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Planning/Purchasing for a SCM year
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Hello again!
I’ve been pouring over the SCM website, making wishlists, and books lists, etc, etc, etc.
I’m so excited about the possibilities of what this change could mean for our family.I have some questions, some “Please point me in the best direction!” kinda stuff. 😉
Do you buy the printed books for lesson planning? What about art/music/picture studies, etc, etc? I am using pdf versions of the Delightful Handwriting, and it has worked well. Just really wondering if an already bound book would be better than so much printing.
We have a tighter budget, so I will have to decide where to start too, but I’d like to know what you have found works best for you.Also, I noticed their isn’t any grade level planners after 4th grade. How do you set up a good schedule for all those books? 🙂 This has always been my area of weakness–planning! Yet I have seen how helpful it really is to keep things flowing in a larger family with so many interruptions from my littlest ones.
And lastly what are your best tips for me, as I begin to change our entire environment over to CM. I’m excited about it all, but also beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed as I think through it.
Thanks!
PDF vs. print copy is really up to you. I buy PDFs for anything each of my children will need a copy for. Handwriting books, Spelling Wisdom, Visits to… series, etc. I put the printed copies in a 3 prong folder, so it makes a nice “workbook”. With books I plan on reading aloud to them (like Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors), I’ve usually purchased PDF copies. I also like having a PDF for Planning Your CM Education because I can print the planning pages.
Some books I’ve chosen to invest in printed copies. The history guides, LDTR/LDTR for Children, and the science guides are ones I’ve chosen to get the print copy. I think I’d prefer the artist study as a printed copy, but we haven’t tried them yet. I like a printed history guide so I can make notes or add book substitutions right in the guide. SCM books have nice wide margins for making notes on the side. I would like printed copies of everything, but it just isn’t in our budget, so I use a bit of both.
For planning, you can use the CM Organizer if you want to plan on the computer. I’m a “paper person” so I have a paper planner from Rainbow Resource (Modern Plan Book No. 4). It leaves lots of room for writing each day’s plans and is undated, which works for me. We can stop in the middle of a day and continue where we left off the next day. I write everything in our plans: which chapters/pages to read, which painting to study, which CD track to listen to, etc. Some things like handicrafts or field trips are recorded in the planner after we do them.
If you haven’t already read it, Planning Your CM Education is a very helpful book for planning whether you use a digital planner or paper planner. If you are feeling overwhelmed, remember that you don’t have to cover every subject right away. Since there are so many subjects, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially if you are starting with several school-aged children. Also, it can help to set a timer. That really helps keep us from getting off track or spending too much time on any one subject.
That was very helpful, Holly. Thank you. I’m about to sell a large lot of unused school items, so I will be seeing exactly what is possible and what isn’t. We have many books on hand already for the reading selections. We will use what we have if necessary, though many of the SCM selections look so wonderful. 😉
I will check out the planner from Rainbow Resource. Sounds like something that will work for me too.On the topic of “changing the entire environment over to CM”- I just want to say: the books, curricula, etc., are all so wonderful, but we have seen the most benefits from the changes we made in our HOME as a result of following CM’s advice. Things like, getting rid of ALL our “twaddle” books AND toys. Encouraging the kids to have their play be centered less on toys by only having a few things out at a time (and for a long time!) so that they have to start thinking up different uses for them (blocks become food, camping supplies, etc.). I desperately wanted to see them playing imaginatively ever since I read “For the Children’s Sake”. It has been an amazing joy to see how their play has transformed. 🙂
But most importantly – we started encouraging them to spend many hours every day outdoors! <– This alone has transformed our family life! Besides the benefit of improved health (esp. through the sick seasons!) ALL of us have gained such a love for being outdoors!!
I know that does not necessarily have anything to do with switching to a new curriculum, but I think it is CM nevertheless. 🙂
Amanda,
That is VERY helpful! I’ve been slowly purging toys, limiting screen time, getting rid of clutter in our home. We live on 26 acres, so outside time is usually a given. However there are still times that we all get out of that good habit. I’m not a fan of cold weather, but I’m going to strive to get us all outside even though the weather is cooling.
I was able to buy most of the books on the SCM lists from thriftbooks.com and decided to use much of what we have on hand for other resources.
We already started reading some literature selections this past week, as well as listening to classical music and reading about the composers. Once finances allow I want to purchase the music studies, picture studies, and a Shakespeare play to do together.
I was never able to learn about these things myself, so I think I’m more excited than the children about all these changes. Though my oldest son is very excited about it too. 🙂
Lord willing we will begin implementing more and more of CM as we ease our way more fully into this new adventure!Amanda,
You post is very inspiring! I think For the Children’s Sake paints a beautiful picture of education being an atmosphere. It’s helpful to see how you’ve incorporated that into your house. I’ve pretty much gotten rid of twaddle on our bookshelves, but need to work more on toys!
We are getting better about outside time, but still haven’t made it as big of a priority as it should be. Now that allergy season is coming to an end, I’m hoping we’ll get out more!
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