CM homeschooling in Bangor, UK!

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  • Mindy
    Participant

    Hi everyone,

    I am a mother of two girls (ages: 1,2) and although I casually looked into homeschooling as an option a couple of years ago, this year I seriously began to do more research.  Whilst I have read about the legalities of homeschooling in the UK, the one thing that I had not quite considered was the method or approach I would use.  During my search for inspiration from homeschooling blogs I was sure about one thing: I wanted to implement something that would be simple, natural and compliment our family life.  I honestly can’t recall how I came across Charlotte Mason, but something aroused my curiosity.

    The first thing that caught my attention was that Miss Charlotte Mason was born only fifteen minutes away by car from where I reside, well for now anyway!  Yes, Charlotte Mason was born in Bangor, North Wales UK.  I must clarify that I do not actually live in Bangor itself, but it is literally on my doorstep. So, learning this initial bit of information I knew I wanted to find out more and I have been pleasantly surprised.

    What attracted me most about Charlotte Mason was that, unlike many other methods I came across, she places great emphasis on nature as well as many values and principles that we follow, but most importantly, she highlights the importance of the child’s relationship with God.  Now, I am aware that many of the CM homeschool blogs I have come across are Christian families  and that Miss Mason came from a Christian background, however, for myself as a practising Muslim that’s okay because much of what Charlotte Mason advocated compliments the teachings of my faith regarding the education of children, especially nurturing their relationship with and understanding of their Creator.

    Eventually, I happened to stumble upon SCM and I also managed to get kindle versions of the CM series from Ambleside online.  I am really in the very early stages of beginning to learn and understand what CM was all about and the more I read about her and the CM method, the more I can see it fulfilling my criteria of finding something that feels natural, is simple and compliments our family life.

    To say that she was British, I am surprised that I had never heard of her nor was I aware of the influence of her philosophy and education methods in the UK.  That is unfortunate for us Brits.  Suffice it to say, I am not having much luck in finding homeschooling groups that use the CM method in my region or nationally, but I can see it’s popular in North America and I can understand why.

    As impressed as I am about my new discovery on this young homeschooling journey, I must admit I also find it overwhelming and, quite naturally, I will have many questions for which SCM will be an invaluable help I’m sure.

    So on that note, I will be frequenting the forum as often as I can and need to in the hope that other CM homeschoolers here will be able to offer advice and tips.  Until then, best wishes from me here in the CM territory of Bangor! 🙂

     

    Carole
    Participant

    Just wanted to say a quick hello from a fellow UK mama (Oxfordshire)!  My daughter is three next week and we are planning to homeschool her following the CM method.  Like you I’m still learning a lot about Charlotte but am already completely in love with her and her ideals, it is such a natural approach amd I particularly love the gentle style of the early years.  I’ve recently purchased the e-books of The Early Years SCM and SCM Laying Down the Rails Handbook and can’t wait to get stuck into them for a better background and gudielines of getting started.

    Have you joined the UK Charlotte Mason facebook group I find it a great source of useful advice and suggestions, and so nice to see that others from the UK are following the same path, like you I am amazed really that we have learnt of this great lady from our American friends rather than her being part of our history already, having said that I’m so grateful for the american support groups for their advice and love love SCM!

    Hope this makes sense and posts ok, this is my first SCM forum post and I’m still getting the hang of it, I think there is normally a search post which is not working at the moment but I look forward to being able to make contact with more of our UK fellow home schools mums too. x

    Mindy
    Participant

    Hi Carole,

    It’s so nice to read your post and to know about other UK CM homeschooling mums.

    I’ve been thinking about purchasing the Early Years and Laying Down the Rails books, how much did they cost you in pound sterling?  I recently purchased Catherine Levison’s CM homeschool how-to manual and I’m still waiting to receive For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.  I’ve also managed to get CM’s series (the 6 volumes) on kindle so I’m also trying to read through that.

     

    I didn’t know about the UK CM facebook group so I will definitely have a look at that.

    How are you finding it with scheduling and planning your CM homeschooling for your 3 year old and what sort of things are you focusing on?

