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Am I too late?
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My boys are 16, 12, and 5. We’ve been doing a mish mosh of things because I lost sight of the path. I feel like the two older ones are way behind where they should be.
Is it too late to use Charlotte’s methods? I have zero budget so any advice would be helpful.
First, let me say that. up until a year or two ago, we have used CM methods with very, very few purchases (and most of them were budget-friendly used materials) and borrowing the lion’s share of what we needed from local libraries, interlibrary loan, homeschooling friends, and using books that are in the public domain (available for free on a couple of sites). It is entirely possible to spend very little on materials for a CM education.
As for the notion that your oldest two are way behind, that will vary tremendously by family. Some would say that my 12th grader is “behind” because she has not taken pre-calculus. Her chosen career path is cosmetology (for which she seems well-suited), and she has struggled with higher math. She is taking Stewardship (Consumer Math to some) this year, and that will benefit her greatly.
My youngest will likely go through pre-calculus and maybe even get through calculus as well. She is in 9th grade, has plenty of time yet, and is good at math. She wants to enter college to study agriscience with the idea of owning her own farm someday.
Your kids will probably gain a love for education (especially reading) by using CM methods, and you really have a lot more time than you think with the 12 & under group. I’ll willing to say, without knowing where things stand with your children, that the 16yo will be just fine when graduation comes if you plan out the next 2-3 years well.
If you let us know what your children have mastered for each of them, I’m sure some of us can give you some encouragement as to where you should start and how to plan, especially for the older two.
I don’t think it is ever too late! Will your older two get as much immersion into the methods as the younger one? Obviously not. But something is better than nothing. What you may want to do is really focus on the core methods you feel will most impact your older ones. These could be different for different families but some that come to mind are:
- Narration – both oral and written.
- Living books
As for having no budget – have you already purchase materials for this year? Often you can tweak how you are using the things you already have and use the CM methods. For example, my oldest (14, 9th grader) doesn’t use the tests in her Apologia Biology book, she narrates both orally and in writing the things she is learning. She also adds in living books from the library on topics that she wants to learn more about or that interest her related to biology. Is there anything wrong with using the tests? No. But she has already demonstrated her understanding of the material through narration so why use the tests too? (However, Charlotte did do exams about every 12 weeks and we can use the tests for ideas of topics to address in our exams.)
Also for no budget, use your library and other resources you may already have. For example, do you already have a service like Netflix or Amazon Prime? Check them for documentaries to go with topics you are covering. Our library is pretty good but you may be surprised to find just what ‘extras’ your library might offer. Ours currently has instruments to lend, does free lessons each week, board games to borrow, day passes to the local museums and science centers to borrow, has tablets for tots and laptops to borrow, and gives us free access to an online foreign language program.
My oldest, Fury, as mastered basic math. He needs to master algebra for the military. Language arts is a constant struggle for both of us. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. I can do it easy so teaching it is hard for me.
Dragon, my 12 to, is the academic opposite! He has an easier time with the written word than Fury and a tougher time with math. He hasn’t really mastered anything yet. He loves technology but has a hard time focusing on anything other than movies for more than 20 minutes.
Shorty, my 5 yo, knows his letters and how to read numbers.
I hope this makes sense.
My two girls are the same way–one is a good reader (& good at grammar, spelling, etc.) but struggles with math, the other finds math fun and the concepts fairly easy to grasp but struggles to read at grade level.
The nice thing about CM methods is that neither of them has had to struggle with history, geography, or science because there were plenty of read-alouds and family reads with those subjects.
We like Math-U-See, although we did use Teaching Textbooks for the daughter who struggles with math. This was purely because I can do math (and enjoy it), but trying to help/teach her that subject could only be done in small portions before she would get frustrated and ask to do it on her own. We are a lot alike in strong personality traits (okay, let’s just say it: we both are opinionated and think we are right while the rest of the world is wrong!). So, Teaching Textbooks was a better fit for her because the voice on the lesson cd’s was not me.
Has your oldest son mastered basic operations with fractions and decimals? If he is comfortable with those, I would start with pre-algebra. Do not skip this, because even my math scholar daughter is finding that it will make an easier transition to the hard work of algebra next year. The beauty of the structure of Math-U-See is that there are 5 worksheets provided for each lesson, but if my daughter moves quickly through worksheet A with few to no mistakes, she skips worksheets B & C the next day and completes D instead. Worksheet D always includes a section of review of concepts covered in the fractions or decimals books from the previous two years. If she does well on D, she moves on to the test. So, easier lessons get done in less than a week, tougher lessons find her spending an extra day or two of practice. If you can keep pace, you could start now with pre-algebra and complete algebra next year.
With my older daughter, we needed to move more slowly through algebra, so that was the one subject we continued working on through most of her summer break. It wasn’t too bad to spend an hour a day, 3 or 4 days a week during June, July, and part of August.
Here is a long, but very informative post from an earlier thread about what math is needed for various post-secondary paths. The original poster is no longer a participant on this forum, so I wouldn’t reply to her through the thread, but it is good reading.
https://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/joanna-breaks-down-math-from-k-to-college/
HTH,
Sue
Sorry if this is repetitive as I didn’t get a chance to read all the responses.
I’m of the mind that if things are tight, all you really need to homeschool is a Bible and a library card. A math program is helpful, particularly at the upper levels. However, there are some great online resources such as Ray’s Arithmetic that are free. A Charlotte Mason education is a method, not a particular curricula. You can adapt almost anything to fit the method. I would encourage you to read Charlotte’s writings to learn more about her method. You can find her writings online free at Ambleside Online…
http://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html
I recommend starting with Vol. 6 to first understand her principals and what she stood for.
I agree with Tristan that it’s never too late to use the CM method 🙂
Blessings,
Melissa
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/
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