60-day returns • free shipping on USA orders $129+
How do you QUICKLY describe the CM method to others??
- This topic has 16 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 12 years ago by
.
- Posts
I am finding myself in a lot of social situations where people know very little about CM methods. It is hard for me to **briefly** tell them how CM education is different from what they may be using….it isn’t that I don’t know the differences, but I find it hard to communicate it quickly!
So, if you had to quickly give someone about 3 attributes or advantages to CM method homeschooling…what would you say?
Oh my! I had to laugh as I just told someone there is no *nutshell* to discribe CM. Hehe I will be watching this thread to see what ideas others have. Some of the main things I can think about are
short lessons for the young,
literature,
nature study,
copywork, narration.
Hmm, great question and one I think I may steal for a blog post…hehe. Off the top of my head CM education :
– Uses living books and narration instead of dry textbooks and tests.
– Covers a broad feast of subjects for mind, body, and soul (art, composer, history, science, nature study/being outdoors, literature, Shakespeare, math, and more).
– Trusts the children to form relationships with material.
– Respects a child’s age/ability instead of following a forced list of things a child should be able to do at each age. Lets children BE children.
Here is what I came up with for the description on one of the homeschool group’s to which I belong:
Charlotte’s philosophy is to produce academically adept students who receive a liberal, or broad, education via living books and first hand accounts which result in a life-long love of learning.
That’s a bit simplified, but it gets the idea across.
1. Living books – keep the child engaged and helps them become invested in the subject via characters and plotlines.
2. Shorter lessons – quitting before the attention span is gone so optimal learning is all your doing.
3. Liberal curriculum – in addition to the basics, all children of all backgrounds deserve to be exposed to the wonders and joy of nature, art, music, ect., in a way that makes them part of your their life.
Somthing else that I have a hard time expressing is that CM is both laid back and rigorous. No need to start before age 6, no pressure on fine motor skills, no tedious workbooks, plenty of snuggly reading session, but… no sloppy work allowed, no twaddly/mindless books, no multiple choice questions, no daydreaming, you have to put forth your best effort and you have to use your brain! 🙂
When I first heard of CM I thought narration and copywork but as I read her works inthunk those things are the consequences but not the core. The most important part to me is that the Holy Spirit is the Great Educator and that we cannot force education or cajole it with our fancy methods. Second would be that the mind needs to be fed on ideas.
Nebby
@eawerner – That is exactly where I start to get off on a tangent when describing Charlotte’s methods! The people here who have heard anything about CM either assume that it is soooo difficult (all that reading!!) or too laid back (NO GRADING!!!). So I start to get a little defensive and ramble.
I hear a lot of comments like:
“How do you know that they are meeting grade level requirements?”
“How do you test them?”
“My kids would never sit still for that long while I READ to them!”
On the plus side, their co-op teachers are so happy with their intelligence and ability to concentrate…some of the parents who sit in on the classes have come to me to ask how my boys are able to sit still and absorb the lesson!
Also, we just hosted a historical fiction book club with 12 homeschooled girls in the same age bracket as my daughter (10-12 years old). About 10 minutes into it, I realized that the level of historical knowledge and even literary knowledge was way lower than what I expect it to be at that age. They had no idea what the “Elizabethan Age” or “Tudor Age” meant…no idea of the times at all. I asked them about the author’s point of view and they had no idea what I meant. I enjoyed teaching them, but I couldn’t help wondering why this isn’t getting taught to them or at least discussed at home?
I should probably point out that we are new to town, and most of the children who are homeschooled are using neither CM nor Classical methods – mostly public school online or textbook/workbook approaches.
Two girls said they didn’t have time to read any books outside of their textbooks, because they had so much school work to do :(.
They are great kids and great families – I just want to be able to give a good response when they ask why our kids are different. CM methods have been so beneficial for us, that I just wish everyone would adopt them, or at least consider them more thoroughly!
