Charlotte Mason and The Playful Pioneers-A Guest Post
Going into this past school year I was really feeling lead to more of a Charlotte Mason approach as I put together our curriculum. I wanted something that would incorporate fine art, scripture, poetry, narration, living books, practical skills, and hand crafts into our days in a way that would allow for short lessons that wouldn't overwhelm our days. I was also looking for a curriculum that all of my children could join in and that would be fairly open and go for my sake.
I was elated to find that The Playful Pioneers was all of this and so much more!
My children, a mix of girls and boys, range from ages seven through eleven and with The Playful Pioneers there was something for everyone.
The younger ones used the print copy work while the older ones used the cursive pages. In addition to the basic daily coursework my older children read from the American and World History recommended independent reading book lists during their daily quiet time.
One of the first things that attracted me to Playful Pioneers was the main spines that are studied were from Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House series. As a family we had read through the series once before and my two oldest had read them over and over again until the poor books showed how well loved they are.
What a blessing it was to share my love of the Little House books with my children as I had with my own mother growing up.
I knew that we would be incorporating many living books into our days so one of the things that we enjoyed was listening to our Little House read aloud each day on audio book. My older children followed along in the books and my younger children would work on their copy work or illustrations while they listened to the story.
My children loved the invitation that The Playful Pioneers presented to dig deeper into the history of Laura's prairie days!
From the timeline that plugged in other events in American History alongside of the Ingall's lives and travel, to tracing the Ingall's journey across the United States, to the fantastic living books that brought the time period to life, this curriculum quickly won over our hearts and minds.
For the timeline I printed one set for each child, hole punched one corner, and held them together with a ring. We don't have a lot of space in our home to display the timeline so this was a compact way for them to each have their own.
We enjoyed many handicrafts and recipes along with practical skills which are so important for children to learn for useful lifelong skills. We enjoyed dyeing handkerchiefs with natural dyes, rolled beeswax candles, made butter, lemonade, ricotta cheese and so much more.
We even learned many homemaking skills that were not only relevant in Laura's day but for us today as well.
We have come through this year with so much more then any other year thus far and we have done it through short lessons full of beautiful memories in so many areas of learning.
What a blessing The Playful Pioneers has been for our family!
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