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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Curriculum Reviews, Family Activities, Homeschool, Morning Time, Motherhood, Preschool at Home • February 19, 2020

Gentle + Classical Preschool Review | Level 2

Morning time is one of our favorite times of day! It allows for me to slow down with my girls and connect over stories, poetry, and all things beautiful. We sing together, learn new things, and read lots of wonderful, enriching literature. Keep reading to see my gentle + classical preschool review and how our preschool morning time routine goes!

Gentle + Classical Preschool Review

 

 I first discovered morning time through the Your Morning Basket podcast by Pam Barnhill. Then I read Cindy Rollins’ Handbook to Morning Time, and I fell in love with the concept. I’d already started a “morning time” of sorts with my girls. It was mostly a morning routine, and you can read more about here. But now that my oldest is almost 4.5, I’ve started a full-fledged morning time with her, and I can honestly say that it’s my FAVORITE part of our day.

To start off, my girls are 4.5 and 22 months. We do morning time every morning right after breakfast. Usually we are still sitting at the kitchen table. We do it every weekday except Fridays. So Monday through Thursday. The prep really is minimal when you have it all laid out the year before. I chose the program (we are using Gentle + Classical Preschool) and selected and purchased the books we would use ahead of time. These cards you see are from the Gentle + Classical Preschool program, and they are from Level 2. I printed them off for the whole year, and all I have to do is simply change out the cards each Sunday evening! This really has been wonderful in guiding our morning time plans and homeschool in general!

Here is how our morning time rhythm works. (I’ve included the time increments so you can get an idea of how long we spend on each category!)

 

VIDEO REVIEWS:


 

01. Singing + Bible

We start out by singing together. We sing two hymns and then any of the songs G and N know that they want to sing together. (2-3 minutes)

We are using the Meaningful Menu (see it in the basket in the picture below) as it is aligned with Gentle + Classical Preschool Level 2. I love that it has all of our memory work (hymnal, verse, catechism, etc.) in one spot!

-Catechism & Bible Verses

We memorize one bible verse every couple weeks. They’re short so they’re fairly easy for kids to remember! We also memorize the catechism statements from Gentle + Classical Preschool Level 2. (1-2 minutes)

02. Read-Alouds

Read-Alouds are our favorite part of morning time, I think. When I shared what I’d be doing for homeschool in the beginning of the year, I shared all of the different books we had for morning time on IG stories, and I had so many questions on “why so many different books?” and “you guys read all of those?!” But honestly it doesn’t feel like that many when you read them all consistently every day. Also, each has a different story/flow. The Bible story is very old school sounding and rich in language and content. The nursery rhyme is fun and light. My girls usually have those memorized by the end of the week. The poem is also fun to listen to. They usually recite it with me after a couple of weeks. The nature poems align with our seasons, so we talk about the weather and changing seasons. Then the fairy tale or virtue story is usually very whimsical and magical. It’s a wonderful line-up, and Erin Cox over at Gentle Classical Press did a remarkable job curating this list and putting together this program.

-Bible

I read a chapter from the Read-Aloud Book of Bible Stories. (3-5 minutes)

-Nursery Rhymes

We are using Favorite Nursery Rhymes From Mother Goose, and we read one rhyme each day. (1-2 minutes)

-Poetry

We are studying the poet Robert Louis Stevenson all year long. I have grown to love and appreciate his work. We read from the A Child’s Garden of Verses. My 1.5 year old has memorized some of these poems. They’re catchy and entertaining, yet rich in language for children. (2-3 minutes)

-Nature Poetry

We’re using the Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year book. I read the poem for the specific date then move on to our fairy tale. (2-3 minutes)

-Fairy Tales

We use Classic Fairy Tales and Classic Storybook Fables. They have classic tales like The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Beauty and the Best. We also read some Beatrix Potter (our favorite!) as our tale for the week. (5-7 minutes)

 

 

03. Preschool Morning Time Memory Work

We do all of this memory work each morning. Some children don’t thrive with the “drill and kill” memorization method. That’s okay! My 4.5 year old doesn’t ming it. It’s how she learned her letter names and letter sounds last year, so we continue it. The second she shows disinterest, however, I put it away. I don’t want her to think school is work. Not yet, at least! I want to keep the wonder and enchantment in our education!

(In total this all take about 3 minutes.)

-French

We are lightly studying french vocabulary. I have flashcards I bring out every morning. There’s only about 3-5 of them. We go over those and move onto sight words.

-Sight Words

We only do a few of these each morning, but I printed off the Dolch Site Word List for Kindergarten. We’re slowly working through it at G’s pace.

