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How do I plan??
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I’ve been using Charlotte Mason for a while. I really don’t use any curriculum. What I do for my five children (kindergarten to eighth grade)Is a mixture of things. So I guess I would call myself a relaxed homeschool mom.
We have a morning time where we do poetry(childcraft book and garden verses), hymns(just picking whichever I want), artists(library books), composers(youtube), and Bible memory. I don’t use anything from simply Charlotte Mason.I use a variety of books from the library and from my own bookshelf. This takes about 30 min to an hour in the morning
. We do teaching textbooks and then we do spelling wisdom/using language well. We read out of the mcguffey books and then we have extra library book reading time (whatever they choose)
We add nature study occasionally. I know this sounds like the lazy way out, but I really don’t like the way the Simply Charlotte Mason’s history studies teacher book is set up. It reminds me of Ambleside and there is just so much reading aloud that I don’t have time to do. And all of the books that we have to buy for that curriculum is just outrageous, So we end up following class conversations science and history memory work because I can’t do my own history and science without a curriculum.Is there anyone else on this forum that does a more relaxed form of homeschooling without using a curriculum?
What about finding a happy middle ground for history and science? I have 9 kids from 11th grade down to a 2 year old, and am overdue with baby #10. I group my kids together for history, everyone except the 11th grader. We read aloud 1 book for however long it takes. During those weeks my 4th, 6th, and 7th graders also have a second history book to read 1 chapter at a time on their own. I have picture books on my shelf for younger kids if they want them (library is good for this!)That’s it. Then we pick up a new read aloud on the next topic in history we want to cover, and new individual books for the reading kids. So if we’re doing Early American history I may be reading aloud Ben and Me to everyone. My 3 bigger kids of this group may have each chosen a different chapter book to read independently, or all chose the same book.
Science I also group them, keeping high school separate. We pick a topic and enjoy books and experiments related to it for 3-6 weeks. Then we pick a new one.
What about alternating history and science readings, so there is one subject per day? We used to do history on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and science on Tuesday/Thursday. I feel like living books are so essiential here. There are so many great biographies and historic fiction books. We do a mix of read aloud and independent reading. Nichole Williams at the Sabbath Mood blog has excellent recommendations for science books, many of which are easy enough for your kids to read on their own. We especially love her special study book lists! Most of which I can borrow from the library.
Are you doing picture study or just reading Artist biographies? I would rather do picture study than reading library books on the artist…I usually just share a few facts about the artist during our studies. SCM has a great video on how to do picture study and Wikiart has a great collection of artwork you can view or download for free. Picture study takes about 5-10 minutes each week.
We recently started a family reading right before our evening devotion at bedtime. It spread out the readings a bit more. Another help is to stop before the chapter ends! You do not have to read an entire chapter of any book in one sitting. 10 minutes is plenty for each reading. It amazes me how much more we get done when I make things easier/shorter. If I know I have to read through an entire chapter or have them do an entire lesson, I wait until I’m sure we have enough time to finish. If I just fit in what we have time for, I’m more likely to jump in and get it done—all those partial lessons add up quickly! We were terrible about fitting in chapter books, and this has worked very well for us. Some moms read during lunch time instead, but that hasn’t worked well for me.
This year we’ve been following a schedule and stopping when time is up, saving the rest for next time. We also stop our formal lessons at lunch time. What isn’t done is saved until the next day (or week). My older ones (9th and 7th grade) sometimes have a reading or science to finish up after lunch if we get a late start, but the younger ones are often done by 11. We focus and chores, outdoor time, and handicrafts after lunch. Sometimes I have things planned for us to do as a group and other times we work on our own projects. Many days they have free playtime all afternoon.
It sounds like you are getting a lot accomplished each day! There is nothing wrong with being relaxed or not using a curriculum. I tend to use a curriculum when I’m burned out on planning and come up with my own lessons and book lists when I’m feeling a bit more creative.
We are very similar in how we homeschool, and I also have 5 children of similar ages. Though I purchased SCM guides for history and science, we don’t use them as written. This year I am reading aloud the family history book because it is only scheduled twice a week, but in the past I have assigned them as independent reading. What actually works best for us is to give middle school kids and up their own history spines to read and narrate and just do literature and enrichment lessons as read alouds. We also handle enrichment lessons more casually like you described, and do official nature study rarely.
I’m a CM, relaxed, eclectic, interest led homeschooler. LOL. That is probably a double oxymoron. 😀
I just schedule time, not content and my kids lead the way in their education. I have basic requirements but I try to follow their interests as much as possible.
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