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Is 9th grade too late to begin CM? I’m lost.
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I graduated one child and used unit studies with a relaxed approach to homeschool. My 2nd child (9th grade) is totally different. She loves a checklist, “tell me what to do and get it done” type of person. She is very, very, very independent and has always preferred to do homeschool this way. I’ve had to adjust my desires to meet my daughter’s preferences in learning. Now that we are in 9th grade she doesn’t like any of her school subjects. I don’t know what to do or where to even begin changing curriculum. I am a little confused because one site that I would’ve turned to is gone….shut down…no longer exists (homeschoolreviews.com). I feel desperate for help because I want the joy back in our homeschool. There isn’t any fighting, but I see and hear her not liking homeschool. We are college focused and I use a variety of curriculum. Bible study of our choice, Easy Grammar Ultimate grade 9, Wordly Wise grade 9, IEW Writing SWICC LEvel B, Notgrass Exploring America, a few literature books to go with history, Chalk Dust Algebra 1, Apologia Physical Science, Rosetta Stone Spanish, Total Health (1/2 credit and finishing up in 2 weeks. Then we will add personal finance 1/2 credit) and piano and taekwondo 1 time a week. She thinks history and science are boring and math is just plain ole’ hard for her. My husband helps her with math every evening and tutors her for the next lesson. Anyway, I don’t know how to change things, especially since this is high school. I know that she will go to college, but I don’t know where since I know her ACT score will be low. She doesn’t test well at all. I don’t bring her down or discourage her. I’m just stating this on here so you can see our background. She’s a great kid and is a leader. I just want homeschool to not be a dread for her. Help, please.
She loves a checklist, “tell me what to do and get it done” type of person. She is very, very, very independent and has always preferred to do homeschool this way.
This sounds very much like a mixture of my two oldest boys. A lot of how you described your DD is very much like my experience with my boys. In spite of that, I feel much at a loss to know what to advise. I’m hoping the other moms who are much better at helping will chime in. So, I’m sorry I’m not any help. Just saying, I’ve been there too. My two oldest are 19 &17. The 19 year old still has a couple credits to get done.
We used mostly a living books approach for history all thru their school years. When they reached the high school years my oldest seemed to just loose interest in so much reading for school( actually, he seemed to loose interest in any kind of school) and the 17 year old for his last year opted to just do the ACE school of tomorrow for his history. What has been interesting, is now he’ll find a book that covers a certain time of history he’s learning about and he’ll read the book just for fun in his spare time, and they are books not necessarily at the high school level but books that he hadn’t had time to read before when they were doing a ‘living books approach’ for their history. !
My daughter who is only 12 likes to have the checklist approach, something where she can see exactly what needs to be done. For her, so far, HOD( heart of dakota) seems to be clicking. She likes to see everything all right there. She did not care for the lesson plans of MFW. I think it was too much having to look at the teacher’s notes to get the rest of the instructions. So we are using HOD history for her at this point. The boys really liked the lesson plans of MFW. The two oldest never did the high school years tho but my 3rd boy who is in 9th grade is using it and seems to be doing well with it. The lesson plans are written right to the student at the high school level with a parent conference scheduled in to be done on Friday just to check in with the student to check in with their work etc.
Wishing you well as you figure out what direction to go. And keep looking up ! 🙂
I just wanted to add, the 19 year old also chose to finish up his history credit by using the ace school of tomorrow as well. He just wanted to get it done. He has a part time job and doing the living books approach was just taking too much time even though he really liked the books. I am using some of the other subjects from the ace curriculum as well. They are getting their school done quicker and so then have time to just pursue other interests.
And now I’m embarrassed…….
I read your post but didn’t pay attention to the title/question. !
No, I don’t think that 9th grade is too late to begin CM. 🙂 If you feel drawn to that approach it is worth the try. I got derailed by your comment that she is very very independent.
Really hoping someone else will chime in
Never to late to start 🙂
We are pretty CM heavy but I love checklists and I think they can fit with CM learning. CM was not a free form teacher, she had schedules which allowed for free time.
I have a weekly schedule for each of my kids, I fill it out, a personalized one for each of them, at the end of school on Friday or Sunday afternoon. It takes me 20 minutes to do three schedules.
On that schedule I just list what we have to do for the week for each subject (subjects going down the left of the page, days of the week across the top). I add in extras like poetry, hymn study, literature reading… as well as plans for history, science, and language arts… We work through the day, not the same order every day, but just work towards checking off each subject.
