More Charlotte Mason

In further thought about the Charlotte Mason style, I am going to head more in that direction. Although it has always intrigued me, I found it too vague for a new home schooler. Too much left on my shoulders. But, I like the results much better than ordinary text book/work book learning. That is boring (what we've been doing), whereas Charlotte Mason style is interesting. Kids don't even know they are learning, they are just enjoying doing. Below is one mom's criteria for her kindergartner. It not only looks more our speed for our lifestyle, but is actually doable. Lots of "education" these days is just ticking skills off a checklist. I don't want that. I want skills that will actually be useful in their life ahead, as well as their life right now. To me, Charlotte Mason does that.

Year 0 expectations (kindergarten)

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundaries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

(this mom is from Canada, thus the French influence. I'd likely work on Spanish, as it would be more useful where we live)

I am also not one of those super-creative crafty moms (or teachers), so this gives me a way of opening the world through worthwhile projects rather than time filling use-less crafts. Using objects from nature to learn more about them, going to places where life is different and learning there as well.

I do also want to clarify. We are NOT just doing public/private school at home. What we do, should not even be compared to what those children are learning. My children won't have grade levels, won't have the same type of evaluations, nor am I dealing with discipline issues all day like a real teacher does (one teacher friend of mine says last year she spent her time doing 90% organizing, discipline, solving kids problems, and only 10% actual teaching). We also have a 1:1 teacher to student ratio, so we will be able to move along alot faster if we wish or alot slower if we're struggling with an item. So, that means my child may be grade 4 in spelling, grade 1 in math, grade 2 in reading and so on. They will not be in one specific grade level at all times. We also don't need to fill 6 hours a day before we're able to send the children home, so 'busy-work' is also not going to be present in our home school. We will mostly be learning by living.