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Do you follow the curriculum guide?
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I am beginning to plan our school next school year and I really love the curriculum on this site and so far the CMmethod has lessened my homeschooling stress significantly!
But a friend gave me a box of homeschool products she was done using or never used and they look great and I am tempted to try and incorporate them into our day or week somehow but I don’t want to stress myself out.
There were lots of text books and handwriting work books for my almost 6 year old, but she already copies right from the bible or poetry to practice writing and I like that very well.
Another one of the books is called “Learn at Home” and it is a full curriculum hitting on each subject and it is all planned out for you for 36 weeks and I am tempted to try it but we don’t follow the traditional public school calender and it seems the book does, and I’d have to purchase additional books and materials to supplement. The idea of that kind of bother me. Still, I wonder if I shouldn’t try using these items or if I should just pass them along.
Back to my original question 🙂 Do you follow the SCM curriculum guide and if so how closely? Do you ever use other curriculums or products just because they interest you?
To answer your question, yes, for the most part we follow many of the suggestions in SCM Curriculum Guide. I like how flexible it is; that there are often times choices. It is more about following the method than anything. We do all of the subjects to some extent but in a way that works for our family. I have added a few things here and there as I think you will find many on here as eclectic and not pure cm. I think the simplicity of it is why it works for us and has room to add where you want to. Of course it is always good for you to pray about God’s will for your family’s school.
We also follow the guide pretty closely. I do make some changes, but try to stick to CM-friendly materials and avoid over-loading my DC with too much (which can be difficult at times)! The changes we do make have been carefully considered, and even prayed about as well.
Personally, I would look through the materials and pass on any that I didn’t see us using. I just received a bunch of materials from a retired PS teacher. I may keep a couple, but I plan on passing the majority of them on. Many of my friends use a “school-at-home” approach and would probably really appreciate them.
At six I’d be very hesitant to add anything to the guided curriculum. Last year we did follow the guide exactly for Mod. 1 History, Art, Composer, Literature, Copywork, and read through Burgess’s Book of Animals. It was AMAZING. We had so much freedom to be outside, work on doing our chores with exellence, and free play. My kids would build mastubas from tinkertoys and draw the animals described in Burgess’s book in thier free time. This year we will follow it pretty closely but substituting some of the artists (we are using SCM portfolios) and composers that fit a curriculum I feel is CM in style (Color the Godly Composers). I love their literature choices!!
I think there is this idea that we need to add in as much as we can, that we as homeschoolers have something to prove and we can get ourselves in trouble with good intentions and overwhelm our children. SCM guides gives me relief as a teacher to see how short but complete a lesson can be, how varied the subjects can be without sitting at a table all day.
I’d be careful at six to not overload. I know it’s tempting with so many options, but I’ve learned after many years that ‘less is more.’ If you like the SCM guide, I would just add or supplement things mainly if it replaces something else. I wouldn’t add a bunch of extra work. So, if you have living history books not listed by SCM swapping those out would be easy. Or if you want to study a different artist or composer based on what you have. Or use different living science books, etc. Just my .02, but I’ve come to really value simplicity and following the SCM history guides pretty much as written has added peace to our school. We do add some things, like for 7th we’ve started logic and will add lit analysis, and we choose to use writing programs. But at six I don’t think I’d add anything:) Blessings, Gina
I agree with the above posts. Also, if you want to have a CM home school then keeping items that may not fit the method may just steer you away from what you really want. And, just having the item/s there may cause guilt in not using them. At six, I would definitely follow the SCM guide, adding in what is interesting to your dc, and figure it out along the way without the “school at home” material to muddy the waters.
And, to answer your question, I use the SCM guide as a framework using many of the suggestions and materials from SCM. I usually use what I already have on hand for things like poetry/art/composer/hymn but have purchased the SCM art portfolios too.
HTH
Donate the things to Book Samaritan. They will bless a homeschooling family that needs help and would really like them.
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