I don’t know that there’s one “right” way to apply the principle, but I do think that you really need to consider how you approach the subject. For example, anything that is predominantly a “read aloud” for your kids might be in one category. HOWEVER, for some science might be largely a read-aloud subject (depending on age and curriculum choices), whereas for others it might be more hands-on doing more experiments. Same thing for Shakespeare: if you are reading aloud versus kids taking parts and moving around and acting it out more — same subject, different approach. That’s probably not the answer you want to hear! lol
I like Sonya’s explanation above about large motor, etc. I thought maybe I could pull together a little list for you, but honestly because I don’t know HOW you are doing your subjects, it’s hard to say. For my family, over the many years of CM education that we’ve done, I’ve found that we do a lot of reading — more read alouds when they’re younger, more independent reading as they get older… but always lots of reading. SO, for me, I would try to intersperse just about anything else amidst all the reading. I think I covered all the subjects in the SCM guide below, but again, this is just how I would categorize for my family — do what works for you, and modify as you go along, if needed! 🙂
READING:
science, history, geography, Bible, poetry, Shakespeare, Plutarch, literature
** but these might often include some kind of picture narration with younger ones, so if you’re doing that then that helps provide a change of pace. If you read geography and your kids drew a picture, then it might not be a big deal to do another reading/picture.
ARTS:
picture study, hymn study, music study, nature notebooks
MEMORY:
foreign language, scripture memory, other memory work, possibly poetry if focused on memorizing
WRITING:
narrations (if older), copywork, dictation, spelling, grammar
COMPUTER:
narrations (if typing); typing; possibly foreign language but that’s not usually much actual typing, just staring at a computer screen
MATH:
well, math has always been in a category by itself, for us. I just always try to do something more active on at least one side of math, if not both. lol Incidentally, I would handle beginning reading the same way because of the tremendous effort it can take when they are first learning.
OUTSIDE:
nature study, free play for a break, going for a walk, etc.
I don’t think you have to vary everything, but it helps to know your children (like with the math example for my family). I have a CM friend who does a lot of read alouds first thing in the morning and it works well for them — it would never work that for us. My kids wouldn’t be able to focus that long, and *I* would be falling asleep while I’m reading that much! lol
