The Well Trained Mind part 2 or CM

My thoughts on The Well Trained Mind is that you do what subjects you can but don't follow the time frame. That time frame is good to give you an idea of what some "super" person might do. We lead very busy lives in all we do so there is no way we can follow the time frame they show in that book. Although, it does give you an idea of how you set up each subject.

The rest of the subjects like science, art, writing, nature studies and PE we do those also. You could say we are more Charlotte Mason(CM) in these subjects. We do these mostly together. The oldest is doing biology and will be going into chemistry soon. He does that on his own but the other two do Apologia's Swimming Creatures. This book is mostly read by me and we talk about it and are doing their little experiments and projects.

For art, they go to an art class with a few other friends from the hall. It is great because not only do they do an art class but they get to spend some time with their friends.

Nature studies are done while walking outside or going to a nature area. I have also been creating some notebooking pages for them to cover any topic we are learning about.

PE is a fun time. My two youngest are outdoor boys while the oldest will go outside but would rather be inside. Although they all love the pool. During the summer they spend lots of time in the pool. When it's too cold to be in the pool they ride bikes or run around the house and play on the swings. They can be outdoors for hours after school work is done.

One more subject that we do is our service and our meeting preparation. I have a wonderful ipod my hubby got me that I have been able to download our magazines from the JW site. Since my middle son has dyslexia this is wonderful for him. He is very intelligent and this is a wonderful provision for him. I personally appreciate this provision myself. It is wonderful to hear an experience from different ones of different lands with that lands accent. I do schedule time for listening to magazines, book for bookstudy and the Sunday mag.

Our days are filled with lots of fun and a variety of subjects and fun. We also have our own little group that we do field trips with. I've even had a day out with a homeschool mom/friend to just do mom things.

Now don't look at this blog and think we do everything perfect all the time. There are days that we wake up and don't feel like getting up or working on anything at all. There are times when someone has a hissy fit and doesn't want to do school. We are not the perfect homeschool family. What is perfect anyway in our times? What I am saying is that we all have our off days and that is why I have decided to school year round. We do have a few months off from school during the summer months just because we want to.

So I started with TWTM and ended on a CM note. No one way of schooling is right for everyone. You can take what you want from here and apply it. The rest leave it for someone else. That is what I do. Take what you need and work on it in your school.