These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
What a whirlwind as we settle into Florida life—and yes, we're moving again, this time from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast! With travel plans filling most of our summer, I'm squeezing in time to share our homeschool direction for the coming year.
Our high schooler will continue at his sports academy while adding several "Scholé" classes alongside trusted tutors, including a year-long journey through C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. For our Year 5/6 daughter, however, we're making some exciting changes.
Over our 11-year homeschool journey, we've been blessed by incredible communities like CMEC, The Alveary, and Ambleside Online, along with resources from Logos Press, Memoria Press, The Scholé Academy, and House of Humane Letters. These have all shaped our path beautifully.
But this coming year, I’m continuing my focus on timeless literature with trusted sources. Thanks to mentors and trusted voices I’ve leaned on for years, I'm increasingly convinced that we needn't dissect literature to death. We simply need to enjoy, narrate, and discuss good books. This is how we learn to tell our own stories and communicate with uniqueness and grace.
I'm thrilled to share that we're returning to the Ambleside Online community next year. We've witnessed the beautiful fruit that a Charlotte Mason education has borne in our older child, and we want nothing less for our daughter.
While we've always emphasized outdoor time and habit formation in the early years, I know that as children enter their middle school years (Years 6-8), especially our girls, they need something more: a strong foundation in what it means to be moral, kind, virtuous, empathetic, curious, and formidable characters in today's world.
In addition, I feel our daughter needs to be able to rely on her mother daily to learn what it looks like to be a humble housewife, homemaker and invest and maximize our family’s finances in order to bless others.
The stories we choose to fill their minds with and the lives with live alongside our children during these formative years, with the Holy Spirit’s assistance, will help shape who they become. I can't think of a better gift to give our children than the very best literature and life at home and in our community we can offer.
Feel free to watch my video update for an in-depth look below.
Or you can simply CLICK HERE to see my Amazon list of books we’ve chosen – keeping in mind we are leaning on AO for their recommended “riches” this year including music, handcrafts, picture/composer studies and Plutarch. We joined a little AO Shakespeare discussion group and she will be involved in a 4-H club as well.
I hope this is helpful to those of you looking for encouragement as a Charlotte Mason / Classical / Eclectic homeschooler!