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Ideas where to begin
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I have been exposed to CM philosophy for the last 15 yrs and was successful in implementing it with my first family. We have since adopted children that have had various needs that required different energies for me to get them through many transitions. Last year when I thought we might be ready to approach curriculum and CM we found one online and began it but half way through it our older child couldn’t pick up another book to save her life. It was overkill and too British for our liking… (and in all fairness , it may be that I selected a year too advanced for her) But we are finding ourselves just grabbing at straws this year without any cohesiveness or aim in general . Being she will be in 9th gr. soon, I am looking at the possibilities of using something more specific and of course CM. I found this web site and the approach seems more gentle and modernized (therefore more pertinent to our children’s lives) From what I can understand about the 6 yr rotation of history etc. it begins with Ancients and works its way chronologically to present. However , she will not have 6 yrs left of school to do that. My question to begin with is what would you suggest to begin with , keeping in mind she has 4 yrs left of school. Hope this makes sense. Also our other child is 7 1/2 and very hyperactive and unable to focus. As of late we have been able to just read books to him and that is it for his schooling. He watches his sister and see’s she does other things , so it is our hope to weave him into the gameplan as well. I appreciate your insights and thank you in advance…
KK
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Welcome KK! I only have a few words of advice. I am just starting down the homeschool road.
The Well Trained Mind has a 4 year rotation for history. You can check out there website to see how they split it up. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/history-at-the-center/
As for the 71/2 year old, one of the aspects of CM is short lessons. Maybe start with five minutes for each subject. Such as five minutes working with manipulatives for math, read one paragraph of a story and have him narate back. Keep it short to work on focus and attention, and then add on more minutes as he is able to do more. I know one of the other issues with hyperness is diet and quality sleep. My son is on the Autism Spectrum and has symptoms of hyperactivity. You wrote they have various needs, so I am guessing there are some issues you are dealing with. If you haven’t looking into some alternative methods such as diet and supplements, I highly recomend it.
I’m sure others will have some more advice as well. I hope you will be able to work it all out.
Blessings
Ruth
KK, one way to cover all of history in four years is to do the Ancients in just one year instead of three. I like to recommend the Ancients study from Beautiful Feet in that situation. They have great book selections. You could do their Ancients for 9th grade, then do SCM’s modules 4, 5, and 6 for the other three years to come up to modern times, if you wanted to.
Greetings again.
First will reply to Ruth- my 7 yr old has also been diagnosed as high functioning autistic, but we see more the hyperactivity than anything else. We do use alternative holistic methods to deal with the issues. and diet is another area we are on top of although we did away with the gluten free and casein free diet as it didn’t seem to work and created move havoc for him and our whole household… thank you for your pointing in that direction, so many don’t seem to comprehend that what we put in our bodies really affects us.. (garbage in -garbage out.) I am familiar with WTM but at this point would find it too cumbersome to put things together myself… even though I am a veteran homeschooler, (21 yrs) my plate is more than full and I need the spine of a curr that is biblical , and laid out for me, but not scripted, and more CM than anything else. It is looking like SCM may fit the bill… Yeah!!! MY older child has real comprehension issues. and it is now or never that we begin to raise the bar for her and address it. It is now rearing its ugly head in all areas , so we are tackling them one by one. By the way , has anyone looked into the Life of Fred series of Math. It is worth looking into. I think they fall into a CM style. They begin after a student learns the basics of adding, sub, and multiplying, so they begin with fractions and work their way through early college math. It is not calculations per se but word dialogues and the student will have to comprehend, definitely a higher skill and lifelong skill . So we went backwards and began with fractiron book. Like I said they are short lessons, so we believe she will be through that and the decimal books before years end… and they are inexpensive…
Now to ask Sonya, being you made a suggestion for using BF Ancients for daugh. 9th gr. and then switching to SCM .. would you suggest me using the SCM for my younger child? (which means they won’t be on the same of anything, which is ok. because older is more autonomous. ) Or another thought is we could do the opening from SCM for both and then send older one to follow BF… Just trying to work this out now, and being BF doesn’t have a sample on their web I can’t tell how it is laid out…
thank you for all suggestions.. I am still trying to understand and find my way around your web site.. Is there a starting point of where I should go, read, etc.? I have read CM original 2x throughout the years… so I am good there…
In His Army
KK
HI KK!
