High School Charlotte Mason Study: Legendary Swords & Ireland

 We've done family-style homeschooling for several years now, and it's still my preferred method.  As the boys have different hopes and dreams, we've allowed them to spend their high school years branching off into those separate interests, but we still have family-time each day.  This is where Charlotte Mason sessions enter into our school life...

Each morning, we work together for about thirty minutes on a group study.  Fine arts, music, history, nature study, cooking, read-aloud, hand-crafts, Shakespeare, and art history are all included in these studies.  If you think the boys might not show fervor for these subjects, you might be right...except that they are presented through subjects which fascinate them!  

I could spend several hours trying to dig up resources, but The Homeschool Garden has already done the work for me (and really, who has that kind of time anymore?).  They have twenty-five subject sessions, and you're sure to find a few that intrigue your family!

Each session comes with an outline that will cover six weeks.  Occasionally, we just want to  put regular school away for a while, though, and will cover an entire unit in a couple of days (where that is all we do for school).

Each 6-week session covers: 

• history
• nature study
• read alouds (with a recommended reading list)
• hand-crafts
• baking
• poetry tea time
• life skills
• Shakespeare
• music& hymns
• art study
• artist study
• composer study
• copywork

Legendary Swords

The session we are currently using is Legendary Swords.  The boys are all about medieval studies and swords, so this one appealed immediately.  In this unit we covered:

• the Hagia Sophia
• Down to the River to Pray - hymns
• Guillame de Machaut - composer
• Hamlet - copywork
• Lady of the Lake - poetry
• Knight's Code of Honor - literature
• Saint George and the Dragon - history
• Scones - baking
• Comedy of Errors - Shakespeare
• Wire Bird bookmarks - handicraft (tea towels shown are from Ireland unit)
• Green Ember Lighthall & Chalk Pastels - art

Using The Homeschool Garden will provide you with a Charlotte Mason, family-style approach that allows you to enjoy learning alongside your teens!