Older children What resources to get?History,Bible,?

I sense that you are a “planner” like I am; I like to set forth plans I can clearly see, and I don’t always care for surprises.  I believe that is why I, too, was drawn to Simply Charlotte Mason’s curriculum guide last spring.  It really seemed to live up to its name of SIMPLY Charlotte Mason.

Having said that, I found myself spending a lot of the summer going through the guide, gathering books, and setting up a schedule in my planner.  It would have seemed overwhelming if not for the SCM curriculum guide.  It is, however, just that–a guide.  You can use the recommended books just as listed or pick and choose what you feel your girls can handle.

For me, the choices were based on finances (which were less than minimal at that time).  So, I didn’t buy any pre-packaged curriculum materials at the beginning, and I simply made a list of what books we were using from each course (Literature, History, etc.) and searched local library systems (online catalogs) to see what I could borrow.  We are blessed to live in an area with a multi-branch county library system and two excellent suburban libraries, and I have cards with each one.  Whatever we could not get from libraries, I asked a few homeschooling friends if they had the books we needed and could lend them to us.  Beyond that, I also asked on this forum for a few suggestions as alternatives to specific books that were not available.

I did wait patiently and found terrific deals on used copies of the two Apologia Science books we needed (one for a 4th grader and one for a 7th grader).  I think I got those on http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com, but I’ve also found things on http://www.abebooks.com, and sometimes amazon and alibris….plus, in our area, there are local used book/curriculum fairs held by homeschool groups in June and July.  There are also freebies (such as copywork and nature study materials) on sites like http://www.donnayoung.org.  Caution:  the Donna Young site looks rather “busy” to me, so take a deep breath before you click on it.  There is a ton of stuff on her website.  Of course, there are a lot of e-books (Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education, Spelling Wisdom, GOAL Bible Study Journal, you name it) that can be purchased from the SCM bookstore.  They are affordable and worth looking into.

If all of what I’ve said so far still seems overwhelming, I’ll tell you how I got started.  First, my children were completing the academic year in an online charter school last spring when I decided we should return to traditional homeschooling, and I knew CM methods were what we needed.  I used May through mid-August to prepare then took off 2-3 weeks to just have fun before school began.  I started by reading a lot about CM methods, especially the brief overview on this site.  On the SCM homepage, under the box labeled Quick Links, there is a whole list of links including The Basics, Planning, and Timesavers.  I simply read through each link’s material one-by-one to help me understand what I would be doing with all of this.

Next, I visited the SCM Free Curriculum Guide page.  (I love “free,” don’t you?)  There is now a short video tour on that page that is helpful.  I looked at the links for each subject, one at a time, from the top down.  Then came the decision-making.  Was I going to use the SCM recommendations for that subject or something else?  If you’re not sure, let’s say–about Math, then look for Math at the bottom of the discussion forum, click on it, and you can read any of the threads that have talked about what math curriculum others are using.  That should help you decide what to use.

When I came to subjects such as Literature or History, there were plenty of living books listed to choose from.  Just focus on the grade level you think will be most suitable for your girls (not necessarily where a school system says they should be).  Of course, you’ll need to decide which History module you want to start with.  It sounds to me as though you’d like to start at the beginning of the Bible, so History module 1 would correlate with that according to the SCM Curriculum Guide.  You can have both girls studying History, Bible, and Geography together.  If the younger one is a better reader, they might be fine with the same books, and we love using literature and history books as read-alouds.  You don’t have to read all of the recommended books if it seems too much, especially with literature.  Oh, and I should mention that some of our discussions of the History modules talk about using a “spine” as well as the living books….we chose not to use a spine since this was our first year using CM methods.  Again, you can adapt all of this to suit your family.

As far as nature study is concerned, we have kept it simple.  Often, we just take a walk in a park or on hiking trails and “see what’s out there.”  You said you had the Handbook of Nature Study; is that Anna Comstock’s book?  If so, you must visit here.  It is a blog that is one family’s journal based on the Handbook of Nature Study, and there are many wonderful ideas and resources to help with nature study.

Once I had made the decisions on what books to use and made sure I could borrow or purchase them, I spent time setting up my schedule.  If you have trouble deciding how often to cover each subject in a given week, there are lots of posts about this under the Planning Your CM Education part of the discussion forum.  Click on “schedules” and you can read and search those specific threads.  I prefer to use an online planner to keep track of our school schedule because it is much easier for me than the physical act of writing.  Plus, I like to see what we will be doing each day.  I have heard good things about SCM’s CM Organizer.  I believe there is a free trial available for it, but don’t quote me on that.  Back last summer, we desperately needed free resources (kinda still do), so I use a different online organizer.  Whatever works for you, you will just need to spend some time putting in your resources and assignments, but once you get at least the first part of the school year entered, you’ll be able to start off feeling very prepared.

I hope some of this is helpful.  It seems like a lot to think about and plan, but just take things a chunk at a time.  Familiarize yourself with how CM educating works, then perhaps look at one or two subjects at a time.  It will all come together over time, and we don’t mind answering questions.  If you can narrow things down to one or two concerns per post, it will be easy for those who have dealt with those issues before to read and respond to your posts.  There is a lot of encouragement and good advice to be found here, and a lot of prayers sent up, too.

Blessings,

Sue