New to CM…with ??

Great question, Cindy. The books listed on the curriculum guide are only suggestions. Use them as is best for your child and family. If your child loves to read, he or she might get through all of the books suggested. However, if you want to choose only a few so as not to overwhelm, feel free. Also keep in mind that some of those books we read only portions of.

Here’s a little “insider information”: As I write the handbooks that go with each history module, I will update the book list on the curriculum guide’s history modules to mirror only the books that are actually included in the handbook’s daily lesson plans. The other books will, of course, stay in our CM Bookfinder as great alternates or supplements, but the history modules’ lists will be fine tuned as we go along.

(BTW, everybody, I just finished the Joshua through Malachi & Ancient Greece module’s handbook. It’s at the printer’s right now.)

Slowing down can be a great way to increase retention. I always resisted that at first when I began doing CM methods, because I myself *love* to just gobble books up–I’ve been doing that since I was a little girl. One year, I set myself an experiment and decided to “gobble” several meaty books I’d been wanting to read, and then to set a slower schedule with several more. I was stunned at how much more I thought about and pondered the “slow” books. So I tried it with several books with my kids. What a difference! They narrate better the “slow” way. Of course, I still have a child who breezes right through much of his personal reading, but I think he has thought about it too, as I once heard him say of a meaty-looking book “That looks like a “nibble-on” book, and not a “big gulp” book.” ! So I always choose several books that we will read fairly slowly, then I put on the shelf several other choices. One son deliberately reads a few, the other gobbles the rest of the shelf whole before Christmas, lol.

Jean,

We’ve not been able to reach that pace. If we do not own a book, the library eventually wants their copy back. Also, with our schedule, I was finding that we would consistently miss enough readings that it could be actually too long inbetween readings. So, we tend to just read them more often during the week and not have as many going at one time. Now, if we are reading a ‘spine’ book (like we’re reading Abraham Lincoln’s World right now), that does tend to take up at least a term because it’s a little more difficult for the ages I am reading it to. One rule of thumb I have used from time to time, is whatever I can read in, say 10 to 15 minutes is what we go with. All this to say, you have to make it work for your family and not feel like there is only one way.

Blessings,

Cindy