    I’m currently at the stage where I have an idea of what I would like to do but am finding the whole planning and scheduling process a bit overwhelming and daunting.

    Hope to learn more about your experiences!

     

    Carole
    Participant

    Hi again, ah we are very like minds then as I read the Catherine Levison book quite recently too and my copy of ‘For the Children’s Sake’ arrived yesterday!  To get the ebooks of ‘laying down the rails’ and the ‘early years handbook’ cost me just over £19 and  the link arrived to download the pdf’s straight after ordering.  I really want to get the accompanying dvd’s too (and the living and learning ones) but am going to have to do some serious saving for the shipping costs!  Have you seen any of SCM videos on this site and also on youtube?  I love Sonya Shafer’s teaching style and find her so straight forward to follow and very inspiring.

    I’m starting to read through the original CM series on kindle as well and might try and get a second hand physical copy too, have you seen the modern day versions on the AO website?  They’re quite helpful sometimes as well. I have also purchased the Penny Gardener study guide (e-book purchasable from her website and delivered by email for the grand cost of just over £3 so well worth a look as I’ve seen good reviews of it and there are two versions..original and secular).

    It’s still quite early days for us in terms of planning and scheduling (I’m a list maker at heart so like the idea of getting organised even if it doesn’t always happen).  At the moment I’m aiming to concentrate on loads of lovely picture and story books as we already do this and add in nature study (my daughter loves being outside so hopefully this won’t be too hard to develop as the weather improves and I’ve purchased some RSPB nature guides to help me swot up on things to point out to her), and also work on habit training..I think as mum’s we do this naturally but I’d like a more ordered approach and some words of advice when we struggle so I’m hoping that ‘laying down the rails’ will help here.  Other than that I think at this age it’s all about keeping things casual and going slowly rather than trying to rush (I like Charlotte’s notion of ‘masterly inactivity’) oh and we try to do craft as well which i hope will form the basis for handicrafts at a later date.

    I think we’re lucky to have found such a lovely method while our daughters are young so that we can learn alongside them and have the early years to make our own plans about the later stages.

    Trying to work out how to send you my email address so we could keep in touch (if you like?), can’t see how to do a personal message though but will keep trying, hope to hear back from you.

    p.s the fbook group is called Charlotte Mason Conversations UK, if you join you can find me on the members list (I think I’m the only carole), there is also a charlotte mason the early years group (not specifically a UK group but very helpful). X

    Mindy
    Participant

    Hey Carole,

    Thanks for the useful information.  I received my copy of FTCS on Thursday, so I have started to read it.  I can’t emphasise enough how taking some time out for doing my own personal reading has become a luxury! I wonder if other mums have had this problem.

    Anyway, I have seen the AO website which is quite helpful too.  I can’t remember now where i downloaded my kindle versions of the CM series.

    As for planning, I USED to be quite good at organising a timetable or writing up a list of things to do, but nowadays any attempt to do any sort of plan or timetable just doesn’t seem to work.  I suppose it could be due to the fact that babies and toddlers are so spontaneous.

    It would be nice to keep in contact, i can pm you via the fb group, i think you’re the one with the cute little redhead girl 🙂 if so let me know and i’ll  contact you that way.

    🙂

    Carole
    Participant

    Ah yes I know only too well how hard it is to find the time to read these days, it’s difficult enough with one child let alone two, in some ways I think maybe I appreciate those moments to myself more as there are fewer of them but I would definitely like a bit more time sometimes, I used to read all the time but it’s a bit more difficult now.

    Yes that’s my facebook profile, we are both wearing blue tops and I have shoulder length brown hair.

    Babies and toddlers certainly have a knack of disrupting a schedule don’t they, I find Holly works best with a structure and routine but of course often she works to her  own plans more than mine haha.

    How are you finding ‘For The Children’s Sake’? We’re away for a few days from tomorrow so am taking it with me to get started, look forward to hearing what you think of it.

    Will look out for a message on facebook.

    Chat soon x

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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