anyone do 1 subject per day?

We did that several years ago.  At the time once our son started with something he would become so immersed in it I would have trouble stopping him to switch subjects, so I just went with it.  We’ve come to a place now where he’s old enough to be able to switch subjects and be okay with it, although there are still times when he really wants to sink his teeth into something – and we do!  If you think this might work for your kids it certainly wouldn’t hurt to try. 

Linda

We did this when my daughter was in 1st grade.  We had not found CM at that time, though, so we were using workbooks.  It worked alright, allthough the workbook work was not a good fit for us and so the overall experience wasn’t so grand!  I never thought of doing it now with CM because there are so many subjects that I feel need to be done everyday in order to get the “full impact” so to speak.  ie. copywork, beginning reading, even math practice for some kids.  And then there are those subjects that are already done only once a week.  ie. picture study, hymn study, composer study etc.  To be honest, I had never even thought of doing CM style this way.  I suppose it could be done with things like science, history and geograghy and maybe even math for some students.  I would be interested in what that schedule looks like, actually.  If you decide to do things this way, please let me in on how you structure your week and your day.  I am interested in knowing various ways of scheduling because I am a person who needs to keep things fresh so I don’t get to bored!  

Blessings!

-Miranda

I think this is possible with certain “high interest” type subjects.  And then of course, subjects whose weekly time will easily fit into a shorter lesson framework.  I would hesitate to do it for everything.  Charlotte Mason believed that spending long amounts of time doing one specific type of “brain work” would lead to greater fatigue and end up sabotaging the habit of attention.  So you’d have to be very careful with this.  It will backfire if they tire from working on something and then turn off their complete attention.  It would be best if you could break up the activity type in a subject–for example, if you were spending a longer time on science, you could have the students read, then do an experiment, then maybe you could read to them, then maybe you could go out for a nature walk–that type of thing.  But I would not recommend reading a history book for three hours a day or something like that!  🙂 

We are trying a version of this this year for the first time…got two days in now.  One Science day and one History day.  I was concerned about the issues mentioned above – and I can already see they are very real.  My daughter was excited about the idea and I’ve agreed to give it a shot.  But, we have to much history to read in a day.  So, I’m going to have to tweak.  But this is what we’re doing if you want to know.  We have a 4 day “week” with some extras on Friday that can be done in very small segments before going to PE with our hs group.  So, Monday is science, Tues history, Wed. writing/grammar, Thurs fine arts (the doing part).  We do all other CM stuff the usual way – including a read aloud and readers/literature selections for each child from the history topics daily.  Our goal was to allow for some fun project type stuff with longer blocks of time, but I think we’re going to have to break up the reading of the spine – too much in one day – or ditch it all together.  I think next week I’m going to try using some of the read aloud slots for the spine and see how that goes.  But all that said, we are still enthusiastic about maiking it work and having fun with it.  We’re trying a two hour time slot – that’s why it’s too long!  So, we’ll play with it some more and let you know how it goes…

Julie

I have not done one subject per day, but I have done pared down days… just a few subjects and for longer time (if the activity warranted that).

I have a friend who had been using short lessons and found it wasn’t working w/ her DD and math, her DD would practically hyperventilate when it came to do math.  So she decided she would try the block idea from Waldorf home schooling… w/ blocks, you take a topic, math, Old Testament, Middle Ages, doesn’t matter, and you work that topic say 2-3 hrs a day for a few weeks.  It worked wonders for my friend’s DD!  She found out that short lessons were too too short, her DD  hadn’t had the time to really grasp the concept before the lesson was over, and her stress levels and anxiety kept going up and up… but w/ the blocks, they could cozy on down and settle in for 2 hrs, there was no rush, she had time to play math games with her DD, they could review, really talk about it, without the stress of the clock, and worked wonderfully!  Her DD overcame her math phobia!

I think Charlotte Mason was truly a wise, wise woman, or I wouldn’t be here , but I believe we have to be sensitive to our children, and if something isn’t working, we need to be willing to take a look at it and step out and try something new.

Ginnie

I have been taking it easy and only doing 2 subjects at a time. Math and Reading. Of course the reading has to do with history and geography and studying Africa whick will turn into a unit study someday. I hope I am doing myself and my children justice. Right now this is working for my children since my younger one (7) seems to stress out at the hint of school work due to over amount of bookwork. Bookwork stress! so we went with CM and decided to not stress!