Whew! Almost fell right off the CM wagon with the lure of CC?!

I have multiple friends that do CC and really enjoy it. I am always tempted but the time and financial commitment it can not happen for our family. It is very popular in our area and a bit tough since about 75% of my HS group are in CC so I feel “out of the loop”.

I have to always remind myself that there are many successful ways to homeschool, and there are many ways to make almostvany curriculium take on a CM style.

Claire, we’re glad the post encouraged you! 

Which blog post are you referring to?

I do find it interesting that you say you aren’t a traditional CMer yet your last post indicates that a person should be following CM’s original words or he/she isn’t doing it right.

Which blog post are you referring to?

Lesson 1 from the Exhibit Hall: Savoring vs. Shoveling

The title of this blog post alone is enough to inspire us to relax and persevere.

When I read both of Claire’s posts, I sense the “whew,” moment of “if I’m going to develop a CM education here at home, I need to stick with it, or we’ll be derailed…at least for a time…and lose ground in making strides to the end,” (in the first post)… and,  “I’m hopeful, based on CM writings and what others have said about her writings, that sticking to it closely will be more fruitful than another rabbit trail.” (in the second post.) Please read this post with a smile knowing I’m just a mom who’s been down a great number of trails during the last decade and a half. 🙂

I read posts by those who are fairly strict about following CM’s philosophy and recognize that there is a sort of “security” in picking a philosophy and implementing it fully. Getting panicky when narration skills aren’t developing quickly, or searching for a spelling curriculum when it’s too soon to begin studied dictation tend to be a couple of times when mothers search for other tools. Reading grammar threads shows another time when any of us might worry that CM is not enough. Let’s not discuss math and science as most  seem to find her suggestions lacking when considering college. 

It might be that there’s a balance that needs to be found when resolving to adhere strictly to any philosophy? Or, maybe we should realize that we are free to follow God’s leading, even it that’s away from all, or part of human suggestion at various times. It could be He wants us to learn empathy for our children and others who struggle with worries and fears (similar to our own.) He may want us to witness to those near us that we’d otherwise not meet if we didn’t do something else for a time. That’s what happened at our house with CC. 

Our family participated in CC for the 2011-12 school year. I was a Director/Tutor for a small campus of four families. Everyone loved it, but me. It was a stressful workload and I didn’t have the stamina to combine all that was required of me with the more CM style activities to which we were accustomed. It did bring much needed friendships into our lives and the lives of the other families. We’ve all chosen different main styles of home educating, but still come together for a co-op that has taken strengths from a variety of places. the reason for this is that we are all part of one body, with different gifts that we’ve chosen to share. 

I’d love for it to be strictly CM, but I’m the only one convinced I’d like to stick fairly strictly to CM. I utilize other methods at home, too, but would be happy to ditch them, convert to only CM suggestions, and tend the cottage garden that doesn’t exist at our house…yet. 🙂 I think habits of curriculum can act as rails just as much as any other habit and it would be difficult to break some of them at this point. Besides, they are working, I’m not sure why I’d change except out of loyalty to an ideal.?.

Our family did keep memory work because of CC. To be frank, I don’t recall reading many CM bloggers concerning themselves with memory work, unless it’s poetry and Shakespeare. I’m going to try to dig some of those blogs up this week. Until recently, I’d never realized CM encouraged memorization, or I’d at least forgotten it and left it for the Classical folks to claim as their personal tool.

I think some of the frustration mothers tend to have with CM  may lie with the fact that many CM home educators learn/follow CM’s philosophy as regurgitated by others if you will. Authors in the various camps claim certain favorite methods as CM, or Classical, or even unschooling in philosophy. Much of learning just cannot be solely from one source, unless that Source is God. He designed us to learn. 

Oral tradition (memorization/narration) was a tool long before books and Classical scholars or CM began to use it. Living books were here long before CM used them with success in her schools. Trial and error in teaching and learning offers a chance for anyone and everyone to develop their own philosophy actually. There’d be even more philosophies to chase down and implement if more parents formulated what works with their children, narrowed it down into tenets, and published books that became widely circulated. 

