Homeschool struggle!!

I used the red book from that program last year w my son but since we changed to using CM he is doing copywork, Hymns in Prose and Spelling Wisdom plus reading and narration in the other subject areas. Have you been using CM and finding that it doesn’t work for you when it comes to language arts? What grade level?

Hi again Kimberly,

You have a busy home. 🙂

I have my 8th grader doing Analytical Grammar and Beyond the Book Report along with Spelling Wisdom twice per week. It’s his first year using the program.

One thing that really helped me with Spelling Wisdom was watching the Sonya Shafer how-to video. It took some getting used to but now we have the hang of it and my kids are having success.

My 5th and 3rd graders are doing Spelling Wisdom along with Using Language Well which works alongside Spelling Wisdom. Have you tried the Using Language Well books?

In addition, I am requiring my 8th and 5th graders to do written narrations after each chapter in their books they are reading for history.

I have my 3rd grader do a drawn narration whenever he finishes a chapter.

I have confidence that the children will “find their voice” when it comes to writing in time. With all of the reading aloud they are getting, I know that their vocabularies are increasing, too. The beauty of narration is that it incorporates so much through such a simple act!

Hope this helps a little.

Oh–and I have a Kindergarten-aged daughter. I am slowly going through Alphaphonics and using SCM’s Delightful Handwriting with her.

Hi Kimberly! I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed and unsure if you are ‘fitting it all in’. We have all been there. So first, I just want to say that you are doing great. You’re kids have YOU (their God-designed teacher) and it is all going to work out.  You are asking questions and getting ideas and that is a great place to get rejuvenated.

My suggestions would be first to read some of the articles on this site about Charlotte Mason and her philosophy of teaching and how to actually implement that. Those articles and the All Day Seminar are tremendous resources for pulling it all together in daily life. These are going to help you get the big picture and really get a handle on how a Charlotte Mason education works.

I have kids in similar grade levels to yours, so I thought I would just mention what we do for language arts. We aren’t perfect, but we are making progress and that is our goal!

In our morning time, along with Bible study and some memory work in math, French and Scripture, we go over a list of spelling words, literally spelling them together and discussing rules as they come up. I have used Spelling Power and Syllable spelling for my lists.  In their individual time, students are expected to: copy a list of their spelling words (2-3 times per week) and then take a dictated test on Friday. I should point out that this is not the CM way to do spelling…but it is how we do it and it works well for us :).

We also go over memory work in English and principles of the language (for instance, homonyms, comma placement, capitalization) during this time. Only one principle a week! They enjoy pointing out things like homographs to each other in daily life since we started doing this! I think the group perspective keeps it fun.

Okay, in individual study time:

6th grader: Written narrations, Story Starters, or Write On program (which we just started). We do a writing assignment every day. I require it be written in cursive and go over errors in grammar or punctuation, and spelling errors. If a paragraph contains more than 3 errors, it is sent back to be written again with the corrections.  The final product needs to be written neatly and correctly. If time is a factor, we continue the lesson to the next day.  We do occasional work in dictation and copywork as well.

5th grader: Copywork, dictation, oral and written narrations. Occasionally, I give him an assignment from Story Starters or Write On, which he enjoys. Again, writing assignments must be done neatly and corrected or re-written, if necessary.

1st grader: Pathways Readers, copywork and some work on spelling words. Oral narrations 3-4 times a week.

As you can see, I’m a big fan of consolidating lessons in spelling, grammar, and handwriting through writing assignments. I don’t think it’s necessary to buy separate curriculum books for each and every subject, though they can be helpful for some seasons.  But for the most part, working on writing and spelling and learning correct usage (along with a healthy diet of good books) has been enough to see improvement in the kids’ writing.