This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
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Birth Story Series • July 30, 2018

Birth Story Series | Ashleigh’s Story

Thank you for stopping by to read the next story in our Birth Story Series. My goal in creating the Birth Story Series is three things. First, to empower women, and to change how we feel about birth. For so long I felt such fear. I want other women to feel confident in their birthing abilities, especially since I know how it feels to not feel confident. Secondly, I want to let women know that they have options. When I gave birth I didn’t know what a midwife was. I had no clue what a doula was. I want that to be different for you. I want you to know that you have choices. And finally, I want you to know this: whatever your story was, or ends up being… it’s yours. I want to demonstrate through these women’s beautiful stories that each and every birth is unique. No two stories are alike.
Disclaimer: These stories are not meant to serve as medical advice. The only person that can decide what’s right for you and your birth is you, your partner, AND your health care professional. So please consult them appropriately. I do however, want you to enjoy these stories. I cry almost every time I read them, and I’m sure you will too.

ASHLEIGH’S BIRTH STORY

I had moved cities a month before my due date and had to appoint new doctors, midwife and choose a new hospital. This was a bit stressful along with having to move in and decorate a new home but having had no spaces in my chosen hospital I had only one other choice which wasn’t somewhere I really envisioned having my baby.
I was booked into my antenatal class which was based at the hospital’s midwife led birth center, I got to have a look around the birth center and met the midwives who were lovely and really great with preparing me for the big day. The center was great and had lots to offer with aromatherapy and birth pool options, in fact i didn’t even look at the hospital birth rooms as I knew straight away that I wanted to have my baby at the midwife center and because I was low risk it was available for me.
 
I was a week overdue and was booked in for a sweep to bring on the labour but I was hoping not to have to go that way so I was trying everything from taking long walks, eating pineapple and eating hot curries…the latter really helped. I had contractions the night before the sweep and was at the birth center in the morning after having no sleep.
 
We arranged for the birth pool and got the news that the boiler wasn’t working so they had someone called out to fix it, I was feeling the pain at this point so couldn’t really feel any worse. The midwifes checked on me from time to time and were convinced that I might be sent home as they didn’t think I was that far gone but I had to keep telling them I really was feeling the contractions quite close together so they measured me and to their surprise I was 9cms which meant I was definitely staying and they got everything ready for us.
The boiler was being fixed and I was drinking a lot of water as I had been sick from the baby moving and from the heat, it wasn’t pretty I’m sure but my partner was there holding my hair back just like after a big night out.
He was given some aromatherapy oils to run in my back which really helped but bless him I think I wore his fingers down to the bone and when ever he stopped for a rest I snapped because the pain was just constant. Once we had a rhythm going it was great and the pool was finally ready for me to get into.
 
The warmth of the water was great on my achy body and helped take my mind off the contractions. I had my birth music on which was relaxing at first and got faster to help me push, at one point I remember Salt and Pepper coming on, Push it real good and this made us giggle. The midwives were great keeping my mind distracted by talking throughout the experience, asking us what we planned on calling the baby and telling me how good I was doing. I had family in the waiting area and apparently I sounded like the Hulk when I was pushing which was when it was getting very close. At one point the midwife said how she could see my son’s crown and how much hair he had and she had my partner have a look, wasn’t a good angle but when you’re in the moment none of that matters.
 
I got to a point where nothing was happening, I had gotten so tired that I couldn’t push as hard anymore and I think the midwives were getting a bit worried, they gave me some kind of essence to smell that would hopefully give me more energy and I remember them mentioning that they may have to cut me to allow my baby to come out. I was given a stool to sit on that would help open my pelvis which really helped but I ended up in the wrong position pelvis skyward and gave a push which I believe contributed to me having a second degree tear. They sat me back into the water and it was back to nothing happening so they wanted to get me out of the pool and as soon as I went to stand I felt the urge for a big push and as I was pushing I felt a big release from within and I knew my baby was coming out. I straight away sat back in the water before he did come out and I just saw this little figure float in between my legs, I naturally scooped him up and took him into my arms, it was just breathtaking.
 
The midwives asked me to give my baby a little rub to get the blood circulated as he was a bit blue in colour and hadn’t actually cried but the colour quickly came back although he didn’t really give out a cry for a few minutes but I think that came down to the water birth as they say that the babies are born in a more calming environment and are more relaxed. We sat for a moment just enjoying having our son with us and my partner was sat just behind looking into the pool at his little boy and I could see how happy he was. He was given the scissors to cut the cord, which he got to keep for memories.
 
Our little angel was safe and sound in daddy’s arms whilst I was getting my body repaired by the brilliant Midwife, she really did a fantastic job at stitching me up thanks to her sewing hobby.
Sore and tired, I just wanted a cuddle from my baby so daddy passed him over to find out he had done his first poop in daddy’s lap and it wasn’t a particularly pleasant one. Daddy wiping himself down, I was passed our son who needed his first feed and he latched on perfectly and looking at his little button nose and that full head of envious hair, it just blew my mind how perfect he was and how this moment was going to be something that I will remember forever. That first night we just couldn’t stop looking at him and I think we did the whole week after that.

FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:

1. What was your favorite memory from your pregnancy?
Well we had quite a disorganised pregnancy because we had been living apart due to us having been traveling around Australia the year before and living with parents to save money. We had to start being responsible and find our own place, so about 2 months before our son arrived we were in the process of moving and that can be stressful in itself, but even though I spent my last months before birth painting and cleaning I absolutely loved it and I think I took the nesting experience to the next level. We made ourselves a home and it as soon as Dylan Hunter was born we had this to return to.
 
2. Did you do anything specific to prepare for your birth?
I just had my music with me to be honest, looking back I think I would take part in hypo-birthing classes as that appeal to me very much. I think sometimes you can over think things, and this is something I do a lot so it helped me to not prepare too much and just go in with a clear mind because some things never go to plan. I attended an antenatal class that showed me the basics of what to expect which helped and we had baby dolls and knitted boobs to practise on which I think made us all laugh but at the same time was distracted us from thinking about any negatives.
3. Who served as your support system?
I had my partner, my mother and numerous midwives in the room. I had a whole ward to myself it was brilliant and the support was second to none. I also had my step father and my sister in the waiting room so I was quite blessed to have this many people around means giving me positive thoughts throughout.
4. What is your fondest memory of giving birth? (Other than the moment where you met your baby.)
The one thing that sticks in my mind was when our son’s head had started crowning and the midwives had pointed out that he had such long flowing hair. It was a bit strange to have a mirror pointing at my ‘lower regions’ but at the same time seeing what they were seeing was pretty amazing and now wen I look at my son and see his beautiful long hair I can’t forget that moment.
5. Is there anything you wish you could change about your birth story?
I would have liked to have been in the water earlier on to help with the contraction pains but nothing else at all, it was perfect! I had gas and air with some essential oils to induce the labour and that to me was about the most I was O.K with having. I was determined not to have an epidural or any stronger drugs to induce me. I over heard my mother saying how proud she was of me for having the birth I wanted and being strong willed and that just made the whole experience for me.
6. What advice would you give to first time moms or moms who desire a natural birth?
Don’t let anyone put you off, if you want a natural birth then stick with it. Have someone with you at the birth a friend, partner or parent because it helps to have someone there to distract you and to comfort you. Have a look into natural methods that can help such as hypo birthing or aromatherapy because they can really calm you and focus your mind on the most important factor….meeting your baby. I did not read too much about natural births and I am glad I didn’t because some of the stuff out there can really put you off, listen to the doctors as long as they are happy for you to have a natural birth they can advise you and sign you up to any classes in your area.

RELATED: READ JENNIFER’S BIRTH STORY HERE

RELATED: READ KAILYN’S BIRTH STORY HERE

RELATED: READ NATALIE’S BIRTH STORY HERE

 

Thank you, Ashleigh, for sharing your beautiful story and photos. If you enjoyed reading her story, consider sharing this article so other families can find it and enjoy it too!
Thank you so much for reading!

Filed Under: Birth Story Series

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Birth Story Series | Jennifer’s Story
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Birth Story Series | Danielle’s Story

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I'm Larissa. A mama to daughters and wife to my college sweetheart. I am passionate about sustainable fashion, whole foods recipes, and Charlotte Mason home education. I also love being outdoors with my family. You can usually find me sporting a wide-brimmed hat, with a baby on my back.

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This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
I promised I would share how I teach foreign langu I promised I would share how I teach foreign language the Mason way✨

When my oldest (now 6) was younger we loved and used @theculturedkid but since beginning formal lessons we’ve switched to this wonderful book by @cherrydalepress. 

Mason recommends that students learn 5-6 new French words a day and that they use them frequently. She writes in Home Education, “…children should learn French orally, by listening to and repeating French words and phrases; that they should begin so early that the difference of the accent does not strike them, but they repeat the French word all the same as if it were English, and use it freely…” (p. 80) she then writes about how important it is to employ the use of French vocabulary words during time out-of-doors. My kids and I have taken this to heart, because it isn’t uncommon for us all to be walking along the hiking trail, singing our French folk songs together. It’s something I’ll remember that we do together for many years. 

The Cherrydale Press program allows the child to learn common phrases, orally, a bit at a time. Along the way, they learn common verbs and vocabulary. 

Each “series” lasts about 2 weeks.
So here is the process we go through in that time:

01. We practice and memorize the English phrases. 
Here’s an example: 
I take the book.
I open the book.
I close the book.
So we say the phrases as we ACT THEM OUT, which is crucial to this method of learning French and retaining it! It’s helped me tremendously as a non-native speaker.

02. We then learn the French verbs from those phrases in French: je prends, j’ouvre, and je ferme. We memorize how to say them and act them out!

03. We learn the whole thing in French as we act it out. 
Je prends le livre.
j’ouvre le livre.
je ferme le livre.

After my daughter can say/act them without error, on her own, we move on to the next series!

Thanks to The Living Page, I keep a French notebook where I record the phrases or words we learn! (That’s what I shared in my stories the other day!)

In addition to this program, we have two French folk songs, one French vocabulary song per term (we sing daily) and a story we listen to in French, thanks to @the.cmec and their support!

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