Sam's age 7 basic plan

Language Arts/Reading/Science/Bible/Art/Music appreciation/handwriting/handicrafts

My Father's World 1

Math-MUS Beta
Poetry/Memorization-IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Our planned reading each week:

History/Biography
D-Aulaire titles

Geography
Holling C. Holling- Seabird, Tree in a Trail
A-Z Geography

Natural History/Science
Burgess' Animal Tales
Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 2

Literature
Readings to be determined by interest

Years 1-4 Discussion & Discovery Studies plan

The terms Discussion (humanities) and Discovery (science & creative arts) studies are borrowed from Educating the Whole-hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson.


World History
~ 1 chapter per week
Story of the World+ activity book
Library books on weekly topics

American History
~ 1 per quarter
d-Aulaire Titles- aproximately 1 per quarter
Benjamin Franklin
Pocahontas
Leif the Lucky
George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Buffalo Bill
Columbus
The Star- Spangled Banner

Childhood of Famous American series as readers

Poetry
1 per day + 1-2 per quarter for memory work
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now We Are Six/When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Random House Book of Poetry for Children

Geography
1-2 Chapters per week
Holling C. Holling books
Paddle-to-the-Sea
Seabird
Minn of the Mississippi
Pagoo
Tree in the Trail
Geography from A to Z by Jack Knowlton
+ Map study with SOTW activity books.

Natural History/Science
1-2 Chapters per week
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Burgess Seashore Book for Children By Thornton Burgess
Among the ….. People by Clara Dillingham
The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children by Jane Andrews
Parables from Nature by Margaret S. Gatty
Weekly Nature Study
Various books from Usborne/ DK
Various science kits

Literature
1-2 chapters per week
The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
d'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
d'Aulaires Book of Norse Myths
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemay Sutcliff
The Orhard Book of Roman Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean
In Search of the Homeland by Penelope Lively and Ian Andrew
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

pacing and selection to be determined by child's interest
The Boxcar Children Gertrude Chandler Warner
Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
The Random House Book of Fairy Tales by Amy Ehrlich
The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjery Williams
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat
Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
Story of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
Stuart Little by E.B.
WhiteTrumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
King Arthur by Roger Lancelyn Green
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
Redwall by Brian Jacques
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Updated Year 1 Booklist

We started with a Year 1 list but have fine tuned it for a much better fit.

Language Arts
Handwriting without Tears -Printing practice
Our CM Reading Program
All About Spelling Book 1
First Language Lessons
Writing with Ease workbook 1
Explode the Code Online as wanted.

How I'm putting this all together....

-Oral narrations from various subjects.
-Daily reading instruction
-Daily copywork from HWT/ Writing with Ease 1
-Memory work from First Language Lessons.


Why I changed......
Sam wasn't challenged enough with the original plan.

Mathematics -Math-U-See Alpha

Foreign Language -Phrase-A-Day Spanish

Bible- Every Day with God

Poetry
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now We Are Six/When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

History
Story of the World Book 1 done at home.


Why I changed....

Co-op wasn't working out as well as I hoped. Sam gets so much more out of the reading when done at home and friends aren't competing for his attention. I restarted the series from the beginning because he is wanting to learn about Egyptians.

Fifty Famous Stories was so truncated that it was impossible for us to get a decent narration from this source.

American History Biography
Benjamin Franklin by Ingri D'Aulaire
George Washington by Ingri D'Aulaire
Buffalo Bill by Ingri D'Aulaire
Pocahontas by Ingri D'Aulaire


Geography
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
Geography from A to Z by Jack Knowlton

Natural History/Science
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Burgess Seashore Book for Children By Thornton Burgess
Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 1.
A Reason for Science A

We added Nature reader because he found it in our book closet and loves it. He gives great narrations from this book. We added A Reason for Science for the experiments which have been fun. It is a nice resource because everything is supplied.

Literature
The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Among the .....People by by Clara Dillingham Pierson

We dropped Tales from Shakespeare until a future year.

