CM Newbie: Getting Started…Need balance

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  • Vanessa
    Participant

    Help please…I need your perspective and advice with getting started with our school year while learning myself…

    I’m in the midst of preparing to fully use CM in our homeschool (for 3rd & 6th grade) this year. While I am learning CM methods through SCM Blogs and Learning Library, I sometimes feel like I’m keeping myself back for starting our school year because I’m still learning the “ins and outs”…the “how to’s” (I feel like I still have so much more to learn). I’ve been taking plenty of notes, utilizing the Discussion Forum, watching videos, reading blogs, , etc. here on SCM. I feel like I have to know or need to almost everything before we get started. I want to make sure that I implement the methods correctly and effectively (sometimes I am hard on myself and I want to make sure that I balance that out as well). I also feel like I have my kids in limbo…waiting for me to finishing learning and preparing things to get started for this  year.

    How do I balance out learning CM methods  while actually getting our school year started? Can you help me take the pressure off how I can get started without feeling like I have to finish learning almost everything CM :)? Realistically, how long should I give myself to learn the basics and make plans?

    BTW Sonya and Karen I’m loving all of the resources available on SCM! It’s been so helpful in giving me a sense of direction, comfort/peace, and understanding about Charlotte and her methods.

    Thanks!

    Tristan
    Participant

    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!

    jmac17
    Participant

    We did just as Tristan described – start with a few things, and build from there.  Many people who are experienced CM educators still take a few weeks to build up in September before they are on a ‘full’ schedule.

    We started with Nature Study, Music, and art. We just went for a walk and I invited everyone to try to ‘notice’ something new and tell about it. My favourite composer is Tchaikovsky, and my daughter loved to dance, so we started with Nutcracker and Swan Lake. I found a book of Robert Bateman pictures in a used book store, so we looked through that together.

    We already had a habit of reading together, so we continued that and I started to teach narration. Eventually I started including books in all the different subject areas. Then we added a bit of learning to print which progressed to copywork.

    Start where YOU are comfortable, and move forward from there. You don’t have to, and really can’t anyway, do it ‘perfectly’ from the beginning. You’ll learn as you go and understand more as you start to apply the things you’ve read about. Relax and enjoy the journey.

    Morgan Conner
    Participant

    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!

    Vanessa
    Participant

    Thank you Tristan for your insight and suggestions! This will be our 2nd year homeschooling, but this will be our first year fully engaging in CM method. I did touch on it some last year…narration, copywork, dictation (for my 11 yr old).

    From what I’ve read on the responses, seems like you all are starting off a little at time and then gradually adding in. To be honest, I didn’t think about processing it that way…that gives me something to consider and seeing what and how to implement in that manner. I was thinking that I had to implement it all at once reading, math, history, etc. Gradually adding in will be more idealistic and doable.

    Vanessa
    Participant

    Thanks Merryheart5! I like Delectable Education podcast as well! I never heard  of The Mason Jar until now…I started listening today!

    Thanks again!

    Vanessa
    Participant

    Thanks jmaci7! It’s good to know I’m in good company…I was gearing towards starting in September.

    Thanks for the encouragement! I will give myself time to learn…no pressure :).  Advice taken…I will “relax and enjoy the journey”…this is something I have to keep at the forefront of my mind.

    Melissa
    Participant

    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!

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