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How to make it flow naturally
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I am in the process of getting back to homeschooling the CM way. I used Ambleside Online Year 1 about 2 years ago with my oldest daughter and then dropped everything and started focusing on core subjects like math, etc. I found that I really missed the lovely things we were doing with CM HSing – poetry, etc. So I’m trying to put things back together so I can hs all 3 of my girls together.
One problem I have is making it flow nicely. It feels like: “Read a portion of the bible. Now that’s done, read a poem. Okay, mark that off, move on to the next item on the list.” I don’t want it to be like this, but I can’t figure out how to do it any differently.
I’m not sure if this helps, but it sounds like you are forming a routine and right now it feels unnatural to you. I don’t know if this is helpful, but maybe you can “peg” some of these activities to others, like music appreciation over breakfast, tea time with read aloud and poetry after lunch, etc…
I fluctuate between breaking up our Bible time/history read aloud/poetry/and read aloud so as not to have the children’s eyes glaze over. But today, that ‘s just what ended up happening and they loved it. Now I’m done with my portion of the homeschooling and they can finish up all their independent work.
For it’s helpful to allow some fluidity to adjust to whatever circumstances in the day, while at the same time trying to hang on to, at least, a skeleton of our routine going and predictable.
Hope this helps.
Here’s our M-Th schedule, as an example:
We do Bible memory work and poetry during breakfast. Then we all wash our dishes and assemble dinner in the crock-pot. Then I do seatwork rotations. 1:1 for math, phonics, and copywork while the others are playing together in the playroom. Then everyone comes downstairs for “Rug Time”. I read to them while they draw or play with a mindless toy (legos, etc). Either Nature Study, American History, World History, or Geography. Next, we do chores together.
Then lunch. Then 20 min of “Solitary Time”- they play alone with 3 toys/books, while I do my Bible study. Then naptime. I read our literature to everyone, while the babies fall asleep. At bedtime, I read our Bible reading.
Friday, we have (CM) Fine Arts Co-op, where we cover Art Apprec, Music Apprec, Nature Study, Shakespeare, poetry memorization, and hymn study. We don’t do any other school on that day.
I certainly wouldn’t call it “natural” (have no idea what you mean by that 😉 ), but it flows very well. 😀
I agree with Anabetica; it’ll all feel more natural as time goes on. You will have your ‘breakfast reads’ and your ‘lunch reads,’ etc. I do know that feeling, though. Mostly it happens when the portion we’re reading is either hard to understand or sorta boring and there is a sense that we just really did not get it. Sometimes it just happens, but not typically, so keep up the good work!
Blessings,
Cindy
Like the ladies above mentioned, we also do our morning reads, lunch reads, afternoon reads, plus any outings, which vary depending on the day of the week. We have a rhythm to our days and weeks.
We move around our home and do our studies in different places: math at the desk, most readings on the couch, Shakespeare on the floor – not sure how that tradition started – Bible and poetry at the lunch table, etc.
I know the choppy feeling you are describing. I feel that sensation when I’m rushing the kids because I know all the other things I have to do during the day, and I feel it when we’re starting a new book and we haven’t quite been enraptured by it yet. And like CindyS said, sometimes I get the disconnected feeling when the material is too hard or boring.
Hang in there, you’ll find your groove.
Rene – I understand exactly how you feel – when we started homeschooling this year with a packaged curriculum, I felt like the arrangement of our days definitely became unnatural. That is a good part of what led me to CM methods. I hope you can find a way, over time, to weave the CM style lessons into the fabric of your day.
I have seen our work adjust seasonally. Right now it is winter, and we live on a farm, so I choose to do most of the outdoor farm labor later in the day when it is warm, not first thing in the morning. I fully expect that as the weather heats up, we will shift our indoor school work to afternoon, to free up the cool mornings to work outside.
This is part of the way that we use CM to make our days feel natural. I don’t want the kids to think learning is some artificial activity that we engage in at a certain time and then we are “done”.
It feels right to us to do school sessions interrupted by playtime, and I always start out the session with a read-aloud on the sofa, then we move to a table to do some kind of math and something that involves writing (copywork). I set a timer in between sessions, usually 20 minutes, and I do some routine housework while they play (laundry, empty dishwasher, etc.) We do two or three of these sessions each day – and my kids are 8 and almost 5. We are really focusing on math with the DD8, so we include mathwork in each session. I feel that my almost 5DS is undergoing some kind of developmental growth spurt, so he is getting some more advanced read aloud books for his birthday in a couple of weeks, and I will let them both have more work time for a while – it feels like they want it. When it feels like they aren’t receptive, I can always eliminate a session from the day.
Anyway, I hope you can come to your own way to make your days feel natural!
Best of luck,
Gem
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