CM Newbie: Getting Started…Need balance

It can be overwhelming when we feel like we need to have everything nailed down and organized before we begin! I usually say start small, but start. What areas do you think you are ready to try? Do those first, for a week or two, then add another area or two, and so on. Here is a simple example:

Week 1: I think I’m ready for history because I’m comfortable reading aloud great books. So we start reading aloud 1 book as a family. I also hand each child a book appropriate to their ability to read related to our history time period. So if we were doing Early American history I might read aloud a chapter most days from Stories of America Volume 1 (available by SCM). My 6th grader would read a chapter a day in The Sign of the Beaver while my 3rd grader would look through Tapenaum’s Day with me over the week, then Sarah Morton’s Day the next week, etc.

I decide that after each reading, or during it, I will have the kids take turns narrating (telling back) their history reading. If they need a bit of prompting I could ask something like “What did you think when ______ did ________?” Or “What was one thing that happened in the story today?”

I may also decide for this first week that I feel comfortable adding in copywork and picture study. So Tuesday we look at a painting in a library book I got (or the Picture Study Portfolio’s by SCM). Nothing major, we look at it, then turn it over and see if we can tell all about it, then we can turn it back over and check to see if there is anything else we didn’t notice the first time. On M/W/F we do copywork, a line or sentence each day from a poem we found. (Wait! That doubles as poetry study if we read the poem on Monday together too.)

Week Two: We keep up copywork with the same poem or a new one, we keep reading in history and narrating, we look at another picture. But this week I decide to also add in math and nature study. Math we just follow our curriculum. Nature study happens with a simple walk to explore our backyard this week.

You get the idea!

I started trying to move to full CM in January but I had a lot to learn! I listened to every Delectable Education podcast twice, The Mason Jar podcast, and lots of Sonya’s stuff! I am all in now and loving it!

I agree with Tristan. Start with what you feel most comfortable with and build up from there. I started with nature study (and have since tweaked it to become even more in line with CM’s teachings). Then I started with art, music, hymn, recitation stuff (again tweaking as I learned more). Then history, followed by all the language arts, and finally-math!

I imagine I will continue to tweak things as I learn more about her methods. I began reading her first volume and it’s so much better to learn straight from her own writings!

Yes, start small like Tristan said!
This is the start of our third year homeschooling, our second year using almost entirely SCM. My confidence builds a little more each year, resting in the fact that our little home school doesn’t look like anyone else’s and that’s ok.

I like the lesson plans that SCM offers (Bible/History/Geography and Enrichments) but I don’t feel like I have to do every single thing in the exact order specified (I don’t think Sonya would want that, either!).

I tend to want to get everything “just right” before I dive in, too, so I can relate to your feelings, Vanessa.

I suggest that you do a few things today and a few things tomorrow, especially if your kids are eager to get started–how wonderful! 🙂

Just an added thought, because I just got back from taking my daughter to a doctor’s appointment. I am so pleased to be home educating my kids (we didn’t used to), especially using CM methods because of the concept of creating an atmosphere of learning. During that car ride my daughter and I talked about a hawk she saw with her dad, what hawks eat, what mammals are, what those cattails are on the side of the road (she said they looked like hot dogs), read a book in the waiting room, etc., etc. It’s so cool how learning just “happens” and not always because we have it all planned out and perfectly orchestrated. God is sovereign! Let’s trust Him as we faithfully pursue educating these kids!