I think the blog that sparked this thread was a definite encouragement to slow down and think. Grabbing at another option when you are stressed about the things that don’t seem to be working currently is always dangerous. It’s built on human promises. But, I do have to admit, CM style education requires much patience and devotion to see it’s strengths play out down the road. With CC, it’s much easier to have a certain comfort of “proof” that children are learning in a more immediate fashion…even if it is basically superficial. It certainly appeals to those with relatives, neighbors, or friends who question your choice to Homeschool. 

I think each of us have to pray before making any decision as to changing midstream. Some changes are needed when a certain type of instruction suits Mom, but not child certainly. As parents who’ve mostly gone through the PS system, different methods often finally allow things to make sense for us if they didn’t during our own early education. Sometimes that’s good for our children, sometimes it’s just an opportunity to continue our own education.  It’s called redemption. 🙂

When we were part of that small campus, the best parts were the sense of community and accountability. I stayed on top of a routine. I hadn’t always dine that following a CM lifestyle. A year later, and with the SCM planning resources, it’s much easier to stay in track, or at least not have a feeling of being behind. 

From CC, we kept the Veritas Press Timeline practice and use the cards and mental timeline for BoC type work and to “place” books into historical context. I spread the history sentences out over more weeks for study this year (we used Cycle 2 sentences with SCM’s Module 4.) I kept the Discovering Great Artists book as part of our fine arts studies. The experiments are handy, but I don’t do them as frequently as we would in a community situation. Our current co-op doesn’t include science. 

Our youngest loves the songs and continues to learn well that way on an interest based frequency, its not scheduled. However, our 13yo really was hindered by learning the skip counting songs. He’d memorized the multiplication tables prior to CC and was doing well in that area. The math songs turned into a sort of mental “crutch” that interfered with knowing the facts and it has taken a long time to undo that and get back to an immediate recall on facts for problem solving. So, that was a downside.

The biggest downside for me was the business end. As a Director, you are required to build the program from Foundations and Essentials, to pushing Challenge levels. This is done by stressing that CC is THE Christian way to Homeschool correctly. You make money as a Director, and even as a tutor, by growing the campus,  increasing the amount of tuition coming in…all fine and good businesswise IF you’re sold out to using someone else’s predetermined curriculum/book choices and can convince enough others to do the same.

There are books we wouldn’t use and activities we wouldn’t do at as early an age in the Challenge levels as a family, and I couldn’t see insisting that others do so just because someone else had determined what’s best for all children. There were other things about the whole hidden side of CC that just did not sit well with me, but it was a blessing to be able to learn what we like and what we don’t while making friends that continue to participate in cooperative activities with our family. 

I think the biggest selling point is Community. As Lindsey and others have said in other threads, it’s hard to go it alone. I know. For a decade and a half we were lone homeschoolers in our area, unless you count the families almost a hour away. Rural in all caps is where we live. 🙂 Slowly, but surely, other families are leaving the ps system here and I am thankful that I was able do CC for that one year. It helped me appreciate the freedom found in the simplicity of CM, but it also added some things that I hadn’t recognized as helpful. 

It actually helped me do a better job of CM style learning at home because I can now see strengths and I’m less likely to give up when skills take longer to be mastered than I think they should. Much of the memory work becomes just an appearance type of “proof” to others that you’re doing something with the kids. I didn’t like that, but as we implement it in a less regimented way, the memory work is actually helping and much less stressful. 

Rambling post…CC has it’s good points, and bad. Some of it is quite easily coordinated with a CM style home education. But, I want more freedom to determine my children’s education. It certainly gave me more tools to help design it. For that, I’m thankful. 

Thank you all for the insights – I’m drawn to Memoria Press’ recitations, and trying to decide how they fit into our school. A lot of them are common knowledge (days of the week, your birthday) and the higher grade ones are linked to the books they schedule.

I’d love to read some blogs (or CM quotes) on memorization outside of Bible & poetry.