Two years ago, when we were reading King Lear with another family, I searched high and low for some paper dolls or paper puppets we could use to keep our characters straight as we read the play aloud. I never found quite what I was looking for.
My daughter has always loved drawing and painting. She started working on a set of people. She came to me one morning to announce that she had created a Shakespeare resource for families who might like to “act out” their Shakespeare as they read it. That gave her the idea to rework Shakespeare’s original play to include only the parts that were in the Lamb’s retellings we’d previously read and have puppets for each of those parts. Her adapted play is not to replace reading the actual Shakespeare play, but to allow co-ops or families to put on a shortened version that keeps the main story intact.
Hence Act It Out Shakespeare came to be. My 12 year old’s entrepreneurial idea. Currently, The Tempest is available for purchase. Complete with 11 puppets to cut out and glue to popsicle sticks (if desired), a play, and a lit of characters per scene so you can easily assign roles without going through the entire play.
Next, she is working on A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. Leave her comment to let her know which plays you will be doing this school year and she will add them to her running list.
My kids are now in Year 8 and 6 with a Kindergarten student joining in occasionally. We also have a 3 year old. We’re in the History Cycle of Ancient Near East (3500BC to 550 BC) and American and British History from 1000-1680AD. Since we’re starting from the very beginning, I especially wanted to add diversity to history this time around.
We discovered Charlotte Mason and jumped into Ambleside Online six years ago when my oldest was in Year 2. Year 2 is the same time period as we are doing now. However, back in Year 2, I wasn’t trying to add diversity to history. I was just sticking to the book list. I also didn’t have a very clear understanding of what the Charlotte Mason principles even were! It’s been such a wonderful journey delving deeper in my understanding of her philosophy of education. We no longer use Ambleside Online because we like the whole family to be on the same history cycle, but I still visit it often to help me choose books!
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Amber of Heritage Mom mentioned some great resources for studying the great nations of Western Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. We will add all of those books in as well. Some of those we are reading and narrating during our summer break, as they were available at the library.
American History
As I looked at American History for the 1000-1680 time period, and considered what narrative I wanted to teach my children, I realized that we have never actually studied the indigenous peoples who were here before the Europeans. Searching on the Living Books for All People Facebook Group, I decided on several books to round out both our Ancient and American History streams to include indigenous people of North America and South America.
Ideally we would have read Our Island Story in this time slot, but we have already read this book. Leah Boden of A Modern Miss Mason recommends The Story of Britain. (We’ve actually used this book for Modern Times and it is one of my son’s favorite history books.) The Winston Churchill history books were another possibility. However, ultimately, I decided on the Genevieve Foster books (The World of Columbus and Sons & The World Of Captain John Smith) because I like how these books present a wider picture of people and events around the world for a time period. There are issues – I especially do not like the sections between page 29 and 41 in the Columbus and Sons book. I have not read the whole book yet, but have several weeks to do so before school starts. I will be assigning specific non-problematic sections for the kids to read.
How to fit it all in
This is how I am scheduling the books:
Monday – Ancient History of the Near East Tuesday – Africa (see Heritage Mom for details) Wednesday – (Term 1) History of Indigenous People in the Americas (Turtle Island and Before Columbus) (Term 2 and 3) America History (An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People and A Young People’s History of the United States) Thursday – World History Friday – Geography
Any other recommendations for adding diversity to history? Drop me a comment. What biographies and historical fiction do you love for this time period?
What do you do if suddenly, you need to homeschool briefly and need a short term plan. Here is what I recommend for grades 3-6.
Daily:
30 minutes of math
30 minutes of writing
10-20 minutes of grammar
unlimited time to read from the reading list (see below) and draw, pursue hobbies of the child’s interests
For the first three subjects, you can use these workbooks at the grade level your child needs. Once the child goes back to brick-and-mortar school, these workbooks can be finished as summer enrichment.
There aren’t lesson plans to go with these books, but just sit with your child and do a few sample problems together (for math) or read the instructions together and start an assignment together, then set the timer and have the child continue for the allotted time.
The reading list includes historical fiction and narrative science books. We have read every title on this list. I have starred the ones our family has especially loved. Have your child choose one from each category and narrate (tell back) to you after each chapter. If you want, these narrations can be written down.
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What attracted me to the Montessori philosophy when we first started homeschooling was its emphasis on teaching toddlers and preschoolers practical life skills. My daughter was using a knife early on (she’s not quite 3 in that post).
I strongly believe that kids should be included in food prep early on. My 11 month old stands at the kitchen counter and watches me prepare dinner. She munches on zucchini, or whatever I am cutting at the time. Soon she’ll be able to help me stir or add things to a mixing bowl. When we lived in Costa Rica and I had a huge kitchen island, I would set up my then 3 month old son on his tummy time pillow so he could watch his sister and I prepare dinner. My oldest was 2 at the time and would tear lettuce for our salad. My kids have always been in the kitchen with me.
Here’s a video to get you and your children started with knife skills.
