Absolute beginner

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  • jjr2408
    Member

    Hi

    Before I introduce myself I would firstly like to thank Sonja for her quick and encouraging response to the email I sent her.

    My name is Jo-Anne van Rensburg, and I am in South Africa. If there are any CMers in SA please would you give me a call (082 329 3399).

    Well I don’t know where to start, I am very excited about the CM Way, just not sure how to start.

    My children are Joshua (10) and Jesse (9). I started homeschooling them last year October. They were in an Accelerated Christian Education School, and so I continued with that when I started to homeschool them. Joshua is more academically inclined and enjoys school. Jesse is the one I was struggling with. Everyday I would fight with him to do his school work and I would wake up every morning dreading the day ahead with him. He is just not interested in school. He loves to be outside looking for bugs, and frogs etc. That is all he wants to do. I asked God about it and asked Him for help. He gave me Prov 22:6. In the Amplified it says: “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Bent is: Natural skill or interest. So I said “okay Lord, I am listening, please lead and I will follow.” Then an old friend came to visit the other day and she told me that God had told her to start homeschooling. She shared with me about a homeschoolers information day which she attended and in it they spoke about the CM Way. So after speaking with her I decided to do some research.

    The fist thing I came across of the SCM Website and as I began to read it I got so excited and felt the Lord tell me that this is what He was talking about in Prov 22. Next I downloaded the free book of Charlotte Mason in Modern Day English and started to read (it is 1142 pgs). As I have been reading it I found that there is a lot that I can improve on and do differently.

    Now I don’t know how to start. I like to be organized before I start something and to know about the subject first. I would like to finish reading the book first before I start with the boys. I just can’t put it down.

    I have read and downloaded all the sections on the SCM Website about starting etc. We are going through a tough time financially at the moment, and when I went to the bookstore to look at getting some of the material to get started, I got discouraged. With our SA Rand/Dollar exchange rate and the import taxes we just can’t afford to buy anything at the moment.

    I did go to our library (I live in a big city), but it is nothing what one in the states would be like. Anyway I found the following books: Napoleon by Mick Gowar, Galileo and Experimental Science by Rebecca B. Marcus, William Caxton by Harriet Castor, The Cosmic Professor: The Story of Albert Einstein by Andrew Donkin, Archimedes by Hart-Davis, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, Tree Frogs and then another book on Frogs. I hope these are good “living” books.

    That was all I did, Joshua began reading immediately – Napoleon, and Jesse to my amazement took the book on frogs and began to read. Jesse doesn’t like to read and hasn’t shown any interest in reading before. So I was quite excited. I am also sorry to say that I did not read to my children because it was never enjoyable as Jesse always complained, didn’t show interest & didn’t listen. So I stopped. I have now started to read to them again, but only Joshua is enjoying it. Jesse doesn’t show much interest and then falls asleep when we read in the evening.

    Jesse is left eyed, which means that his track from right to left, therefore he is not a natural reader as apposed to Joshua who is right eyed and his eyes track from left to right, so he loves reading. I have also taken Jesse to an audiologist, occupational therapist and psychologist, as I thought he might be ADD. He does show the symptoms of ADD, but the OCC said that he has low muscle tone in his shoulders and so will quickly get tired doing his school work, and his work will be up and down as the muscles work and then get tired. She gave me a home programme to do with Jesse. Jesse also has an auditory processing weakness and I have a programme to do with him too.

    After Jesse read his book on frogs I tried to get him to narrate it back to me (just tell me what he learnt in his own words). I didn’t help him with this as I wanted to see what he was capable of. I did the same with Joshua. Joshua of course was keen and did a great job. Jesse wasn’t interested. So I left it. This morning at the breakfast table he told me a story of a tadpole and told me how it grows and how its tell gets shorter until it disappears and then it is a frog and then grows into a mommy frog. This pleased me.

    I have just basically left the boys at the moment and we aren’t doing much. Just letting them read a bit when they want. Joshua came to me this morning and said that he wants to write a book (he is enjoying the book I am reading to him in the evenings: The Adventurous Four again by Enid Blyton). He is now sitting at the computer writing his book and using the dictionary for the spelling words. Is is now 10:00am and after doing nothing until now Jesse has come to me asking if he can also “write” something on the computer about frogs. He is using his book on Tree Frogs.