I don’t have a lot to offer in the way of curriculum planning, but let me just encourage you in your adoption journey. You are so wise to homeschool your adopted children, as you have the opportunity to tie heartstrings with them so much more than you would if they were away from home. Homeschooling children from hard places (I am assuming you did not adopt your children as infants?) is a unique experience in itself. Our family has had the privilege to walk beside dear friends on this journey. My friend Jen and her husband have 10 children…one biological, 3 adopted from Liberia, and 6 from the foster system. She uses CM methods, adapted to the unique needs of her children. Jen is occasionally on this board, but you can “visit” her more easily on her blog @ http://www.hisgracehisglory.blogspot.com
Jen and I have just finished watching all the SCM seminar DVDs together, and we have had LONG discussions about implementing a CM plan with adopted kids who have been in traditional schools and struggling. Leave her a comment! She’d love to connect with you!
KK, I’m happy to give an opinion based on my experience with my youngest. She has autism and some other developmental delays, so her level may not be the same as your youngest. She doesn’t quite comprehend the whole idea of “ancient” history, but she really connected with the book Boy of the Pyramids. I wonder if you could do something like this:
Family
- Map drill around the Mediterranean Sea (that will include Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome)
- Nature study
- Picture study
- Music study
- Handicrafts (even if they’re not doing the same project, they could work at the same time)
- Scripture Memory
- Family Read-Aloud
9th grader
- Beautiful Feet Ancients Study, includes Bible & History
- Analytical Grammar (or some other grammar program)
- Dictation
- Written narrations (might be included in the Ancients study)
- Science
- Math
7yo
- Read History stories like Boy of the Pyramids and some of the ancient stories in 50 Famous Stories Retold
- Read Bible stories directly from Scripture or from Catherine Vos’s book
- Read Science stories like Outdoor Secrets or Thornton Burgess’s books or the Christian Liberty Nature Readers
- Math
- Copywork (very short)
- Oral narrations (if possible)
- Beginning reading (very short lessons)?
It would be nice if you could do Bible together, but it looks like the Beautiful Feet study covers several chapters in each lesson, which would most likely be too much for the younger student. Does that list look anywhere close to what you were thinking?
To Sonya
Wow! you asked if I had that in mind, no, I hadn’t been able to formulate anything so concretely yet. I was just wondering , since your original suggestion was for my soon to be 9th gr. to cover ancients via BF, what I should do with our younger child who is 7 (high functioning autistic and very hyperactive) Would the recommendation be to begin him with SCM module 1…
kk
If your goal is to keep the two students on the same history time period as much as possible, I would do a modified approach with them this year, as outlined above. Your 9th grader will be basically combining Modules 1-3 this year, using Beautiful Feet, and ready for Module 4 next year. So the ideas above are just some reading suggestions in the same time period as Modules 1-3 for your younger one this year. Then he can start Module 4 with your older one next year and continue doing one Module a year from there on.
I just realized I didn’t answer your question about where to start on our site. Since you already have the basics of CM down, you could probably start with our SCM Curriculum Guide suggestions, the CM Bookfinder living book database, and the sample weekly schedules. You might also find our Planning series helpful.
Sonya again
First, bless you for your faithfulness in serving here on these boards…
I think I wasn’t clear before, but my daugh is currently in 8th and we haven’t decided where to place our 7 yr old. we have been spending the past few years trying to work out their issues. so haven’t had a real plan on our curr. With all you’ve said. and I value it all. and am confident I can modify. would you think I could begin now or should I wait until next fall. and if you think its now. would you still recommend the path suggestions or what? How would it work to begin now and do what next fall? sorry for all these seemingly insignificant questions. but we are groping for a direction and need to aim in a direction…
again thank you for this help, that is what I need to see more clear as well. is when!
KK
They’re not insignificant questions.
Yes, I think you could begin now if you want to. The BF Ancients study gives ideas for both Intermediate and High School levels, so you could pick and choose from the ideas given there for either 8th or 9th. Plus that would give you a little margin so you could go at a pace you’re comfortable with and ease into things as you progress. You could take your time and introduce certain subjects one at a time, if you want to.
Yes, I think you could begin now if you want to. The BF Ancients study gives ideas for both Intermediate and High School levels, so you could pick and choose from the ideas given there for either 8th or 9th. Plus that would give you a little margin so you could go at a pace you’re comfortable with and ease into things as you progress. You could take your time and introduce certain subjects one at a time, if you want to.Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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