New to homeschooling and CM

Welcome!

Yes, we have.  Mine were 10 and 9 when I pulled them out.  A rule of thumb is to let your child de-school for several months…it really does take a lot of time to relax and rid youself of the old schedule.  It is probably harder on you as the teacher/mother to unschool yourself to let traditional schooling methods go and focus on CM methods.  It was for me, even though I KNEW(!) this was right for us.  Once I got the hang of it and have learned to trust the methods will (and do) work, our school experience has been amazing.  

I would give him the summer to decompress and just do a few things like read literature – nature study – things that are totally casual and non-stressing and that will add to your lives.  As you let him relax, you read all the free e-books here.  Then study the free curriuculum guide for a while.  Ask questions here and let us share our experiences.  In a few weeks you will be feeling more prepared and confident about this new situation! 

After 2 years of CM methods, my kids shudder when we talk about ever going back to PS, and I hope and pray that I will not have to send them back.  These methods really work – and the experience and time with the kiddos is so worth it!

Well, sort of. LOL  Actually, I did on most of it, except math where everyone was struggling.  I just gently went back in the concepts to where I thought they needed to review, and we started there.  If they weren’t getting it in school, we had to reteach some of it.  My dd that struggled with reading came up two grade levels in AR books that first year alone.  It really helped to have time to really listen to her and encourage her. Other than that, I do mostly teach at the grade they were in.  It’s a good reference point to start with, anyway.  As you go, you will find that you can adjust any of his levels to where he really is.  If he is reading at a 10th grade level or doing 10th grade math, let him. =)  

Hi and welcome!

I also pulled my boys out of PS at the end of last year.  We are 5 1/2 weeks away from wrapping up our first year.  Our boys are 11 in 5th grade and 7 in 2nd grade.  We had many reasons why we choose to homeschool.  Both boys have learning differences that our rural PS couldn’t adequately address.  While the older really hated the idea of homeschool because he’s very social and hates appearing different from the other kids, I felt we might as well make the break now rather than wait until Jr. High (all his former classmates move to the Jr. High for grade 6 — the horror stories I’ve heard about that school were more than enough to convince me that it is not the place for my child.

Homeschooling is not easy, but it also hasn’t been as hard as I expected in many ways.  I think the fact that I read so much a head of time and new that we’d need to de-school (I read somewhere that you should deschool a month for every year in PS, not counting summer break), but I really couldn’t justify doing nothing from Sept to Dec with my oldest, and couldn’t expect my younger to start in November.  SO — I made a list of goals for each of my boys under each subject heading and determined which were the top four goals each.  Handwriting and math were key for both — for older because he struggles so much with both , and younger because he excels in math and needs to be challenged.  The rest of our top goals were habit training — attentiveness, obedience, etc.  So these were the only things I started with in September.  These and a collection of good novels to share for read alouds.  I started with Anne of Green Gables towards the end of August actually because our family was going to accompany my dh on a business trip to PEI the week PS started.  So on the last day of our trip the boys and I visited the Green Gables museum.  We had a great time.  There may be another opportunity to go back to PEI with dh at the end of June.

So — if you figure out what your goals are, pair it down to the essentials and focus on just those for the first while, starting with one thing, then adding in the others as you start establishing routines and habits, don’t try to overwhelm yourself with trying to do too much, give lots of time for adjustment and be prepared for some resistance and laziness in the beginning especially, surround your family in love and prayer, and trust in God to lead, you will be fine.  Things will not go perfectly smooth, so accept that off the bat and don’t panic if things are not working out just the way you invisioned.  Spend time getting to know your son — take him on errands — you’d be amazed what a can be learned on a grocery shopping trip or trip to the bank, garage or whatever else needs to be done during your day, play games, etc.  You can add in History and Science through great read alouds, field trips and by simply observing nature together in a very relaxed, non-stress way.  Go for a walk, a hike or bike ride.  If he doesn’t care to draw, take a camera with you.  You can always print your nicer shots to be taped into your nature journal with a few little notes underneath.  Don’t forget the date and location.

Remember short lessons and don’t expect him to study independently for five hours straight every day.  Starting out you might only want to spend an hour a day — 20 mins on three different subjects a day — like Math day for 20 mins, Language Arts for 20 mins (5 mins copy work and 15 on reading/narration practice — using Aesop Fables works well for practice even for a 12 year old.  I still use them for read aloud practice for my older ds who is very good at narrating now.  We will start written narrations in September) and then 20 mins for something else, read from the Bible and a devotional & memorize a verse, or enjoy a read aloud for Character, Lit, science or history.   Then head outside for the rest of the day.   Many people will do Bible reading over breakfast and don’t Count it in their “school” time, or a read-aloud at bedtime.  Over the course of the year, build up your school day to a couple of hours plus out-door time. After a while, assign an independent reading or two.  Maybe start with a literature book of his choice (you can give him a list of maybe a dozen suitable choices and let him pick from the list — you still have control, but he gets to make the final choice.  He’ll be more likely to read it without grumbling this way. 

Anyways, that’s how we started out and for the most part it has worked very well.  My older ds still wishes he were in the center of the social sceen at PS, and Sunday afternoons can sometimes be tougher because many of his Sunday School class mates are also former school class mates.  Luckily he still has lots of time for social interaction as many of his good church friends live relatively close.  We do not have a homeschool group in our area.  The only homeschoolers we know are friends from church and their children are younger — 5 and 7.  Still, they all get along fabulously.  Unfortunately we do not get together that often.  

Sorry, didn’t mean to make this a book!  Hope it helped some!

Tracey 

Welcome to the forum and to homeschooling! I found this article helpful when adding in extras like picture study, hymn study, poetry, foreign language, etc. once you get comfortable with the basics. You change or add one subject at a time until it is a habit you are comfortable with.

http://simplycharlottemason.com/basics/started/transition/