Our Plan for the Year 2025
For some time now, I have been pondering the idea of creating a way of documenting our wonder filled days, and getting information from my head out in front of me with cohesion and ease (and beauty!). So as I find myself in the thick of my favourite time of year again, sitting and planning our schedule for the upcoming year, I felt like it would be as helpful to me now to lay everything out, as it will be lovely to have a place to come back to through the year.
I'm sure this space will be most visited by family checking in on our adventures, so if you have made your way here, welcome! I am by no means a writer, so please excuse my brevity (that won't apply today!) - where hopefully some lovely snaps of special moments in time will speak for themselves.
This is our third year of formal schooling, with our eldest, Pearl, in second grade, and youngest, General, starting Kindergarten. We are continuing with our own Classical Charlotte Mason curriculum, which I will attempt to briefly outline below*.
History
After beginning with Ancient civilizations last year, we will be covering the next stage in our four year world history rotation: the Middle Ages (400BC to 1600AD). Our core text will be Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World with the addition of key chapters from TAN's Story of Civilization.
To understand more about the classical approach to a child's study of history:
"A common assumption found in history curricula seems to be that children can’t comprehend (or be interested in) people and events distant from their own experience. So the first-grade history class is renamed Social Studies and begins with what the child knows: first, himself and his family, followed by his community, his state, his country, and only then the rest of the world.
This intensely self-focused pattern of study encourages the student of history to relate everything he studies to himself, to measure the cultures and customs of other peoples against his own experience. And that’s exactly what the classical education fights against—a self-absorbed, self-referential approach to knowledge. History learned this way makes our needs and wants the center of the human endeavor. This attitude is destructive at any time, but it is especially destructive in the present global civilization.
The goal of the classical curriculum is multicultural in the best sense of the word: the student by seeing the proper place of his community, his state, and his country by seeing the broad sweep of history from its beginning and then fitting his own time and place into that great landscape.”
- Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Trained Mind, p. 137
Australian History
Unlike our world history stream, our Australian history studies are on a three-year rotation. We are beginning this year with the study of the time period from the first recorded landing on Australia to exploration and settlements. Our core texts will be Kathryn Faulkner's Our Lady's Dowry and Our Sunburnt Country by Arthur Baillie. We'll be reading aloud Convict Boy by Jackie French, Castle Hill Rebellion by Chrissie Michaels and The Rum Rebellion by Libby Gleeson. I think we'll all love reading The Pictorial History of the Catholic Church in Australia as well, for an up close look at the challenges of Australian Catholics in the early years.
Bible
Reading from the Douay Rheims translation, we will be continuing to go through the Old and New Testaments. For Old Testament, we will be finishing up our reading through Genesis, and for New Testament, we will be reading the Gospel of Luke.
I have been enjoying using Knecht's A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture for captain ideas and guiding to a Catholic perspective on readings - this has been deeply beneficial for me and for my children, I find Knecht's wisdom invaluable. It's also been helpful for mapping out on our history timeline and world map, together with Dowley's The Student Bible Atlas.
Biographies/Saints
as;dlkfja;kslfdj
Catechism
Probably the thing I am looking forward to the most this year (it's been on my mind for so long!) will be a lesson a week in a study of the Holy Mass - providentially, I'm sure, this wonderful study plan utilises books which I have not had a moment to read to my children yet but which have been on our shelves for years. What a gift to use them in this way! I have Celeste to thank for sharing her outline of their study of the Mass here.
Our Morning Basket keeps us on track with the Liturgical Year, with daily readings from Character Character, Butler's Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Kendra Tierney's The Catholic All Year Compendium and Prayer Companion, and Sophia's The Day-by-Day Coloring Book of Saints (Vols. 1 and 2). We try to at least pray the Terce hour of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary as often as we can.
We will begin formally learning Latin through the University of Dallas's Latin Through Stories program.
Tales, Fables, Myths
Weekly readings from:
- Aesop's Fables
- Fifty Famous Stories, Baldwin
-The Parent's Assistant, Edgeworth
- The Blue Fairy Book, Lang; Tales of Wonder; or Just So Stories, Kipling
- Book of Greek Myths, D'Aulaire.