Bedtime Reading
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
King of the Golden River by John Ruskin
Peter Pan by James M. Barrie
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Fairy Books by Andrew Lang

Also Weekly
Art- Artistic Pursuits Book 1
Music appreciation-one composer per quarter
Handicrafts - to be determined by interest
Nature Study- follow Outdoor Hour challenges.

Thoughts on Science

The CM Ideal

"that there is no part of a child's education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why––Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his questions for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him. Above all, when you come to the rescue, let it not be in the 'cut and dried' formula of some miserable little text-book; let him have all the insight available and you will find that on many scientific questions the child may be brought at once to the level of modern thought. " Home Education pg. 265-266

How I put the CM Ideal in Practice

I'm a big fan of science . Love, love, love it. What has worked best for me in the past with science instruction is nature study, a bit of planned literature and lots of free exploration. I keep a list of science topics that we have covered and make yearly or quarterly decisions based on topics that we still need to explore. I will pick a few books from my list and spread them out in a quarter, a year, or longer depending on the needs of my family at any given time. I try to remain flexible because my kid's interest and free reading cover many science topics quite naturally without a lot of input from me. Science kits and visual books that are available from Usborne and DK are given as presents and the kids spend hours perusing them. Science experiments are just plain fun and my kids never considered them to be schoolwork. With the older kids I switched to a textbook science course(Apologia's General Science) the year before I thought they would be ready to start Pre-Algebra-usually around age 12- so that they were starting Biology and Algebra at the same time.

A Science Book list

When referring to a favorite science text, Charlotte Mason states, "But the amazing skill of the author is shown in the fact that there is nothing scrappy and nothing hurried in the treatment of any topic, but each falls naturally and easily under the head of some principle which it elucidates. Many simple experiments are included, which the author insists shall be performed by the children themselves." Home Education pg. 267

My job is to find these types of texts.

My incomplete list of science books by age level. Some are family favorites, some are classics and some may never be read by this family. I'm sure I'm missing a few good books and this is a living list which may grow throughout the years as I find new authors and new titles.

Ages 6-9

Among the ….. People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess

The Burgess Seashore Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children by Jane Andrews
Parables from Nature by Margaret S. Gatty
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot
Various books from Usborne/ DK
Various science kits

Ages 9-12+
Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long
A Little Brother to the Bear by William J. Long
Great Inventors and Their Inventions by Frank P. Bachman
The Story of Inventions by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman
School of the Woods by William J. Long
The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre
Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley
Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton
The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella Buckley
It Couldn't Just Happen by Lawrence Richards
The Sea Around Us by Rachael Carson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick
The Story of Thomas Alva Edison by Margaret Cousins
Albert Einstein Young Thinker by Marie Hammontree
Marie Curie’s Search for Radium by Beverly Birch and Christian Birminham
Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia by Margaret Cousins
Pasteur’s Fight Against Microbes by Beverly Birch
Blood & Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides by Linda Allison
The History of Medicine by John Hudson Tiner

other books by above authors
Other scientist biographies as available
Various books from Usborne/ DK
Various science kits as available.

Sam's 5yo booklist

Our Kindergarten philosophy explains how we put it all together.

Reading-100 Easy Lessons

Math- Math-U-See Primer

Handwriting-Handwriting without Tears-K

Stories - Chosen from Ambleside Year 0 and Five in a Row


Specific stories that we read this year.....

A Story of Ping- Marjorie Flack

Lentil by Robert Mccloskey

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen

How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills.

Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne

Beatrix Potter series

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola

Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton

Night of the Moon jellies by Mark Shasha

The Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

For the Children's Hour by Carolyn S. Bailey

Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pierson ( 1st 6 chapters )

The Seashore Book for Children by Thornton Burgess ( 1st 8 chapters)

Story of the World Vol. 1 by Susan Wise Bauer ( Ch. 36-42 ....participation in local history co-op)

The Child's Book of Stories by Jessie Willcox Smith ( Shorter selection)

+ others that I forgot since last fall