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What to do next year?
- This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by
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Hi ladies I would like advice. We are starting out homeschooling and this year are doing Little Hearts for His Glory (HOD) with my five year old. He is already copying words, writing sentences on his own initiative and trying to read things he sees. We are using singapore math and are more than half way through K and he has really enjoyed it. I also have a 4 year old, 2 year old, and newborn and I don’t see our baby making days stopping anytime soon.
I like heart of Dakota, but I feel in the future I will be overwhelmed running multiple guides. I am drawn to SCM because I can do a lot as a family, but I am still hesitant about not having a scripted curriculum even though I have read almost all of Charlotte Mason’s volume 1.
What would you do in my shoes? Also I have a terrible time getting out for nature walks with this many little kids. My kids enjoy poetry, music, hymns, and we look at art work. Just struggle with the nature part, which I know is a huge aspect of Charlotte Mason. My kids do play outside for at least an hour everyday, but it is usually in our backyard.
Any advice and wisdom is appreciated.
-Alexandra
I did a year of HOD before switching to SCM.
HOD was lovely, but like you I saw the future to be a bit overwhelming with multiple guides.
SCM is not “scripted” but the guides are wonderful in that they lead you through what to do each day with out a lot of extra text. I really like having subjects not lumped into one guide because when we did HOD if we missed only history then I would feel “behind” because everything else went to the next page but history was on the previous page of the guide. Having each subject to have it’s own guide makes it so simple that if I miss a day in history I just bump History a day and it does not mess up our schedule. I made my own weekly schedule and on Sunday afternoon write up the weekly schedule for the kids. It is very fast because I just continue through the guides doing the next lesson or exercise 🙂
I use a lot of the SCM products with Apologia for science and MUS for math, almost everything else I reach for has the SCM name on it, LOL. I have just been really happy with how smoothly things come together.
I often hear people say that nature is a big part of CM, but we don’t “teach” while exploring in nature. We talk as things come up, but spending time in nature does not have to be scripted. Spending an hour outside is fantastic. If the kids have questions that come to mind, you can find answers, but I don’t really “teach” when it comes to nature. We just explore and see what comes of it.
Thank you Sarah! Yes I currently have three places marked in the HOD guide, because we skipped ahead in math and fell behind in storytime.
Do you highly recommend math-u-see. I am fine with singapore, but I wonder if they will ever learn math facts.
We used HOD for a few years, and I also couldn’t see it working out in the long run. I still use LHTH for preschool, but we’ve mostly switched over to SCM. HOD did help me see how I could schedule in a variety of materials. Another thing I found very helpful was SCM’s Planning Your CM Education e-book. I use it (along with the free curriculum guide) as I’m making my plans each year. Choosing your own materials isn’t as difficult as it seems at first, and you can choose to keep some subjects more scripted than others. There is such a variety of materials out there, which can make it overwhelming, but it can also give us plenty of options to find a good fit.
We are also bad about getting regular nature study time in. It’s gotten easier as my DC have gotten a bit older. When DH is off work, we try to spend time fishing, canoeing, gardening, sledding, biking, etc. I’ve found spending time with outdoor activities leads to more opportunities to study nature. By digging in the dirt, we found lots of worms, roots, and bugs. Not to mention the growing plants we regularly observed. Fishing has gotten us to closely observe fish and there habitats. Not to mention all sorts of ponds, rivers, streams, and lakes. We see so much more nature than we did when we just walked around our neighborhood!
We currently use MUS, but had previously used Singapore. I really liked Singapore, but my DD has done much better with MUS. I think either program is a solid choice. Overall, Singapore seems to be more challenging, but I really like that they can watch the MUS DVD on their own and just come to me if they need extra help.
Ok thank you ladies! Last question. If I did do a SCM module ( I would probably go with the 4th). DO you feel famous men of the middle ages is too old? Should I choose a different spine. Maybe fill in with a child’s history of the world?
Definitely too old for your children’s ages, yes. I would say don’t worry about a spine; just read the selections for grades 1–3 and have fun introducing the Middle Ages to your young ones.
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