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Alternating mental and least mental subjects ? How?
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I know that Math is a very mental intensive subject, and probably writing; any others you would consider in that category. I am trying to figure out which ones to alternate. Any suggestions or ideas of how you arrange the order of subjects? I know this was discussed long ago, I searched, but not much came up on the subject.
I think this is something that can vary greatly. I know many people lump all of the family readings into one part of the day (The Morning Basket) and then kids do mostly independent work. This did not work at all for my 7 yr. old. She needs listening staggered with handwritten. So we start with Bible (listening), then Math (hand written), Daily Basket (listening), Copywork (handwritten), history or Burgess Bird Book (listening), cursive (handwriting) ect. This works much better for her.
I try to alternate the harder subjects with the subjects that are not as taxing on the mind.
For instance, the harder subjects would include math, composition, grammar and science in the upper years.
The less mentally taxing subjects would be history, picture study, literature, composer study, nature study, etc.
It’s a blessing to both myself and my daughter to know that as soon as we finish working hard at math, we get to relax a bit and enjoy a few chapters from our history books. I also think it helps to alternate writing subjects with subjects that don’t need writing so that they can give their hands a break.
We like to add physical activities in between more difficult lessons. A few jumping jacks or planks can refresh their minds and keep them more focused. We sometimes add in a snack time for a special treat.
Sometimes we move to a different location in our house for a change as well. We often do our read-alouds on the couches and our writing or one-on-one lessons at the table. For math, I let them pick their own spot to work…they often do math on the floor (under a blanket tent)!
We vary our lessons so much from day to day. I’d like to have a schedule written out, but this summer we’ve just been winging it. I do have a list of what needs to be covered for the entire week and I plan our day according to what’s left on that list.
Hi Steph3433,
If you have “Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education” I believe there are examples of schedules from Charlotte’s schools that show how it was accomplished. You may also look at schedules in the Charlotte Mason Digital Collection. You may have seen SCM has their own sample daily schedules as well. These are especially handy if you are using SCM resources.
Arithmetic, Geometry and Algebra almost always took place in the morning, immediately after Bible reading which was the first lesson of the day. Following lessons in mathematics might be dictation in earlier forms and composition in later (since CM math is mainly oral this made sense). There is such a great number of lessons in CM that it might look like this following arithmetic in Form II (our grades 4-6).
Monday – Dictation
Tuesday – Natural History (Science)
Wednesday – Dictation
Thursday – Grammar
Friday – Plutarch’s Lives
Saturday – Latin (they had short school days which were over at noon in this Form and had school on Saturday).
I write all the subjects we will be covering on different colored sticky notes then put post-its with time blocks on the left. I put these on the wall or a big board so I can move them around. Once I’ve finalized our schedule I still keep it up for a few more weeks when we begin our school year as I see, like Blessed Mommy, what is working and what isn’t.
All my best,
Richele
Thanks for the explanations. I think the alternating of listening and writing subjects would be good.
When I sit down to plan our subject order I write each subject on slips of paper for the number of times we will do it each week. So 2 science, 3 literature, 4 history. Any subject that requires listening to a book read aloud gets a color marked on the side. Any subject that requires writing get a different color mark. Then I line them all up and start moving them around so that they alternate days and how the brain is being used.
I love the idea of post-its and paper slips. I’m always trying to create my schedule on the computer and it’s difficult to keep moving things around. Sometimes modern technology isn’t the best solution. 🙂
I tried on the computer and kept getting annoyed. Post it notes would probably be better because they don’t fly when you sneeze on them or a child decides it would be a good choice to blow on them. ?
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