I am sooo lost!

Toni,

You are no nitwit; you are just needing prayer! Here is my testimony regarding confusion, if you’d care to read it: I used to annually struggle with confusion. I finally did a word study on the word confusion and found, in the Old Testament (in all but one instance), that the word translated as ‘confusion’ was in reality the word ‘disgrace.’ What that meant to me at the time-and still does-was that confusion is a tool of the enemy to get our eyes off of God’s plan for our family and, as for me, when I do that I always end up in failure (read: disgrace). For me it was a symptom of not trusting God and fearing man. I can still sense that same temptation periodically; especially when it’s time to think through a new school year! So, that may have been more than you asked for, but God has given me a passion for other moms to see that we need to grasp onto the truth of, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

In that light, we want to pray alone and with our husbands, surrendering our children and our expectations to God, asking him to show us where they are and where he has them going.

Also, you may want to consider just a couple of things to start off with. I’m thinking habit, narration, and Nature. Sonya’s book, Laying Down the Rails, is very helpful for habit forming. Selecting some books from the curriculum guide to go along with whatever you are doing now and working on narration could get your motor started. You may want to consider another of her books, Planning Your CM Education.

You seem to have the nature study covered. Yes, just looking at trees is good! A field guide and learning what trees are in your yard might be fun. A really easy project is to rope off (low to the ground) a 2’x2′ space and then watch that space a couple/few times a week. What grows there, what crawls over it, under it, flies over it, etc. This enamoured one of my little ones years ago. Letting the children make bark etchings (lay the paper on a tree and color it), take pictures (digital is so great because we don’t have to worry about wasting film!). A notebook with some page protectors in it can hold lots of collections. And freeing ourselves from the thought that we have to ‘do’ something with every little thing. Just the act of collecting and looking is nurturing – it’s the child just doing what he’s gotta do.

As far as living books, as I mentioned before, the curriculum guide is helpful and not at all overwhelming. I’d start there because they are tried and true and too many selections can be trouble sometimes. I’m sure someone can quote Charlotte Mason exactly, but my definition of a living book runs along the lines of ‘one that captivates the imagination, inspires our character and intellect, and remains true to its purpose.’

One year below their public school counterparts!?!? That will be the last time you read that from someone on this board :)!! But do they tell the truth and are they polite and do they have a relationship with Jesus? We already know they have a noble mom so they are well on their way to success!

I have enjoyed the privilege of praying for the moms on this board; I will add you to my prayer list, Toni!

Blessings,

Cindy

Toni,

I was in your shoes last year. I stumbled in all honesty upon a CM book at the library and thought (as the light went on) hey this is what I should be doing with all these boys~! Learning “together”, hands-on activities, “life lessons” and less stress over all these workbooks!

As I said it was the middle of the school year.. I had finished many things for the year and was ready to start ordering.. the Lord stopped me in my tracks and said do something else for awhile and then learn more about CM. And that’s what I did. I started posting specific questions many times a day and printing the answers off or taking notes. I started right off by implementing reading good Literature.. that might sound funny but we had never done it before.. then we bloomed.

The kids really liked to listen and I was suprised. Then they started telling me about what we read. Then we stopped trying to do “everything” and just do what we wanted to. There was less indepent time (which was really all day) and more time as a family. Boy what was I thinking before?? LOL

So to you I’d say ASK, ASK and ASK away.. someone will answer you and if they don’t repost it maybe there where a lot of questions that day and it just got overlooked. Start one subject at a time! That was really the key for me.

We are here for you! Good luck!!

Misty