starting to plan for next year

We’re using Fix It Grammar which includes 1 vocabulary word each day. (And covers our grammar and copywork too.)

For your 12yo – is it multiplication facts? We love the stories on Multiplication.com as a different way to learn them. Click on the “Learn” tab to find them.

Here is an example, though they offer pictures, video, and other neat parts to bring it to life for kids:

6 x 8 = 48 is the story of Chicks (shaped like the number 6) on Skates (shaped like the number 8) who eat a cake decorated like a fort –  Fort E Cake (48) while on their skates. Once kids are familiar with the stories you can use the cue words: chicks skate. In every problem 6 is chicks and 8 is skate. So there is a problem with surfin (7) chicks (6) who visit the Fort E Zoo (42) (7×6=42). You get the idea. Some of my kids never needed this, others truly only began to remember certain facts when they could put a story to it.

Multiplication.com also has lots of free games to practice facts (everything from addition to division).

Have you looked at the free curriculum guide here? It will give you suggestions for all subjects for all ages.

Here’s what we have used and liked through the years.

Math U See for all grades

For years I pulled copy work and dictation exercises from the books my kids were reading. I really think this is the most effective way to teach these things since the passages really mean something to them. However, I grew tired of this and ended up purchasing a program called Simply Spelling that provided the passages for me. Spelling Wisdom is great for this as well.

Vocabulary is not a separate subject in a CM education but something children pick up naturally from reading so many great books. People with advanced vocabularies are usually readers.

No writing curriculum is needed if you follow CM’s philosophy. Written narrations are composition and parents give added instruction to help turn these narrations in to essays as they student progresses through high school. A brief teaching on research papers sometime in late high school would probably be good for college bound students. Each student should have his own copy of a good writing handbook to read through as well.

If a parent really feels they need a writing curriculum, I would still hold off until middle school, at least. Many moms love Jump in for this age.

No formal grammar instruction is needed until middle school or so and then it can be taught in one or two years and the student can be done with grammar. We have used Easy Grammar Plus and Step by Step Grammar at this age.

I don’t care much for Sandi Queen’s language lessons. You just don’t get much for your money and the exercises are so short that they can easily turn into busy work that your child just rushes through with little to no comprehension.

Angela O’dell’s histories are not very CM either. I recommend Simply Charlotte Mason’s program or another living books program instead. O’dell’s books just don’t engage a child the way true living books do.

I have mostly designed my own history plans using living books. However, I have used a bit of Truthquest, Beautiful Feet History, and Ambleside Online and I recommend them all. I just prefer to do my own thing, for the most part. I pull from the book lists from all of these resources including the ones here at SCM.

I recommend checking out the SCM blog to see how language arts works for the ages of your children. You will find blog series on all things CM and they will really help you to wrap your brain around CM methods.

Your 9 year old would be doing copy work, reading books at her reading level, and hearing you read books above her reading level to her. She would also be doing dictation once a week.

At 12, your daughter should be doing dictation once or twice a week along with copy work on the other days. She should be writing one or two narrations a week as well as reading books on her level.

Both children should be narrating orally from all school readings.

That covers CM language arts for those ages! 🙂 Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, CM methods are simple but they go deep. Narration is oral composition first and then progresses to regular composition which naturally transitions into essays as the student grows older. Try narrating yourself and see how much brain work it takes. A student cannot narrate what he doesn’t know and a student knows what he can narrate. It is a simple but highly effective educational tool.

Copying from great authors is teaching our children proper writing skills, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, etc. Dictation adds spelling and focused attention to the mix.

Reading lots of great literature is the single, best thing our children can do to succeed in language arts. As they read and hear beautiful language, proper grammar, intricate sentences, proper punctuation, and advanced vocabulary, they will take in so much-they are like little sponges just soaking it all up until it becomes part of who they are.

Angela O’Dell’s books aren’t awful. They are decent as far as textbooks go. They are certainly better than most textbooks but they definitely are not living books in my opinion. They wouldn’t be terrible as history spines. However, I think there are much better books out there for this purpose. I really like Helen Guerber’s history books for your daughters’ ages. They are free in the public domain or you can purchase hard copies.