PLANNING
Our Forest Schools use Charlotte Mason's Alveary, a curriculum and teacher training tool published by The Charlotte Mason Institute. CMI is a dynamic organization dedicated to researching the Armitt archives, Parents' Review and other sources to preserve and promote Mason's educational philosophy in the 21st century. They host conferences and retreats and publish articles and essays to keep the CM world informed on the latest developments in Mason research and thought.
As an educational non-profit, CMI is not looking for an opportunity to make money, but instead provides access to the best resources available for families to use in their homeschools. Their goal is to make it possible for parents to spread the generous feast of a Charlotte Mason education while growing in their understanding of how to implement the methods.
Honey of the Hive is not officially part of CMI or Charlotte Mason's Alveary, we are just a group of families who personally use the curriculum and want to do that in community with others. To respect the company's proprietary information and rights, we require all families with formal students in the Forest School to have a current membership in the Alveary. Helping you get signed up is part of the application process for Honey of the Hive. You can request an application to the Forest School on the local hives section.
As an educational non-profit, CMI is not looking for an opportunity to make money, but instead provides access to the best resources available for families to use in their homeschools. Their goal is to make it possible for parents to spread the generous feast of a Charlotte Mason education while growing in their understanding of how to implement the methods.
Honey of the Hive is not officially part of CMI or Charlotte Mason's Alveary, we are just a group of families who personally use the curriculum and want to do that in community with others. To respect the company's proprietary information and rights, we require all families with formal students in the Forest School to have a current membership in the Alveary. Helping you get signed up is part of the application process for Honey of the Hive. You can request an application to the Forest School on the local hives section.
Curriculum Overview
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Charlotte Mason's Alveary
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Training Tools From Charlotte Mason's Alveary
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Curriculum Details
Joining the Alveary connects us to a large online community of other users. This is a valuable resource and a beautiful picture of regional, national, and global CM communities working together to encourage and support one another academically and personally. A lot of honey-making and pollinating goes on in that group!
After signing up, you gain instant access to a wealth of information through the Knowledge Base. This is the "long haul learning" over time that helps you understand the philosophy, principles and the "WHY" behind CM practices. You can read a little more about that in the Training section.
In addition to the Knowledge Base, you are also set up with all the tools you need to get your homeschool year organized. You get access to a tutorial guide, book and supply lists, schedule cards, and lesson plans. The next section of this page will walk you through each of those tools and how to use them.
Honey of the Hive also offers a workshop to guide you through scheduling and planning your year with the Alveary. See the Camps and Retreats section of our webpage for more information on that.
After signing up, you gain instant access to a wealth of information through the Knowledge Base. This is the "long haul learning" over time that helps you understand the philosophy, principles and the "WHY" behind CM practices. You can read a little more about that in the Training section.
In addition to the Knowledge Base, you are also set up with all the tools you need to get your homeschool year organized. You get access to a tutorial guide, book and supply lists, schedule cards, and lesson plans. The next section of this page will walk you through each of those tools and how to use them.
Honey of the Hive also offers a workshop to guide you through scheduling and planning your year with the Alveary. See the Camps and Retreats section of our webpage for more information on that.
Planning with Charlotte Mason's Alveary
This section will explain in more detail how the Curriculum and Training Tools
work together to get you ready for a beautiful year of homeschooling.
work together to get you ready for a beautiful year of homeschooling.
Tutorial Guide |
Program |
Schedule Tools |
Lesson Plans |
Tutorial Guide for Quick-Start Training
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The Tutorial guide is where to start! This guide is your "training in the trenches" because we are learning as we go! First, it walks you through thinking about your year, week, and day. It gives general advice on combining multiple children. You can learn more about how Honey of the Hive supports you with this on Forest School and at-home days on the Scheduling section of the website.
The rest of the Tutorial Guide walks you through the general arc of Charlotte Mason lesson and details about the generous feast. For every subject and the courses within, it touches on what Mason says about the subject, explains the arc of a typical lesson plan, and shows the scope and sequence of how those skills grow over the progression in years. It also explains correlations to other subjects. Once you read through this guide, you will have a good understanding of how each subject works. |
Program & Supplies List for Making Decisions
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Next, you will look at your Program and Supplies list. It is organized by subject and course and by Form (Grade/Class). This allows you to see how the subjects and skills progress as children get older. It has short notes on each subject to guide you through decision making, and it has the assignments for each term of the year, so you know exactly how the books will be used. This wonderful tool will help with decisions about placing or combining students in specific courses and purchasing books and supplies you need for those courses. If you have multiple students, it is helpful to view the schedule tiles alongside this document so you can see which ones share lesson plans and mark off extra tiles for when it's time to use them to work on schedules.
The Alveary is committed to assigning books that are readily available. The books are linked to Amazon or a publishing company (members are given exclusive discounts to those). If the book or source is available for free online, they also give you a link to that so you can pick and choose where to spend your money. As a whole, the Alveary is so much more than a book list, which is why they offer the actual list (minus the Program assignments and supplies) on the Samples page of their website. We recommend not purchasing anything until you have worked out your schedule using the scheduling tiles. You may end up having to combine students in more areas for the sake of peace in your home. |
Schedule Tiles for Family Planning
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The Program and Supply list is very extensive, but there is still more! Scheduling the yearly, weekly, and daily rhythms is probably one of the toughest parts of a Charlotte Mason education. The Alveary understands this and provides you with the tools needed to to work out your personal family schedule. They just can't do it for you because, well, it's personal! However, they do provide sample schedules to get you started, though!
For every subject and course, there is a Schedule Tile. They are custom-designed for the Alveary so you know every course can be planned and will match lesson plans exactly. These tiles have EVERYTHING you need to work out your personal family schedule. They list Subject: Course, main materials (so you know what books get used in which course), the Form and Term, what other Forms share those exact lesson plans (so you know where to combine students), how long the lesson lasts and when in the day it's recommended, activity level (+/-), brain functions used, mother involvement, and whether it's a good candidate for a family subject. The Tutorial Guide covers each of these icons in detail so you understand what they mean and how to use them to alternate types of lessons. The tiles themselves are also sized in relation to the duration of the lesson. For example, you can put a 20 minute lesson card beside two stacked 10 minute less cards and they are the same height. That way you can tell easily if you are going over your total time guide for the morning lessons. Remember, Honey of the Hive leadership works out the schedule on Cottage School days using these tools for you. We also offer a Workshop to help walk you through this process for the rest of your schedule at home. See the Camps and Retreats section of our website to find a schedule for that. |
Lesson Plans for Organizing Details
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On July 1st of each year, the Alveary publishes the lesson plans for the Academic Year. These daily lesson plans provide all the information for each step of the arc of each lesson. They are organized by term, by form, and then by subject and course. If a subject is scheduled four times a week, you have four lesson plans written for every week of the term. For each term, the Alveary also provides you with exams written in the style of Mason's exams for the books and materials laid out in the lesson plans.
Lesson plans are currently provided in PDF format. You may simply print these out as-is or bookmark them to find electronically as needed. |