What draws you to CM educating?

I have not gone fully CM yet but love the idea of living books and just started really digging into CM philosphy on schooling. The more I read on it, the more I am falling in love with it, if you will. 

I have only been homeschooling my two children (ages 8 and 11) for 3-4 years now and even I have grown weary of the “textbook” reading of some of the curriculum we have tried to use. I am tired of purchasing expensive curriculum and only a few months into it finding out it is not “our style”. I think CM will give us more room to explore and find excitement in learning again. I also tend to think the CM method is very budget friendly as you can find most books for free online, at used bookstores, or even in your local library (and with some libraries going digital, that is even a bigger blessing).

I have ordered all of the Planning Your CM materials so I can truly grasp the concepts but I feel comfortable and finally content about using this method for teaching.I have also downloaded all the free SCM ebooks, watched the clips on YouTube, and printed out the samples provided on the SCM site. I can’t wait to meet Sonya at the bookfair in May either and give her a big hug for creating such an informative site and materials.

Here is a quote from Vol. 3 and it is why I am drawn to CM education and why I keep at it:

Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life.––We begin to see what we want. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. Thou hast set my feet in a large room; should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking––the strain would be too great––but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot give the children these interests; we prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him? 

I’m still learning about this way of teaching and living, but so far the main thing that keeps pulling me back to this method is how much it just makes sense. I know that sounds simple, but it is the truth. 🙂

I am just beginning to read the Original Series for myself and am constantly blown away with the wisdom on each page. Some of this wisdom is just plain common sense that so many times we throw out the window when it comes to educating our children, in my opinion. Some of it is spiritual application that many times we separate from “secular education”, and some of it is just a new and better way to look at things.

Like I said, I’m still learning, and I am so excited about all the possibilties this lady from so long ago is offering me and my family today in our home school.