Help, I need a curriculum plan!

I mostly use the free guides at charlottemasonhelp.com. Iirc they are derived from ambleside but somewhat simplified and with some more current books. They have daily and term schedules for each year too…can’t remember if those are on the website or in the yahoo group files.

One big factor between AO and SCM is whether or not you want to combine your DC as much as possible or split them up for more subjects.  SCM combines them as much as possible.   AO contains more public domain books, but I’ve found many SCM books at our library (or they can be easily substituted).  I prefer using a mix of classic and more modern books, so SCM is a better fit for us.

I have 5 DC (one is a toddler) and have found SCM’s curriculum guide to be very easy to use.  I can’t imagine having them separated into their own history studies.  Other families insist it’s easier to have them split up.  I think a big part of it is family dynamics.

SCM is very economical.  You can easily substitute whatever resources you currently have into their studies.  We use free classical CDs that my mom gave me for our composer studies.  I often use old calendars for our artist studies.    We often use digital books to save a bit more money or borrow from the library.  I try to invest in materials that can be reused or take more than one year to go through.

Ok, from the answers, I think either AO or SCM could work nicely for you.  AO works better for my family, because my kids do not like doing studies together as a family.  I tried it when my oldest were 8 and 6.  That put them in the same grade range for the hooks. My 8yo started to feel stupid because his sister was doing the same work as him.  The 6 yo felt stupid because her brother did the work better than her.

But a lot of families do Family studies well.  There are the family reads, and then some books for each age range as well to expand the ideas.  Many large families find it works great.

Remember, there are skill subjects that have to be done at the student’s level, and there are content subjects like history, that can be worked on in many levels.

I have 4 kids, with some LD’s, and AO is challenging to do with that mixture too.

I have done both styles, so can answer more if you like.

I hope this helped a bit.  If you are leaning more to wanting to combine when you can, then try out SCM.  You can always change your mind in the future.

Other options are Beautiful Feet or EPiKardia.

I have a question, if we used AO where would we begin? I worry they’ll have missed out on stuff in previous yrs schedules, especially some subjects seem to continue on into the next grade with the same book.

Do not worry about this. Charlotte would have students join in the middle of books. Cramming things in serves no good purpose.  A classical CM education is challenging, but restful.  My favorite quote by Charlotte,

The question is not, – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – by how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?

I would suggest having at least some family subjects – artist, composer, poet, hymn, folk song studies; Shakespeare; geography; a family read aloud; nature study. They will have separate math and language arts, of course.  That leaves science and history, mainly. These are easily done either way and as content subjects need not be separate. We’ve done years of family studies for history and just this year have done individual history. Both work fine in our family.  Remember that you’re teaching your kids and tailor your program to them. Avoid worrying about testing.  This is the richest education available! I can say without hesitation that I’ve learned more teaching my kids with CM philosophy and methods than I did in my own education through college.

I understand the financially strapped.

So far there hasn’t been an issue that I’ve  seen. There is a bit of outdated things in some of the science books, but not bad, and there are notes on the forum.  In year 2 rabbits were placed in the rodent family, which was true when I was a kid but isn’the now.  In year 4 there was something about volcanoes,  I think it was, that was a theory at the time.  We just discuss how science is always changing and the new info.

As for knowing stuff when they are ‘supposed to’….well, it is just really arbitrary on when a child needs to know something.  CM does delay a few things.  If you have to test, you can just assume that grammar scores will be low for a while, or spend a couple of weeks teaching to the test.