Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: AO or SCM, Sonlight

This topic has 16 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by AprilMayJune75.

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November 14, 2011 at 10:36 pm
yoliemiller
Participant
I have been going back and forth between Ambleside Online and SCM for a couple of years and I am tired of doing this. I want to pick one and stick with it for the most part. I want to think of one as the one I am following. Not to say that I won’t substitute books here and there, but I am really needing to find a base to work from. What I want to know from this forum is why I should pick SCM over AO. Has anyone else worked through this and if so any words of wisdom would be appreciated.
November 14, 2011 at 10:56 pm
suzukimom
Participant
On my phone so will try to be brief.
I went from AO to my own mix because I found AO to just be too much and too daunting. But I found to keep my sanity I had to leave all the AO Yahoo groups or I would 2nd guess myself.
hth
November 14, 2011 at 11:36 pm
sheraz
Participant
This post from a few months back has some thoughts/experiences you are asking about – perhaps this will help. =)
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/those-who-combine-scm-and-ao
November 15, 2011 at 12:47 am
Sue
Participant
I was drawn to the SCM site in the first place due to the fact that Sonya and I both have children on the autism spectrum. I investigated, watched a number of the helpful SCM videos, and I just felt comfortable with the curriculum. Having said that, if you don’t have a special needs child, that experience is purely my preference and wouldn’t apply to you.
However, the more compelling reason I went with my second discovery in the world of CM curriculum guides was based on what I knew about my children. My kids came from a textbook-style education (with a brief foray into unit studies) and had been enrolled for a couple of years in an online public charter school. As such, they had not had much experience with rich, classic literature. Their coursework for the previous few years was steeped in twaddle, abridged books, and much busywork. Soooo…..AO seemed a little too rigorous, a little too much to handle for us. The choices listed in the SCM Curriculum Guide seemed “just right” most of the time, and the way things were laid out has proven pretty easy to implement.
Plus, the SCM website has one terrific discussion forum made up of wonderful homeschooling parents!
November 15, 2011 at 12:55 am
Sue
Participant
Actually, looking at my previous post, it would sound like I am unfairly attributing more weight on one side or another when comparing the AO and SCM curriculum recommendations. They share quite a few of the same book selections (although I think that AO has more that are out of print….correct me if I’m wrong). I think it may boil down to my visual learning style. Perhaps the SCM Curriculum Guide is more appealing to me in large part because it shows the subjects and book selections and grade levels in a grid, whereas AO has the grade levels and subjects in a…..list…..a long, vertical list.
I like boxes!
November 15, 2011 at 12:57 am
Bookworm
Participant
One critical factor here is a personal decision for you. Do you have multiple children? If you do, is it important to you to keep the whole family together as long as possible on the same history and other subjects, or would you prefer each child to have his or her complete own set of books? Many of the books are similar, and in fact if there is a book you are drawn to on one site you can “import” it into the other. The more critical thing? Do you want them all together or all separate.
November 15, 2011 at 1:10 am
yoliemiller
Participant
Oh suzukimom– you are so right!! I need to leave the group if I am going to go with SCM or I will not stay sane. 🙂 Thanks sheraz- the post was helpful.
Now I need to think.
November 15, 2011 at 1:31 am
yoliemiller
Participant
Bookworm- Yes I can see the importance of that question- Do I want them together or separate. One question I have with SCM is it seems they miss things because the modules are only done each 2 times during their schooling, so they wouldn’t be exposed to all the books listed. Does that make sense?? Is that something to consider. If each child does their own history they all get all the same books in their own years. I sort of like that idea of a year by year book list, but also like the idea of all studying the same time period together. So I guess I just need to figure out which is most important to me, or else start from scratch and plan my own thing.
Sue- I like SCM curriculum guide for the same reason!! 🙂
Thanks everyone!
November 15, 2011 at 1:43 am
Tristan
Participant
My 2 cents:
I love SCM because it keeps us all together. I’m expecting baby #7, my oldest is 10 years old. I can’t run that many separate ages/topics/tracks at once and stay sane.
About your question of the children missing some books in a module because it’s only a 2 times through thing – I plan to offer the other books for a module as free reading. So, for example, this year my 10 year old is reading the books for Module 4 grades 4-6 set. She’s free to read or listen in on the younger kids books anytime she wants. The next time she is in this module she’ll be in 10th grade, so anytime during 7th-9th that she wants to read the books for module 4 for the grade 7-9 group she can (allowing her to follow her interests in free time), or I’ll offer her those as free reading when she’s in 10th and in module 4 again. They’ll be easy, but if she’s interested she can read them, if not, no big deal. We can’t read every good book in the world, right?
November 15, 2011 at 2:30 am
ibkim2
Participant
I was recently wanting to do AO as written (I will be starting year 1 next year with my oldest) and LOVED the curriculum so much….but while reading the forums and hearing from parents how hard it is to flip back and forth on history and some other subjects when a second child starts year 1, I reconsidered. My 2nd child is 2 years younger, and while planning out an AO education for my ds, I just couldn’t see doing year 3 with him later on and redoing year 1 with her at the same time. Yes, the artist study, composer study, folksongs, hymns, and nature study would be on the same schedule, but history, lit, poetry, and science is a big chunk of education as well which I would like to teach together. AO says keeping dc in the same year may create competition and may not be the right challenge (too hard for the younger or too easy for the older) if you put the children in the same year. By the time dd will start year 1, ds should be more independant with alot of work….but I want my dc to homeschool together as much as possible (knowing reading level, writing, and math will probably always be different). I’m thoroughly comparing and considering either SCM or MFW at the moment, thankful I have several months to decide and to review the curriculums more fully. Also, while Shakespeare and Plutarch are great literature, dh and I think there are many other great literature options out there that glorify God…..we are planning to study Shakespeare and Plutarch, but not to the degree AO recommends. If we go with SCM or MFW, I plan to read many literature selections from the AO booklist through the years. AO does have alot to offer….a great support group, hard work went into to putting the curriculum together by moms just like us who are busy just like us, and I think it is wonderful………just for the other reasons listed I think SCM or MFW will be a better fit for our family long term.
