Torn

It depends, if you mean you love aspects of CM but another method appeals as well and you think it would blend well in your family, then you could become what I am and that is an eclectic homeschooler…someone who uses a lot of CM, but also has used some textbooks, and has used some DVD schooling. On the other hand if you are thinking of going from CM to unschooling – I would be very careful – having read a lot about unschooling, I think you would need pretty dedicated kids to go that route and I know it would have been a disaster in this house – they would have done zero given the chance,lol….Can you be more specific maybe? Linda

Before/during/after prayer, keep the idea of habit in mind. What would the “habits” of each method look like each day? What methodical habits would best serve your family? Speaking from bad experience, if you don’t consider this, or spend too much time learning about all the various methods, no particular habits are established and you end up spinning your wheels and going no where. It would be better not to look at any methods/opinions and just help your children read the next page, do the next math problem, and work on character and Bible studies than to get bogged down by method decisions. We all go through this and it is very destructive if you drag your feet too long fretting over which is better/best. Studying works no matter how you approach it as long as you do it. ;0) I hope I don’t sound harsh. Just a warning as I lost lots of time over the years for these very reasons.

Blessings,

Becca<><

Well, I’m one that believes there’s always a way to mesh:)  A friend of mine does a combo of AO and Robinson Curriculum (very independent). She just started and I believe suspended much of the arts, but is planning on adding them back in, just at her own pace.  My mind just doesn’t work well seeing tons of subjects on my schedule, even though I know many of the CM subjects are short.  So my compromise, though not ideal CM, is we just started a monthly “Arts Day.”  Our first one was beautiful. Cocoa, snacks, and several ‘arts’ subjects done leisurely. Kids were excited (easier day:) and I just loved that we could delve into subjects and go off on tangents instead of feeling that reading about a composer or artist was a box to check (confession:)  Then the rest of the month I just build on this day as I can…displaying art prints, playing music, reading poems about the artists/composers/poet we read about on Arts Day. We also try to add in Handicrafts on this day, nature study, an art project, Lambs Shakespeare…we can’t do all of them each month, I’ll rotate.  I’m also trying to get in the handicrafts and nature during fieldtrips or on weekends at our leisure…making it more of our life and not written into our week.  Just not seeing it on our schedule every week frees my mind and feels less stressed.

I also choose to do semesters and only do 2 artists/composers/poets per year.  Again, I know not ideal CM!  But for me, it’s better than scheduling and stressing because I don’t get to it.  This all makes our week feel less stressful…focusing on the essentials, but still all with quality living books, of course, and cultural elements still there. 

I combine AO and SCM.  AO, as you probably know, is pretty independent learing from 4th grade on…you could always follow that model, but make your own schedule, use different books from SCM, etc. Sorry if that all sounds complicated!  Hope you find a good fit. Blessings, Gina

Ok, please don’t take this the wrong way – I am just giving thought to something. Most definitely pray, and listen for the answer…

I sometimes think we are drawn to independent learning when we ourselves are frustrated at the method we are already using. Maybe we don’t think we are doing it right, maybe we feel it takes too much of our time, maybe it is a combination of things. End idea being that we think independent learning means we can leave the children to learn independently a lot of the time…depending on the children this can work, however with the very young it usually is not the greatest way to school imho….make sure you are solid in your reasoning before praying and changing, make sure you understand why you the mom wants to change – make sure it is a good and solid reason. Sometimes when we start changing methods with our children it can be stressful and set things back…make a plan and don’t start anything without some serious thought and discussion with God and your hubby. If after thinking about your reasons for change, and discussions, then you can be pretty sure you are on the right track. I remember a period where I changed things up in a significant way without enough prayer and thought, and boy did I regret it, it set us back a long way…and took some real work to get back on track….Linda

I have/use parts of RC. When I speak if moving toward independent though, I mean able to read and comprehend without my help. SCM is a much better fit for my family as far as long range than RC. I do like the simple daily structure of RC in the beginning over SCM. Mainly because with multiple children I have been, to this point, unable to tackle the number if subjects with such a wide range if abilities. That’s a self discipline/habit issue for the most part for me. But, as the kids each became/become better readers, the middle to upper grades if SCM is much more life like than RC. ;0)

Hope that’s something worth pondering.

Becca<><

How to you guys read my mind and heart? What a timely topic, ladies! I am suddenly leaning toward unschooling these last 10 days or so, but with a CM/classical emphasis. We’re heading off for a vacay, so in two weeks, maybe I’ll have some better insight and some clear answers from the One Who Knows.

In the meantime, can someone tell me if this example is Unschooling”? …..

We had a pretty much self-directed day so far today. The girls have been playing school by themselves in the mornings for a few days, which has resulted in my 4yo dd making her letters very well, recognizing printed letters and numbers on sight, and starting to sound out small words such as in, on, cat, bat, rat, etc. The 7yo dd has begun to print her letters more perfectly, trying to show the 4yo exactly how they should be made. Fun! They jointly pick a topic each day and then the 7yo reads several books to the 4yo aloud. Most days, they draw pictures of what they learned, being careful to put their name and date on each picture. (all without my supervision or direction.)

After they got bored of that this morning (about 9am), they came down and when I asked what their topic was for today, they said animals. So we got out every single book we have about animals (wide range from fiction to dictionaries and everything in between.) I have about 200 books laying out on the floor right now. They also made a reading “nook” wioth a bunch of pillows and proceeded to read to each other then to just leaf through separately for almost 2 hours.

After that, they decided they wanted to make some art projects of some animals. They picked Bald Eagle and Wooly Bear Caterpillar.

Now they are outside trying to take pictures of eagles and posing their caterpillar paper chains in the snow for pictures.

We even taked about the concept of squaring in math – we learned what “one square inch” looks like, and discussed what one square mile, yard, meter, foot, etc would look like. Just so we could cut an 8 square inch piece of brown construction paper for the eagle’s wings.

ALL of this was directed by them. Does that make it Unschooling? If so, I’m so ready to sign up! 🙂 Any advice is welcome and a huge blessing as we figure things out…