Memorizing Scripture does not have to be a chore!  We are using the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System with great success in our household and highly recommend it.  It only takes a few minutes a day and is very effective.

Visit the site above for directions on how to use this system.  Best of all, you may have everything you need right in your own home.

You'll need:

I've posted about the Workbox Approach to scheduling here.  Since then I've had to revamp how we do our daily scheduling.  Not only are we now following the Charlotte Mason approach, but living in tight quarters has prevented us from using the folder system.

Once I made myself a planning page, scheduling our school day was easy (as you will see at the end of this post).   Here is how I did it.

Charlotte Mason believed that you couldn't give your child an excellent education unless you had an end in sight.

What do you want for your child? Do you want them to be involved in the family business? Are they gifted in music, maybe a teacher?

You know where your child is gifted, what they desire and what goals you have for them.  If your child has wanted to be a NASA scientist from birth- well then getting them immersed in math and science early will be essential, and that is where planning is key.

Whether you use the Charlotte Mason approach or not, here is a resource that may help you plan your child's education well.

Here is an update on what were doing. Being a Missionary family we have to make a lot of adjustments! I was asked to write up a short summary for other missionary families of what we've done to downsize for the field without compromising our children's education:

An amazing resource for Lesson Planning with all sorts of different styles. Download free planning worksheets, etc. Visit DonnaYoung.org

Laminating those important posters, or projects is something we wish we could all do! But going to an office supply store you could play close to $6 per linear foot for that luxury! Check out your local teacher supply/resource store, many of them provide self laminating stations for a minimal fee. Our local store charges .39 per LINEAR foot and .29 per linear foot if you have a teacher's discount card.

I recently had a huge timeline and several maps (16ft worth) I wanted to laminate since we were going to be taping things on them. I called around to the office stores and the price came to $96- way out of our budget. I started searching and landed on a teacher supply store, my total cost came to $4.64! That is doable.

Find your local teacher supply store and if you are homschooling your children, sign up for those discount cards! You ARE a teacher!

We decided to try a Montessori method! The girls have been enjoying their friends "Polly Pockets" and we decided to purchase some to help them develop their fine motor skills and it really helped a lot! But, the problems was they ended up scattered all over the place. I picked up these two mats at our local home improvement store for less than $10, they have rubber backs so they will not scoot around on the floor.

Now we have a new rule in our house, they can only play with them on the "mat." They can bring other toys with like their little dollhouse or cars to play with the polly pockets, but it all has to stay on the mat. It has been working WONDERFULLY!

Other uses: one of our girls is very social, the other is slightly introverted. So this is a great way to give one space while giving the other some "closeness." They can each choose something to do on their mat, but they cannot play "together" for a period of time. If they've been getting on each others nerves, it seems to provide the necessary space and they are both content.

There are so many uses for these mats! The possibilities are endless. And when you're done, simply roll them up and tuck them in the corner or in a closet.