A Quiet Growing Time
In today’s post I am going to share what we are doing for our Charlotte Mason preschool for the 2021-2022 school year. As you will read, I embrace much of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and style of education in our homeschool. Below I will show you the resources I am using to implement a simple “quiet growing time” for my preschooler. It looks like learning through play, plenty of read alouds, and lots of nature.
If you’ve been following along, the 2020 pandemic gave me the courage I needed to follow the calling on my heart to homeschool, and we love it! My daughter is technically still preschool age, although she could easily do a more kindergarten level curriculum. And while I cannot wait to dive deeper, I am trying to restrain myself and allow her to enjoy these last couple of early years as a young child. We will have plenty of time for formal schooling later. That being said, if she is interested, I do follow her lead. That’s one of the main reasons I implemented a light Charlotte Mason preschool curriculum during the 2020-2021 year.
We Homeschool During The Summer
Something to note, is that we began our school year the first week of June! I know, more unconventionality. In short, we finished our previous “year” of official curriculum at the end of February. Then we took a “break” from March through May (which still consisted of morning time with scripture and lots of read alouds). Spring was an incredibly stressful season for our family and so this worked out well.
The benefit for you, is that I get to go ahead and share what we are doing now. Then you can do your own research into these resources. Yes, there is still time to get organized for your own school year this fall! The benefit for us is that Josephine is always eager to learn and asking for preschool. Our days are also smoother if we maintain our daily rhythm. Starting now also allows me to break our year into three terms that I think will best suit the things on our calendar. Plus, it allows room for unplanned breaks due to life. With all that in mind, here is what I am doing to match her level of enthusiasm for learning, and I will likely find myself tweaking this as the year progresses.
Simple Charlotte Mason Preschool
Overall, I will be following the free online Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum of Mater Amabilis (another free resource I looked at is Ambleside Online). Now it’s true that there isn’t much on the syllabus for preschool. Remember the Charlotte Mason philosophy is to keep it simple during the early years. We will also continue using Delightful Reading from Simply Charlotte Mason for early literacy and supplementing with a few more things. A big priority for us this year will be building virtuous habits and lots of nature time and free play. Like I said, I want her to enjoy the last year or two of informal education.
Morning Time
After everyone is dressed and a few basic responsibilities are done (make beds, brush teeth, etc.) we begin our day with morning time. This occurs at the table while enjoying breakfast. After I finish eating, I read our daily Bible passage and we do a little religion. This usually flows very naturally and we either talk about the liturgical year, the Saint of the day (if it’s a feast day) or read a little bit of a simple Catholic children’s book.
Since it’s currently summer, at this point we break to do a quick chore and get outside before it gets too hot. We will go on a walk or to the park, if possible. Sometimes we will go in the backyard and garden, which usually results in lots of free outdoor play, like playing at the water sensory table or looking for insects, toads, lizards, or butterflies.
Then we come inside and have a snack. Sometimes I use this break time to shower, get dressed, or get a quick work item done. Josephine will have more free play or listen to an audiobook while she plays. We’re big fans of audiobooks around here. When we start our second term this fall, and it’s not quite so hot outside, we will switch back to going outside after all our preschool is done for the morning (which I prefer).
Learning Letters Through Play
For our preschool time block, this is when we will do her literary activities. We start by playing a game from Simply Charlotte Mason’s Delightful Reading kit. We are currently wrapping up the first level. Although she shows definite signs of being ready to move on to the next level, there are still some basic things to solidify, so we are taking our time.
I highly recommend this resource. It’s simple to implement, as the name implies. And the games are fun and repeatable. It truly helps the child learn letters and sound through play. For just about every activity, it’s open and go. For example, we have played Go Fish with short vowel picture cards three times this week because she loves it so much. Honestly, as I have heard it said, I do think it’s true that my own daughter would teach herself how to read if left to it, but I appreciate having a gentle curriculum to guide us.
For other literacy and reading activities, we are also reading a few nursery rhymes per week. I do one read aloud at lunch time and her dad does another at bedtime. Currently those are The Burgess Animal Book for Children with me and she’s been flying through some classic fairy tales with her Dad. Previously they read Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and Stuart Little. We also read a few picture books from around our house or the library each afternoon. Every other Monday, Josephine and I have a poetry tea party. We bake something together and then I read poetry (currently from A Child’s Garden of Verses) while she enjoys her treat. I feel like we have read alouds pretty well covered for a Charlotte Mason preschool, mostly by reading a little at breakfast, lunch, and bedtime.
