How to Make Sure You are Covering Enough

Hello! While I am not new to Charlotte Mason, I have not implemented a great deal of it in our homeschool yet, but I am looking that way for next year. While we have avoided busywork and history and science workbooks, for example, we have used “curriculum” with living books (library books, etc.) generously sprinkled in. I have tried, feebly, perhaps, to use narration, but have not been satisfied with the results I am achieving.  (Narrations are at times just “lacking,” and do not cause a child to recall important points of the reading, or the children act silly and refuse to narrate properly.) Because my children are young, I have felt that it was all right to go gently for now.

But next year my oldest will be in fourth grade. I feel we need to continue to have enough structure to make sure she is learning key information for her grade. Let me use the example of science. I have no doubt that reading library books about animals, for example, and asking her to tell me what she learned, would be much more enjoyable for her than reading from a “schoolbook.” She would be more cooperative, and read more for interest. (Cooperation is a weak point for her, so this would be very good.) But how can I make sure she is covering key points? Looking at a lesson from a schoolbook on birds, I see that they vocabulary list for the lesson includes such things as down, gizzard, instinct, preen, quill, and streamlined. Likely, if she read a bird book and narrated it, those harder-to-remember points might fall through the cracks. Also, a schoolbook makes knowing what to review easy. Using the living books approach, if her narration is below par for what she ought to have retained, how will I know off the top of my head what she is missing?(Unfortunately, I do not feel that knowledgeable!)

Another example is geography. We are reading a missionary book which is helping us learn about the land and culture in an Indonesian Island. Yet there is much technical information that would be found in a map skills or geography course that would not in any way be touched on. If I do not use a geography workbook with my fourth-grader, I am sure I would not be able to pull together the resources for a well-rounded body of map and geography skills.

I would love to hear from those who have a better understanding of Charlotte Mason, how do you make sure that important key information is being covered? Do you use a textbook or other book as a spine? Or do you use some regular curriculum like a map skills workbook? I would love to be able to use this method and still make sure my daughter is getting what she needs. Thank you!