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Canadian CMer
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Hi everyone, I am new to CM. I started homeschooling last year when my dd was starting 1st grade. We were using textbooks and workbooks and it was NOT a good fit for my dd or me. Now that my ds is starting Gr.K this year I knew I needed a better, gentler approach. Some of my family were wanting us to put the kids in a public school to reduce stress levels. We have been under a HUGE amount of stress for the past while with serious health issues, financial needs, etc. I think putting the kids into public school would just be trading one kind of stress for another and I simply do not view that as an option. I was SOOOO excited when I discovered CM. It seemed so perfect for us! Now, however, we are having a very hard time trying to get all of our resources for prices that we can afford. Just this first term has blown our very tight budget out of the water, mostly because of shipping all of these books to Canada. I chose all of our books from the SCM bookfinder and am pretty happy with the choices. I was thinking that I would be able to find a lot of these titles at our Library but so far we have only found 2! I was wondering if there were any other Canadian CMers on this site and if you have had any of these problems with resources and how you have handled them. My hubby has said that if we can’t find a way around this affordably, we may not be able to keep on doing CM next year. Any Canadians out there with suggestions? Oh, btw, we live in B.C. in the central Okanagan.
Thanks and God Bless you all for always being so ecouraging of one another. I love reading all the posts!
-Miranda
Hello Miranda!! I live in the Vancouver area, so can feel for you! I have found that Amazon has quite a few of the books from the bookfinder, so I use that resource quite a bit! Some of the other items such as Sonya’s resources, I have found it much cheaper to ship them to a family members house who lives in the US, and they bring them up for me. If you have that option, you may wnast to look into that…? I am talking the things like Spelling Wisdom, Jacks Insects, etc. The e-books may be a good option for you? Also, is there any curriculum stores where you live? We have the benefit of having ADS and One Stop Learning in this area which carries a lot of the same resources as the CM site. You may wish to post an ad on Craigslist. Is there any particular books you are having trouble getting? I will put my mind to work today and see if I can offer any more suggestions for you…I just woke up so my mind is still fuzzy! LOL..
Blessings, Christina
Hi Christina! I am very new to writing in forums like this and I still am a little amazed when people actually reply to what I have to say! LOL! I must admit, it gives me a little thrill!
LOL! So thanks for your reply! It isn’t so much that we are having trouble finding the books online to buy, the trouble comes when we end up having to buy ALL of them. Because, that just gets a little expensive when you need so many. I’m thinking maybe I’ll look into online Libraries. Or, if there are other CMers in the area, a book swap sort of idea? I am still in shock over some of the shipping costs! We had to cancel a couple orders because the shipping was going to be more than twice the amount of the books themselves. $80 on a $35 book order is astounding! Esspecially when you have taken pains to find the cheapest copies available. Plus, I am still not sure why the Okanagan library system doesn’t have a lot of these books. BTW, I am using 106 Days of Creation, Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt and the book lists that go along with those. We have also planned on using the resources recommended in the curriculum guide in Module 1 for most subjects. Thanks so much for your suggestions as ANY help at this point is welcome! I have started thinking I may not be able to use all the books in the curriculum guide. Maybe we will need to get a general idea of the recommended books and then try to find suitable subtitutes with what our library system does have to offer. More work for us but worth it if we can keep using CM. The concern is being able to put in that needed work with my current health situation. I think I may be rambling here…I’m a little frazzled ! I just need to keep it in perspective and trust God to make a way where there is no way! Thanks again and God Bless!
– Miranda
We are enrolled with a distance learning school in Kelowna. KCS Open School to be exact. They give us so many credits per year which are dolled out at the beginning of the year and again in January. However, they don’t reimburse you for things you have already bought, they only pay for things that are bought directly through them and they won’t use Amazon or anything like that. They have to go through our local learning resources store ( Cornerstone) and that, unexpectedly, used up all of the first half of our credits on a rather small amount of books! Also, because they had to order in most of these books specifically for us, we can’t return them. It was a shock to look at the invoice from the store and find that most of the books were twice the amount that we had priced them out for. It’s been a bit of miscommunication between the school, whoever puts in the orders, and us!
. We are trying to work these things out with them so the future goes a little smoother, it’s a process. To say the least! Hi there. I don’t have a lot of great advice unfortunately, but I thought I’d comment since it gives you a thrill. lol
I live in Alberta and luckily CAN find many books through our library system, but some I can’t. When that is the case I use Amazon.ca. It sounds like you do, too, but isn’t there free shipping after you spend a certain amount? As long as you use that option. If you’re wanting them shipped quicker then you won’t get free shipping, of course. AND if you special order or get them used. It might cheaper if you bought new and then get free shipping. Same with Amazon.com (free shipping after a certain amount) because not all books are available through the Cdn site. Of course, then you have to pay the exchange.
It IS still very expensive, though, isn’t it? I feel your pain. I WILL say though that the main premise, as I understand it, of CM is to read great Living Books. The ones listed in the bookfinder are wonderful examples but there are many more. I’m sure your library has many books that would fit the criteria. I only say this because I wouldn’t want you to pass on a wonderful method of teaching (as you mentioned as a possibility). You may not be able to do it exactly the way you want but whether you follow CM or not I’m sure you still want to read quality literature to your children. And when you do you can follow CM’s philosophy of narration.
