am I doing enough with Charlotte mason?

Hi Grace,

Grace is actually what you are needing at this time, and you need to give some grace to yourself 😉 Your post touches on some points that are very dear to my heart.  I feel that my reply falls short.

I have been homeschooling for over 11 years, I have 3 chdrn.  At one stage I looked after my sister’s little one too, who was 9 months younger than my 1 year old, so I had 4 chdrn age six and under, and 2 were under two yo.

I think, looking back, that I did too much, too soon with my children.  I pushed them hard.  Though I am not a teacher, I come from a family of teachers.  Every time we bought a packaged all in one type curriculum, it brought so much tension in to the home and put pressure on learning.   (The exception to that was the last time I purchased MFW, when my children were older, and I found the open and go teacher book great)

I think the copywork, the MUS and readers are actually enough for that age.  I hope I am not stepping on any toes saying that, but I do believe (as I own it) that the course of history is quite intense for little ones.  My 9yo barely kept along.  I do love SCM history, but it will keep, why not wait a bit?  Personally, I would feel too pressured, and would rather read some of the many lovely living history and science books to this age group.

I  feel with little ones in the home, and a baby on the way, less is more.  And that is not “taking the easy way out”, it’s actually the sensible way.  When your baby is born, or close to that time, when you have no energy left, you can cut down school to reading aloud time.   We under estimate the value of this precious time.

I found it handy to have a “nursing box” of special books and things to keep hands busy.  Of course many times we just all cuddled on the couch and I read.  Oh, I miss those times.

Look at “paula’s achive’s” for many ideas on how to keep little ones busy.  Wow, we did such fun stuff with simple things like macaroni and paint, I loved it!

With your 7yo, I think if you concentrate on the 3 R’s, in the relaxed manner of CM, in an educational rich home environment, you will be fine.

If you feel you may have pushed your first child, which we often do, then now is the perfect time to let up a bit.  Play educational games, not necessarily board games, also real life things, like fun math problems, when baking, when shopping.  Take a grocery advert and talk about what you see.  If you live in an area where you can get out, go to the park, walk in nature, let your little ones explore, pick flowers, play in the mud.  So much of every day life can be a rich learning experience.  Talk about what you’re doing as you go about your day, even when baby arrives.

If you feel up to it, and know a bit about CM methods, you may want to either use this time to try out something like picture study, or listening to a certain composers music.  If you have any free time you may read some more about the CM method, and educate yourself, putting less focus on “schooling” your little ones.

When you feel up to it, after baby settles down, start up the MUS and whatever else again. (by the way, I always felt so intimidated when people said “when the baby settled down in to a routine”, cos none of my babes had much of a routine,but they were happy and so was I)

Around this stage (after leaving a packaged curriculum)we did “unit studies” in a very loose manner.  I just thought up ideas and activities around themes, often themes that the children wanted.  Some topics that they requested were: fire, ants, dinosaurs, rocks, fish.  We read books, fiction and non-fiction based on the theme.

If I had to do it all over again, I would do the above, and focus on character and behavior more intensely than academics.  I would gently implement CM methods and “grow into” them, as my youngest child has been able to.  Ah, good old hindsight 😉

Kind regards,

Lindy

Do you have access to Karen Andreola’s books? There are two fiction books (Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn) and one on the CM method (A Charlotte Mason Companion).

All three books are so encouraging – you could look things up by topic in the CM Companion book and find answers to many of your questions (asked and unasked).  And the fiction books are just so encouraging because the main character, Carol, goes through some difficulty while trying to homeschool her children.

I think you’ve gotten fantastic advice so far, so I’ll not add anything other than to try to read those three books.  (Leisurely, this is not something to feel pressured about!  Don’t go buy them right away – see if you can borrow from the library or a friend.)

p.s. I’m a former public school teacher, too…..and I’ve had to UNlearn so many things it’s not funny!  I wish I had homeschooled before I taught in a school — there are so many things I’d do differently.  (Of course, then I’d probably be fired for not following the Common Core/teach to the test nonsense.)

Grace, my kids are similar in age and I can email to you our schedule if you’d like.  You can email me at mrsmccardell at gmail