Starting new - Our school plans for next year

I am SO excited about the changes we are making with our schooling this Fall! Some of you may know that we have been doing the virtual school thing with MNVA for the last 2 years (K and 1st). I have found this to be a great fit for us until now because I was new to homeschooling and I didn't have any friends or connections to help me. But now that I have found my "niche" in the homeschooling community I am ready to go solo! Tyler and I are very excited to be doing our own thing instead of what the school system wants us to do. He was a bit frustrated with the curriculum this past year... a lot of it he already knew and the rest of it was a bit dry for him. I just know he is going to thrive with this.

Anyways, I have been having a blast gathering our materials and supplies for next year. We are going with a Charlotte Mason inspired school. Lots of Living Books.... lots of Nature Study. We will most likely do a few unit studies as well. I think this is going to be perfect for us! I am still reading Charlotte's books and piecing it together in my mind and on paper, but here is what we have planned so far... (I'm hoping if I put it out there in print for the world to see that I will be able to get things finalized! Or maybe think of something I'm missing. Or maybe you all have some suggestions! Please? :) )

US History: (Explorers to Pilgrims 1629)
This Country of Ours (H.E. Marshall)
Along with a few other Living Books and Readers.

World History: (Medievel/Early Renaissance - 400AD to 1600AD)
A Child's History of the World (V.M. Hillyer)
Along with a few other Living Books and Readers.

Geography:
Paddle to the Sea (Holling C. Holling)
Tree in the Trail (Holling C. Holling)
Seabird (Holling C. Holling)
Minn of the Mississippi (Holling C. Holling)
Or some combination of these.
There are lots of things to branch off and study in these books as well... Geese, ponds, iron ore, copper, Buffalo, trapping, Snapping Turtles, locks, dams, and canals... We will work in other Living Books and Readers to study some of these things. This is where some of the unit studies will come in, I think.

Literature:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
I think our Literature will be our bedtime stories.
Plus lots of other Living Books and Readers for independent reading.

Copywork: This encompasses handwriting, spelling, grammar, and writing
We will do our Copywork according to our studies that day... sometimes a passage from a book... sometimes a poem... sometimes a sentence or paragraph about something we studied...

Math:
Miquon Math - Blue and Green Books with Cuisenaire Rods
As well as some other supplements, Math Readers, and real life Living Math.

Nature Study / Science:
Handbook of Nature Study (Anna Botsford Comstock)
Pagoo (Holling C. Holling)
Lots of Field Guides too!
We will do weekly nature walks and study a couple of things from those each week (birds, plants, trees, etc). We will keep a Nature Journal, which we have already started.
We will also study weather, how things work (electricity, light, motion, etc), and how things are made (paper, glass, etc)... and do some pond study with our new microscope. We will use Science Readers and other Living Books.

Throw in weekly Poetry, Art, Music, and Handicrafts... and I think we have a curriculum!

This is the schedule I am thinking of going with... sort of a 4 day school week with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday pretty relaxed. Part of Charlotte Mason's concept is a lot of free time.

Monday
Literature
Copywork
Math
US History
Independent Reading

Tuesday
Literature
Copywork
Math
Geography
Independent Reading

Wednesday
Literature
Copywork
Math
World History
Science
Independent Reading

Thursday
Literature
Copywork
Math
Art - Picture Study and some reproducing. Leaning toward Cassatt, Renoir, and DaVinci (?)
Independent Reading
(Weekly park playdate with homeschool group)

Friday / Saturday / Sunday
Nature Study / Walk
Handicrafts / Life Skills
Music worked in to our day(s) - Leaning toward Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven (?)
Independent Reading

Math was a hard decision. Daddy thinks we should just go by the Scope and Sequence for 2nd grade and do our own thing. I am not so fond of this idea though, because I am not very confident with my math skills. SO I found the Miquon stuff through PaperbackSwap and the CMcurricula Yahoo group and we will see what works for us.

Speaking of PaperbackSwap. Have you all used it?? You HAVE to check it out. The link is in my sidebar over there -->. Its a swap site for books of all kinds. There are over 2,000,000 books listed right now!! You list books when you are finished reading then, then when someone requests one of your books they send you a "credit" that you can use to request another book for yourself. You can also buy credits for $3 or so. Don't miss the Discussion Forum too... you can find deals there 2, 3, or more books for 1 credit! I have become addicted to PBS... I admit it. But I have found most all of our curriculum there! Its awesome.

So that's what we have so far. Its not written in stone... and its a dang good thing it's not because I have worn my eraser out getting this far!! We have already started to implement some of Charlotte's ideas into our days... Living Books and Nature Study. We love it! It can only get better from here...