Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Momof3.

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October 25, 2017 at 3:32 pm
Momof3
Participant
Hi,
We’ve just started homeschooling – 7yrs, 6yrs and 4yrs. We’ve delayed any education until 7yrs and intend on doing this with the youngest children but our morning times are dedicated to read alouds so all the children are involved with this.
I’m having trouble working out how to best break the day up, so far this has been our day, we school Monday thru Thursday:

Scripture Memory Work (Daily)
Prayer Memory Work (Daily
History of Prophets (x3 week)
History of Significant females in Scripture (x2 week)
Geography (x2 wk CM Geography)
Map Drill (x4 week)
Story Book of Science (x2 week)
History (Our Island Story / Who was…? alternated over 3 days)
Maths (Math Mammoth 4x week)
Grammar FLL (3 days a week)
Phonics (Phonics Pathways – Daily)
Abeka Cursive handwriting (Daily)
SOTW (Volume 1 Ancients 1/2x week)
BFSU Science (x1 week)
Fun children religious story book (1 week)
Nature walk (1x week when can)
Swimming (x1 week)
Library (Every other week)

Some things like map Drill only take a few mins, Memory work we read a verse/prayer section 5 times each day and takes about 5-10mins. Maths/phonics max 20mins each, Grammar 5mins, SOTW we can usually do 2 scheduled days in 1 day. Science sometimes spreads itself across the week if we’re making projects/posters etc.
Our morning work is done from 9:20 ish to 11.45 ish then we add in the history or science after lunch.
Im conscious of not boring or neglecting my youngest son and I don’t want the older two to become too fatigued. We sit on the floor and they’re allowed to colour, draw, do legos etc whilst I read aloud and each of the older two take it in turns to narrate to me. My 6 yr old does not do any Maths or Writing but he does have access to an online reading programme so I can sit with the eldest to complete his maths, phonics writing. Art is when ever they choose but I need to be more intentional of this.
Is all of the above too much? How much time should I dedicate to each area? How can I organise things so they’re not sitting at one type of activity for too long?
Sorry, Im a complete newby here!

xxxx
October 25, 2017 at 5:00 pm
caedmyn
Participant
To me it seems like a little much/too long for the age of your kids. How many times are they narrating over the course of the morning? IMO once a day would be enough for the 6 YO and no more than twice a day for the 7 YO, unless you’re breaking one story/chapter up into very small chunks to introduce them to narration (ie the 6 YO narrating a short story as his narrating for the day but doing it in 1-2 paragraph chunks).
FWIW I have a 7 YO 1st grader (along with 2 older kids and 2 younger ones) and we do approx 30 mins/day of family work and his seatwork is roughly 1 hour 4x/week, which includes a 20-30 minute reading lesson (he has dyslexia so they’re on the long side) and 15 mins of listening to an audiobook.
October 25, 2017 at 6:13 pm
2Corin57
Participant
For myself, yes that would be too much. My kids would be overwhelmed.

We do as a family together:
Devotional (daily)
Memory Work (daily)
Literature Read Aloud (daily) (The children take turns reading a selection or two from their readers, then I read a chapter from our family read aloud)
Enrichment Study (daily) (We do ONE daily, rotating through: art study, music study, poetry study, nature study, history study (I read from our history read aloud).

Then my 10 year old does:
Spelling & Grammar
Reading
Math
And his own rotation of science, history and Bible (just one per day, rotating through them)
My 7 year old does:
Math
Penmanship
Phonics

