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help…i'm feeling overwhelmed!
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Hello – I am a mom of seven children ages 13 to 2. This was our first homeschool year (grades 7, 5, 4, and 2). Thankfully, we are finishing up our school year…phew! For this first year we stuck with regular textbooks, but it was so intense. There is no way I can keep up that pace another year with more grades. So I’ve been looking around for a better way, but I feel so overwhelmed…help! I am attracted to the idea of being able to teach everyone together, but I’m not sure how I go about doing this. Will I need to purchase a huge amount of curriculum/books? If so, what are they?
If you could suggest one book for me to read what would it be? Do you have some great information that you’d love to share with a beginner CMer? Please help!
I love Karen Andreola’s book, A Charlotte Mason Companion, but my favorite resource for understanding how to apply CM to homeschooling is The Simply Charlotte Mason All Day Seminar. You can also learn so much on this forum and at the SCM blog.
Heather
Catherine Levinson’s books Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education are good too.
The curriculum guide on this site is very helpful.
I will share my own experience and I’m sure others will chime in…
I read, read, and read the posts on this forum. That one thing has been instrumental in our conversion to this method in addition to sticking to the curriculum guide and breaking it down child by child. Having my boys do several subjects together has been very helpful as well.
Sorry, I was going to post more, but I have to get moving, kids are waking up:)
Any of the books mentioned above are great – I especially like Karen Andreola’s A Charlotte Mason Education.
Stick around this forum, and search posts with things you specifically have questions about. Also, on the left hand side of the main page of the SCM Forum, you’ll see where it says “Popular Tags” – here you can read all the posts from a certain area.
I would have been lost without these wonderful ladies, as well as the SCM All Day Seminar and SCM Planning Your Charlotte Mason education.
Stick with it, and it will be a breath of fresh air to your homeschool!
Hi and welcome. I think we all feel overwhelmed at times. The encouragement found in this group is certainly a gift I am thankful for.
SCM has a blog series on Combining Grade Levels which may be particularly helpful. You shouldn’t have to purchase a huge amount of curriculum or books as much can be gotten from your home library or the public library. Some like to have everything on the shelf at once and others are comfortable with having their book list and either purchasing or borrowing. I save a lot of money by working with my librarian to get the books we want or finding suitable substitutes.
If you don’t mind, I’ll tell you what my sister does as she has five children while we have just two sweeties. Her family reads their literature in the evening as a family and discuss it the next morning over breakfast. At the beginning of each family read, one child gives a recap of what was read the night before (ie narration) and the others can fill in after if they think anything important was left out. They are allowed to draw or color quietly during the reading. I believe for science next year they are doing Jeanie Fulbright’s “Astronomy” as a family with “Signs & Seasons” added for the oldest to complete a high school credit.
You’ve probably already seen that History/Bible/Geography combines nicely with the SCM family handbook.
Just want to encourage you that it can be done and in such an enjoyable way.
Peace to you.
Richele
I’m so glad you found out that the Charlotte Mason method even exists so soon after starting to homeschool. It took me years to find it, and even though I’m not very goot at it yet; I was so relieved to get rid of the textbooks and all that pressure. You’ll be so glad when you see how much they (you all) learn with this method, and how really enjoyable it is. It really is amazing how far apart in age your family can be while learning together–more than ever could be done individually.
Good luck and stick with it!
Angela
A BIG thank you to everyone for all the helpful responses so far! I am excited to continue reading this forum…the info is encouraging & empowering.
I understand your frustration. I only have four kids and I get so overwhelemed. This was our first non-official (didn’t need to keep track) using SCM. Over the last few years we have tried numerous different ways. None was ever completed. This year we started later (after Jan) and so haven’t completed anything yet, but the tension is gone, the kids are learning and having a good time. The biggest thing for me was the short lessons. Once my son realized he only had to write for 20 minutes, he did it without arguing. The other neat thing about SCM for me, was how all the subjects taught really overlapped one another in the family study section. It really helped to keep things flowing when we could relate back to something we taught earlier in the day.
Hang in there it does get easier
Kimberly
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