Term 1 ... Nearly DONE!

Woo Hoo!
Man, have the last two months been insane! We are now MOVING!! We have been keeping up the work, but boy am I getting tired. My thoughts about home educating my children...

Wow, this is a lot of work!
Charlotte Mason was an amazing, inspiring woman and I am so glad that I was pointed in her direction. There is so much for me to learn. I have yet to make it through the first volume. I feel slightly frantic about that because I am wanting to keep up with the discussion on AO's yahoo group, but they are already in Vol. 2! I tried to start up a discussion group here locally, and that went down the drain immediately, no one showed up. I wasn't too bothered by it, we are moving and there just wasn't enough time to really devote to it. I'd really like to have someone to talk to (in person) about it. A group of moms who are trying to follow the same path as I.
In other directions ~ I am loving the nature studies. Well, mostly. I love getting out with my kids. But I'm also wondering if they are really learning anything. We've been looking at mammals this term (after what I saw scheduled on the AO site). I have had Flopsy and Benjamin trace or color a picture of the animal we are currently learning about and then we go to farms or other places and watch them. The kids have definitely had fun with it. I suppose I'll know eventually if they've learned anything about them.
Music has been a little more enjoyable. We have really liked listening to Mendelssohn. The kids favorite it the Spinning Song! They actually made up a story to go along with it. It was a story about our family franticly cleaning our house and yard. It was hillarious! I should have recorded it.
Picture study has been nice. I have absolutely loved Monet's work. He's my favorite right now. We went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and that was fantastic. We went right after they opened and we went just for Monet's works, so we got out of there pretty quickly. No fuss and no mess from the kids! Monet's works make me want to jump right inside and just stay there forever. They are simply lovely. Benjamin's favorite was the Field of Poppies.
Art, well, lack of it is all I can say.
History. WOW! Even I am getting some new knowledge from this subject. Today, we connected Benjamin Franklin with England and then that back to the book Our Island Story! There was quite an "Ah Ha!" moment! We are beginning to see things connect together. It's wonderful. He has learned that the US wasn't always the way it is now. We didn't originate on this continent and that the story of the US actually starts on the other side of the world!
Literature has been fun. We love Aesop. Parables from Nature has been fun too. We have really been enjoying Just So Stories. Shakespear had a great introduction. We had been listening to some audios of Magic Tree House stories and a few weeks before we read Midsummer Night's Dream, we heard the MTH story for that one. Jonathan loved it. Well, I did too. ;)
We've been working on cursive writing and that is going well. Copywork has been all over the place. Memorization has not been that good this term. I'm going to have to get better about that one. Also, I've been perhaps lacking in the Bible part of our schooling. Character traits. We did great for the first six weeks, but since our move has become a bigger deal, I've really slacked on more than I should. I just figure that once we get settled in our new place, things will get better.

I'm still contemplating everything about this method of homeschooling. There have been many a day that I've wanted to throw it down and say I've had enough. My little Peter Rabbit. He's becoming a two-year-old and wants ALL of Mommy. We have had to adjust our schedule quite majorly and we are still ajusting to that. Some mornings, all Peter does is scream at us. It's a struggle, but God is helping us through it all. I know we'll be okay. On days like this my thoughts have turned to putting someone in school (and that may happen for little Peter - preschool isn't all that bad). I've wanted to switch to the boxed curriculum where it's all there for me and Benjamin could just sit down and do the work mainly on his own. All the reading that I'm having to do this year has been at times frustrating. But then I think about how much he loves it. How much I love what I'm learning. What we wouldn't have if we were doing it any other way! We have noticed a change in our two oldest children. They are maturing, they are growing! Just today, I witnessed complete selflessness from my daughter! We have seen what true love is shining through these young children! {Now, complete obedience is still in the works, but... ;) } Without homeschooling (and yes, I think even using the CM method has done this) I know our children wouldn't show this kind of love to one another.

I will leave you with a note that my husband and I found last night while putting some clothes away in our Flopsy's room. This brought tears to both our eyes.

"I {heart} you Flopsy. You are A big girl. You make me laph. You make me hpey.
{heart} Benjamin."

(blog names inserted in place of given names)