New to CM

Calledtobehome,

Welcome to this forum.  It is a great place to be and there are alot of wonderful people here.

I’ll share what my views are on your list, and I’m sure others can chime in.

1st of all, Phonics isn’t really necessary in a CM approach.  If you follow the methods of oral narration, drawn narration, and when old enough; written narration, there really isn’t room or a need for phonics instruction.  With that being said, Charlotte did have some writings pertaining to teaching a child to read.  They are wonderful.  She used a whole world approach putting together words to form a useful selection of poetry or writing.   However, if you feel more comfortable sticking with what you’re doing; I would just say use the phonics instruction in small chunks.  Keep the lessons short as to teach you children in the habit of attention.  From my experience, I used Spell to Write and Read for years with my eldest and then the next one.  After using CM for a number of years, I realized it wasn’t necessary.  The fabulous living books that they read and we read aloud, the narrations, and the copywork really take care of it all.  Later, dictation and written narrations will solidify it even more.

Math-Whatever you use, remember to keep the lessons short.  I believe no more than 15-20 minutes for the youngers(1-3) and 5-30 for older elementary.  Sonya has some wonderful tidbits on here concerning math and what to look for in a curriculum.  Any living books or games that can be used will make learning come alive.

FLL?(First Language Lessons?)-Again, not really necessary with CM.  Narrations, dictation, copywork take care of this.  If you feel you must use it, keep lessons short and don’t overdo.

Handwriting-use your living books and either make copywork sheets for them to use, or have them copy from books that you’re using in your reading time. 

Writing with Ease-Not sure what this is; a writing curriculum?  Again, oral narrations form the foundation for what will later become written narrations.  A writing curriculum isn’t necessary, esp. at this young age. 

Bible-Great; use short lesson times and have children narrate back what you read to them rather than filling in workbooks. Sonya has fabulous guides that can be used with your Bible Study.

Science-sounds very CM friendly.  We just schedule our living books for different terms and I have the girls do written, oral or drawn narrations from them.  Depending on the ages, the older one goes and reads some books on her own.  It doesn’t sound like yours are quite to that age.  My oldest is nearly 12.

History-Story of the World with AG?  You can use this and read aloud or do the audio in small bites.  Keep times short and have them orally narrate or do a drawn narration for the section.  You could add any additional living books from the library that correspond to this too.  You can also do a family book of centuries and have your children fill in the sections with drawings.

Music-We do this…pick a composer for each 6 weeks or however you want to do it.  I use 2 per term or 12 weeks.  That way we cover 6 different ones in a school year.  Check out any bios that you can find that are living books or books that read enjoyably and maybe a CD/cassette or two of their compositions.  Then, once a week; we either read from a book or listen to the music.  This is how we do music study.  We also do hymn study a different day.  These are no more than 30 minute classes.  However, I’ll often put a CD in the van or play one during time when the girls are doing something else, and then they can just listen to the music too.  You can get Music Masters CD’s or tapes sometimes at the library or Classical Kids CD’s or tapes that focus on a composer.  I pull different things together to make a nice study.

Art- Our favorite.  You can study the artists in the same way.  Pick 2 per term..(there are guides for this on this site along with composers); and then once a week do a picture study.  We also check out bios if we can find them and read a bit on the artist for that week.  On another day, we do an art project.  Maybe it has to do with the artist we are studying, and maybe it is just another something we want to do.  A great art website is http://www.kinderart.com  It is a free resource that has all kinds of art project ideas.  There are many books at the library too.  I bought some inexpensive coffee table books at 1/2 price books last summer to use this year for art appreciation.  I found one on Monet, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, etc….

Hope this helps.  I hope you didn’t take my recommendations the wrong way, I just wanted you to have a true picture of CM.  It can be very freeing:)  Is that a word?

Bridget

Okay, I’ll give this a go : ).

Phonics: these should lend themselves to short lessons fairly easily. Be careful to use real living books for their early reading though not twaddle as so many phonics programs use. Although at the same time, sometimes it’s hard not to use some twaddle at the very early reading stages

Math: Singapore should also lend itself to short lessons. Make sure they understand the concept using manipulatives (these can be as simple as beans or pebbles) before requiring it to be done in their heads. MUS is also able to be use in a CM way. Not sure why you want to supplement one with the other though.

FLL: I’m not super familiar with this but based on reviews I would say to reduce the memorization of parts of speech and repetition. CM typically didn’t introduce grammar until 4th grade or later. You could always skim thru FLL and pick out those parts that would help, doing it orally, etc. Cathy Duffy has a pretty good review of this that could help you decide how to make it more CM

Handwriting: Make it short. Expect a few perfect letters rather than a whole page.

Writing with ease: don’t know this one at all

Bible: Read it allowed and have them narrate. Could just use a “real” Bible too.

Science and history: both sound good. have the 7 year old narrate. The 5 year old is below the recommended 6 year narration age but if he does it spontaneously let him. Just don’t push.

Music: sounds good. Maybe study a specific composer and focus on his music.

Art: maybe consider picture study. For doing art, I have yet to find something we like so hopefully someone else will help with that part.

HTH, Rebecca