Funny you mention this. I have those friends of mine who “get” the method, maybe not die-hards, but ykwim, and those that dabble in it, and those that know nothing of it at all. And what they do know is that it’s no workbooks (not necessarily true in all families at all times) and just reading. And, that we have no structure to our days (we are compared to extreme/radical UN-schooling), which is completely false (for us, anyway). So, I have had to “briefly” explain, for lack of time on all our parts, CM in bits and pieces or not at all. I’d love to spend the afternoon w/ someone who truly wants to know but I have no time to share what I have spent 5 years learning and condense it to 3 short lines, LOL. I have tried, trust me, but they look at me like I’m crazy!! Almost too hard to explain. Well I’m still learning, so if it’s taken me this long, I’d be hard pressed to describe it quickly 🙂
I’m sorry, I didn’t actually give any tips, but I love these threads and wanted to comment that I have people ask the same thing. I will admit, if someone had tried to explain it to me in brief I would’ve never understood (I’m thick skulled!), I’ve read countless books, sites, and this forum and am still trying to really understand CM’s ideas (which I think are fascinating!).
I’d like to know too! I’m in a couple of homeschool loops, and have yet to meet any CM’ers. I feel like the oddball in homeschool land :). My daughter is only 4, so we’re just loving life together! But just last week, a mom of 4 asked me if I had picked out my curriculum for kindergarten in the fall (my DD will be 5 by then). I said “no I’m not doing a curriculum. We read, learn Spanish a little, do phonics, get a science kit in the mail every month, learn about birds, visit the aquarium….” She said “oh you’re one of those people”. She didn’t say it in a mean way. But I took it to mean I was one of ‘those’ people who didn’t order curriculum, was more relaxed at this age, etc. if so I’m proud to be one of ‘those’ people!
@lauraz76 – You should be proud to be one of ‘those’ people! Your daughter’s world sounds very educational and like a whole lotta fun to me :).
I feel so burdened for these kids who aren’t learning from real life…it is like they are spending so much time in their ‘curriculum’ that they don’t have any room left for real conversations, real books, or hands on experiences. It makes me sad :(.
It reminds me of a conversation I had several years ago with a homeschool family. We had just returned from a dinosaur dig (we went on one of those that Vision Forum did) and were talking about the wonderful experience we had. I said the guys came in dead-dog tired and dirty and just wanted to fall in bed but had a blast and learned so much. The family asked me how we got our school work done! They said, “we have to do x number of pages per day or we won’t finish our books. We wouldn’t have time to jut drop it for a week to run off and dig up dinosaurs.” ???? Somehow I think they were missing the point?
I find it is difficult to explain a true CM education in a few words. It’s so foreign to the way our culture thinks. We have begun in our seminars to have a practical sessions with CM learning and it helps. Maybe coming up with something like that in your area would benefit some moms. Just put word out to local homeschool groups that you are offering a seminar on CM methods, living books, etc. and simply talk and demonstrate. Have the moms narrate a passage you reads to them, show the difference between a living book and one that’s not. This is dramatically shown by simply reading to them and example from each. It makes light bulbs go off all around the room. Go through each subject and demonstrate how to teach it. Or simply show Sonya’s seminar.
Anyway, just a thought.
I don’t explain it to others. People seem to either think CM is way “too easy” or a form of unschooling, so I just don’t discuss it unless someone has a genuine interest.
Quite honestly, for a quick answer to someone who wasn’t truly interested in knowing more? I’d describe it as a literature based curriculum – we read and discuss books on various topics. And how that compares to say Sonlight or something, i usually just say I prefer not to use a boxed curriculum, but to do my own thing with the books that we read. If they really wanted to know more, I might go into it more, but if not, I’d stick with that.
Jen
@marniemama – it’s The Magic School Bus Science club. you buy a year’s worth, which is normally $240. But I got a Mamapedia deal, so I only paid $9/month. I don’t know if it’s worth the $20/month, but it definitely is for $9. You get an email ahead of time telling you what it’s about that month, then the kit comes in a waterproof bubble (and totally reusable!) envelope. it has about 7 experiments – all with things they either send to you, OR are around your house. I”ve gotten 2 kits so far, and haven’t needed to hunt down anything crazy. And my DD has never read the School Bus books, you don’t have to to do the kits. I think the kits may correpond to a book, though, but totally not necessary.
When I first ordered the kits, I thought if it was over her head, I’d just stick them away for later. To the contrary – she *loves* them. We sat and did the first kit in less than an hour. We filled a balloon with gas, made a bouncy ball. And she actually walks around talking about liquids and solids!
- The topic ‘How do you QUICKLY describe the CM method to others??’ is closed to new replies.