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: curriculum, switch to CM

This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 17 years ago by Bookworm.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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June 5, 2008 at 7:27 pm
jean
Member
Hi,
We are new to SCM, but not homeschooling. We have been using a literature based curriculum(no names given) the last 3 years. However, each year there is sooo much reading scheduled, usually 20 – 30 books per year. This includes history & literature titles. It’s scheduled so fast, that DS is just not retaining much of it. Not to mention the $$$.
I’m really tempted to make this switch to a little slower pace. If I already have the books purchased for this coming fall, would it be ok to use these titles and just stretch them out to maybe 2 years? They are really good books, just too many to keep digesting so fast!
I’m really excited to be starting with copywork, as we have been using a grammar curriculum also, the last 3 years. I think we need a breath of fresh air.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
June 5, 2008 at 8:20 pm
CindyS
Participant
Yes, Jean, Yes!! Slow down! You are so right: Why blow through books and learn little to nothing when you can slow down and absorb so much? It’s easy to get so caught up in getting through the reading that we neglect to facilitate the children being able to actually do something with what they are learning. A good exercise for you to do may be to take your book list and compare it to the curriculum guide here. It would perhaps just give you an idea of how much is enough (or in your case and mine so often…how ‘little’ is enough 🙂 ). And I will pose a question to Sonya here whether the curriculum list is meant to be used in totality or to make selections from?
Blessings,
Cindy
June 6, 2008 at 12:32 am
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
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.)
June 6, 2008 at 2:14 am
jean
Member
Thanks so much Cindy! I’m going through my booklist and comparing it to the curriculum guide. Looks like my “other” curriculum has A LOT MORE books.
I will be cutting back alot, or just going by the guide here.
June 8, 2008 at 11:24 am
Bookworm
Participant
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.
June 9, 2008 at 2:52 am
jean
Member
Thanks again for the advice! What is a good amount of time to allow for a book?
I see like on Ambleside, one book would be stretched out for a whole term (12 weeks).
Is this about average?
June 9, 2008 at 10:12 am
CindyS
Participant
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
June 9, 2008 at 11:55 am
Bookworm
Participant
Jean,
Yes, when I own a copy of a book, we often carry it throughout a term. A few really good sized books we’ve carried on over an entire year. And we have one REALLY big book we’ve been working on for TWO years and still have at least a year to go! But for an average length book, yes, a term is good. Now there are many books we DO read more quickly than that, but it really does make a difference to slow down on some. We owned a copy of one of the Genevieve Foster books, and it took one of my sons nearly all year to finish it, BUT I do believe a lot of it really “sank deep” as I’ve seen him refer to things he’s read in his writing.
Michelle D