Homeschooling has been smooth and easy and we have completed our first month of learning together. Implementing the Charlotte Mason philosophy into our homeschool has changed our days. They are creative and meaningful. We've actually focused on and thoroughly enjoyed the extras-that-aren't-extra. (nature study, art appreciation, read a louds, etc.) The twins are going slower, but learning. Kaden graduated to the second book in the Rod and Staff reading series for Grade 1. A HUGE accomplishment!! I feel like we're not reinforcing defeat and failure with the twins. And with a varied curriculum they have so many more opportunities to experience victory in learning. I wanted to show how I use my planner to not only plan but keep records of our weeks.

Every week I have a book log page where I catalogue all the books we have read that week. On this page, I'll put things that we all worked on together. We work on the 70 phonograms together everyday. I'll also put field trips we took and educational DVD's we watched together on this page. This is the week 4 page for Grade 5. I have listed the agenda for the week. Some of the items on this page aren't meant to be done weekly, but I keep them there as a reminder to do it before the end of the semester. This includes Shakespeare ,science biography, parables of nature, and Answers in Genesis. On this page I check off what we did and anything extra that we got done I write on the side. This is the week 4 page for my first graders and preschooler. Again I check off everything that they did this week. Their page has directions for the Writing with Ease program, which I won't start with them until their writing improves. Write now it is a lot of work for them to remember how to write their letter correctly, space in between words, write on the correct lines, and remember the sentence or phrase that I've dictated to the them. When the mechanics of writing becomes a little less laborious then I will begin writing with ease. For now, we are doing dictation exercises and narration weekly.