-Math Skills

We are very relaxed with math this year. We usually focus on counting by 10’s, 2’s, and 1’s. We count to 100, and review 2D and 3D shapes. I’ve also randomly worked with G (4) on recognizing numbers 1-20. I’ve done all of this extremely informally, and she’s learning it all so naturally! We might use a full curriculum next year, but we might now. Below is an example of our Monday Mix-Up game we play. We mix up all the bean bags and order them 1-20. She can do it with ease now, but it took a few weeks of doing it together! Now that she can do this, we will move on to a new math skill!

 

04. Preschool Morning Time Loop

So after we finish our morning hymnals, read-alouds, and memory work we usually either take a break and play/read some more, then do this part later on in the day, or we move right into it. Each day is different! But the “loop” means we don’t do this all every day. We do one of these each day. Then move on to the next one and so forth until it loops back to the first activity! I hope that makes sense!

-Art/Music

So Gentle + Classical Preschool Level 2  comes with a stellar art/music pack. It truly is a gem. Composer study has been one of our favorite aspects of morning time, and the same goes for picture study! For music we are generally using the Story of the Orchestra text (which tells all about different composers and musical instruments) so we will read about the composer, listen to the chosen song, and learn about our new instrument. G + C Preschool 2 also has these wonderful Montessori learning cards that we love. We are studying Mozart this term!

For picture study, we follow the Charlotte Mason method. We are studying Monet right now. I show my daughter the picture and without saying anything, I let her talk about it freely. She talks about what she sees, what time of day it is, what colors are in it. Then we turn it over and she discusses what she remembers from the picture. After, we take out the Montessori cards we have for those, and she sorts them and we talk about how our new painting is different/alike compared to the other Monet paintings. It’s been so wonderful to watch G enjoy fine art and classical music at such a young age. She thoroughly enjoys it!

   

-Science (Nature)

I am actually really loving our Nature study right now. G (4) is naturally interested in birds. She loves watching them, reading about them, and learning about them. So I bought a bird field guide for $5 and each week when it’s time for our nature lesson I let her choose a bird she wants to learn about. I read to her about them. I’ll usually show her on the globe where they live (hello geography!), and then she draws the bird and what she learned. (This is a way of “narrating: what she heard back to me – which a Charlotte Mason method!) I also occasionally read to her from our Nature Anatomy encyclopedia. Children find nature naturally fascinating, so we talk about it together a lot. We also spend at least an hour outside per day. I know this isn’t attainable for everyone. Sometimes we spend several hours outside with friends, and other days we barely make it to an hour (since it’s January, this is the norm, but we still make it out every day!)

Note: I wanted to use Gentle + Classical Nature exclusively, but we ended up not getting everything ready in time and I wanted to start simple. Now that we have a good routine with the resources we’re using this year, I will probably start it up, or pick and choose units (Frogs, Birds, etc.).

-Baking

Each Wednesday (the day before poetry tea time), we bake baked goods to have at our poetry tea time the following day! It’s a great way to go over measuring, fractions, and counting naturally. Plus, we eat yummy foods that we bake together!

-Poetry Tea Time

I’ll write more about poetry tea time someday, but it’s essentially where we drink tea by candlelight and read from our favorite poem books for about a half hour. This is when we have our chamomile tea and baked goods that we made the previous day. This time isn’t necessarily in the morning, but it’s what we do once a week in the afternoons as an extension of the poetry we read in morning time!

 

 

Preschool Morning Time Handicrafts

We do these throughout! Handicrafts are basically little things to set out for your kids to keep their hands busy while you read to them. My 4.5 year old can sit and listen, but she does like to draw sometimes. I also set out beads and string to make bracelets, modeling clay, play dough and tools, or lacing activities. My almost two year old loves to play with magnets, draw, or tinker with blocks nearby. Someday, when my girls are older they’ll have bigger projects like knitting, sewing, etc. But for now, we keep it simple!

 

Okay, I know that was a lot. Hopefully it helps you get a little idea of what we do each day. I will try to maybe film ourselves doing morning time so you can see what it looks like! It’s the most beautiful part of our homeschool. I’m so thankful we’ve found it! Hopefully this inspires you to try something similar too!

 

Click here to read the Simple Morning Time for Young Toddlers post I wrote!

 

I hope this post about our homeschool preschool morning time routine and gentle + classical preschool review of level 2 was helpful to you! Thank you for reading!

Filed Under: Curriculum Reviews, Family Activities, Homeschool, Morning Time, Motherhood, Preschool at Home

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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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