Old School Monday--our first of 2010!

Welcome moms, to a new year of Homeschooling! Thanks to all of you who have been joining us for Old School Mondays and holiday parties the past year and a half--I hope you can all come this NEXT MONDAY January 25th to our first Old School Monday of the new year!

**If you are new to Vintage Homeschool Days and specifically Old School Mondays, please go quickly read through the original OSM posts--scroll to the bottom to start with the oldest--so you know roughly what it is all about before you read the specifics for this month.**

We have some fun activities planned for you and your kids, including:
--a short Latin lesson on parts of the body
--continuing memorizing the U.S. States via goofy songs
--some hands on learning--TBA
--some kind of get-em-movin' game in the gym

But mainly this first OSM will be for us moms, so we will give the kids lots of independent play time this month so that us moms can discuss:
--One brief aspect of the Charlotte Mason approach to education (I am hoping we can take turns this year, each mom sharing some homeschool approach that is working well for her or some education theory that is inspiring her. So I will start us off this month with something that is inspiring me.)

--What you are all hoping to see in our time together during OSM this year! So come prepared to talk about ideas and visions for what fun learning things we might do together. In particular, please consider "hosting" an activity or lesson during any OSM--the more you moms jump in as you can, the more interesting and fun OSM will be, since all of you combined are WAY more creative than just me by myself! ; ) I suggest we bring our calendars and get some moms to volunteer for the Feb and March OSM gatherings, and then you volunteers can *just plan an activity/lesson that goes along with whatever you are already learning about with your family.* It is as simple as that. : )

So, here are a few things I would like to throw out for you all to think about:
--How we might be able to break up our group during part of OSM so that the bigger kids can have a lesson/activity geared for their abilities, and the littles can have a lesson/activity geared for their energy and attention span. ; )

--I LOVE the idea of having monthly "spell downs" to give our kids incentive to be learning their spelling words, and think I have worked out the kinks of how to do it in such a large, multi-age level group. But you all need to tell me if YOU like this activity--if you would like it once a month, only occassionally, or not at all.

-- What special events do we want to have this year? I'm thinking back to last year and how much fun the Valentine's Party was--let's do another? Does anyone else have any special event ideas for the next couple of months, so we can get them on the calendar?

--What do we want to do with this website to make it most helpful and usable for everyone?

Ok, that should be plenty to get us started! We had so much fun in 2009, and this year I look forward to seeing some new faces, and more moms hosting the lessons/activities, and us doing more for the various age groups represented. Can't wait to see you all!

Remember, bring lunch for you and your kiddies, if you want. And the Abbey will be open! ; )

Please post comments to this post if you have questions, and I will gladly respond!