Prior to TCT: The Little Years
- mckenzie
- Mar 11
- 5 min read
Today I had the lovely opportunity to meet with a group of new homeschool moms to share curriculum, give glimpses into our days, and ultimately have a “book tasting” where each mom brought some samples, books, etc and just gather and chat and flip through books. The PERFECT afternoon if you ask me! It’s never enough time to get with like minded moms and chat about resources you love!
Which got me thinking, I’ve loved every single resource I’ve used (thankfully) thus far in our homeschool journey. And if you were to ask me what I’d do starting out again, I don’t think I’d take another path because it has led me to have so much confidence in the trajectory of where we are /where we are headed with The Children’s Tradition.
I thought in this blog post I’d lay out my path from preschool days to now and the resources we’ve loved along the way. By no means are all of these things necessary, but each of them helped me get to where I am. With my younger two students who are in the “preschool years” or nursery school is what we consider them in TCT, I’ll be sticking to our normal rhythms within TCT for the most part, just adding in more picture books that we all love as a family. I’ve grown a lot more confident in being a ‘mother-teacher,’ and the rhythms we have for our family from the resources below, but if you’d ask me today what preschool things I’d recommend… I’d throw you in the deep end and say TCT has it all in there for you to start and just keep going!
But, long story short long, here are the resources I started with and enjoyed with my eldest as we got started in our journey homeschooling. Some of the books remain family favorites and to be honest, a lot of the times most weeks I utilized the book lists more than anything.
First up the “spine” curriculum we’ve used prior:
This was the very first Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum I encountered after deciding to homeschool. I grew up going to a Montessori school, so it had lots buzz words like “Charlotte Mason” and “Montessori” blended into one beautiful package. I happened to drop who the curriculum creator was to my aunt (who homeschooled) and she had actually met Jennifer at some of the first Wild + Free conferences… I was sold! It was like two worlds collided and this is what we set off doing. Jennifer became someone I trusted from her book recommendations, and with her help started to build a lovely home library from the get-go. I will admit I am not a crafty mom, so it was nice to be prompted to add in some fun recipes like porridge when we read Goldilocks, little things like that!
When I felt it was time to up my game, I stumbled upon Erin’s curriculum and snagged it years early when she was having a birthday sale! Looking back, it filled the bridge of wanting handholding and adding in things like virtues, hymns, and more theology so to speak at an early age. It blended the importance of classic fairy tales, but also it appealed to my former first grade teacher in me that I liked displaying the cards (especially manners cards!!) to visually see what we were covering that week.
AO is where I always thought I would land, but TCT found me. I still utilize so many things from AO, and keep their master book list in my bag when I go to the thrift store or library book sale to snag books to add to our library. I think I have so many women that I respect and love their work (like Cindy Rollins and Karen Glass), that I will always love and respect AO. We used their Year 0 for a “kindergarten” year with my littles and so many of the books especially in the early years overlap because they are Good Books that have stood the test of time. I think there are still lots of similarities and both curriculum picks encourage you to read Charlotte Mason’s actual works. All of those things help! And why I deviated after Y1 was purely just because I wanted to try TCT!
Specific Streams:
A few years back so many Instagram users were showing these cute readers, and they were the first items I bought outside of Peaceful Preschool! I was sure my three year old was magically reading and needed these ASAP! I didn’t ever utilize all of the downloads (I printed a few but remember, not a crafty/fun/messy mom here). We do love the readers, but I haven’t necessarily treated it as a full phonics program. It is and you could totally use it that way! We’ve kind of jumped around and blended a few different resources in our learning to read journey, not solely just using these but… they are adorable! And here is me realizing I’m not sure I’ve ever purchased a curriculum and used it 100% how it was created to be used!
We dabbled in a few other reading curricula, but my daughter says just reading together poetically is what helped her learn the best. I’ll do a separate post on reading lessons, soon!
This is a nature study guide that we loved! I still pack this for library visits and love getting little refreshers or additional picture book recommendations from this guide. I think if you are wondering how and what to do during nature study outside of The Handbook of Nature Study lessons… this gives lots of great ideas, picture book recommendations, a monthly focus, and poems we all love! A calendar of firsts and different Charlotte Mason inspired things, the list goes on!
Other:
Not curriculum specific, but in the realm of Mother Culture… attending conferences and being part of Leah Boden’s community and then of course any and all things Sally Clarkson played a huge part in shaping confidence in myself and our homeschool rhythms. I didn’t use Educating the Wholehearted Child as a curriculum so to speak, but reading their rhythms, books, and beyond helped me and I still brush up on what is inside. Also, Autumn Kern’s podcast! I think once I knew I was a classical Charlotte Mason educator… listening to her was a treat!
That leads me to my book readings that have played the biggest part, settling my philosophy and engaging with the actual works of Charlotte Mason, as well as ladies who have helped write companion guides. Karen Andreola, Karen Glass, Cindy Rollins, being favorites. I usually would read one of their works and then a Charlotte Mason Volume. I haven’t made my way through all of them, but I’m close! Half way!
I will do another post on my book journey and the rabbit trail that of course follows.
All in all, I think it was nice while I was navigating a bunch of heavy reading to have wise women holding my hand, helping me gain my footing, guiding me with book selections that are tried and true, and giving me a plan. I realize where I am now is a gift. I feel unhurried, blessed for each day (even the hard and chaotic ones that are more frequent than not), and know the richness we are providing our little ones is rich, full, and best of all rooted in orienting our hearts to Christ. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I’m an open book!
XO, McKenzie
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