How many of you combine CM with another curric?

We combine CM beautifully with the unschooling philosophy.  I know it sounds shocking, but when you read Charlotte’s own words about the importance of “person” in how you see your child, her ideas on what real learning is measured by and other things – well, it actually works very nicely together.  I aspire to an organic, fluid, but rigorous educational environment.  I’m not a radical unschooler.  I do shape and guide and strew our environment, but I also do not believe that anyone learns anything they do not actually want to learn.  I see it as a personal challenge to show them why learning Math is important … and that keeps me on my toes.  If my argument is weak, then theirs has more weight.  It’s more important for me to find ways to excite them about subjects and let them naturally see where and how something might be important to them now or later.  Exposure to great ideas, art and music blends so perfectly with CM’s ideas on why an appreciation of the arts is important.  It is important to me that our environment is one of excited enthusiasm for learning and not one of dread, assignments, heavy schedules etc.  It is a delicate balance.  Some days/weeks are much easier than others.  We certainly have our moments of consternation!  But over all the two philosophies give us a great balance and help me to stay focused on why I homeschool.  Which has nothing to do with bringing school home! 

We have incorperated some Waldorf into our school for art.  We use Form Drawing For Beginners, and Painting and Drawing In Waldorf Schools Classes 1 to 8.  I like these books because they have lesson plans for teaching painting and drawing and they are based of stories you read to the child throughout your school year.  We are also using modeling clay to make sculptures of scenes from our stories.  These work for me to be able to add creating art into our school days.  I would like to include more movement as well but am having more trouble with that aspect of Waldorf.  But that is it for Waldorf.  We mostly follow the curriculum here with a few books from Catholic Heritage. 

I’ve been asked for more detail on how I combine IEW & SCM. I’ve had the Teaching Writing Structure & Style seminar DVDs for several years, but didn’t truly utilize IEW methods until last year while my then 11yos was in CC Essentials.  I used IEW’s theme based writing lessons for U.S. History. This made all the difference in using the TWSS methods. The TE and student guides are well written and have all the info needed (when the free downloadable Student Resource Guide is used) to complete each assignment. They are best implemented after a few years of CM style copywork, dictation, and narration, at least that’s been what’s worked at our house. 

I am currently leading a co-op that is using the middle ages tbwl’s and the families are following their own reading lists.  The youngest in the class is a 10yog and oldest is 13yob.  I am using this with the SCM Module 4 suggestions and the books & DVDs we’ve gathered through the years that fit with the medieval/ren/ref time periods. 

The other families watched some, but not all of the TWSS DVDs prior to starting our weekly meetings this year. But, they’ve not watched them all and are doing quite well with the assignments at home because the tbwl’s are so well written. I don’t think you’d need to purchase the TWSS in order to be successful with the tbwl’s. I just choose one that will go with either the history or science topic we will study for the year as a family. It works well for us. 

Hth,

Becca<><

Grammar is taught in IEW through a sort of incidental way. It’s not a workbook style. It’s discussed on an as needed basis depending on new assignment goals. Punctuation is also part of the program and the lessons are geared toward at least two levels, A and B. “A” lessons will have fewer grammar/punctuation requirements and are often at least one paragraph shorter than “B.” So, during your first year of use, you may only assign fairly easy work. That said, one of the 10 year olds in our co-op is working on level B with the older kids even though she’s had no formal writing instruction. She’s an avid reader, so the writing assignments are coming to her easily because of her extensive background with English language usage. My 12yos is just now able to handle B level with encouragement. He had last year’s level A experience to pull from, which made this possible. He was slower in learning to read, but is improving with writing at a nice pace.

My requirement that children be 10 in order to participate in the class was based on observation. At 10, with no prior writing instruction, level A should usually be manageable, but will require habit development. In some cases, level B is also appropriate without having used IEW beforehand. It will depend on each child/family. It’s very adjustable. With two years of tbwl’s under our belts, I’ll assign similar lessons for subjects on my own and my son will becable to complete with encouragement, but little help. Some will do this sooner, others later.

Blessings,

Becca<><