    We are moving to a farm at the end of the month and we are all very excited about this. This is what I would actually like to do. Leave the boys to just have a break from school, especially Jesse, because it became such a negative thing for him. Then when we are on the farm to start with Nature Study, as Charlotte speaks about in her book. I want to get the boys a Nature Study Book each and then to start outside. Teaching them to be observant and to describe what they see. Jesse’s vocabulary is not good for his age, in my opinion, so I would like to develop this. I will write in his book for him or I could get him a tape recorder to record himself. There is a small indigenous forest section on the farm and so I was thinking we could all learn about the different trees, plants etc. Are my boys too old to do this with them.

    During this time giving Joshua books and to continue to try to encourage Jesse to read too and to continue reading to them. I was thinking of asking Jesse to read his books to me so that I can learn. This could be a gentle way to encourage him to read and I thought it would be good to share this together. I just want to really try to get Jesse to enjoy learning and working. Then I also want to do his OCC and Auditory Programmes with him. Then to start teaching the boys how to narrate. I will have to learn first:)

    Is it okay that we will not be doing any Math or English. Will this be harming the boys. Joshua really loves Math though. Perhaps if he asks to do it he could continue with his Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) Math PACEs. I am also not sure if I should stop ACE altogether. I just find it very system orientated with not much life in it, even though it is christian. I spoke to someone who has been teaching ACE for 20 years and she said to me that at this level which my children are, junior, it is a bit boring for them. Do any of you know the system? It is actually very good, but after God gave me the scripture I started to realize that perhaps God was leading me to something else. Then when I read the CM Way, what I love about it is that it has so much life in it. It is such a fun way to learn. The ACE way, is reading a story and filling in the blanks, and also using choose a word to fill in the blank.

    I really want to get the FirstStart Math Programme, but it is just not financially possible at the moment. CM says that Grammar lessons shouldn’t start until 10 years of age, which is Joshua’s age. He has learnt a lot of Grammar from ACE already so would it be alright to leave that for a while, until I get myself settled a bit with the CM Way.

    Thank you so much for your listening ears, it is so wonderful to be able to share this with someone. I am so looking forward to hearing from you all.

    Jo-Anne,

    Welcome! It sounds like you are really getting it! 🙂

    I know there was a discussion on math recently, and I thought there were some links to some sites that had freebies. I need to run this morning, but if you search in the math section, you might find it. Sorry I’m not much help there!

    I did want to share from our experience–a time off from more formal academics (especially when they’re burned out) will not hurt. We actually took 2 years off several years ago (my dh’s leading) from formal learning. In return, we gained a dd’s heart, which I would do all over again! I *was* a bit nervous at times, though, I’ll admit! 😉

    Math has been our bug-a-boo for many of our 16 years homeschooling! But I will tell you–provide many real life math things (for my girls it was lots of sewing, cooking, playing “store”, etc.) and then the “bookwork” went faster when we did get to it and actually made more sense!

    Grammar–my dc have not until high school had a formal grammar, and that was in a book that covered many aspects of language arts, not just grammar (Writing to God’s Glory). My second oldest is 19, can write beautifully, but is just now learning what adverbs and adjectives are! (Proof in the pudding that Ruth Beechick is right!) Now, I don’t necessarily recommend waiting until they’ve graduated to teach them adverbs/adjectives! LOL! But it happened, and she’s quite a well-adjusted young lady (others have told me this, so I’m not just prejudiced! 😉 )

    I just want to encourage you, especially with your boys’ ages, you’ve got time to be in a “downtime” exploring mode for now.

    This is a GREAT forum and place of encouragement and advice! It’s the one I come to most often–in fact about the ONLY one I come to anymore! Blessings to you on your homeschool journey!

    Trisch

    Misty
    Participant

    I also was/am using ACE and have liked and have come to find CM and and transfering to it as we speak. I don’t use ACE math though we like Math U see! I have done scripture memory before but loved the way they teach it and have already made my box. I am still trying to learn and figure out how to start also. I am totally on board with you.

    Misty

    Jo-Anne, it’s me again! 🙂 I don’t know where my head is, but the Business Math series here on SCM is wonderful! You could print it out for both of your boys and work through it. It’s a download, so you wouldn’t have to pay the import taxes, would you? I’m not familiar with doing things from overseas. If you could swing it, it realy is great. I bought the Pet Store math for my girls as a “carrot” to get their other work done! As long as they did their regular math through the week, Fridays they could do the Pet Store math!

    I tried to find the thread where someone gave some math websites, but haven’t found it yet.

    I posted on another thread how I used money to teach my dc carrying and borrowing–it made more sense to them that way! 😉 There’s measuring, cooking (hey, even boys would like to make a snack, right?!), “apple fractions” (you know, cut the apple in half, fourths, etc….or pies….or cookies…:) Sometimes when you get away from it a little, you start seeing math opportunities everywhere!

    Blessings!

    Trisch

    jjr2408
    Member

    Wow, thank you so very, very much for the quick reply. I was so excited when I logged in and had such an awesome response so quickly. How wonderful it is to have sisters in Christ like you. If I don’t see you all this side of Heaven, at least I have the joy of knowing that I will meet you all one day. My husband is so supportive of my decisions with regards to the homeschooling and trusts the Holy Spirit that He is leading me. I could see that he was getting a bit anxious about the fact that the boys have not been doing any official school work. So when I got your reply I read it to him immediately and so now he understands and is okay with what I am doing. Oh yes, I also wanted to tell you that since I have stopped with the schooling Jesse is a lot happier and he is also so much more compliant and obedient. I also want to start immediately with developing good habits in the boys the CM Way.

    I have Charlotte Mason’s book in PDF and could email to anyone who is interested.

    I will keep you all updated on our progress.

    Jo-Anne,

    You’re quite welcome! I’m not an expert at CM, as I said–just walking the same path and learning alongside of you! But if I can help from my experiences, I’m glad to do so. No sense somebody having to make all my mistakes! I think this quote is from Eleanor Roosevelt:

    “Learn from other people’s mistakes. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself!” 🙂

    Here is one of the websites I found on math from the forum here:

    http://www.livingmath.net/

    I’m not really familiar with it yet, but it looks like games and math in literature, maybe? Not really a sequential thing, but it would be good for seeing math in places other than a textbook! How about having “addition bees” or “multiplication bees”? I remember reading in Ignite the Fire by Terri Camp how she would play floor games. You would use pieces of paper and map out a “gameboard” throughout the house. I recently thought about doing that, and having 2 numbers on the piece you “land” on. Then according to the age/ability of the child, they might add, subtract, multiply or divide those numbers. Maybe making it to the “finish line” could be a treat (food is always good at our house! 😉 )

    We learned grammar once while canning peaches. I told my dh I was going to write a booklet called “Canning Grammar”–we thought the dual meaning was funny! Just be on the lookout for those teachable moments–don’t contrive them, or they’ll lose their fun! I mean, you can “plan” for them, but don’t “force” them, if that makes sense!

    Whenever I have younger ones, we do “shoe math”–sort a pile of shoes. Around here we have the sizes, but then you have subsets of “town” shoes, “church” shoes, “outside” shoes, boots, etc. Count by twos, by fours (two pairs), dozens, whatever. Line them up smallest to largest. How many are in the smaller category? The “medium”? The large?

    Those are just a few ideas I’ve done. Sometimes an idea will hit me and I’ll make it the “math for the day”. Maybe your boys could write word problems for each other! (My girls make it quite intricate for each other! Lots of thinking skills! LOL!!!)

    Keep praying and the Lord will open your eyes to resources you didn’t know you had! And how wonderful your husband is so supportive! Mine is, too! In fact, when we took the second year off, I was starting to worry (I think it was more worrying what others will think, which was a bigger problem for me back then), he told me, “Look at me! Am I worried?” I answered no. He replied, “When you see I’m worried, you have my permission to worry, too!” 😀 Isn’t that just wonderful? So nice to rest in that and relax and enjoy learning and the relationships. I often say that homeschooling to me is all about the 3 R’s—Relationship with God, Relationship with Hubby, Relationship with Children!

    Then the other “3 R’s” fall into place!

    Blessings on your day!

    Trisch

    jjr2408
    Member

    Trisch I so appreciate your input, your ideas are fantastic. I am so excited to move to the farm as we are going to have so much opportunities to learn there. I was thinking that when we walk the cattle home in the late afternoons together with the children we can do some Math, counting the animals to make sure they are there, counting the birds we see, how many of each kind and on and on. Chatting to you today has been just the confirmation I needed to know that I am on the right path. We have an ACE meeting tomorrow and so I will have to inform them that I will not be using ACE any longer. I want to be careful as I have some good friendships that I don’t want to lose. Please pray for me.

    I have been to the Math link website for a quick look, wow thanks so much.

    I am so excited. Chow for now.

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