R.H. Series, Day 4

Beezy just showed me copy work she decided to do from one of her BOB readers, all of her own volition! We had a homeschooling field trip to the Spangler Candy Company this morning, taking a trolley tour through the factory. Along the way were various video presentations showing the whole process of how the candy is made and packaged. I did not realize that the stripes on a candy cane are made by hand, not a machine! It is actually an art form requiring a great deal of skill. My grandmother, Veda DeWitt, worked at Spangler from 1955 to 1991, so it was especially meaningful to me to see where she worked all those years.

We did some school at home this afternoon. What I am finding with my new approach to doing a schedule for the whole week is that I can pick and choose from whichever activities fit in on a particular day. I don't necessarily have to do Wednesday's work on Wednesday. And if we don't get to a subject one day, we can pick it up the next. I realized too late that I had scheduled too much for today considering the field trip.

For the next few days, I think I will focus on curriculum. I know that many homeschooling families use a particular packaged curriculum, such as Sonlight. Since I only have one child and would not be able to pass it down to younger siblings, this seemed too cost prohibitive to me, especially since, so far, I have not found it to be at all necessary. This is partially thanks to my Montessori training and Montessori materials available to order from Ebay. But as equally influential is the English educator Charlotte Mason, whose method focuses on what she called "living books" and the process of narration. She also believed quite strongly in the necessity of great amounts of time spent outdoors and keeping nature journals.

I will write a little on Charlotte Mason each day and some of the ways that we incorporate her brilliant philosophy! I will not be posting on this Relaxed Homeschool Series on the weekends, but I may be inspired to write on other topics. If you do follow along, please sign up as a follower or leave a comment. It inspires me to know that my blog is being read!