Spring Break means Spring Clean

With exams completed for year 3.5, we are taking a spring break before beginning year 4. This week includes various appointments and evaluations, decluttering and spring cleaning.  The weather is warmer (50's at last!) and the snow will disappear with Tuesday's rain.  Below are pictures of our record-breaking snow in central Kentucky, courtesy of Winter Storm Thor.

I love the feeling of decluttering and spring cleaning.  The idea of making a fresh start is vitalizing!  I'm clearing out clothes, dishes, toys, books, music, movies, games, and home decor a little at a time and loading it in the car to take to my friend's house.  She is having a huge adoption fundraising yard sale in a couple of months, so its the perfect change to help her out, clear the house of things we no longer need, and help others find some good deals.

While I'm at it, I'm going to declutter digitally - getting rid of apps that waste my time.  Those time-sucking games, ugh!  I would be better off reading books, magazines and blogs then playing those silly games.  I've given up specific games in the past for Lent, and while its a late start for this year, I am going to do so again.  I usually find that once I'm out of the habit of playing a particular game, I rarely ever want to go back to it.  And that time will be given to more worthy pursuits...until its not and I have to reassess myself again.

Snow nearly gone!

So I'll be freeing up space in my home, my mind, and finding margin for my day!  What are you doing to declutter your life?

If you feel like you need help freeing up space in your mind so you can just focus, Mystie Winckler has a free email course on how to do a Brain Dump.  I just completed it myself, and its another way of finding a fresh start!
(You can also sign-up for her Simplified Organization course - I have an affiliate banner on the right.)

Time for Exams!!

I don't think I've written about our school exams before.  Ambleside Online posted exam questions for each term of each year a couple of years ago, and I hadn't gotten my head wrapped around this whole CM education thing well enough before that do try it on my own, so he had no exams in year 1 and part of year 2.  The first time we did exams was a learning experience for us both, but he has learned to look forward to these light days.  The excitement of seeing what he remembers, getting to draw it, record himself and show it to Daddy makes for smooth and easy days. :)

Here is AO's suggested exam questions for yr 3.5, term 2, which we will be doing this afternoon and Monday (you can spread it out over a whole week, but at this age, it doesn't seem necessary).  As I rearranged some of the books, mine won't look just like that, but I am SO thankful that the initial work has been done.  Even when I followed the plan in year 3 exactly, I still had to tweak a few of the questions and simplify some things, so don't be afraid to make these exams your own, just as you do the curriculum.  One size does not fit all!

Here is our Year 3 Term 2 exam, from right about a year ago.

Here are his exam questions and results from term 1 of his 4th grade.  There was quite a bit improvement between this and the one linked above.  The thing to remember about doing an exam the Charlotte Mason way is that it isn't about getting everything right.  Its about seeing what is retained, and I as the teacher determining what can be changed in order for him to remember more.  Answering open-ended types of questions if much more difficult than multiple choice and true or false.  Starting at a young age means the mental strength for essay questions is developed all along, making speaking and writing more fluent in later years.

Example of a drawn narration, which he then describes aloud

In addition to what I transcribed in those files, I also recorded, or at least listened to, his read-aloud and recitation (poetry, Bible verses).  I keep it as light and fun as we can, and so far it has been amazing how different his attitude is towards exams verses those of public school (dread, eye-rolling, stress).  Let's hope it stays positive for many more years.

So how do you do exam time in your home?  Do the kids love it or loathe it?

Wednesday with Words: Stepping Heavenward

I'm trying to be more intentional about blogging, and one way to do so is to keep myself accountable. I'm joining more blog hops, link-ups, and carnivals in hopes that the day those are posted will be a loose schedule for me.  So far, it seems to be working! :)

Wednesday with Words has been going on a long time, and the host is Lady Dusk.  She has a great blog, so check it out!  To participate, each Wednesday (or thereabout) I will post some words I have found that have struck a chord in my life.  Many of those words will have found a home in my commonplace book.

I finished reading Stepping Heavenward (by Elizabeth Prentiss) last night.  I highlighted gobs of this book, which is a journal written in the early to  mid-1950's by a young lady, who becomes a wife, then a mother.  Throughout her life, she struggles with her God, her Christianity, and how best to live.  It chronicles her fight against her own sins, her acceptance of God's will in her life, her joys and her pains.  If you want to be inspired and amazed, you should read this book.  (Thanks to my Daddy for the Kindle version as my Christmas gift!)

I'll try to narrow my highlights down to just a few quotes for today!

From chapter one, on how to do Bible study:

"A few verses," she said, "carefully read and pondered, instead of a chapter or two read for mere form's sake."

From chapter 4, in a conversation with her pastor:

"You are as yet but a babe in Christ," Dr. Cabot continued.  "You love your God and Savior because He first loved you.  The time will come when the character of your love will become changed into one, which sees and feels the beauty and the perfection of its object; and if you could be assured that He no longer looked on you with favor, you would still cling to Him with devoted affection."

Later in the same conversation, on her struggles with living at home with her mother:

"Then, dear Katy, suppose your first act of heroism tomorrow should be gratifying your mother in these little things, little though they are.  Surely your first duty, next to pleasing God, is to please your mother and in every possible way to sweeten and beautify her life.  You may depend upon it that a life of real heroism and self-sacrifice must begin and lay its foundation in this little world wherein it learns its first lesson and takes its first steps."

See?!  Such wisdom in this book.  I may have to share more of it next week!  For now, here is my take-away lesson.  Start where you are and love whom with God has placed you, wherever you may be.  Continue to learn and grow!