Step Back

This spring and early summer we did a Story of the World coop with a couple friends. We read and narrated the chapters in book one on our own, then got together weekly to do the projects from the activity guide. It was wonderful and the kids loved it.

Until we went on vacation for 6+ weeks and got behind. We have been in a mad rush to catch up before our next get together with our friends and the kids are not enjoying having history stuffed down their throats. Hurrying through is pretty contrary to the point of homeschooling and has led me to a lot of rambling thoughts on our methods.

Does it matter if we are caught up? I want to continue the activities with our friends but maybe it's not as important that the activities line up with our reading. Maybe I can just say "remember when we did...." Or maybe I shouldn't be doing history at all yet. We basically started 1st grade this summer but according to Charlotte Mason, I shouldn't be doing any academics until age 6.

So should I stop history on chapter 10 and wait until January? If I do that, will I start over or pick back up on Chapter 10? Part of that decision depends on whether we do this coop I've been tying myself in circles over. If we don't do the full coop, our little coop will end in a couple weeks and it won't matter if we're caught up but if I do it, we need to catch up on history.

But we could still scrap some of the other academics until January. We could go back to more of a preschool type curriculum. Or would we need to do at least kindergarten to satisfy my husband who is still scared the town is going to knock down our door if we aren't rigid and structured despite the lax laws we enjoy in this state.

Any classical or CMers out there with opinions on 5 yr olds?

Ambleside Year 0 Reading List

Year 0 Books
~ indicates we have read
*indicates we own it
#indicates I disapprove

Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne and Ernest H. Shepard (Winnie-The-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six). Accept no substitutes for the original stories!
~*Beatrix Potter series
The Little House by Virginia Burton
~The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack (read 2008)
~*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
Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Ox-Cart Man by Barbara Cooney
~*Stone Soup and other folk tale retellings by Marcia Brown
~Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (CM idea of duty in bringing beauty to the world)
The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman or other retelling of the Sambo story with more appropriate illustrations
Brer Rabbit books by Joel Chandler Harris, read the online etext
Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha Alexander
~*A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Eulalie, Jessie Wilcox Smith, or Alice and Martin Provenson)
Poetry, Aesop's fables, Mother Goose and nursery rhymes

Advisory Favorites

The Church Mice and others in this series by Graham Oakley. These are delightful.
Hiawatha by Longfellow, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, illustrated by Ted Rand
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Ted Rand
Picture books depicting Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, such as The Elephant's Child
Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney
The Tale of Three Trees illustrated by Angela Elwell Hunt
Wynken, Blynken and Nod illustrated by either Susan Jeffers or Barbara Cooney

Board Books for Toddlers

Books illustrated by Beatrix Potter (Meet Peter Rabbit and others)
My Little Book About God illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones
~*The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Felicia Bond
Mother Goose for Kids illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
Poems to Read to the Very Young pictures by Eloise Wilkin
single-poem books illustrated by Dianne O'Quinn Burke, such as Wee Willie Winkie
Mother Goose illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
A Child's Garden of Verses compiled by Cooper Edens with a Jessie Willcox Smith picture on the cover
My First Bible in Pictures by Kenneth Taylor, with reverent, non-cartoonish color drawings by Richard and Francis Hook

Beginning First Readers

most children will be beginning to read in Year 1, but these are included here for children who start earlier

Frog and Toad readers by Arnold Lobel
Little Bear readers by Else Holmelund Minarek
George and Martha series by James Marshall
Frances books by Russell Hoban
Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant

http://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml