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need some encouragement/advice
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Hello,
We are new to homeschooling (just pulled our kids ages 13, 12 and 10 out of public schools in March of this year). I sort of stumbled on the SCM site (actually I fully believe God sent me here!) while researching math curriculums. I’ll have to admit I was not that familiar with Charlotte Mason’s teachings (I read a small bio before pulling our kids from ps).
I have spent the last three hours scouring the SCM site for any and all information and I am amazed! Obviously, I don’t know any of you personally but I feel such a connection and kinship with CM teachings and so many of the forum posters. I purchased a bible-based literature curriculum (it was expensive and a stretch for us to afford) that I have been struggling with for several months (planning, etc). I thought the purchase was a good choice at the time, but after receiving it, I have been so stressed (the curriculum is intensive and time consuming). My kids sense the stress and therefore are reluctant to engage. Now, after pouring over the SCM site for the last few hours, I realize that I made a mistake with the purchase and should have done more research (on curriculums AS WELL AS teaching styles). I’m really trying not to beat myself up about this, but it is difficult.
Since this is our first year at homeschooling, I don’t really feel I know what I’m doing or we have a “pitter-patter” down yet. Has anyone else felt the need to press the “rewind” button, made curriculum mistakes or felt stressed when just starting out? I really feel the CM teachings echo our desire for our family. I guess I just need a bit of a boost to take the plunge!
Thanks in advance for any encouragement!
-Andrea, Carlsbad CA
I completely understand! I purchased gobs of expensive curriculum a couple years ago and now find myself selling some on ebay and giving some away to other homeschool families. Don’t kick yourself too hard, most of us have come that route! I hope you’ll be wonderfully encouraged to keep things “CM simple”, this site has been a godsend for our family too! There are several families here who have made the transition out of the school system with their older children, I’m sure they can give you good advice. I think we all begin a bit wobbly when trying something so new, but the more we practice the more efficient we become and the more confident we feel for the task. Best wishes as your family transitions to this gentle way of learning! Rachel
Andrea, Bless your heart – I know where you are coming from, made the same mistakes, spent loads of money on things that were really not necessary and felt the same guilt you do. In the end, I sold some of the expensive curriculum, except for math and science – we do use curriculum for that – and kept the history text as a spine, to keep our reading books in time order to help plan our flow. Please don’t get too down on yourself, we have all made our mistakes and we all survive in the end. God doubtless led you to this wonderful forum and site – I love it, and I love all the ladies who post which such a generosity of spirit. I hope you will search through Sonja’s wonderful book finder and see the sort of books you might be able to find in the library for your children to start with – highly recommend Sonja’s DVD on planning your CM education and also her other items. The forum is a treasure trove of valuable information as I see you have already found out. Our daughters are now a couple of years from finishing high school, and though we adapt a lot of CM to suit our family, I can tell you that the dictation, narration and immersion into good literature etc pays huge dividends and is worth doing, even though your public schooled children may find it odd and difficult for a time. My daughters were in public school and the transition was not as smooth as I had hoped because they had only used textbooks, but as I said we adapted a lot to make it work for them. Read all you can about CM, study the site and forum and check out some great books for your children to dig into and start narrating – then little by little it will fall into place. Good luck and don’t despair, you have time to make it all happen. This is such a wonderful and gentle way to educate and the method works, because the information sticks. Our daughters can still narrate all the Shakespeare they have read, and with great detail, same with the history. Once they saw for themselves that they retained the things they were reading, they too fell in love with the method, though it took time. Good luck and enjoy the journey. Linda
Andrea, Congratulations of the decision to homeschool your children this year!! We, too, just pulled our 14, 10, and 9 year old sons out of the public school system. And you are right, God definately led you to this site, I don’t think that it was a coincidence. I know that God definately led me to the Charlotte Mason way of teaching–I have a 10 year old sister in law who was taught in a conservative, strict Christian school. She was having a lot of trouble keeping up in some of the subjects (she has had problems with her eyes which has really hindered her) and the amount of homework they were assigning was ridiculous. My mother in law pulled her out of the school, not really knowing what she was going to do. God provider her with an oportunity in which a lady in the community was tutoring children in her home, and she uses CM methods. That got me interested, and I started researching and absolutely fell in love with it. I first read Karen Andreola’s book “A Charlotte Mason Companion” and something in the first few pages resonated in my sould with how I thought things should be. If you are interested in learning more about how a Charlotte Mason education would look like, I highly reccomend this book. I started doing a lot of research last year, before we even knew if homeschooling was an option for our children, and was in bliss!! One thing I would suggest that you do before you get rid of the curriculum you bought is to seriously pray about it and see if you can adapt what you bought to make it more CM friendly. The great thing about Charlotte Mason is that it is not a curriculum–it’s a method, a way of teaching. And you don’t have to follow every single thing. There is so much freedom and flexibility. Not every family is alike, so not every family is going to do things the same way. You have the ability to make the perfect fit. God obviously laid on your heart this first curriculum that you purchased, so maybe you can still use it, just in a different way than they want you to. You never know!! Perhaps that is not in God’s plan for your family, and he has something else in mind for you to do with the curriculum. But, it’s worth praying about, right? Good luck in your journey homeschooling your first year–I hope to hear more about how you are doing!!
If you don’t mind telling us what curriculum you chose maybe we can help you make it a little more mommy friendly. 🙂 If it is literature-based I’m sure it has great books that you could use in a CM way.
Make expensive purchases for homeschooling that I ended up not liking? Yeah, I’ve done that! Welcome to the homeschooling club.
The good news about making purchases or trying a method that don’t work is the wonderful relief that comes when you find something that DOES work. I hope CM works for you.
Andrea,
Welcome to the site and the blessing of homeschooling. God has brought you to this point and he WILL NOT leave you or forsake you. So, rest in HIS assurance.
I have learned to try to focus on the real reason we are homeschooling instead of the curriculum that is out there. If we keep the reason or goals in mind then the curriculum seems to take a back seat to character issues, a servant’s heart, and a heart turned towards God and home.
May God bless you in all your endeavors. Remember to bathe it all in prayer and get your husbands input as much as possible. Men (for the most part) have a knack for simplifing things that us women complicate. (is that a word?)
Welcome, and enjoy.
Shelly
Thanks so much to everyone who replied to my post. What a blessing it is to feel that “kindred spirit” from all of you!
I met a homeschool mom recently that told me, “Andrea, teach your kids about God. Read and memorize scripture. The rest is just icing on the cake.” My eyes filled with tears when she told me that because I do have a tendency to complicate and worry about things. Her words seemed to be, yet another, confirmation from God that I need to move aside and let Him work!
My hubby is loving and supportive and definitely has that “knack for simplifying”! I know he trusts my pull to use CM teachings – but because we are so new to homeshooling, I tend to doubt my choices not him. How comforting to hear that others have experienced the same and are successful homeschool families.
Caroline and Meagan, I purchased year one of “Tapestry of Grace”. I love the fact that “Tapestry” is literally a walk through the Old Testament and is history and scripture rich…it’s the intensive teacher planning that worries me. I know the curriculum has lots of reading – not necessarily classical titles but biblical-based for sure. If anyone has experience with “Tapestry”, I’d LOVE to hear your recommendations on how I might modify the curriculum, CM-style!
Thanks again for all of you that replied with such loving advice…God bless all of you! I needed to be reminded to “keep things simple”! Because of your caring comments, I have been reminded of the scripture in 2 Timothy, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.”
I look forward to many future conversations!
-Andrea
Andrea:
Hi i just used the Tapestry year 2 this past school year and i did love the program! What i didnt like was the teacher intensity of the planning! lesson plans that is! I wish it would come with lesson plans for each day! (i did see on their sight that they are thinking of doing that after all this DE gets set first!) I know we all learned alot, i had LG and UG students. I know they didnt like reading from a bunch of books each day so that im taking into consideration also!
This will be my first year using SCM so i really cant offer any advice on how to make it more CM friendly! Im planning on using the SCM module 5 when we start in 4 weeks,,BUT im still looking at their TOG year 3 with the new DE version (i have DE in year 2) but they are putting their map aids and supplements on DE also , so im waiting to see that (should be out soon on their sight) and just trying to figure out how to make it more CM friendly and im debating about the cost of just the DE year plan (let alone the books to go with it that i cant get at the library) where SCM module 5 i get ALL books at the library for free!! and using module 1+2 (with sonya’s daily plans) for my 8yr old and those i can get at the library too!! So im debating between COST and HOW to make it more CM friendly!!
Hopefully someone else will answer our questions about making more CM friendly!
Blessings billiejo
Thanks for the encouraging words, billiejo. Like you, this will be our first year using CM (as well as homeschooling) and it is a bit intimidating to say the least. I truly feel this is God’s will for our family so I guess I just need to back-off and them Him work!
Thanks again and let me know if you get info on TOG conversions to CM.
Best,
-Andrea
I have spent the last three hours scouring the SCM site for any and all information and I am amazed! Obviously, I don’t know any of you personally but I feel such a connection and kinship with CM teachings and so many of the forum posters. 
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