Thanks for the link. The girls can't wait (for mom!) to give Samantha and Felicity a try.

This blog post from Wildflowers and Marbles gave me ideas for our schoolroom.

This concentration game might work. The images are all vintage, but may not be helpful if looking for specific artists. She gives instructions for printing out and attaching to cardstock.

Ours is Blessed Company Academy. I got the idea from ch. 44 in 'A Charlotte Mason Companion'. Chapter 44 School Motto "In 1891, A school was started with no building to mark it's site. Instead of a building it consisted of the "blessed company" of children all over the world who used Charlotte Mason's home education program." pg.331 I also feel blessed by the company I keep everyday. We had a little vote and everyone liked it, I even choose a piece of artwork for our logo. The other school name we considered was Seven Cedars Academy, we have seven cedar trees in our yard. Here is a link to the picture I use for our logo. I printed it out and put it on a burgundy backgroung with our school name underneath, I hung it up in our schoolroom. Song of the Angels by William Bouguereau I find the picture comforting. I like how Seaside Academy sounds. Good luck and have fun! Monti

I second the bedazzler idea. Our girls have one. They decorated some shirts, dresses, and my library bag. I think you could get a fun amount of bling without being too much for VBS. My girls are 6 & 8 and they were able to use it on their own. We got ours from wal-mart, it's called Gem Magic.

I have that recipe, it's so good!! When my cousin gave it to me she called it Whoopie in a Pan. Summer Delight would also be a fun name, I usually only make it during the Summer.

I've already started planning for Christmas in July! I love Christmas. If I start now them I'm only a little behing by December! Watch out were everywhere! LOL, I don't have a problem....I can stop planning whenever I want! Organized Christmas Magical Holiday Home

I'm 31, I'll be 32 in September.

Lost in Austen was a lot of fun to watch. It is a twist on Pride and Prejudice. I ordered it from netflix, I wonder if Blockbuster has it. Monti

I came across these planner pages a few years ago. They are free from Small Meadow Press, you can download and save the PDF files. Home Learning Notes

Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education is helpful for planning a whole year. You don't have to use CM ideas for it to be useful. I agree with others Donna Young's website has a lot of great forms for planning. Tanglewoods corebook is a nice planner. In the front is has a section for planning your year. If you have more than one student you can print their pages out on different colored paper. After I get things planned I transfer it into this planner, I have one for each kid. The planners from Donna Young and Tanglewood are a lot more flexible for making adjustments throughout the year. Has anyone ever designed a planner just for the WTM? Could you imagine three different planners/lesson books, one for grammar, logic and rhetoric stages. Monti

Classical Christian Homeschooling has a 1000 Good Books List. Here is a link to the old page. Monti

For my oldest I fill in the lesson planner (the pages in the links) about 1 or 2 months ahead. But I make copies of the weekly sheet (there's only 1 in the back of the planner) and fill in for dd. I can adjust assignments on her weekly sheet if we become ahead/behind the plans I've made. I do the same for my first grader, but skip the weekly sheet. For next year I want to plan ahead futher. This book has helped me break it down into smaller chunks, Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education. It's divided into five parts: 1. Your Big Picture 2. Your Year 3. Your Term (you can easily adjust for quarter or semester) 4. Your Week 5. Your Day Even if your not into CM, I think it would still be helpful. I bought the e-book version. I wish I had bought the hold in your hands book version. I ended up printing out the whole thing, I need something with pages I can flip through. Monti

I use the School Planner for Homeschooling Mothers from RR. I have one for each of my girls. For the next school year my youngest starts K, so I'm going to get it in three different colors so each child has their own color. I also like that it has a weekly assignment sheet in the back that you make a copy of and give to your child. Cover Inside left Inside right I've also used the Corebook from Tanglewood. It's in a PDF that you print out. Monti

We really like listening to A Child's Garden of Songs: The Poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson in Song. You can listen to samples of the songs if you scroll down toward the bottom of the page. Most music for children is painful to listen to, so this was a very pleasant surprise. My oldest is 8, but I really enjoy it myself. Monti