I don’t know where to start OVERWHELMED!

Angela, 1st just take a deep breath and breath. Now..

I need to know what you mean by : try to fit it “all” in daily. What is all? Like for us daily we do things like math, spelling and copywork. Together we do history, science daily and then we do these things : poetry, nature study, music, etc studies only ONCE a week.

I would start by looking at what you are trying to accomplish and see if it’s not to much maybe, I don’t know what’s to much for you.?

Also, I know that my boys will not narrate good if they don’t like the book, so sometimes I have to stop a book and try another one. I mean there are so many out there if I don’t finish one it will be ok. If they like what they hear they are more willing and able to tell it back. Also, I know for us audio books are great they love to listen to them verse’s me??

Just a couple thoughts, hope more people help you out!

‘Misty

Hi Angela,

I can feel what you are typing!! I have been there. I am sure a lot of people here have felt like that when they started CM style learning, I know that I sure did! In fact, my oldest Daughter is now 20 and I have little notes jotted down in my book ” A Charlotte Mason Companion” by, Karen Andreola, from when she was 13! I have desired an education like this for my children since I first caught wind of CM! And now, only now, am I truly implementing it! With that being said, the fruits of this type of learning are AMAZING!

When I finally realized that this REALLY DID WORK, I asked myself- why did I not do this sooner?

My Children that are home schooled in the home now are ages 14, 6, and 2.

My 14 year old Son has read a lot of classics that I just “assigned” for him to read, and he loves reading now! He did not like reading before, or writing! He is used to it now. I think if you just take it slow, and not overwhelm them with everything at once, they will grow to enjoy this type of learning in time. My oldest Daughter was in the public school system for 6 years and I was myself also, so I, to this day, fight the public school system way of learning in me! It is terrible! I feel like it is a disease in me. I thank God for Charlotte Mason! She has brought such a gentle way of learning to my home that works!

I did start with reading all together out loud, and then they would narrate to me. Once they got the concept down (these things take some time at first) they could read some on their own and then narrate to you. My Son now keeps a written narration log that he does all on his own now!

If the Lamplighter books are not doing it for them right now (I LOVE Lamplighter books!) Drop it for a while. Try something else suitable for their ages or comprehension levels.

For Science, my family at the ages of your children, used Exploring Creation with series. We loved them! They are so enjoyable, in my opinion.

I used to use Rod and staff way back when as well, and felt the same way you do about it! I dropped that as fast as I could! If you do some reading on CM style language arts, you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it can be for you! Maybe try this for starters: [Moderator’s note: Ambleside’s site license agreement states that permission must be obtained to link to them and then links are only allowed to their home page. We removed the link to their Scope and Sequence for Language Arts page in order to honor their wishes. You should be able to find it by going to their site and using the search feature.]

For History, we have used a few different things at different times. They were: As a spine ” Illustrated kingfisher history of the world” and took it further with anything that was an interest to them by writing about it, reading up more on something, or even doing a project or a craft. It is up to you. Then we have also used “The mystery of history” volumes alone. We have “streams of civilizations” volumes now for my older one, and use it the same as we did the Kingfisher guide, along with the suggested reading books for the time periods from the modules here at SCM. We use a Book of Centuries too.

You can get a lot of good ideas for books to use for History from books like “books children love” by, Elizabeth Wilson, and “All through the ages” by Christine Miller As well.

We do not do “everything” daily. We would never get any “life” done if we did :o)

We break things up throughout our week.

I hope some of this might help you a little. Once I took everyone’s advice, I broke it all up and did this and that from different families and I eventually ended up with something that “works” for my family. I have had so much advice through the years, and it has been a blessing to me!

Hope this helped a little. I am by no means a professional! Just a humble CMer.

Sincerely, Veronica 🙂

CM method is new for me also and I have a 6 yr old I’m starting 1st grade with this fall, so the only advice I can give right now is to start implenting CM slowly into your daily schoolwork. In other words, don’t try to do EVERYTHING all at once. Start with science, maybe, doing nature walks and journals and using a handbook to i.d. the things you find. I like Handbook of Nature by Anna Comstock. Or begin with read alouds choosing good literature and enjoying the readings together then later get into narration of books the children are enjoying. That way you can see how narration works w/o the pressure.

I’ve been researching the CM method for a year now so I advise to continue to read online how others implement the CM method or Charlotte’s writings herself and take it one subject at a time until all is CM method. 🙂

Tara