Just Do It.

At the beginning of the school year in August I planned to officially follow the Charlotte Mason method for the first time.  And though we have done this in many ways, there are some glaring holes in our curriculum.  No hymn study.  No poetry.  No Shakespeare.  No formal picture study. 

It would have been a huge change to get used to, adding so many new subjects to our school day.  I think I made a good choice by not getting myself in too deep on day one.  But now it is half-way through the school year, and I have yet to add one of those subjects.

Next week I will dive in.  Completely.

We're simply adding one subject a day.  Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes each day.  Monday is hymn study.  Tuesday is poetry.  Wednesday is picture study.  Friday is Shakespeare.

I'm still trying to keep it simple.  Our church has started having a hymn of the month.  I am simply going to piggy back on that.  Our poet is A.A. Milne because I found a few of his books of poetry (When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six) at the library bookstore last month.  For picture study we'll simply spend a little time looking seriously at and talking about the work of our current artist, Joan Miro.  The pictures are even already printed and ready to go up on the wall.  Friday we'll start reading A Midsummer Night's Dream from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, since our local Shakespeare festival will be performing that one this spring.

There's a lot I don't know.  I don't know anything about the history of the hymn we're studying.  I don't know about the life of A.A. Milne.  I don't know how well Shakespeare will go over.   I don't even know how to pronounce Joan correctly.  (Although now I know that he was a he and not a she!)

But I'm doing it.

I'm sure I'll tweak it.  And adjust it.  And these studies will somehow evolve.  They'll probably look very different a year from now.  But that's how homeschooling goes.  We try and we adapt.  But in the end we'll all have learned something.

What do you need to leap into and just do?