The little yellow-spined book is The First Starry Night by Isom; this is our picture book this week on Van Gogh. We are studying The Sower ... a favorite of mine and utterly appropriate for two days before Halloween. It has a gorgeous solemnity to it and I always get excited to tie scripture to the picture with my kids ~ Mark 4:3-23.
After our skills we will read one or two fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, likely Rumpelstiltskin and The Frog Prince. I read aloud on the couch and the children narrate. I take it in small chunks for Zeb and longer sections for the girls. Why fairy tales? This can be a sticky topic among Christians, but I look to fairy tales to permeate truths, beauty, and goodness in fanciful ways. We hold everything we read and learn up against God's word and likewise, fairy tales are a timeless way to preserve childhood and make the lessons teachable moments together. There is a magic all its own for children to have the literary richness that comes from fairy tales, fables, mythology, Shakespeare, Plutarch, and the like. I want the repertoire of my children's memories to include fairy tales and folk tales from around the world ... there is so much to be talked through and learned and simply loved about them.
Habits. For a long time I had a storehouse of ideas on how Charlotte Mason approached habit training in children after reading her writings in Ourselves and Formation of Character. I also devoured Laying Down the Rails as a guidebook of sorts on how to put Charlotte Mason's writing into practice ... it was eluding me in a practical sense. It got better when Simply Charlotte Mason introduced Laying Down the Rails for Children; this may be my favorite home schooling resource. Twice weekly we turn our eyes to one habit and follow the lesson ... it might be a discussion, a place of scripture to investigate, a puzzle or game, a snippet from a piece of literature. We spend a very focused ten minutes on the habit and then of course I continue to imbue it throughout our day-to-day. {Our first habit was Attention, our current habit is Gentleness.}
Each day, as I mentioned before, we spend a few minutes on recitation. Two days a week we study a Bible verse(s) and two days a week we work on a poem, which is at present Smells by Christopher Morley.
So, day two. Gratitude, singing, poetry, fairy tales, picture study, habits as a family. Of course we take a walk (maybe yoga today ... it's brisk) and have main lessons of reading, writing, and math. The day would not be complete without our Bible study, either.
I took a different approach this year with them ... typically we simply read the Bible, a little every day, and we discuss and narrate and work through passages together. I asked the girls what book they'd really like to delve into for many weeks. They both said John (and then Esther) so I bought two Kay Arthur inductive Bible studies for kids and they ADORE it. We spend about 30 min, four days a week getting close to John and Jesus. I pulled out my Bible from when I was in 1st grade and showed it to them all marked up, highlighted, colored, and well loved. I went to a Christian school that taught us how to connect with our Bibles and live Ephesians 6:17. I am super excited about walking this road with my girls and soon with my boys.