How to NOT scramble?

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  • December 6, 2015 at 3:45 pm
    Rose
    Participant

    I really love Charlotte Mason’s ideas.  I’ve read a bit about it including the Charlotte Mason Companion, some ideas from her original writings and A Charlotte Mason Education.  I still have quite a bit to read to under all of it but I think I have a decent grasp of it… yet I feel like I’m scrambling to get to all of the subjects every day.  I know copywork is only like 5 minutes or reading just a page or so of this book or that book, but still it feels very fast paced and sometimes I still don’t get everything in before me and my son’s brains are busted.  He is year 1 and we faithfully followed this method through Kindergarten – he loves it.  Or at least he did.  I know there is more involvement this year so I believe it’s just adjusting for him.  Although sometimes he wants to read Paddle to the Sea for a LONG time.  Do I stop and allow time in that subject?  I’ve heard part of moving on so quickly keeps the kids on their toes.

    I feel overwhelmed with all the extras.  We even got to a point the first term where we were doing Bible, phonics, copywork, math and then just one other subject (history this day, science that day, although sometimes math isn’t done daily either).  Falling through the cracks is definitely poetry, Shakespeare, etc., and even music – I forget to turn it on.

    Is it me?  Am I doing something wrong?  Or am I trying to do too much since I have a baby under 1 year and a 5 year old as well as my 6yo?  That doesn’t seem true.  But I seriously feel mentally exhausted after a regular day of 5-10 minutes x 10… plus regular playtime, housekeeping, etc. by the following week I’m ready for a day off, or two.

    December 6, 2015 at 5:58 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    Here are a few thoughts, you may already be doing things this way, you may not.

    At my house a typical day does NOT have us doing every subject every day.  This year we chose to do science 2 days per week (Mon/Wed) and history 3 days per week(Tue/Thur/Fri).  So we never have to do both on one day.  A lot of the ‘extras’ only happen once a week.  Think of it this way.  Monday could be composer/music study, Tuesday could be picture study, Wednesday could be poetry, Thursday could be Nature study, Friday could be Handicrafts.  At this point we’ve covered 7 subjects and are only doing 2 subjects per day (science or history plus one ‘extra’).

    Another thing we sometimes choose to do when we’re feeling stretched is choose to do fewer extras.  We may choose to do them 2 days per week each in this scenario.  For the first 12 weeks we may do picture study and nature study each twice a week.  For the second 12 weeks we drop those two and pick up handicrafts and poetry.  For the 3rd 12 weeks we do music/composer study and maybe we decide we want to try Shakespeare.  (Iffy at my house with 9 kids, we tend to save that one for middle school/high school).

    We tend to have some daily subjects (math, reading/literature, copywork or prepared dictation depending on age).  Then the other big subjects happen 2-4 days per week (science, history, writing).  Then the extras are once a week each.  That means in a typical day we have 3 daily subjects, 2 big subjects, and 1 extras subject.

    Also, remember that as kids get older you’ll start doing longer sessions for some things so it won’t feel so bounced around.  Younger kids benefit from short days or longer days with lots of breaks in between each subject if you prefer that (same workload, but some kids like to plow through it all in a row while other prefer to do one, take a break, do another, take a break, etc).

    Also, my high schooler chooses her own schedule in many ways.  Some subjects she prefers to do daily so they are shorter doses while others she likes to do just twice a week but may spend 1 1/2 hours or more on that subject.  But that’s a long ways off for you!

    December 6, 2015 at 7:06 pm
    butterflylake
    Participant

    We are now wrapping up Year 1 and at the start of each of our three terms I found myself changing our schedule by cutting back the number of times we did a subject each week, or what I expected to accomplish.

    I read earlier this year ‘keep cutting back until there is peace in your home’ and I have more cutbacks to go.

    As we prepare to start Year 2 in January I have a new schedule that I am hopeful will be a better fit for my DS. We will tackle 6 subjects per day during our school time. Literature and math each day, reading (Mon, Wed, Fri) and copywork (Tues, Thur) alternating. One listening subject per day (composer/French/hymns/Spanish/music). One book subject each day (history/geography/science/poetry/character development). One other subject (ASL/Shakespeare/picture study/Bible study/Scripture).
    19 areas covered – but 15 are just once per week.
    Our science will cover creation of days 5 and 6, so we’ll be exploring lots of critters throughout the year. That will happen outside of ‘classroom’ time, as will nature study. I don’t have those things scheduled, but I do keep track of what we do in a week towards those, and art, handicrafts, lifeskills, etc…

    Sometimes just trying to follow a plan can be tiring.

    December 6, 2015 at 8:17 pm
    Rose
    Participant

    Ladies I cannot tell you how relived that makes me.  Those are great suggestions!  Tristan that helps me tremendously.  That also gives me so many ideas of how I can move subjects around so that we still hit them but I don’t have to stress each day about 10 or 12 of them.

    I love the idea of listening subjects!  Butterflylake, I hope you don’t mind if I take that to apply to my school days.

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