Welcome LaDonna! I have young children (6 ds, 2dd, and one on the way), but I know there are many here who have schooled thier older children. It’s alright if you don’t have a teaching background. Most of us here don’t. Those that do sometimes even get rattled at the thought of teaching thier own children. As long as you feel teaching your children is God’s desire for you and continue to take your troubles and wishes for your dc to Him, He will give you strength and lead you.
Regarding the books you were mentioning, I would try to find more living books on the subjects you are studying. Living books are conversational or story form and draw you in. They will give you that “Wow, I want to know more!” you were talking about. Books that have long lists of name and dates will definately get dry and boring. If you are new to the CM style, especially narration, I would cut back how much you are reading before the boys narrate. Narration is a skill that takes time to cultivate and can be very difficult when first starting out.
Following the SCM guide will give your boys the education they require to graduate. If your state requires something more you can just through that it when neede. I am from Washington and they require 1 year of Washington State history to graduate. If we ever move back home I will have to figure out what to teach my dc. Remember also, that homechool children generally get a better education than PS children. If you want to slow donw and spend more time with places, peaple, and times, go for it. Your children will have a deeper knowledge of thier subjects than a PS child who has memerized for a test and then dumps that to move on th the next test. I am fairly sure many of us have the aim to teach our children to learn for themselves, to be able to get the information and digest it so it is usefull. These tools are some of the most important things to give our children.
The planning guides will help you determine how much of a book to read how often based on how quickly or not you want to read it and how many books you want to read. If you want to read 3 books on a subject durring a 12 week period, Planning your childs education http://simplycharlottemason.com/2008/03/12/new-planning-series/ will help you determin how much to read based of the number of chapters in all 3 books. It requires some time initially to sit down and figure it all out, but once you have done that your plan should be set for the rest of the year. You can either have your own paper planner or use the SCM planner here, which after you have imputed everything will tell you what to do on what days.
I hope this was able to answer some of your questions and help you out a bit.
Blessings, Ruth
