Feeling daunted by this method…or in general

I still sing hymns and other songs with my kids. Fun folk and kids songs. And they still do finger paints and play dough and coloring and craft things too. It’s not all “just books”! (although I wouldn’t mind). 🙂 if I was in your situation I would take my kiddos to the library and let them pick out a few books to bring home and then when it was time to read I would either read one of his and one of mine, or one of his this time and one of mine next time. And by ‘one of mine’, it might just be one chapter depending on the book. I still do that with my DS4. And before you know it he will be asking you to read more of it.

Good luck and Gods Blessings.

Relax.  CM does not mean you can’t read stories with great pictures (he’s 6 after all!) or colour, cut and paste and make crafts and all the rest.  You should make sure your schedule has lots of variety and opportunity for creative outlet, but try to steer towards purposeful crafts or beautiful lapbooks.  There are tons of free templates online that you can make together on just about any topic you wish, if you are so inclined (my boys are NOT the cut and paste type).  You might let him draw a picture about the story you are reading while you read.  You can listen to an audio book and draw together.  Colouring pages about a Bible, history or science topic can help you to help him focus instead of just sitting beside you grumbling.  Try to do many of your lessons outside when the weather allows.  Gather pinecones or pebbles for manipulatives for a math lesson under a tree.  Got a sandy beach nearby or even a sand box?  Use a stick to write letters or words or do math problems in the wet sand.  Even boys like to dress up, they just would rather be pirates or superheros or cowboys or aliens.  Give him a costume or prop and encourage him to act out a scene it what you read together.  Boys tend to be especially busy and need to move around a lot.  Make that work for you by thinking outside the box a bit.  Don’t spend your whole school day sitting on the couch reading or at the table writing.  Try to include a fun picture book in your day, too. 

Don’t be afraid of “girly titles” at this age.  My boys loved Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden as a read aloud.  We might even read Little Women this year as a read aloud.  You may need to do a bit of pre-reading-advertizement by mentioning a few of the more exciting points throughout the book. 

Why can’t he make a few popsicle and construction paper crafts?  Why can’t you sing kids songs and church songs? Why can’t you read books with pictures?  Why can’t he celebrate being young?  That is why CM is a philosophy and a method, not a set in stone “you will fail your child if he is not reading Plutarch when he is eight” curriculum.  You’ll get there.  For what it is worth:

Start with a few fun things like that to help him transition and K will be a pleasant memory.  He will adjust faster then you will. =) My kiddos did.  Sometimes I still feel a pang of “what ifs” about things like that from PS, but my kids don’t.  They will talk about the memories, but when I ask they overwhelming want to stay home.   

There are plenty of ways to incorporate the interesting, hands-on approach in a CM education.  I tend to agree with CM on the pointless projects that have no purpose, but you can use them as a transition to a more handicraft type thing.  Let him make a few of those paper and stick projects to decorate the house.  Pretty soon both of you will understand what you both want and need in that direction.  Based on my experience, that sort of need disappears when “real” life is abundant in our homeschools.  Crafts have a purpose – he can learn a skill, share it with someone, and it can met a real need emotionally for some people. 

Read lots of picture stories too.  He is still pretty little, and can enjoy the best of both worlds.  

I let my kids color sometimes while we listen to stories.  They seem to focus better – for example, I printed out Alice in Wonderland pictures for my littles to color while we read it aloud.  Making playdough characters of stories we read work too.

Find coloring pictures or other pictures of the people, creatures, or places you are reading about and let him create something with them.  He can color, make collages of the people or places in history, let him color the timeline or BOC figures, make a bug collection of his nature study pictures, etc.  

Have him draw his narration while you read the story or chapter.  I found when we first started learning how to do narrations that they learned and remembered more this way.  Using a variety of colored pencils helped make it fun.

Go on lots of nature study trips and walks during PS hours.  If you happen to drive by the school mention that if he were there, he’d be at a desk instead of singing kids songs on his way to a really cool field trip. lol  

Plan several unusual places for field trips that are new to him.

We sing all kinds of music.  CM just thought that they should be exposed to and learn to appreciate quality, beauty, and enriching things – including hymns.  As long as you are exposing him to those things that support those ideals on a regular basis and aren’t overdoing the mindless, un-inspiring things, it won’t hurt him.  We love to sing silly things around here – and we love our classical music now, too. =)  

There is a time and a place for everything.  Allowing some of these things will ease him into your higher goals without alienating his interest, making your entire life happier.

Most has been answered from posters above. About hymns, my DS 6 and DD 7 attend the children’s choir in church. It is a great and fun way for them to learn traditional and modern hymns with friends. At home we just sing the songs they learned in choir during the day, while coloring, cooking, just randomly. With the handicrafts and arts, honestly I think most times we Moms dread the change to creative art more then our kids ;). Like others said before, you do not need to burn all the coloring books and foam stickers, I still keep them around for keeping the little fingers busy one in a while. But I also have to say, the more my children got offered creative arts and crafts, the less they desire ” mindless” ones. They learn really fast that creating your own, may it be a drawing or clay model, is so much more rewarding!

Blessings Christine

Just wanted to add that you may hear all about how wonderful k was for a bit, but that goes away. My son went to a preschool for a year and a bit. To him, that was school – playing with cool toys etc. He also only remembered the year he loved it, not the bit of the next year that he hated before we pulled him out. Add in tv shows glorifying school ( to prepare kids to go) and people asking him how he was liking k etc…. Well, it made him confused, and missing it.

I would point out benefits. We would go play in the school playground, and he would see how short the recess was. I’d casually mention the kids sitting in desks at school. It also helped, around grade 2, when my grandson (the same age) started not liking school, and would verify the sitting at desks etc. now the grandson is jealous.

It will pass.