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Charlotte Mason saves time??????
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I am new to the concept of Charlotte Mason, but I like it alot! I am drawn to the fact that I can teach my three older children (ages 9,7,5, 20 months)all together. My question is will this work with in my schedule? The way I do it now is I teach in blocks in a rotation. I will try to explain. I teach one child several subjects and then send them off to do their work, while I teach another child several subjects. I rotate through the day covering all subjects every day. My question is, will the Charlotte Mason way save me any time? That is what I am after. I want to do a quality job in the time I have alotted. The other monkey wrench is that I do run a business from my home. I am very scheduled and while I work the business, which is sales that requires me to be on the phone during a certain time period, the children are doing their chores or school work. Is there alot of prep work involved? Is there any on their own work also? My impression is that we are reading constantly. Is my impression correct? I am sorry if I am way off, but I like the idea and really want to try to incorporate this way of homeschooling to work for us. Thank you for any suggestions. I am trying to understand how it works.
To give you a picture of what a typical day is like at our house here is our basic schedule. Keep in mind that my kids are older than yours so they spend more time on school work than what your kids would.
8:30-9:30 Bible, history everyday. Once a week poetry. History involves reading living books together. The kids are assigned extra reading for history that they do on their own. Geography is coupled with history as we study maps as we read.
9:30-10:00 Exercise break, snack, read literature during snack
10:00-12:00 Independent work (math, science, etc.). Math and science are done every day, but other independent work is done less often. This time period is what I call my “on call” time. All of my kids have been taught to be self-learners. They ask if they don’t understand something, otherwise they figure it out on their own. I check over their work to make sure they are understanding what they are doing. If there are problems, we address those until the child understands the material.
12:30 lunch
1:30-3:00 Kids have a time to read a book of their choice.
The rest of the day is theirs to work on projects, play games, or whatever.
Music and art appreciation are done informally throughout the week. I display an art book and require all the kids to notice the picture. Every week we change the picture so there is something new to see. This works best for our family as I find my kids enjoy the art more if I just let them discover it on their own. Music appreciation is ongoing. We listen to music mostly when preparing meals and driving in the car.
Most of the prep time comes in the planning stages for each year. I spend the most time planning for history. It usually takes me a few days to find the books I want to use, determine how we are going to use them (read aloud or independent), and when each book will fit into the schedule for whatever time period we are studying.
When my kids were younger I didn’t assign much independent reading for them. Also, I did spend a brief amount of time with them when they started a new math lesson making sure they understood it before they worked the problems on their own. We spent a lot of time outside when they were younger doing nature study, but also did many easy science experiments together. Typically, our day ended about an hour earlier than it does now. Charlotte Mason advocated shorter lessons for younger children.
This is only one way of doing it that works for us. Anyone else care to share how you schedule your day?
Karen, Thanks for the input. I really like the philosophy and system of this way of homeschooling. The more I have read, the more I love the books you use to teach your kids. I like the idea of not being stressed to cover every subject, every day. I am looking forward to the conference in Atlanta in March. I hope alot will become clear to me there. Seeing your schedule and seeing the times suggested on the website for the schedules, it looks like it will work for me. Thank you again for your reassurance.
Rebecca
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