I hope I made sense and didn’t babble on too much for you. I’m VERY new to this, too. I hope you find a way to make it work.
Hi Miranda,
We do everything on a budget here as well. I would encourage you to become best friends with your librarian. Librarians usually love the challenge and — if you explain what “living books” are to her or give her examples and give her your lists — she may be able to hunt the actual books or incredibly great replacements down for you.
All my best,
Richele
There are also many great resources that you can find for free (or a donation) at http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page and also at http://www.mainlesson.com/main/displayarticle.php?article=christmas . These are wonderful resource that may supplement what you are doing or provide a free alternative to some of your subjects. On the baldwin project site you can see some of the ambleside (another CM group) suggestion and also waldorf curriculum. The children and I have really enjoyed the twin series (geography-by lucy fitch perkins) and among the ______ series (nature stories) by Clara Dillingham Pierson. They are fun sites to search through. I am not sure what the legality is when living in Canada with downloading from the sites.
Here’s another one I found through ambleside online http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/ looks as though there are many presidents writings within this site. Well I best be going. I have been over whelmed lately trying to schedule everything, but I keep remembering that God choose me to be the mother of my children and that I am certain that he wants me to home school. The more I read through charlotte mason’s writings the more wisdom I see within and am reassured that this is what God wants me to do. He has called me to this and will provide the means (time, money, patience, materials…..) as long as I am seeking him. Much love, Kalle
Hello Miranda, nothing to add except to say welcome and don’t give up on CM. The free booksites offered up by Kalle are fantastic and when a book on the list is not available, just find a real good living book substitute. Ambleside have lots of things on their website and I use them a lot as well. Just don’t panic, and enjoy the journey. I feel your pain re shipping. Being from England there are lots of things and books I would love to have, but the postage costs more than the goods!! Go figure. Anyway, when I visited I stocked up on books I needed and what I don’t have, I find a substitute for. You can make CM work with just about anything, just get creative. Your children are still really young, and there are lots of fabulous resources out there for free through the various sites that have been mentioned. Take care and welcome to the CM forum. Linda
Thank you all for your help and encouragment! I will be checking out these websites as soon as possible. Can’t wait to see what I find!
Keep your reliance on God, Kalle. I have been struggling with this area ( not doing it all on my own strength) for a while and, being a perfectionist, have ground myself right into the ground ( this is in fact the core reason for my health being what it is). Putting too much pressure on yourself, having unrealistic expectations and thinking that because God has called you to something means He has called you to do it on your own can have very serious and long term effects on your physical health! So,Kalle, I will be praying for you as I pray for myself to NOT be overwhelmed because God is with us all the way, ready to lift us and hold us and give us the strength we need just at the right time…if we will only let him.
Have a good day ladies! -Miranda
Hi Miranda,
We live in Alberta. We have made use of the inter-library loan for books. Also, a good resource for some books is Canadian HOme Education Resources in Calgary. Shipping may not be as bad as from the states. However, it’s strange. I recently ordered some books from amazon.com (states). It was cheaper even with exchange, customs, shipping and taxes factored in than ordering from Chapters with free shipping and my membership discount. Go figure. The exchange rate was fairly decent at the time though.
I would try to make use of the libraries, check out amazon.com (if the exchange rate is decent) and then as a last resort try the canadian home education resources store.
Hi Miranda
i live on Vancouver Island. Shipping is painful, but you know, if you are enrolled, that school should be doing more for you. I won’t get into a long political post here, but I have dealt with Cornerstone in the past and you can PM me if you want some encouragement/ideas on how to handle the enrollment questions. Your funding should be plenty to get what you need for the year, I have had my kids enrolled at one time or another and have been able to work with the school to use other resource places-once they see it saves money all round they are usually happy to comply. Often with DL programs, they just don’t know how to set it up.Drop me a note and let me know how its going. Also, check out Heritage Online School, out of Kelowna, I think. They are great, use Cornerstone and others, and have a great plan to help YOU get what YOU need.
good luck
Heidi
oh, btw, I am doing Egypt this year too, so let me know what books you can’t find, maybe we can share:)
LOL! So thanks for your reply!
It isn’t so much that we are having trouble finding the books online to buy, the trouble comes when we end up having to buy ALL of them. Because, that just gets a little expensive when you need so many. I’m thinking maybe I’ll look into online Libraries. Or, if there are other CMers in the area, a book swap sort of idea? I am still in shock over some of the shipping costs! We had to cancel a couple orders because the shipping was going to be more than twice the amount of the books themselves. $80 on a $35 book order is astounding! Esspecially when you have taken pains to find the cheapest copies available. Plus, I am still not sure why the Okanagan library system doesn’t have a lot of these books. BTW, I am using 106 Days of Creation, Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt and the book lists that go along with those. We have also planned on using the resources recommended in the curriculum guide in Module 1 for most subjects. Thanks so much for your suggestions as ANY help at this point is welcome! I have started thinking I may not be able to use all the books in the curriculum guide. Maybe we will need to get a general idea of the recommended books and then try to find suitable subtitutes with what our library system does have to offer. More work for us but worth it if we can keep using CM. The concern is being able to put in that needed work with my current health situation. I think I may be rambling here…I’m a little frazzled !
I just need to keep it in perspective and trust God to make a way where there is no way! 
. We are trying to work these things out with them so the future goes a little smoother, it’s a process. To say the least! 
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