Family Time together takes us about 45-60 minutes.
My son’s independent studies take him about 1.5 hours. My daughter’s work takes about 45 minutes.
October 26, 2017 at 7:12 am
2Corin57
Participant
I was thinking more about this. On Friday there was a homeschool conference/seminar, and Sonya spoke at it. Her session was titled: When More is Less. I think that might apply here.
I know the temptation – there are so many wonderful things to learn and read about, and you can own so many resources you just can’t wait to use them all – but you honestly at this point, have all the time in the world.
Trying to use so many resources at once is overwhelming, especially to such young children. It’s far better to use fewer resources and to be able to experience them deeply, than to just skim through many. You’re also risking burning your children out, and yourself out. And trust me, that is a really high price to pay. LESS IS MORE.
If you look at Charlotte Mason curriculum outlines, you won’t find any that are covering as much as you, especially for such young ages. Ambleside Online covers the most (and consequently that is one of the biggest complaints I see about AO, is that it is too much), and even they only cover 2 streams of history at once. You’re covering FOUR!
I think you might find it useful to really look at the SCM and some other CM curriculum guides, to see what they actually do for those ages. It’s not all that much. Four different streams of history is too much for any age, especially young children. I would highly recommend you look into the SCM guides. I think it would simplify a lot for you, and make your schedule far less overwhelming. It would allow you to combine History, Bible and Geography into just one subject a day.
IMO you’re also doing too much for science. Charlotte did not recommend formal science at such young ages. Instead, she suggested Nature Study only, which will expose your children to more science than you realize. You’re covering 3 sciences: BFSU, Storybook of Science and Nature Study. Pick one and do it well. I would follow Charlotte’s suggestions and use Nature Study only. Use it to build their skills of observation, note taking and drawing. It will better prepare them for science later on. If you truly feel the need to keep one extra, I would keep Storybook of Science as a fun read aloud only. (Ambleside Online schedules this book for Year 4, which is for ages 9-10).
Cursive, phonics and math daily – just fine 🙂
Grammar – there is no need for grammar. Charlotte did not introduce grammar until at least ages 9-10, even later. Check out the Ambleside Online Language Arts scope & sequence. This is one of the best (developmentally appropriate) guides there is.
https://www.amblesideonline.org/LangArtsScopeSeq.shtml
2.5 hours a day, not even including the history and science, is a LOT at those ages. For comparison, my daughter at age 7 spends about 1.5 hours, total. My 10 year old spends 2.5 hours, total.
I would cut your list to half of what it is. You could also always look at splitting your year into three semesters, and rotating what you use: so Semester One you use History of Prophets, Semester Two you use Significant Females etc…
But that said, I think it would also serve you well to consider normal development of children and their areas of comprehension and interest (ancient history is a very abstract concept for young children). Historically, history has always been studied inward then outward: even Charlotte started with the history of her own country, first, then expanded outward. Likewise, you might want to focus more on the history of your own state or country first. That is what is the most applicable and relevant to the young child’s world.
Also, children don’t care about timelines and wars and this and that. It’s the people that are intriguing to them, so read good, engaging stories of famous Americans like George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Ben Franklin, anyone local famous heros etc… But again, if you really want to do a sequential study of history, then I would use the SCM guides. I think it will keep things simpler for you, and remove the risk of doing too much.
Lastly, because you’re so focused on the heavy academics, you’re missing all the beautiful “enrichments” that Charlotte recommended: the art, music, poetry, hymns, great child-appropriate literature like fables and tales etc… These are really the core of a Charlotte Mason education, because they are what bring beauty to the soul, they nurture in a way that academics can’t, and ultimately, they are what maintain a holistic balance to one’s education. Ignoring the soul for academics is a recipe for failure.
Again, simplifying everything else will allow you to add these enrichments in, giving your education much more balance.
October 26, 2017 at 3:44 pm
Momof3
Participant
Hi ladies,
Thank you so much for your replies. You’re both absolutely right. You see I went from doing just the academics at the start of our year, so maths, reading, writing in the morning and then just BFSU and SOTW in the afternoon and was seriously lacking in the read aloud department. I think I’ve struggled incorporating everything as we’ve always been a big read aloud family, but since my eldest has reached 7 years and we have had to add in maths, reading, writing etc.. I guess I haven’t yet learnt how to marry the right amount of academics alongside the read alouds.
They love to listen to me reading which is a real blessing but you’re right it’s too much and I was beginning to feel it.
Whilst we’re not completely Charlotte Mason in our method I am learning about it more and embracing what I feel works for us at this stage.
I’ve rearranged our schedule, cutting some things completely until we’ve finished one book, and spread other things more throughout the week and ultimately throughout the year. I think I would probably have finished everything in half the year rather than a whole year at the rate we were going but at what cost?!
I really want our homeschool to be relaxed and fun with more time for play, art, nature and music etc.
With regards to the fables and poems that’s something that we would usually read during the other part of the day or at bedtime but one area I really want to pick up is nature study and art which can be somewhat done together.
I’ve take your suggestions on board and cut my day by more than half I think!
The famous women book I’ve shelved until we complete the religious history book (it’s a children’s light read but with good vocabulary) which I’ve cut down to twice a week. I’ve scheduled our island story for once a week at bedtime because they love it. I’ve also scheduled the story book of science as once a week as the children requested we didn’t stop reading it (and I’m learning a lot from it!). CM geography I’ve cut down to once a week also. SOTW we’ll just cover once a week also as they enjoy the craft making it involves.
I know it seems like a lot of history and I have cut a couple of the books but some they didn’t want to stop reading.
Regarding BFSU we may just switch that to once every 2 weeks as weekly was feeling like too much.
So, I’ve basically taken what you’ve said and cut our day down by over half I think and I’m still tweaking it. Let’s see how we get on! Thanks for all your suggestions. More most certainly can be less sometimes!

Oh may I ask, how often during the day should my eldest be narrating? With every chapter of every book or just once or twice throughout the day?

Thanks once again. Xxx
October 26, 2017 at 4:16 pm
2Corin57
Participant
I would say just once or twice a day would be sufficient at that age. And I would mix it up, not always narrating the same topic.
October 26, 2017 at 5:03 pm
Momof3
Participant
Great, thank you so much. You’ve really been a great help.
Xxx