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The use of spines in a CM education?
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How do you make this work?
I see now (looking over last year, preparing for next year) that my “spines” took over and that I did not make the time for more living book reading for the children in the different subject areas. I tended to take a spine, do a reading and then facilitate another rabbit hole myself. Thus not allowing them to read something living and make their own connections or “hooks” to the materal covered. I don’t think this limited their knowledge of the material covered, but it wasnt’ my CM intention to do it that way because it certainly changed our atmosphere and their relationship to the material.
My question is this – how do you handle spines in a CM education?
My thought for next year is to add them to our “morning basket” of family work again, but to limit them to a simple reading and discussion or narration at that time, then to allow living books to do their magic during the children’s individual work times. I think this will work, but I am still working out the details on timing. I’m not wanting to lengthen our days. It feels a bit like double dipping for subjects? I’m also still building the booklist to follow our spines more or less so that they relate.
I now realize the wisdom in taking a model offered! I’ve diverged from the modules for History and Science and thus am now sort of writing my own path based on my alterations of the schedules. I so wish I’d gone with what was planned and then just altered book choices, if desired.
I want (and had for two years) a much more authentic CM education for my children. Isn’t it odd when you do something fairly well for two years and then just fall off the wagon?! At least my yearly evaluations and examinations have put me back on track for our new year.
The only time I ever use a spine is if I have no living books to cover a topic otherwise. More often than not, I find that a living book (not that spines aren’t living, just that, by their nature, they offer more of an overview) gives a fuller picture and allows us to “be there.”
Robin, I really want to do this. Is there something you use as a guide of which order to read History books in if you do things chronologically? Science I think would be easier.
We currently only have a spine book for history, but it is a living book (Our Island Story by Marshall). I also have the children read something else on our history topic two times durign the week. We do the spine together and they narrate orally. Their personal books they narrate in writing (the younger two dictate to me) and then they read those narrations to their siblings during our “together” time.
Nebby
“All Through the Ages” is a fantastic guide to living books. It is organized by time period, type of book (biography, historical fiction, etc.) and reading level. There are even sections on specific countries and art/science/music sections as well. I refer to this book all the time – highly recommended, especially if you are going to create your own history “curriculum.”
I agree with All Through the Ages by Christine Miller of Nothing New Press or TruthQuest History Guides by Michelle Miller.
Blessings,
MelissaI’ll look in to that book you mentioned, beloved. Sounds interesting. Thanks!
I am thinking “out loud” here while I type this …
I have a spine for World History and one for American History and one for the History of Science. We like them a lot and they work for us in some of the positive ways that a spine can work. For example, they move us chronologically. The other example would be that they expose us to so many events and people that we can then read more about in a living book. I don’t like the idea of only knowing a few of the people and events that took place in a certain period even though we will run through our periods of History again before we’re done.
My error last year was not having enough specific, chronologically well matched living books planned for History and Science. That’s what I’m “fixing” this year!
I see well written spines this way … As hooks that the children then add to through their experiences with living books. I admire the idea of only using the living books, but I’d feel as if they needed to read dozens upon dozens to get a full picture of the History of any given period, or a full scope of the history of modern Science. What peaks their interest to learn more about may not be what i’d planned in their living book selections. This way helps that too. The nuances of the politics and the interwoven nature of historical events may be lost to us without our spine’s meaty framework. Equally I don’t see the framework becoming an experience of the children without the living book aspect either. They compliment one another here. It works for us!
I hope I don’t have to turn in my CM badge now?!
@Claire – you don’t have to turn in your CM badge. 🙂 One thing I learned this last year while trying to use the Famous Men series as a spine is that I don’t know enough about history to appreciate those men as much. A living book comprehensive history (AKA apine) really helps me to want to know more and enjoy the biographies as more than just a cool story. When I can place that person in context of the times with other events, I understand it so much more!
All Thru the Ages is great. Another resource I have come to really, really like and rely on is the Heritage History ebook collections. They are amazing collections of living books about different periods like Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Spanish America, British Middle Ages, Christian Europe, etc… Each collection costs $19 – $25 dollars and contains 45-68 living books, including your comprehensive histories, biographies, military battles, fables and legends, etc.
The study guide is invaluable to me. I don’t know about you, but I do not know enough ancient history to be comfortable with a book here and a book there about different events. I want to know how it fits together, when it was, and the people involved. So the study guides break the time period into the major eras, then give an overview of the era, lists the major events, people, and battles, each on its own page. At the bottom of the pages, it actually gives the chapters this period is covered in each of the comprehensive histories (aka spines). It then lists all their living books about this subject with a brief description so that you may choose (or let your children) choose the books that sound most appealing to them.
The collections are ebooks formatted three ways. They are available as mobi, ePub, and PDF so that you can print the stories if you choose. The guide even tells how many pages of 8 1/2 x 11 size paper it takes. If you print them front and back, it takes even less paper. You can even just read them on the computer with the free Kindle app. You can buy individual books if you choose, you just won’t get a study guide.
One great thing about this collection is how easy it is to supplement the SCM modules or substitute books for whatever reasons. Another way to really use this is by using the SCM Planning Your CM Education – using this to plan your year, you get in living book spines, and can tailor the rest to your specific children’s interest. That way you don’t worry so much about the gaps. 😉
Sorry, I’m just seeing this. I use TruthQuest and have since it came out. I have All Through the Ages as well as others. One benefit I have is that I operate a homeschool lending library with 16,000 living books so it’s usually just a matter of pulling something off the shelf. But if you have some of the above-mentioned resources, it should be fairly easy to have living books for many of the topics you’re covering with a little planning.
We use a history spine mostly to keep me on track! What we do is a reading from the spine, and I pull all the living books that I love and either assign them as independent reading (for older kids) or read them together. Sometimes this takes a while…but quite frankly, I don’t care :). I would rather they connect with the history through a living book then skim the information offered in a spine and not really connect with the character we are studying. Just my 2 cents.
We use a history spine mostly to keep me on track! What we do is a reading from the spine, and I pull all the living books that I love and either assign them as independent reading (for older kids) or read them together. Sometimes this takes a while…but quite frankly, I don’t care :).
This is exactly what I do, too. I use a spine (right now we’re using SCM’s Stories of America 2) and I’m filling in with living books – mostly biographies. My younger son is reading a story about Alexander Graham Bell and my older son is starting Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.
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