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Combining grades? Should we back up?
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Ever since I discovered Charlotte Mason and particularly SCM, I have been avidly reading and excitedly trying to plan for the upcoming school year. Since we are new to these methods I don’t know if we should jump in at the grade levels which are 2nd and 3rd or if we should remediate a bit? I also have an infant to add into the mix so we often try to keep the girls together for most subjects since it works well for all of us. IF we tried to do each subject individually we would be lucky to get through just the 3r’s! I am particularly curious about the personal development and English reccommendations. For example would it be a good idea for us to all do English for the Thoughtful Child or do I go ahead and have my 3rd grader do ETC 2 and split them up? Older DD did Queen’s Language Lessons for the Very Young her first grade year and liked it okay. I would just keep doing those with both girls but it seems like it would overlap/ repeat things covered in other parts of the SCM guide.
Also I love the idea of personal development and wondered if it would be okay to have both girls do the grade 1 suggestion instead of doing grades 2 and 3 separately? OR is there something else that would work well? Older daughter is very good at being helpful, keeping on task, and noticing the needs of others, etc, although she is of course human and young and could use some help in other areas. Younger daughter needs much work in obedience and so forth.
Thank you so much for all and any help!
My 11 and 10 year old have done everything except reading on the same level for years. In some I held the 11 year old back a little, and in some I pushed the 10 year old forward a little. Yes, keep your kids together as long as you can. It will work out fine, and will help you so much. I have not used any of the specific resources that you mentioned using so I can’t speak to how those will work out. Generally speaking, though, I would think that it should be just fine to do what you’re proposing. As you already know, when you have a baby to take care of, school needs to be as simple as possible. Just remember, your kids are still really young. School shouldn’t be stressful right now – not for them and not for you.
I have kept my 11 and 12 year olds together as much as possible. When we started we were at 3rd and 4th grade, but we combined history, science, literature read alouds, picture study, nature study, hymn study, poetry, scripture memorization, Shakespeare, grammar, handicrafts, personal development included chores, so we all work on those indivividually with training from me, character development we pretty much did together by studying a habit or virtue together and practising at mastering it together. Really, the only things that are totally seperated are the math and individual readings. One is a strong reader and can figure out math much quicker than the other one (she has an auditory processing disorder).
Hi BraintreeMom,
I agree that it is so helpful to combine as much as possible, especially when there is a new little one in the house. You are going to have so much going on and you are going to need things to be simple and sweet and doable. I would think doing personal development together might be very beneficial.
The only caution I have is regarding ETC … I would only combine here if they are truly at the same level, and even then, only if there is no competition between them.
One thing I have done is alternate days. Maybe Monday and Wednesday, child A gets a few minutes snuggled up next to mom on the couch while we go through a lesson (or maybe only half a lesson, if time is short!), and then Tuesday and Thursday it is child B’s turn. Usually they really look forward to their lessons this way and your time commitment is still manageable.
Just a thought. You know your kids best and you will know just what to do for them. Congrats on the new little one!
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