they are?   This is a…Mountain Lion, And this one is an… Owl, whose branch it’s resting on, needs repaired. This,…

Our family just finished reading the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was so disappointed and I admit, a little shocked, at some of the passages in this book. I have heard great reviews on this book through the years and cannot remember hearing anything negative about it. This causes me to wonder if I’m the only one that has major reservations on whether our children should read this book.  One of the worst chapters we read was titled “Magic”. If this isn’t like witchcraft but in disguise, I don’t know what could be. Colin, the boy who has been bedridden since he was born, is taken…