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Traipsing around Oxford in the pouring rain in the wettest winter on record (almost), we met up with 11 other homeschoolers at the Museum of Oxford for a workshop on the English Civil War. Flood Times in February Our hands-on portion was led by Kate of the Education Department, and she had the children try on replica clothes and think about what it would be like if suddenly 6000 extra people were billeted in a city of 10,000. Kate Dresses a Cavalier This discussion session usually takes about 45 minutes (so we were told), yet you know what homeschoolers are like: What do the beeswax candles smell like? How tall were the pikes? Did soldiers have to carry their blankets and food with them? What would water taste like if you drank it out of a leather flagon? Why would you even drink the water, if 6000 extra people were throwing their sewage into the Thames? Look at all those raised hands! So the 45-minute session turned in 1 1/2 hours, capped off by the chance to write with quill pens on ...

Following the Charlotte Mason method as I do, we are always reviewing our reading and studies for the day by using a technique called narration.  In simple terms, this is just "telling back" what we've just read, and is undoubtedly a brilliant way of remembering information: much better than fill-in-the-blank, or short answer, or even asking kids questions and having them respond. Narration is telling back what you've just read. (As an aside, I recently did a test of its effectiveness by narrating some of my own reading to myself by writing down summaries, versus just carrying on without reviewing after I'd read. My memory and understanding of the material I narrated was far superior to that which I didn't narrate, and I still remember now the things I summarized, but not the things I didn't!) Today's task was based on the Chemistry and Physics book, new from Apologia Science, in which we have been studying matter, and more recently, different properti...

At the beginning of the year, I made a mistake. I told my kids we wouldn't school on Friday. Hooray! No school on Fridays! There was method in my madness -- the year before, Fridays had been Busy Timmy's day to have private swimming lessons, and by the time we all trooped back home, it was about 11, and shortly thereafter, we would all head off to the afternoon youth group I run. Busy Timmy gets ready to collect children from the local school to come to the youth club Needless to say, that doesn't leave a lot of time for study. No time for Life of Fred on a Friday, I'm afraid. It's true that, over the years, I've come to the conclusion that it's actually a good idea to carve out a day where you can a) have social calls from other home-ed people, b) invite newbies over for a chat, c) schedule workshops without disrupting the other school days, and d) catch up with chores, laundry, and housework. So, why am I now re-thinking my announcement of a free-day Frida...