We use SCM for history, so it is really easy to take that lesson plan and write down what book and page for each day. Science we use Apologia and once again I just enter what pages or experiments we need to do.
I only do one week at a time. If something comes up or get sick, we do not rush to make up the missed day or subject, simply finish off the week and start where we left off the next week.
I love schedules and plans, but like the flexibility of my own personalized plan. 🙂
I realized I got a little too “focused” on planning, sorry. 🙂
Have you talked yo your daughter? What are her interests. I feel like highschool while it has very specific requirements it is also a time to explore interests. It could be time periods that are of interest, or an author, or something specific in science… As homeschool we have a great opportunity to help encourage through the tough subjects while also bringing alongside subjects of interest.
Just read a great quote from Mother Culture by Karen Andreola that said “Do something of what you have to do with something of what you like to do every day.” I love that thought, a great reminder for balance.
Becky, don’t be embarrased. Your reply made me feel like I’m not lousy because my teen likes independent schoolwork. Sarah, I like your lesson plan philosophy. Others, please reply how I would transition from some of the curriculum I listed over to SCM. Thank you all!
This series of articles on Making the Transition to CM from our Learning Library may be helpful to you. It is full of information on what the Charlotte Mason method is and how to transition to CM from other approaches to education (textbook, unit studies, etc.).
Bible study of our choice, Easy Grammar Ultimate grade 9, Wordly Wise grade 9, IEW Writing SWICC LEvel B, Notgrass Exploring America, a few literature books to go with history, Chalk Dust Algebra 1, Apologia Physical Science, Rosetta Stone Spanish, Total Health (1/2 credit and finishing up in 2 weeks. Then we will add personal finance 1/2 credit) and piano and taekwondo 1 time a week.
In a later post, you asked:
Others, please reply how I would transition from some of the curriculum I listed over to SCM.
You can click on the grades K-12 overview in in the drop down menu under Our Curriculum and you will find suggestions for each grade level from SCM.
Personally, I am very big on giving older children a lot of freedom in choosing their curriculum. The first thing I would do is sit down with your daughter and find out what she would like to change. Then I would give her some curriculum options to check out and choose from. A special mother, daughter date would make this a fun experience for her.
Our homeschool is delight directed in many ways and I use very little actual curriculum except for math and foreign language. I have used bits and pieces of curriculum over the years to teach things like essay writing and grammar. My daughter still receives a check list to go through each day.
It is super simple and looks something like this:
Bible-Personal devotions, family devotions
Math-1 lesson or one hour (Teaching Textbooks)
Literature-Read Fellowship of the Ring for 30 minutes
History-Read such and such pages from George Washington’s World
German-30 minutes (Rosetta Stone, Demystifying German Grammar and German Folk Tales)
P.E.-Walk two miles with mom.
Science- Read text with mom for 30 minutes discussing questions orally and completing each study guide. (Apologia Marine Biology) We don’t do the tests.
For history my daughter reads living books of her choosing. We don’t follow a guide. We did chronological history for many years and she is more than able to read books from various time periods and keep them straight chronologically. I simply plug America History books into her American history credit and world history books into her World History credit.
For English, my daughter reads classics of her own choosing as well. My only rule is that they have to be classics. She also switches out reading for composition once a week, when she usually writes a complete essay on a topic of her choosing instead. Write now she is working on a fictional children’s book for a certain amount of time each week.
This is her 4th Apologia textbook and she has done a few modules in the more traditional manner throughout the years so I am confident in her ability to be able to adapt quickly to typical textbook learning in college.
Just thought I’d share how we’ve done things with my daughter in case it might be of help to you. I place a lot of value in a student enjoying his/her studies as much as possible. Many students will never find math or grammar enjoyable but they can at least study literature and history in whatever way they find most enjoyable.
Honestly, your list includes a lot of curriculum! Is grammar and vocabulary necessary at this age? Most high school English courses consist of composition and literature. Grammar is covered in the early years. Charlotte Mason taught that children would naturally pick up a good vocabulary from reading great books and I wholeheartedly agree with her! We’ve never used a vocab curriculum in our house.
We cover electives (excepting foreign language) in a very relaxed manner. My daughter draws and paints all the time so I will giver her credit for that. She also had 2 years of piano. We cover health in our science studies and just through natural conversations and living. 🙂 Dave Ramsey’s personal finance videos make that subject fun. We taught her to drive so she gets a Driver’s Ed credit as well. We’ve always made exercise a priority so P.E. is a no brainer. Most of this isn’t really “school”, just life, no curriculum needed!
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