Literature
Literary novels (with narration):
Term 1: Little House in the Big Woods, Ingalls-Wilder
Term 2: Mr. Popper's Penguins, Atwater
Term 3: Understood Betsy, Canfield Fisher (Pearl), The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Lofting (General)
Shakespeare
We will be reading one play per term from Edith Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare:
Term 1: As You Like It
Term 2: Winter's Tale
Term 3: Midsummer Night's Dream
Memorisation/Recitation
Poems:
Term 1: Block City, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Duel, Eugene Field
Term 2: Matilda, Hillaire Belloc
The Wind, Robert Louis Stevenson
Term 3: My Shadow, Robert Louis Stevenson
A Christmas Folk-Song, Lizette Woodworth Reese
Hymns:
Term 1: Dušo Kristova (Anima Christi)
Term 2: Pange Lingua Gloriosi
Term 3: Laude Jerusalem
Scripture:
Psalm 1
Matthew 5:1-22
Poetry
Last year, A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six were so much fun. The laughter and repeated "just one more time, Mum!", over breakfast or tea and snacks made for the most delightful memories.
This year we will continue our poetry readings with Walter De La Mare's Songs of Childhood and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Roses.
Penmanship
Pearl began the Abeka Cursive Writing with Phonics K5 books last year, and did really well with them. She was very keen to begin cursive, and after much research and review, I decided the books looked to be a worthy investment - thankfully they proved so! The pages are delightfully illustrated, there is lots of simple instruction and practice for letter forms, and the cursive itself is just beautiful.
This year Pearl will move on to the Writing with Phonics 1 book, and General will begin his cursive with the K5 books.
Science and Nature Study
We will be doing our regular nature walks and nature journalling, with the addition of keeping a Calendar of Firsts - we're all very much looking forward to keeping record of noticed changes in our backyard and walks!
A more formal study on the natural world will be based on Mater Amabilis' science curriculum, but heavily supplemented with Australian resources**, with one focus per term on plant life, birds and insects.
Check out this lovely 1944 edition of J.A. Leach's Australian Nature Studies that I found online - I can't remember who exactly had given the review of it, but being able to look inside properly now, I certainly agree it is such a worthwhile addition to the nature studies arsenal, particularly since most recommended resources are for the American backyard! Bonus - I'm in awe of the beautiful inscription in the front pages - how I would love to be able to write like that!
Geography
I see this quote often when reading on Charlotte Mason's thoughts about the study of geography, and rightly so - it is one of the most wonderful illustrations of the understanding that Mason had of a child's innate ability to grasp the complexities and beauty of God's world. And, of the importance of mapping! Our geography studies this year will look like this:
Geography and Earth Studies
Mapping will be our year long focus as we work through Home Geography for the Primary Grades by C.C. Long and Maps and Mapping by Barbara Taylor. We will also use Taylor's Rivers and Oceans and Leach's Australian Nature Studies for our alternate focus on the earth's water systems.
People and Places:
Term 1: (Australian state) Western Australia
Terms 2-3: (Croatian region) Slavonija & Central Croatia
Mathematics
We are continuing on with Kate Snow's Math with Confidence books for both. The combination of games, math facts mastery and manipulatives have been a great balance the last few years.
Music
Both will be beginning their Suzuki music lessons next week - Pearl will be beginning violin and General starts cello. We will most likely continue with Hoffman Academy piano lessons since they both really enjoy it.
Composer Study
Last year: Bach, Mozart, Handel
This year: Beethoven, Vivaldi, Chopin
Artist Study
Last year: Tintoretto, Van Gogh, Monet
This year: Caravaggio, Dürer, Roberts
Art Instruction and Brush Drawing
I pull from all sorts of art books, sites, videos, etc. for our art instruction lessons. Some are also me teaching them from my experience if I'm feeling extra confident, but either way our art instruction lessons are hands down our most favourite time(s!) of the week. Aside from the artworks which will be based on our term's artist, we will be continuing on from where we left off on our Marion Hudson, Brushwork lessons.
Handiworks and Paper Sloyd
Weekly, from Robin's Nature Origami, Lafosse's Classic Origami and Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades by Ednah Anne Rich. We will also be delving into more complex sewing projects with Pearl and woodworking projects with General.
Viva Christo Rey!
Notes:
* I am not a Charlotte Mason purist, but we do our best to live out her philosophy and pedagogy within our means.
** I will list our Australian books/resources as we use them
You may note that for many lessons I have not specified different resources for my children. That is because many of our lessons are in common. This will likely change next year when Pearl will be at the stage where she will be reading more of her own texts independently, as opposed to me reading aloud to the both of them.
Artwork: Lesendes Dienstmadchen in einer Bibliothek, Edouard John Mentha
Comments
Post a Comment