3weeks in, good for you!! I am thinking you are pretty amazing to take this on full guns and dive in. When I started CM method I tried doing what I could based on the CM Companion book I read. I was not equips with the plans and tools of SCM’s feast. I spent hours researching for living books, making copywork sheets, gathering nature study supplies, buying classical music for the iPad to play, collecting art books for picture study, trying to design my CM friendly LA lessons from Rod & Staff English texts…. yeah, I had MANY details and components. And you know what? My children didn’t get it. It was not the hallelujah choir ringing. But there were glimpses of interest when I read Little House aloud, and when I said, “drop everything, grab your gumboots…” and we walked out the door with our nature study bag to sit and draw what we saw. I had to throw my beautiful schedule out the window and let us all come into this new learning atmosphere little by little. I had left no room for adjustment time. No space to get our feet wet and get used to the water before diving in. It was a process that took time, like any new habit. I kept reading and highlighting things in my Charlotte Mason Companion book and kept trying to focus on one thing at a time as the days unfolded. Eventually we came to full speed and came to form relationships with stories and lessons differently. We came to enjoy the process and find the groove of what CM learning looked like in our family.
I think you can do that too. I think it will still take some time to find your space, your atmosphere, your favourite living books, read alouds, special things that make doing copywork desired (I printed off copywork sheets on parchment paper and they felt like Laura Ingals somehow), finding books on topics they adore at first so they can’t wait to narrate what they think about it. You can do this, you can open up the opportunities for your children to form their own relationships with learning. Hang in there Nicole, you’ve got this.
