My tiny pea brain cannot comprehend..

LOL. Well, reading that section has caused many a panic attack among modern day CM moms, I think. 🙂

I have to confess my own kids have never yet turned out anything in verse. 🙂

However, remember a couple of things–

This level of CM learning, I think, takes a lot of consistency and time. Some of us just haven’t had that sort of time yet.

I do think book choices make a big difference. The more really great language and great ideas you get fed in, the higher-level the result you are (eventually) going to have. That said, this too is a “baby-step” area. You simply can’t go from “Little House” to “Ivanhoe” overnight. 🙂 Years of gently guiding, gently “pushing the difficulty envelope” a bit at a time, and you’ll be surprised what you can end up with.

I can’t say that my kids have always turned out the exact same output as found in the section 🙂 but as they’ve gotten older, I have been blessed with little glimmers of hope, little things I’ve been pleasantly surprised at, that lets me know we are “getting there.”

Remember too, that we are guiding a whole new generation with its concomitant problems, and we want them to be whole people. The method works, but it may not look exactly like Victorian–or even Edwardian–England for our own kids. In fact it may be different for different kids. I have a hard time imagining my oldest son EVER turning out an exam in iambic pentameter, for example, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been enriched by his 21st century CM education.

So take a deep breath. Look at the good things your kids HAVE done. And take a few quiet hours when you are planning, to ask your Father what else you can do to achieve CM excellence for your own kids today. Then tell yourself you are going to use those exams in the book as INSPIRATION and NOT as a measuring stick, and go off and enjoy a terrific book with your kids. And remember to take the journey a step at a time.

Michelle D