November 15, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Jennifer
Member
Once again I have enjoyed reading this AO vs. SCM thread. After having done AO for several years and having just started SCM this year but still hanging on to AO, I completely feel where you’re coming from. It helps that I don’t have the internet in my home anymore! Ha! I’m sitting here at the library and only get to come here every couple of weeks. :gasp:: Anyway, I’ve been doing both. Yes, both. As in, SCM Mod 1, which we are half way through and enjoying very much. I love studying the Bible like this with my kids, and I did not grow up with a lot of Bible study so I don’t know as much as I should. This is true FAMILY LEARNING at its best. Then my ds11 is doing AO 5, and my ds 9 is doing AO 3. LOL, just typing that sounds crazy. Now, we don’t follow AO in its entirety with all the Shakespeare and everything, because we just don’t have TIME! We have been lacking in picture study, and pretty much every other extra is getting tossed aside like an old dish towel. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it, this wonderful system I have all worked out? I hope you could feel my sarcasm. Not only that, but my ds11 has discovered that he really LIKES Latin, and we’re trying to have more time for that. So…hmmmm. This leaves me with a couple of choices, doesn’t it? I can do AO, and miss out on that FAMILY LEARNING that I’m very excited about and miss out on the more in depth Biblical knowledge that they will USE for their ENTIRE lives in their Christian walk. I can use AO because it is more rigorous and the history is simply fantastic, while missing out, once again, on the family memories of making our salt dough Egypt maps, which I finally threw away for lack of space (but I have great pictures and the kids loved it!) OR I could* add in AO books and literature and natural history (which my kids love) and continue on our path of family learning, adjusting the rigor of the program as we go according to the child. Honestly, I have tried each on their own since I got SCM, and time is not all that different, but I do feel a lot less like a chicken with my head cut off running around helping the three school aged children while giving the two littles attention, too. I once did make a list of AO books that I can use with SCM modules, which I should pull out again after re-reading my post and realizing I’m making this much harder than it probably should be. Take, for instance, when I do Module 2 (Greece) I can read Fifty Famous Stories retold, choosing the handful of Greek stories. Then I can use pull it out again for Rome, and so on. I can use This Country of Ours as a spine for later, we can still read all the fantastic literature that both SCM and AO recommends, while also having time to read our own favorite selections.
Ok, I’m done rambling. Personally, I’m going to stick with SCM. You can talk about rigor all your want, but if my ds 11 is doing Bible/history/geography daily, English once a week, Latin 4-5 times a week, math, writing in various forms such as copy work, written narration and dictation, Apologia science with notebooking, plus great literature, natural history, and typing…not to mention Shakespeare, nature study, artist and poetry once a week which I may actually have time for IF I am not reading seperate AO selections to my boys (my ds11 could be entirely independent in his reading but he LOVES having a book that we read together). I think that sounds plenty rigorous. What do you think?
November 15, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Tristan
Participant
Jennifer -yep, I think it sounds like plenty (what you said at the end).
I’ll be honest, my personal struggle has always been trying to do too much, but my children and family suffer for it when we’re doing too much. They lose that time to truly follow their interests and dive deeper into things that God has put in them as a bent/gift. My husband has been a great help in this, reminding me to stop stuffing every moment of the day with learning to allow the children time to be children and to learn on their pace. We’ve done so much better this year with it (not overstuffing/overplanning). It’s been wonderful. But I still find myself thinking occasionally “But we could add in….”. LOL
November 15, 2011 at 7:34 pm
momto2blessings
Participant
I truly understand your turmoil! I started with straight AO, but after 6 mo. really hated reading 2 different TCoO history reading to my 2 kids..confusing for me and they didn’t love it. I love the rigor of AO, but the HOE yrs. scare me and my eldest just doesn’t always connect with some of the difficult lit. I’ve finally found peace using SCM’s “Planning Your CM Education” guide. It helps me know my bases are covered, and I just pick what I like best from AO/SCM and plug it in.
I like AO’s lit. and free reads, so my kids read those, mostly independently (ages 12 and 9). I like to combine history, so use Truthquest history guides, plugging in AO/SCM books. It’s often an AO spine book to both, along with SCM history module books for independent reading. We use SCM’s geography. AO does 3 Shakespeare plays a year and SCM does one every other year…I choose to do one per year. And one Plutarch life per year. Composers, Artists, Poetry, etc. I just make my own based on what I have around. It takes some planning at the begining, but so worth it to me to have a custom plan that fits our family best.
That may sound complicated, but it’s not too bad once you get in the groove. If I had to pick just one, I’d probably pick SCM and just scan the AO lists each year to see if there’s something I wanted to add/substitute. HTH some:) Gina
November 15, 2011 at 7:39 pm
momto2blessings
Participant
Funny, I just read the above link and it was started by me:) I’m much more relaxed now that I got my schedule put together and just need to follow it. I really wanted to follow just ONE plan, but that never seems to work for me…I’m a perpetual tweaker:) Gina
November 15, 2011 at 9:56 pm
yoliemiller
Participant
Your understanding and thoughtful responses mean so much!! I have about driven myself crazy over the past 2 years with this. I am tired. 🙂 I’m like Gina, though, probably will never be able to stick with one plan. I wish I could though, sometimes. Maybe I should get the “Planning Your CM Education” Guide. It sounds like it has been helpful to a lot of you. Thanks again for caring.