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Staggering the extras
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Last night as I was waiting up for hubby to come home from the airport, I was glancing over Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education to use again this year in finalizing my fall plans. That coupled with reviewing some older threads and looking thoroughly at the new curriculum guide got me thinking.
What if we relaxed things a bit, lightening up the schedule by alternating Shakespeare, Plutarch, and maybe one other thing?
So we would do one of those in a term and then a different one the next term. This would be as opposed to doing all of them every term as in the AO schedules.
Ex: Term 1- Shakespeare, Term 2 – Plutarch, Term 3- Hymn Study.
Maybe even dividing this up for composers and artists.
Does anyone else do this?
I think it will ease up the schedule and some of the readings which is my older children’s only real complaint from this previous year. Also, less planning and less cost for mom!
I suppose my only regret is as always, “So many books, so little time.” I dislike the idea of not getting in 3 of each in a year, but like the freedom and ease it would bring. Any thoughts? Any examples from some who have done this?
Of the three, we only do Hymn study and a couple of plays. But, I do like your thought process on 1 of these subjects per term. It reminds me of the enrichment options in the updated free curriculum guide. (I think it’s wonderful, btw!)
I tried doing too many artists and composers over the last. So, I’m converting to 3 of each this year. However, we like to study one hymn per month.
Did you read the recent Plutarch discussion? The proposal was to study Plutarch’s pairs in the upper grades. SCM suggests one Shakespeare play, every other year. These ideas may be too relaxed compared to your new simplification. As we only do two plays at the end of highschool and have never pursued Plutarch to this point, I’m no expert….just read the thread and thought I’d ponder it a bit.
Becca<><
I totally support relaxing things a bit. I think when there is too much on the schedule it becomes an accomplishment to just get through it instead of thoroughly enjoying it. We do one artist/composer per term, at most. Otherwise I feel I’m throwing too many things at us and it all becomes muddled. I’m always looking for ways to decrease our time commitments in order to allow time to pursue personal interests and have committed blocks of time for ‘free time’. If I did everything ‘on the list’ we’d be busy all day every day and that is not enjoyable to me or my kids. I think you’re splitting up idea is wonderful. And you know what? You can try it this year to spread things out more over the year and if you decide you don’t like it, you can either pick up something spontaneously or change what you do next year. You aren’t making a commitment to the new idea, just trying it out. I say go for it!
Thanks, Shannon. I agree. Even less of all of this is more than I had in my schooling years. It is still of wonderful benefit to them.
I’m thinking of doing something similar, well, kind of similar. We used to do a great job with one Fine Art/Study each day of the week, then switching to reading poetry everyday (which we still do) and then the other Studies throughout the week. This last year we did great with one of the SCM picture studies, listening to composers during copywork time, etc., but something happened and it wasn’t working as it was. So, my tentative plan is to have poetry daily as we have (even if they just read independently) and having a Fine Arts Morning/Day on Fridays, with a possible handicraft in the afternoons throughout the week OR during our breaks. I don’t have an exact plan but our problem (which starts with me) is that I feel burdened by academics and don’t always allow myself the permission to enjoy the fine arts. It seemed that I did better with it when the kids were younger but not so much as they get older. I know it should increase but I have a hard time juggling the family read alouds (history/lit/Bible) and adding in the others on the same day. I’d like to change things up a bit anyway and I feel the week would give me time to “prepare” for the Fine Arts Day and to see if we can still squeeze in some math/reading lessons, as well.
My thoughts on all of this (for us) is that things have changed considerably with my oldest. He is so independent and to have him relinquish 1-1 1/2 hours a day with his siblings is really hard. I’d rather have that be one day (maybe even just a couple of hours) than it be throughout the week. I’m thinking I’ll have all 3 boys recite/read aloud a few poems they’ve been reading throughout the week, do a picture/art study (we have a program and may use another SCM portfolio), BOC entries, a read aloud (maybe composer/personal development/Miller book), listen to an audio book, nature study, etc. These are just some ideas…we may not get to all of them in a day but this is my idea, so far.
I do like your idea, as well.
Well, my3boys, that is exactly what we used to do and I love it! We had fine art Fridays. We did math, whatever was on tap for SCM Module that day and Science for the oldest. Then we spent time on Artist, Composer, Nature Study, Shakespeare, Plutarch with oldest, and Recitations. The olders may have had one or two independent readings to fit in. Read alouds and poetry were done nearly every day at tea time. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
We changed this past year to one fine arts component a day because of a Wednesday commitment. I clearly felt after much prayer and counsel from hubby that I should answer the call to be the Children’s Director for our local Community Bible Study class. That commitment is essentially all day Wed. It has been a blessing in many ways and I am still confident that it was the right decision.
