How to get started?

Here is a good article about transitioning to a Charlotte Mason Style homeschool.  http://simplycharlottemason.com/basics/started/transition/

I have four, soon the be 5 children (my oldest is 10, and currently the youngest is 2 – May will bring a newborn) and we love the CM method.  When they are younger, I school them together for many subjects. I suppose it is a bit more time intensive than a boxed curriculum would be, because you do so much of the work alongside them in the younger years – but it’s mostly reading aloud, and listening to them narrate.  Things that are easy to do with younger children around.  And with short lessons, you aren’t spending hours upon hours doing busy work. 

This is my favorite series on making the switch to CM methods from over on the SCM blog: http://simplycharlottemason.com/series/making-the-transition-to-cm/

Now here are my thoughts on it. I think if I were making the switch I would choose areas to add living books and get rid of the boxed curricula. So at my house we keep a math curriculum (Math U See) but history is usually more CM with reading living books. I choose a time period and a book to read as a family. We just read some in that each day. Maybe a chapter if they aren’t too long. Then my groups of kids get a book for their age range that either I read to them (grade 3 and under) or they read (4th grade and up). These are read most days too. So 10-20 minutes for the family read aloud and narration, 10-20 minutes for their age group book also in the time period and narrating to me.

Science in the elementary years is really easy to do similarly, keep everyone learning about the same topic together. We don’t do science daily, and we usually do it for a month or two then take a science break. It’s just not the center of our curriculum.

Next think about what you would like to do for language arts for your child. Copywork addresses handwriting, spelling, and beginning punctuation and takes 5 minutes a day. Read aloud a book just for literature (not related to history or science) and let them narrate (tell you about it). There is no formal writing until 4th, and then they start writing down a narration (we do 1 per week at first, with the rest staying oral narrations).

What do you want to do with music, art, etc? Anything? CM has simple guidelines for picture study and composer study that take just a little time each week.

Many of these things younger children can listen in or play nearby. They may need taught how to play quietly! I’m expecting #8 this summer and my children are 11, 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1. We make it work with a mix of family work everyone can join in, small groups for other things, and a few independent subjects (as they get older). It is possible and can be enjoyable! We love it. We’ve always homeschooled (officially 7 years now, though we began with our oldest as a preschooler so longer). I think one thing to remember is everyone is constantly growing and changing so you need to be flexible to grow with them.