October 2018 Memory Work Plans and Printable

It looks like I’m a bit behind on planning for the month of October. September was unusually busy for our family, and the end of month was the culmination of everything with the CiRCE Conference at New College Franklin yesterday. (It was so good, but also exhausting! So many deep thoughts to ponder!) So here I am, not a day too soon, quite literally, with our memory work plans for the month of October.

October 2018 Memory Work Plans:

Prayer: I am excepting a few lines from Douglas McKelvey’s “A Liturgy for Students & Scholars” which is one of many excellent liturgies included in his book Every Moment Holy.

Catechism: This month we are reviewing questions 4-6 of the New City Catechism.

Hymn: The AmblesideOnline hymn for this month is Like a River Glorious. We have not previously done this one in our homeschool, so we will be doing it as scheduled.

Mottos: We are learning Way #4 from Our 24 Family Ways (affiliate link) this month, in addition to the following motto from Mystie Winkler’s collection: Respon cheerfully, politely and promptly.

Scripture: Our scripture passage this month is Psalm 119:1-8.

Poem: I wanted to teach my children “When the Frost is on the Punkin” by James Whitcomb Riley, both because it is seasonally appropriate and because he was one of our poets this year. It is a longer one, however, so I decided we will just learn the first two stanzas this month.

Folk Songs: We just learned the scheduled AO folksong in August, so I picked “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Loch Lomond” for October.

Free Printable Plans:

If you need some quick last minute memory work plans, here is the free download link to print and use in your own homeschool morning time! Enjoy!

September 2018 Memory Work Plans with Free Printable

We stepped outside this morning, and the air was almost crisp, with the scent of dry leaves hanging in the air. Fall is coming! It is still August, and I know hot days are still going to be with us for a while, but that hint of autumn weather got us all a little excited. September is right around  the corner, so here are our new memory work plans for next month!

I have been trying to add a little thematic material to our memory work, sometimes to go with the season or holidays. At first I thought maybe we would do a poem and folk song with some sort of autumn theme, apples or leaves or the like. But when I was flipping through our poetry books, the poem “Eletelephony” caught my eye. I’ve always enjoyed a good tongue twister type of poem, so I chose it along with “One Elephant Went Out to Play” (made popular by Sharon, Lois and Bram back when I was a little kid!) I think my kids will get a kick out of these silly rhymes, and it’s always good to start out our homeschool day with smiles! I hope if you use these plans, your children will enjoy them, too!

August Memory Work

Hymn: Children of the Heavenly Father

Catechism: Review Questions 1, 2 and 3 of the New City Catechism (shorter version)

Motto: Family Way #3 from Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson, and “Obey right away, all the way, with a good attitude, every day.”

Scripture: James 1:22-25

Poetry: Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards

Folksongs: Cockles and Mussels, One Elephant Went Out to Play

Free Printable Plans

As I did last month, I am including a free printable version of these memory work plans for you all! I decided to simplify and just do formatting for the vertical 8.5×11 version this time. But you can still choose to print booklet style or 2 pages to a sheet if you wish, which is what I will be doing. Let me know if you are using these memory work plans, and if you have any questions or suggestions. Until next time, have a happy homeschool day!

August 2018 Memory Work and a Free Printable

Did the month of July just fly by for anybody else, or was only that way for me? We were almost as busy in July as in June, even without traveling. It just dawned on me yesterday as we finished up our school work that I needed to get new memory work plans typed up for August! And I have great news! This month I am including a free printable for you to download and use in your home.

So here they are, just in time for those of you who need a little inspiration for the start of a new school year. We’ve been back at it for a few weeks now, and you can click here to see our memory work from July. My kids enjoyed having the extra song in there, so I decided to keep up with having 2 folksongs again this month. (Their favorite part of our recitation time last month was marching around the living room singing “Over the Hills and Far Away” at the top of their lungs!)

August Memory Work

Hymn: My Faith Looks Up to Thee

Catechism: Questions 34 and 35 of the New City Catechism (shorter version)

Motto: “We read the Bible and pray to God every day with an open heart.” (from Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson)

Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30, The Parable of the Weeds

Poetry: Little Talk by Aileen Fisher

Folksongs: The Green Grass Grew All Around and Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

Free Printable Plans!

I’ve converted these memory work plans into free printable PDFs for you to download! The landscape format is such that you can print a copy and cut or fold the pages in half to put in a small 3 ring binder, like these. I slide them into page protectors so they don’t get as messed up by small hands. The portrait format is made for regular sized binders, or you can probably figure out a way to print them 2 pages to a sheet to make a booklet. (But don’t ask me how. I always seem to mess that up when I try it!)

If you are starting a new school year this month, I hope you have a great kick-off! I would also love to hear from you if you are using these memory work plans in your home. Let me know in the comments below!

