cm is not hard enough

This thread is really good and I love the points the ladies have made. I just want to point out a couple of things that may help you get a handle on all this.

First, are you organized about their school day and what is supposed to occur when? One of the primary principles of CM is the habit of attention and it helps tremendously to focus on this habit at the beginning of the year. For us, that means that we have an order of operations for our school day, and I have to correct or remove a child who is distracted or is causing distraction. Even doodling on the side of a page is distraction and it is important to help the child learn to concentrate on their work, even if it is only 5 or 10 minutes at a time at first.

On the other hand, you do NOT want to helicopter teach. You don’t want them to be dependent on you teaching each and every subject. Another of the great principles of CM is that the child should learn to create a direct relationship with living ideas and gradually will be able to teach themselves. Getting over-involved is a big no-no. She saw it as the teacher coming between the author and the student and preventing the student from forming his own thoughts/ideas.

So how does that look in every day life?

Well, in our home, we start with Family time. This time is for Bible study and prayer, hymn study, poetry, composer and artist study, and map drill. We do Bible study and the hymn daily, but the other subjects we rotate throughout the week.

Next, the kids move into their individual study time: Math, Language Arts, Foreign Language, journaling get done during this time.

We finish these subjects by lunch and take a lunch/chore/play time until 1:30. Any child who did not finish morning work must complete it in the time that his siblings are playing.

Afternoon is reserved for History, Science, and Literature (read aloud by mom with oral narrations for younger students – independently read with written narrations for older students).

We are done with school by 3 at the very latest. Independent reading/quiet time is from 3-4. This is where ‘spreading the feast’ of desirable and interesting books really pays off. If your children learn to love high quality reading material, then your battle is half over.

Friday afternoons are reserved for Nature study, science experiments, and sometimes field trips.

I know this isn’t exactly what you asked for as it addresses the time management aspect rather than the difficulty, but I hope it is helpful. It is certainly not the only way to organize your day, but just one example of how to ‘get it all done’.

I would HIGHLY recommend SCM’s All Day Seminar DVD. It helped me so much to figure out what to teach and how to teach – and to release the feelings of being overwhelmed in our school.

One option you might consider is setting up your 16 year olds schedule that is independent of the younger kids.  I know that this is not the greatest plan, but you might need to make some adjustments for your family situation.  Get some quality books that fit your 16 year old and create an independent schedule for him, and let him go at it.  Then, spend some more time concentrating on creating a “schedule” with the youngers ones with respect as the first character trait.  Respect for God first, then you, then siblings.  (Your oldest son should also be included on this portion, though.) Create a schedule, use a timer for each subject, and include the ones you feel most comfortable doing for now.  Maybe once you become more comfortable, you can add in other “extras”.  Stick to the schedule so that your kids can see the benefits of paying attention and working hard-the afternoon for more outdoor time or crafts or whatever.

I would also be willing to “talk” via email or phone if you want.  I am BY NO MEANS an expert, but I would love to help you get started and experience the beauty of homeschooling this way. 

Also, a book that I read early on that was so helpful is called “For the Children’s Sake”  an easy read and introduction to CM.  Very inspiring and may be helpful to just understand a bit more and inspire you!!

http://www.amazon.com/For-Childrens-Sake-Foundations-Education/dp/1433506955

To the OP – CM is not a curriculum that you can do, it is a total paradigm shift in what education is. It sounds like you need some serious habit training to deal with attitudes and behavior before you will see much difference with the academics. I doubt you will see desired progress if you continue on hearsay and such. Charlotte Mason said, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” Perhaps starting with the free e-books here would help you. I pray you’re able to make some important changes that will be a blessing to your family. Two books that may be of benefit re. relationships and behavior are Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends and Boyhood and Beyond. I would start with heart issues before worrying over how or what to teach.

Blessings,

Christie

For your 16 year old, I recommend reading SCM’s blog series on highschool the CM way. A 16 year old student is doing much more than an elementary age child. Written narrations can become more indepth and you can ask them essay-type questions. They can compare and contrast different characters or points of view presented in a book, for example. Again, the SCM blog has some wonderful posts about the nuts and bolts of narration.

I also agree with Christie-I would focus on attitudes before academics. I’ll be praying for you and your family today.

Charlotte assigned copywork in the lower grades and began using dictation along side copywork in the 4th grade. She used these exercises to teach spelling. If you look under the learning library in articles, there is a nice article on spelling the Charlote Mason way. If it were my daughter, I would use copywork and dictation and the queen’s language lessons. I think I would leave off the rest except for the 106 days of Creation, it being science/nature study and not language arts.

Your six year old’s schedule looks fine. I’m not sure about Explode the Code. Once my kids know how to read, we stop phonics instruction so I never used it.

Why are you using two spelling programs for your 12 year old? Does he like the Queen’s Language Lessons? Is he learning anything from them? Is he enjoying the Zoology 2 book? If he is complaining that school work is too easy, I would give him something more challenging for grammar and science.

I’m not a huge fan of Queen Homeschool Supply’s upper level material. I think I would scrap the vocab and the language arts and find something more challenging for the 16 year old-especially since he’s complaining it’s too easy. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a great book and a good place to start. I would increase the difficulty of his literature books as the year goes on and challenge him a bit with a couple of more advanced selections. Everything else looks great to me (not that my opinion means a hill of beans!).

You don’t have to tie picture study in with your history. You can just choose an artist that you think your family would enjoy and start there. We don’t tie in our composer and artist studies. The book of centuries should help your children to make the connections.