However, that made it hard to get it all done M-Th. My children have Bible Study and service time during the morning of CBS, then after lunch they work on independent school work while I meet with other leaders for our bible study portion. The children get some things done, but not like they would if we were home. With one in high school last year, I didn’t feel I could get it all in and savor Fridays. Needless to say, we have missed that time and it has led to us cramming too many things into the days.
So, I am planning to scale back what we cover in fine arts and what I expect. I am considering “year round” next year. Schooling 3 weeks on and 1 week off, I think. The off week for catch ups and projects – school, personal, “this old house” type stuff. I think that can allow me to have a fine arts day on Fridays again as well because I am allowing us to have more than 36 weeks to fit it all in. As long as I have 180 days within a year of schooling for my state, I am fine.
Summer time will be lighter readings, math reviews, some writing,nature study, and maybe fine arts on one of those days.
Summer work would only take a couple of hours 3-4 days a week. The rest of that time is for outings, projects, handiwork, gardening, pool time, and part time jobs for older two.
Make sense?
I think a staggered approach is a great idea and am thinking through how to implement next year. I love the Fine Arts Friday idea, but it’s a challenge now with an 8th grader who has to keep up with heavier subjects and my 5th grader has PE and/or chess club on Fridays. I tried straight AO before coming here and have had to let go feeling guilty just because I wasn’t doing all the fine arts, PLUS original Shakespeare and Plutarch every week by 4th grade. That’s great for families who can do it, but stresses me out and none gets done very well. I’ve been pondering this quote by CS Lewis:
‘I think this wise; the greatest service we can do to education is to teach fewer subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is 20, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.’
Not that we shouldn’t teach the bounty of CM subjects, but I don’t think they have to all be done at once. Just my .02:) Blessings, Gina
Oh, I agree with you Gina. I love the feast, but I do believe it may have looked a whole lot different in Charlotte’s day
. Like Benita, I’m looking for some kind of new schedule that allows for my oldest to be a part of our Fine Arts, but not take him away from his studies for too long. He is not a strong reader so when I interrupt him for picture/hymn/composer (even if he’s expecting it) it’s a lot for him to get finish what was assigned for him that day AND all the other with the family. I don’t think I have him over-scheduled but I think his reading has more to do with it. I think if I allow him the week to accomplish his studies then have Friday for some “extras” then he won’t feel as C.S. Lewis stated
. I’ve also thought to give him a schedule like on CMH where he has his own Fine Arts artists and see how he does on his own…he could “share” with us what he has learned, etc. We’ll see…I don’t want him completely out of the Family subjects, but am realizing that all this juggling is about him and his needs.
@Benita, we have been year-rounding it for 2 years now and are ready to go back to a more traditional schedule..isn’t that funny??!! My dc have many friends (and activities) that follow that schedule so when we are “off” throughout the school year they aren’t, when we are “on” like during the Spring/Summer months they aren’t. Plus, when Spring hits we have so many things that we do that don’t fit into the school year and I’m just ready to be done. It’s just not working out righ now and I’m looking forward to a regular schedule next year. I do plan to do math review, summer reading (maybe through the library), and handicrafts through the summer along with lots of outdoor time, guilt free!! Right now we aren’t finished with a few things and my dc are just wanting Summer break…argh! And, so do I!!
I hope you find what works best for you and your dc.
Thanks for your advice, my 3 boys. I am still playing around with the calendar. I know my children live at the pool in the summer. But it doesn’t open till 11:00 and we don’t usually go before noon anyway. So they could get done before that. I would make the schedule lighter for our summer “term” anyway. Good motivation for them to get up and be productive early. Their daddy doesn’t want them sleeping in too often in the summer and wasting away their days.
My3boys, it sounds like we’re in a similar boat! My eldest is not a very strong reader but works well independently. She thinks it too much sometimes to do family subjects on top of her own…such as her own history reader on top of a family history reading. I’m struggling a bit with structuring next year. Both my kids could work mostly independently and our time is more efficient that way, but I want to at least guide Bible and history/worldview. There’s good with us learning/discussing together, but I think they focus better when reading on their own.
Even though many of these don’t take a lot of time, it’s still a bit daunting to me to schedule the important core subjects PLUS composer, artist, Scripture memory, poetry, drawing, handicraft, Shakespeare, Plutarch, nature study, Roots Up, and logic….all subjects that I’d like to cover this year. I guess I have some staggering to figure out:) Gina
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