Well I thought it may be of interest to share the nitty-gritty of how I hope to achieve our goals on a daily basis. These are the plans for my primary aged children I haven’t get finalised what my older ones will be doing. Once upon a time;) I would have been aghast at having to be so organised, I would have just floated through the day achieving what ever would happen. Oh for those days. Now with seven children and five/six of them ‘students’ I have to be a little more specific. Now to be really honest these are plans, the reality… well according to my daughter I will…

Language Arts Grammar Koala -English for Australian Schools 2 by Ronald Ridout. Carpenter- Lingua Mater by Margot Davidson. Einstein- Intermediate Language Lessons bu Emma Serl Michaelangelo- Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl Princess- First Introductory English Workbook by Ronald Ridout Spelling Fred Schonell’s Spelling books and a couple of LEM Phonics workbooks Copywork Quotes from Saints of the Day, Bible Passages and Poems. Dictation Literature Paragraphs from various books of the children’s choice. Various Writing Styles Still our weak area and still undecided. Perhaps I may buy “Write Best” Reading Michaelangelo and Princess to continue reading aloud daily. Literature Continue to read high quality literature, each book selected will be…

We have been trialling something a little different lately. After a long discussion with a friend we have been inspired to look at a block lesson approach. This is a very common concept in Steiner/Waldorf schools, their main lessons generally cover writing and reading, arithmetic and studies of their environment. These are done in blocks lasting three to four weeks focusing on a specific subject. I have been feeling for a while that our learning has become too ‘schooly’ it was missing a natural rhythm and in fact I was becoming a clock watcher, racing to fit everything into our day. I didn’t like this at all, Charlotte Mason had…