Starting CM W/ Middle Schooler

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  • June 10, 2015 at 9:52 am
    tangiwheet
    Participant

    Hello everyone! My name is Tangi and I am in my first year of homeschooling my two blessings– my now soon-to-be 13 year old and 9 year old. Before we started homeschooling, I did a lot of research on the different methods of learning/teaching. Even though CM pulled at my heart strings, I went with an eclectic approach where we use a set curricula for spelling, math, and LA, but did our own lessons in all other subjects. Some lessons are interest led by the children, and some are led by what their father and I feel to be very important {American History and Bible}.

    Now that we are wrapping up our first year I am re-evaluating our methods and curriculum choices.

    I keep coming back to CM because I love the structure behind it and desperately want my children to love the Lord and know His word, to be free thinkers, to be able to express themselves well both written and orally, and be able to provide for themselves and their families.

    My question is how do I transition my children (especially my 13 year old) from a more “traditional/eclectic” style of learning atmosphere into a CM one? Do I just jump right into the format of narration and dictation for that age group? Do I start with oral until she is comfortable and then transition to written?

    Any advice that you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

    June 11, 2015 at 2:28 pm
    Melissa Wolfe
    Participant

    Hi Tangi!

    My children aren’t to that age yet, so I’m sorry I don’t have much to contribute. But I recall from the SCM “Living and Learning” workshop DVDs that Sonya said no matter what age you’re starting from, begin gently with oral narration, not just at young ages. This gives them a chance to get used to narration and build the thinking and composition skills which will serve them in written narration.

    Hopefully others will chime in who have more experience with this than me. 🙂

    Melissa 🙂

    June 11, 2015 at 2:59 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    Hi and welcome. 🙂 Yes-you would start with oral narration and help her to get comfortable with that before moving on to written narration. For everything else, you can just jump right in and start using CM methods.

    Some switch one subject or method at a time to ease the transition. The easiest thing to switch to IMO is using living books for history with oral narration. It’s a great place to start!

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