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New to homeschooling with 10th grade daughter
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Hello,
I am new to homeschooling and I have a 6th grade daughter and a 10th grade daughter. I’m very interested in using Charlotte Mason’s methods. I’ve been homeschooling my 11 year old since March and I’m trying to transition slowly to Miss Mason’s method using Sandi Queen’s Lessons for the secondary child and lots of living books. However, with my 15 year old it’s more complicated. I’ve recently withdrawn her from public school and I am trying to figure out how to start her schooling. Is it too late to start her with the plan on this website? I was thinking of starting her with the history modules 2-5 for her World History. But since I’ve never done this before I’m not quite sure how to do this. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer me.
Melissa Canonge
Hi Melissa,
No, it’s not too late! You will simply select highschool level books and require highschool level work from your oldest. Since narration is key to the CM method, you may find that you have to work with your oldest on that skill for awhile. Not knowing what the requirements are for your state, you may have to help her along with her written narrations and work on oral narrations ‘on the side’ until she takes off with that skill.
Were you thinking of doing modules 2-5 over the next 2 1/2 years? That may be a big chunk to chew, but you could pick and choose. I would encourage you to at least **consider** putting both daughters in the same module, and also doing as many other studies together as possible – Nature Study, some literature, Bible, etc.. That will help to build their relationship and give your older one the benefit of hearing the younger one’s narrations (6th graders automatically narrate better than 10th graders 🙂 ).
We have gotten spread all over the timeline over the past few years and we have been working to get to the point where we are all in the same era. That will happen next year and we are looking forward to it! With six children currently being schooled, it will be a lot less for me to keep track of! And, like I mentioned, at least in our family, it really does do good things for the children’s relationships.
This website is a wonderful resource. I find that I keep coming back to Karen and Sonya’s articles; I would encourage you also to read them. They explain things in such a way that it helps keep me on track (meaning I can so easily complicate things!) and reinvigorates our homeschool. DID YOU HEAR THAT KAREN AND SONYA!?!?
Blessings, and Welcome!
Cindy
Bless your heart, Cindy; you’re such an encourager!
Melissa, Cindy has great counsel. How many years do you have left with your 15yo? Are you thinking two more years of school with her or three or what? That might have a bearing on how you approach the history modules. Where is your 11yo in history, approximately?
Thanks for your replies!
I was thinking of having my daughter read all the books in history modules 2-4 to finish her World history semester, but I assume that is too ambitious from your replies. I have 2.5 years of school before she “graduates”.
My daughter likes to read so, I looked through this website and the Sonlight catalog (World History) and found some of the books we had at our local library and had her read those. I then asked her to tell me what the books were about. She seems to do a good job, but I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be looking for in her narrations. Does she need to be writing them down? She has done 1 “book report” for me, but the other books were oral. She’s read about 9 or 10 books in the last 2 weeks. Since I took her out of public school she hasn’t done many other subjects, except for bible and athletics.
I have purchased her biology, geometry, and english books, but she hasn’t sarted any of them. I would like her to do other subjects with her younger sister based on the modules listed on this website. However, my younger daughter is currently doing American History and is studying Canada. Thanks in advance, Melissa.
You know, I’m thinking if you want her to do a World History overview type of study, you might use something like these instead:
They are all written as living narrations and cover things from more of a World History aspect. I’m thinking that if you want your oldest to finish World History in this half-year, two or three books like those listed above might be easier than trying to wade through all the books listed in the Modules. (Yes, I realize that these book series are targeted for a younger age bracket, but I learned so much from reading them that I recommend them for anybody :-))
Once this year is over, you could start both girls on the same history module next year.
Anybody have any other ideas?
As far as narrating goes, you’re looking for comprehension — that she understood and retained what she read — and you’re also looking for assimilation — that she’s adding her own opinions and evaluation of the ideas in the book or making connections to other things she has read/learned. Oral is good for practicing the skill of narration; written is good for practicing the mechanics of composition. If you’re happy with her writing skills, you can do one or two written narrations a week; if she needs more practice, you can do more. If you’re concerned with having written records of her studies, you could do written exams at the middle and end of this half-year. Make the exams essay style with open-ended questions, and do two or three questions per book she read (for example, “tell all you know about the founding of Rome”).
Hope this helps!
Thanks! Those ideas were very helpful. I think what I’ll do is read the Story of the World books as read alouds and include my younger daughter. I’ll then have my older daughter read Genevieve Foster books on her own and do written narrations. Would that count as part of her English composition? I’m not sure exactly what they taught her in public school as far compositions go. Do you have any suggestions, websites, or books I can read about narrative compositions? You’ve been very helpful. Thank you.
(I don’t know if it matters, but we are in Texas)
Yes, written narrations are definitely counted as composition. There’s a good chapter about “Teaching Composition” in Karen Andreola’s book, A Charlotte Mason Companion. You might be able to find it at your library too.
Here’s a thought…when you have time perhaps you could check into local hs support groups in your area. And see if there are any Charlotte Mason groups within the hs support groups. I too live in Texas (great place to homeschool!) and there are several support groups in my area (Houston/Pearland/Friendswood) the group I belong to just started a CM group.
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