New to CM. a little overwhelmed and could use a little help :-)

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  • August 19, 2012 at 7:26 pm
    AM
    Participant

    Hello!  My name is Ann-Marie and I have three sons, ages 5,8 and 10 and we have started our sixth year of homeschooling 🙂  We have done mostly Seton thus far with a little of this and that mixed in, but, CM has always appealed to me.  This year we are taking the plunge.  I am a little overwhelmed tyring to make the transition.  I have read the three stages of transitioning to CM and that is helpful.  I am also making my way through Planning your CM Education. We are excited, but, nervous at the same time.  I hate all of the rushed and hurried feelings that we usually have throughout the day as I go from child to child to child and am hoping this will slow things down a bit.

    I would love to hear if anyone has anything to offer to make it a smooth transition.  We have always used Saxon math too and that cannot be done in 15-20 at all. 

     

    Thanks for your thoughts 😀

    August 19, 2012 at 9:57 pm
    CindyS
    Participant

    Welcome Ann-Marie!

    You are doing all the right things! I can tell that you are being very wise and deliberate in your implementation of cm principles and your children will be blessed because of it! I would just add that you may want to put your expectations aside and move slowly (I can say that to you younger moms because I have a 24 year old and he’s fine academically Smile). Also, make sure you are getting your rest time (two hours is ideal, but I’ve never been able to get beyond an hour) and making sure you and your husband are getting the time together that you need to keep your marriage strong. I do not mention this because cm is going to put you under, it’s just that I tend to wave the flag around here on this board for such things.

    As you are doing more subjects together, your time will be optimized and so perhaps that rushed feeling will cease. Math can be done in a couple of periods during the day if necessary, or you may decide to do fewer problems, or take longer to finish the book. You will know what is best for your children. One thing you may feel rushed to do is get your oldest one into written narrations too soon since he is 10 years old. I think everyone here would agree that you do not need to push that and will have greater success if you just do oral or some other type of narration for quite some time before having him write it out. There is a good list of ideas on this site.

    Again, Welcome!

    Blessings,

    Cindy

    August 20, 2012 at 3:27 am
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Welcome, AM. It looks like you have things under control with transitioning. Start with the basics and add the extras one subject at a time as one becomes a habit. Is there anything specific you need help with? I am not as experienced as Cindy, but I am glad to help any way that I can. This forum is full of wisdom and helpful ladies.

    August 20, 2012 at 4:54 am
    my3boys
    Participant

    Hi AM, welcome.

    I just wanted to add that we have used Saxon math, as well, and just learned to do the 20 minutes, or so, and be satisfied with what was accomplished. Sometimes we finished up the same day and sometimes saved the second part for the next. We ended up skipping the extras like the calendar work and instead print out free calendars online. My kids would rather personalize a real calendar than do calendar exercises (they love to add bdays, events or cross off the days like I do).

    Enjoy this site…it is incredibly helpful.

    August 20, 2012 at 2:13 pm
    binky
    Participant

    Welcome Ann-Marie! You will LOVE this site and these wonderful people. They have really helped me a lot as I am also new to CM methods. I was wondering where you you found the transitioning to a CM education read. I feel I could use that info as well.

    Thanks,

    Binky

    August 20, 2012 at 6:57 pm
    AM
    Participant

    Thank you all SO much for the warm welcome 😀
     
    We had our first day today and it went fine.  We eased into the new year and did not do everything we would usually do, but, we managed to do 2 different levels for math, reading, narration, handwriting, grammar and some phonics.  Not bad for a our first morning.

    My sons are new to narration and I am trying to get three boys to settle into the idea of listening intently while I read and I think it is going to take some time (and patience) to do it.  My 8 year old actually did a very good job with it while my oldest son tended to just regurgitate little details here and there.  Tomorrow I am going to take down the narration while they give it.  I just wanted them to get a feel of it today.  When they were done, I narrated the story back to them as detailed as I could and my 8 year old loved that I was able to give so many details.  I told them in time, they will be able to do it that well too 😀

    Binky, here is the link for the articles I read.

    http://simplycharlottemason.com/2009/07/29/transition-to-cm-basics/

    It has been very helpful to me.

    August 20, 2012 at 8:18 pm
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Great! It sounds like your first day of CM was successful. I am no expert on narration. You want one of decent length to the best of their ability. The only questions you may ask are open-ended ones. There are ideas here: http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/narration/

    I would not expect any of your narrations to be exactly the same because we are all created to be unique and we will make different connections from the same piece of literature from living books. I have heard it suggested to start with the youngest child and work your way up to the oldest child. Each one adds a little more to what the other child(ren) said. I have also heard that you can alternate narration from each child with different days and subjects. The 5 year old is too young to require anything yet. My ds8 narrates and sometimes my dd5 will add something in. I find that he remembers more than what I do!

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