Help!

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  • February 25, 2023 at 5:26 am
    nancefarmfamily
    Participant

    Please offer some guidance…

    I feel like we have tried every curriculum under the sun since we began HS 3 years ago.  The only thing we have completed more than 12 weeks in is SCM and Rod and Staff.  We have been tweaking trying to meet the needs of my oldest and have finally found his groove.  He’s high school aged now and mostly independent.  However, I now need to focus on our 3 youngest (9, 7, and 5) and find theirs.  All 3 do a fairly good job with living books and narration.  They really enjoy SCM so we are probably going with it for History/Bible/Geography.  Math will be Rod & Staff.  Riches from AO because they are low cost/free and I am on a budget. I am struggling with the LA portion though…my husband and I both appreciate the thoroughness of R&S however the length of lessons don’t fit our life.  Has anyone found a way to combine CM philosophy with R&S?  I know SCM offers LA and would be willing to try it but hubby isn’t convinced…so any good testimonies would be helpful as well.  TIA

    February 26, 2023 at 6:14 am
    Ruralmama
    Participant

    Well we used rod and staff English this year for 4th and 6th and did not find it time consuming…..I do it like this. Read the lesson in the student book to the child. Have them do the oral drill right then orally with me. This lets me see if they get it. Then I assign most to all of the written practice but not usually the review or challenge sections. If they need something from review I often cut out some of the practice. I usually spend 10-15 min per child.

    Writing lessons take longer. Sometimes those get split up over 2-3 days. We skip reviews and tests. We sometimes skip other lessons or go through 2 in a day doing 1 all orally. The kids actually like Rod and Staff this year;)

    We were doing My Father’s World Language Lessons for Today. It is more CM, and I like it for 2-3 grades. I didn’t like the looks of rod and Staff 2 as well. So, my 2nd grader is going to try cottage Press 2nd grade next year (and hopefully 3rd then Rod and Staff 4 in 4th). If I don’t have the funds for it I would have done 2 yrs of language lessons for today and then gone into Rod and Staff 4.

    Another thought my 6th grader is working a year behind. I’ve heard some families do that for all kids….place the kids so it’s not too hard. Also I want mine reading and writing well before beginning Rod and Staff. That’s the reason for the CM style language arts in 2 and 3 grades.

    I tried SCM language and it was not a fit for me or the kids and didn’t take less time….fwiw;)

    We like the SCM history also. Have used it for years. Also we use the copy work and handwriting and some enrichment stuff and science.

    Blessings

     

     

    February 27, 2023 at 5:19 pm
    Mamatoto
    Participant

    I highly recommend reading the entire SCM guide “Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing,” which details the entire language arts scope/sequence and methods used by Charlotte Mason.  You can read the introductory chapters by downloading the free sample.  If you look at the contents page, you can see how the remaining chapters are set up (by method).  Any method listed under Integrated Method (see pages 5 and 15 of the download), you can utilize with your SCM history/geography/Bible lessons (including written narration/composition).  This requires no extra time on anybody’s part, just an actute awareness of the methods.  For those methods listed under Specific Lanuage Arts Lessons, I found the SCM beginning reading, copywork/transcription, poetry, and Shakespeare EXTREMELY thorough. My son did not connect with SCM’s Using Language Well (grammar and spelling/dictation), so we do Winston Basic Grammar for grammar portion (5 minutes 3 times a week) and my own thing for spelling/dictation.  (I found the SCM dictation exercises got too complicated too quick.)  I am not familiar with Rod and Staff language arts, but is it something you can just pull out only the spelling/dictation portions and ignore the rest?  Just reading the entire book “Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing” will likely give you all the know-how and confidence to pull out any one or two particular “language arts subjects” from another curriculum and do them in a CM way.  Looking at what many of my non-CM friends use, they spend WAY more time doing WAY more “subjects” than we do, and typically have less impressive results than we do using CM’s methods, scope, and sequence.  Best of luck figuring out a way to make things work for your family!!

    February 27, 2023 at 8:26 pm
    Ruralmama
    Participant

    I 2nd hearing telling reading and writing book. I have it too.

    We use rod and staff mostly for grammar. We do it a bit more than some perhaps….probably 15- 20 min 4x a week. Like I said we do some oral and skip some….I do count copying the sentences out of it as (not as high quality admittedly) writing and copying work for my dyslexic 6th grader. I do some writing lessons along with or instead of written narrations. With 5 almost 6 kids sometimes I need something scripted more for me ….. written narrations are great though…I just have t o plan them.

    February 28, 2023 at 4:31 am
    nancefarmfamily
    Participant

    Thank you ladies for sharing so much!  It definitely gives me some guidance and perspective!

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