Help getting organized

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  • February 15, 2012 at 4:48 am
    faiths13
    Participant

    Hi! I recently found the CM love and I have kind of just thrown myself into it. I want to get more organized though and I would love some help. I just got the ‘Planning Your CM Education’ book, but I need a little more help. I am trying to coordinate things for the next year.

    So I want to try to make things go together. I was thinking of starting with history and then having things go along with it – books we read, learning about science of that age, geography of the different parts of the world we read about, classic literature about the time, composer and artists study from the period. Im not sure if that is a good idea or not though.

    Also, I do not know where to start for history. We did Ancients last year because someone gave us the Story of the World Vol 1 and I knew nothing of CM or classic education. I would really like to keep my two oldest children on the same history schedule to make things easier. (11 & 13) Should I just move on to Middle Ages, or re do Ancients more in depth now that I know what I am doing?

    Also, I am still a little worried about grammar. We haven’t done any formal grammar since starting with CM style. We are mostly reading lots of books – classics, history, etc. And we are doing copywork, narration and I want to do dictation. Should I add in more formal grammar?

    Thanks!

    February 15, 2012 at 5:07 am
    suzukimom
    Participant

    Don’t try to force everything together.  There are time periods where there are tonnes of things in that age, and times when there is hardly anything.  Also, if you do, for example art, to match the time period – most of the pictures will be very similar between the artists – making it harder to make a connection of identify with them.   If they keep a good Book of Centuries, they will start to place people in history.

    I would continue with the next time period instead of redoing.  You also mentioned keeping your 2 oldest children on the same schedule – if you have more children, keep them all on the same schedule.

    Can’t comment on the grammar, as my kids are younger.

    hth some!

    February 15, 2012 at 3:57 pm
    missceegee
    Participant

    I ditto Suzukimom.

    Do not try to force connections. A book of centuries will tie things together without being forced or driving you crazy trying to piece it all together. I also recommend moving on to the next time period and keeping ALL of your children together as much as possible. The SCM curriculum guide or the book All Through The Ages make this fairly simple.

    Many like Analytical Grammar or Junior Analytical Grammar. We’re using Winston Grammar and it’s very simple and effective.

    Hope that helps,

    Christie

    February 15, 2012 at 5:08 pm
    chocodog
    Participant

    If you are looking to organize you may want to try looking up workboxes by Sue Patrick. She has some good ideas on organizing school stuff. I am not sure if that is the question you are asking or not but I found it alot easier to organize my day. I don’t do it exactly like sue does either. If you google the workbox system you will find several different ideas but the basic idea is sue patricks. If this is the route you are going then you can get it threw your inner-library loan. That is how I did. Now, I own a copy. This way you can see if it is for you or not. You can also get the same ideas from going to other blogs and yahoo groups about it. I love to look at what others have come up with.

    I also resently purchased “The Checklist” by Cindy Downes  the book has checklists for everything in all subjects. This way you can check off all of the things you have studied already and focus on some of the things you need to by your state statures. This way you cover what they required and you see what else you want to cover. I have already checkd off many and it helps me stay more focused on my goals. This is also a good record keeper and you can go to her website and see what is in the checklist. You can even print out a copy to get you started.

                 I  hope this is the question you were asking. 🙂

    February 21, 2012 at 4:21 am
    faiths13
    Participant

    thanks for your responses! you make some good points. i just picked up Simply Grammar from the library and it looks great! I think it will round out grammar nicely and I cant wait to give it a try. I have heard of a Book of Centuries, but Im not exactly sure what it is. I am going to google it and find out. It sounds like a good idea.

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