TCT Year 2 Term 1 in the books!

Well, we’ve officially wrapped up our first term of year two! We started a bit earlier in the season again just because whew Texas is so hot and we were cooped up indoors more than normal, so here we are! Term 1 wrapped up right before some fun family adventures and I’ll share some takeaways!

First, if you feel like you should be doing more in the little years aside from reading good books and setting family rhythms, I’m here to say… you’re doing more than enough to prepare yourself for formal years to come. I’ve come to realize it’s felt natural for our family adding in TCT and more because we’ve consistently laid these rhythms from a young age, so when we add one more addition it feels like just the right amount of growth.

Don’t look at a curriculum or timetable (schedule) of your ideal day and feel overwhelmed. Most of these habits I’ve started from little years and they’ve continued to bless our home. For example, adding in foreign language this year has been a huge delight because we were ready to add in that “one more thing.” Think of it as working out. For a few weeks its hard to hold a plank for a minute, but before long you’re stable and can find yourself breathing easy and can even go up to a minute and a half and then two minutes, etc. I hope that analogy works but that’s what I’ve come to realize on the why it’s felt so restful for us because our add ins have flowed over the course of time and we can see the fruit of the labors we worked at prior.

My second tidbit: trusting the Good Books to be good and keep reading when they may seem hard at first, usually there’s a reason they have stood the test of time. Jackanapes this year… oh boy I almost put it away but it was a literary novel that produced the most thought provoking conversations from my little ones. Even my four year old had big questions on honor and duty that I was in awe of.

So, in our second year of formal schooling and in our second year of TCT, I’m still loving it. My littles still don’t realize school is “school” other than if I say hey grab a school book. The books and stories have become part of our family rhythms. Our home fills with dancing and folk songs as we tidy up from dinner at night, we savor the outdoors standing in Creation in awe and wonder, and have started making a point to learn more about the history of our family. Norse myths have been a fun one since my husband’s family is Norwegian! We’ve become slower to ponder and appreciate nature walks and practicing observation when journaling. We’ve set family rhythms in the mornings that start our days in Christ and can feel when we miss a day that our hearts are longing for that alignment.

Now, that all sounds lovely but the practical. We have an on the go baby who needs attention 24/7. I also work 20 hour work weeks from home and obviously keeping chores, we travel here and there… it’s a lot to juggle. Our weeks have looked a little differently than when we had a snoozy newborn who’d just sit through readings all snuggled up on the couch together. We get a little done here and a little done there and in this season I’m okay with that. School days aren’t really carved out to specific time blocks for the most part so we can enjoy the flexibility of a baby in the home, meet friends for play dates, and travel on a whim. We just take our school things with us and get them in when we get them in. This I’m sure will change as we add another formal student in, and as life often does, throw us little curves but for now I’m enjoying where we are and we still seem to be on pace with our scheduled readings. We may be a bit ahead or behind in some things but I think that’s normal anyway!

Year 2 Term 1:

We have continued with a lot of things from Y1 that naturally roll into Y2, like Parents Assiatant Grimms and some of our poetry books. The literary novels were a bit harder to get into but again, once we did we loved them! I let my Y2 pick what novel she wanted to read after Jackanapes since I was excited to read all of the ones scheduled (I’m most excited about Lulu’s Library by Louisa May Alcott… we read one chapter so far and oh my it’s adorable). We ended up reading Once on a Time by A. A. Milne this term, if you’re judging book by its cover it’s a cute one so I get why there was a draw! Kinds and princesses and magical wishes. Milne can get wordy (he wrote Winnie the Pooh if you aren’t familiar) so even though we understood what was happening, the wordiness of the first little bit had us somewhat scratching our heads, but the just keep reading mentality paid off again and it’s been one of our favorite read alouds. The Princess and the Goblin has been another favorite. Curdie is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever known and we’re half way his journey in Princess and Curdie.

Something I let fall to the wayside last year was Latin. We did the Latin through Stories program from University of Dallas. We loved what we did, it was just one of those things with a newborn we let slip, but we have added in an online group learning mostly to keep me consistent and its something I am most excited to start up with term 2.

Our family rhythms end up looking a lot like:

1. Playing our composer while I set breakfast on the table as they wake up and make their way to the table. Easy and I don’t have to overly think about it/remember to do it later!

2. As everyone eats breakfast I read aloud a Bible story. We switch between Old Testament and New Testament from the Catherine Vos story Bible currently!

3. Poetry! We read at least one poem or my daughter may recite one she remembers or my son will make one up… the Nonsense poems will do that to you! It’s the best!

4. Read a fable from Aesop and have my daughter tell back something she remembers about the story (narration and these stories are usually very short, takes around 5 minutes).

5. By now, my little one may be a bit wiggly so we’ve added in singing either Latin songs or Spanish songs and we have a giant garden spider in our window so we usually talk about our Witzy Witzy araña! And he likes the singing so it buys us a bit more time!

6. If we have the patience, I will read a few pages of the Parents Assistant and if not? We jump up and tidy up breakfast. I’ll usually point behind me and bring up artist study at this point (sometimes I’ll have added a new painting from our current artist).

By now we REALLY need a break, baby in the high chair is done and we either head outside or play before I tidy up from breakfast. Or ignore it and run outside to enjoy the cooler weather of the mornings!

We usually come in right before lunch and if we don’t have leftovers I start prepping anything I may need to cook after the baby wakes up from a nap. Baby #3 has me for a sucker… I still rock and hold him during his nap. Savoring it while it lasts and some days I either read (for myself) or knock out some work on the computer! During this time my Y2 usually reads aloud to her brother so it’s a quiet minute and I count this as her reading practice since I can overhear it and am close by if she needs any help.

After lunch we tend to gravitate towards our math lessons or snuggle on the couch for more literary readings! I don’t really have a set schedule I just grab the next book on the loop schedule I loosely hold in my head. I maybe should write it down so I stay on top of it better, but again with one student right now it works for us!

We wrap up and tend to any other things we may need: usually it includes ballet, piano or art lessons, visiting a grandparent, swimming, hiking, play dates with friends.

All in all, we’re still loving these family rhythms and how they flow within our home. I think being at peace in my educational philosophy and my why has helped so much and I am so thankful I’ve spent the time reading and researching and engaging with women (online and in a Charlotte Mason book club this summer) that has just continued to bring me peace of mind and continuing to trust in the Lord on this path. Cheers to Term 2!