Choosing a curriculum

Tagged: ,

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • August 11, 2011 at 12:51 am
    michelle24
    Member

    Hello everyone,  I am in desperate need of assistance. Cry  I am currently searching for a christian based curriculum for my 9 year old.  I am tired of the silly story with nonsence writing assignments and fairytale literature.  Then I came across CM and read her philosophy… It has a christian perspective to it….How are the books n assignments?  Are they character building with real life problems?  Thank you for your info in advance. Smile

    August 11, 2011 at 2:25 am
    sheraz
    Participant

    Michelle,

    If you could be a little more specific, we could answer your questions better.  What curriculums are you looking at?  Has your dd been in PS?  Do you want a boxed curriculum or do you want to plan and choose your own curriculum?  (It is not near as hard as it sounds and might make you very happy!)  There are lots of experienced people who could help if we knew a little more.  =)  What do you know about CM methods – I mean what have you read?  That might help too.

    CM has the children doing oral and written narrations about the books and things they were assigned to do.  And since you are the teacher, as such would choose her books, thus eliminating the nonsense (twaddle) stuff.  This lets you pick the character building books.  =)

    I like SCM suggested curriculum for most of my stuff.  I do tweak it to fit our situation better, but that is not hard and is done with all curriculums.

     

    August 11, 2011 at 2:31 am
    Rachel White
    Participant

    Remember, CM is more of a philosophy than a curriculum; a way of life.

    Rachel

    August 11, 2011 at 5:29 am
    michelle24
    Member

    I am looking to come up with a good 4th grade language arts curriculum… Where writing, grammar, spelling n all that good stuff is taught…i wouldn’t mind building my own, but I tried that last year n it was a total disaster… I don’t want something that teaches my kids fairytales, myths or non of that.  I am looking for something that teaches them the fundamentals with real life experiences, bible stories, n things they can relate to real life.  I have looked at “my father’s world, shurley english (or something like that)and a few others (I don’t even remember where I’ve searched since I’ve looked at so many places), but most of them involved all these things that I don’t want.. they do have some good stuff, but in order for me to get that I have to buy the whole package n therefore end up wasting money. 

     

    August 11, 2011 at 1:24 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    Well, my FIRST choice at that age is simply quality literature combined with copywork, dictation and narration.  But if you really want a curriculum that is put together, have you ever looked at Total Language Plus?  They have guides set up around quality novels.  They are from a Christian perspective, and cover comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.  We have used a few of these.  These guides are not perfectly CM; I modify them quite a bit myself to focus more on dictation when I use them.  Other language arts programs popular with CM-style educators are the ones like Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons or Queen’s Language Lessons for the Elementary Child; these cover things like narration, copywork, dictation, poetry, grammar.  There are good dictation (for spelling work) exercise books here at SCM.  If you are REALLY interested in langage arts in a CM style, then there is an excellent book here at SCM called Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing that is a handbook for setting up language arts following CM ideas.  What went badly last year when you designed your own?  Is there something we could help you with?  Do you need suggestions for literature to read also?

    August 11, 2011 at 2:38 pm
    maynegirl
    Member

    I agree with Bookworm. Take a look at Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing. The Three R’s by Ruth Beechick also gives good guidance in how & why to teach language arts in the CM (or Beechick calls it the “natural”) style in the section on writing. This way you tailor the lessons to your child using literature that you choose and addressing only spelling words and grammar issues that present themselves in his or her copywork and dictation. When you choose passages from great living books that you are already reading together for history or literature, the lessons are interconnected and can reinforce each other in the student’s mind.

    August 11, 2011 at 2:59 pm
    kymom
    Member

    I am new to CM and home schooling, like you, I did much research and decdided on  Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I love it! It’s gentle and we can move at our own pace. We are starting Farmer Boy. My oldest hates to read so we sit together, both my 8 and 10 year old boys and each reads one paragraph then I take over.  We take turns like this for a few paragraphs then stop for the day. We never spend more than 10 or 15 minutes reading because we are working on the habit of attention.

    I have simply grammar that my youngest (he is 8.5)  is doing but it’s more of a review because he “learned it” in Montessori school Due to his age, according to CM, he really doesn’t have to do any grammar or LLATL at all. But he enjoys it so I allow him to participate as he pleases.

    For writting and spelling we use Spelling Wisdom. LOVE IT! I will never do it any other way : )

    Hope this helps.

    Becky

    August 11, 2011 at 8:15 pm
    michelle24
    Member

    thank you so much for your imput…It really encourages to c how many people r doing homeschool n how it works for them… It makes me feel that I can do it also..Last year I tried to take a spelling book, one of those store bought 3rd grade grammar book, and come up with lessons n activities of my own…it it felt like I wasn’t teaching what I was supposed to… I felt disorganized and frustrated for not knowing what i was going to do the next day..I definitely don’t want to go through that again! I will take a look at the suggestions you have provided for me…It is a big help…thank you all!Smile

    August 11, 2011 at 9:24 pm
    suzukimom
    Participant

    Hey Michelle,

    In general, I think you could benefit from looking at the curriculum guide here, and also the “planning your CM Education”.

    I don’t have a grade 4 student yet – but I think that doing Spelling Wisdom (from here – teaches spelling but also teaches indirectly grammar and writing) – and adding in great literature (like from the curriculum guide) – and possibly adding in “Grammarland” by Nesbit if you want more formal grammar would work wonderfully for you!

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘Choosing a curriculum’ is closed to new replies.