 

Memory Work Plans for July 2018

Back in March I shared our memory work plans for our homeschool morning recitation time, and I had really intended to make that a regular monthly post. Somehow, though, the next couple of months sneaked up on me, and those posts never happened. I decided to try and pick back up now that we are about to start a new school term. I know many homeschoolers who also start back up in mid-summer, so perhaps it will help some of you out as try and wrap up your planning during a holiday week!

July Memory Work

Hymn: Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Catechism: Questions 32 and 33 of the New City Catechism (shorter version)

Motto: “We love and obey our Lord Jesus Christ with wholehearted devotion” (from Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson)

Scripture: Psalm 27:1-2, Psalm 28:7

Poetry: Over the Hills and Far Away by Eugene Field

Folksongs: My Country, ‘Tis of Thee and Over the Hills and Far Away

I decided to add an extra song into our recitation time this term. I have so many songs that I still want to introduce to my children while they are young, and I just don’t remember to do that unless it is part of our school day.

I chose most of these selections back in the winter before we began our new school year. If I had it to do over again, I might try harder to choose more patriotic themed memory work to go with the Independence Day holiday. Maybe next year I will remember to do that if I know we are going to be schooling in July. But at least I had a general outline planned to save myself the time and energy during break! I hope this little outline of our July memory work helps you as you plan for your own homeschool recitation time.

 

A Much Needed Break

This week was break week in our homeschool. Can I get a “holla” from all the homeschool mommas reading this? 😉 Let’s face it, as much as we love homeschooling our kids, it is not all sunshine and roses. Some days it’s just plain hard! The discipline to keep showing up and guiding our children through the work of learning is hard to cultivate, both in ourselves and in them. So it is good to take a break sometimes and step back to breathe, rest and re-evaluate how everything is going.

We just finished Term 1 of AmblesideOnline Year 2, so it was high time for a break after plugging along for 12 weeks without stopping. The funny thing was that this week, my kids acted like they didn’t even know what to do with themselves half the time. They are so accustomed to our normal daily routine on week days that not having that same structure left them wondering what to do. Even my 2 year old was asking for school! I take this as a good sign that our daily rhythm is working well for our family and that it is providing what they need to get their days off to a good start!

At the same time, though, I needed a break to recuperate, reevaluate and reorganize before plunging ahead into the next term. And I feel like I have accomplished that this week. Here’s how:

Recuperate:

The first thing I did after we finished school last Friday was to put all the school book in the homeschool cupboard, just as they were, and shut the doors. Then I proceeded to spend the next three days not even thinking about homeschool stuff. I didn’t plan or prep anything. I didn’t clean up anything other than to just shove it in the cupboard out of sight. I just let myself clear my head and not worry about what was done or what was coming up. It was lovely!

Reevaluate:

On Tuesday of break week, I finally sat down with my son to go through his Year 2 Term 1 exam questions. AmblesideOnline has these exams already all set up for us, so all I had to do what print off the questions! Then we sat on the couch and he told me as much as he could remember from different books, did a few oral math problems, recited some memory work, etc. It was pretty quick and painless. The important thing about these exams is that they give me a chance to look at some weak spots in my teaching. It is not so much about grading my student as it is grading myself. If he didn’t remember very much of his Spanish vocabulary or know a term we were supposed to have studied in Geography, it is not because he was not trying. (I can tell when he is just trying to get out of doing the work of narration or recall!) It shows me that we did not spend enough time in those areas to let him make the connections with the material. So I know that I need to shore up those subjects next term.

Reorganize:

Finally, on Wednesday, I sat down with all my school planning resources and got to work planning for the next term. Creating new memory work pages for April was first on the docket. Then I wrote out lesson plans for the first week of the next term. I printed out new math worksheets and the next month’s set of nature study lesson plans. Finally, when all the planning was finished, I set about the un-glamorous task of cleaning out and reorganizing the homeschool cupboard. I don’t know how these spaces get so cluttered so quickly, but it had become quite a mess! I sorted and tossed and filed and rearranged…I even sharpened all the colored pencils! Hours later, I finally had a neat and tidy home for all our school books and supplies once more, and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.

After that work was done, I was free to enjoy the rest of our break week catching up on other tasks around the house and online. Today we had a family fun day, since my husband is off from work for Good Friday. We let the kids use up some Toys R Us gift cards that they were saving before that store goes out of business. Then we explored the Cool Springs Galleria mall because I had not found the time to wander over there yet. We ended with lunch at a Chinese buffet, and we all came home happy, full and sleepy! I know to some people it doesn’t sound that exciting, but for us, it was just right.

That’s what break week looked like here in our neck of the woods. I’d love to hear what you do in your homeschool during breaks! Leave me a comment and tell me something you love to use your breaks for!