Simple Preschool Math
Depending on the day, we will then do some gentle number (math) activities, which usually are in the form of games. Again, this ought to all be fun and play for the child. If she’s ever not interested or resisting, we move on. In theory, our math looks like simple counting activities, patterns with toys, puzzles, board games, baking, and counting songs. I say “in theory” because if I don’t take the time to plan which activity I will do each day, it’s easy for me to drop it or forget. I’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, I try to match the counting song with any other topics or themes we are covering. For example, if we are exploring bees in nature study, we’ll sing “Here is a beehive.”
Now, I did purchase Preschool Math at Home by Kate Snow for a gentle preschool math curriculum. As I mentioned, I realized I need something with suggestions for games or activities to follow. Otherwise I find myself not knowing what to do next, repeating the same games, or not doing anything at all (which would honestly be fine at this age – but Josephine also wants to learn more math concepts). I chose this book because it seems comparable to what I love about Delightful Reading. It contains lots of short, easy to implement, open and go activities that are a playful way of learning.
To be honest, the first few chapters were challenging for us to get through because it was too basic for her. However, after briefly brushing on those topics as a foundation, we have been enjoying it. She does know her numbers beyond what we will cover in this book. That being said, the games are fun and it lays the foundation for concepts I wouldn’t otherwise think of. For example, recognizing amounts of objects without counting them.
It also would have been a lovely resource for us a year ago, so perhaps if we’re blessed with another child, I can use it earlier. If you’re little one is starting from scratch, even counting to five or ten, then this would be perfect. The book is also not very long. So I am on the lookout for another math resource for term 2 and 3.
Writing
We are not doing formal writing and copy work yet, but we are beginning to build handwriting skills at a level to match her age, interest, and ability. I chose Doodles and Pre-Writing for Little Part 1 from The Good and the Beautiful. Josephine is absolutely loving it and begs to do more. She calls it her “homework” which I find hilarious (I guess she’s heard of homework from her babysitters and wanted to do her own, ha!). The writing pages build on each other throughout the little book. I can anticipate how some of the content in the back would be very challenging right now. The front it a perfect starting point with tracing lines and easy shapes.
Nature Study
For nature study I have my eye on Exploring Nature with Children from Raising Little Shoots in a couple of years. But it seems to me it’s probably a bit much for preschool and kindergarten. That being said, she does have a free calendar that provides a nature study theme for four weeks each month of the year. So, although we are patiently waiting to expand on our nature study content, we are loosely keeping the theme in mind as we explore lots of nature in these early years. I find this helpful for me to know (in more detail) which nature topics would be most appropriate for each month. Only minor tweaking is needed given your geographical area.
I have a goal to get outside for at least an hour each day. For “nature study” I aim to go on a longer walk or adventure once per week (usually Mondays or Fridays), preferably hiking on trails or somewhere without a playground. Naturally, we get outside more when the seasons allow (and it’s not so unbearably hot).
Charlotte Mason Enrichment Subjects
Briefly, here is what we are doing for those “enrichment” subjects like hymns, poetry, music, art, and handicrafts. This will be short and sweet, because we are not doing much at this age. I do intend to add in learning a monthly hymn to our morning time. We already have poetry built in every other week, but I will occasionally drip this into morning time, too.
For music, I play classical music and mention the composer from time to time. For example, we have been listening to a playlist called Bach for breakfast on Amazon prime. We have informal art study in some of our ABC books. I have not selected a particular handicraft to work on, per say, but I try to do one craft per week. Josephine also loves to help me bake. Basically, I will eventually drip these enrichment activities into our current framework but am not stressing about it much right now. We can feel so much pressure to “do it all” but really, it’s unnecessary. So, if you need permission to not do all the things, here it is. Charlotte Mason gives you permission to enjoy your little one’s early years, too.
Habits
Finally, as I mentioned, we will be working on forming foundational habits this year. Charlotte Mason recommended spending about six weeks focusing on any one new habit. That breaks down to two per term. So to start with, we are revisiting obedience. Then we will be focusing on attention. These are two of the top three habits that Miss Mason emphasized (truthfulness is the third). From there I will discern which habit we need to focus on next.
So that is a pretty thorough overview of what we are doing to implement a “quiet growing time” for our Charlotte Mason preschool these days (although it’s not always quiet 😉). We have both been enjoying it and love this time learning together. In September (our term 2, most everyone else’s term 1), we will also be participating in two local homeschooling co-ops. One is once per week, and the other is twice per month. They each offer something unique and different. I am looking forward to seeing how they fit into our Charlotte Mason preschool.
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