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kristinannie
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| Posted: Nov 13 2012 at 9:42am | IP Logged
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I started doing full-on CM almost a year ago and I cannot say enough great things about it! We have read so many wonderful stories and my kids have internalized them. They are reminded of a certain saint or story character when they are in a situation. They can compare characters with other characters we have met. When they turning point of a story comes, my son will say, "Uh-oh." It has made such a huge difference in them and I have "evidence" that it is working.
However, I sometimes feel like we are not doing enough. I don't just want a rubber stamp. I want the truth! 
We do morning basket time about 3-4 times a week (we usually school 4 times a week because something inevitably will come up). We school year round. During morning basket we do the following:
US history 2X a week (D'Aulaire's biographies)
Religion 3-4X a week (Manners in God's House, Saints for Girls, Picture Books of the Old Testament Stories)
Nature Study 1X a week (Picture book usually, although my kids are always doing their own nature study when they are outside playing)
Literature 4X (Pooh stories, Fairy tales, Poetry, Folktales)
Hymn Study (2-3X a week)
Memorization (3-4X a week)
Picture study (1X a week although it has been 3 weeks since we finished Renoir )
Composer study (sporadic  )
Morning basket time usually includes 3 separate readings a day of about 5-10 min each with a narration.
Seatwork is very limited:
Copywork daily
Miquon Math (5-10 min)
Right Start Math
Charts, Maps, and Graphs B 1X a week
Also, sometime during the day we do Reading Lesson.
Science has fallen off the map completely. 
I have given phonics a possible permanent rest.
I usually read a Read Aloud during lunch (Peter Pan right now) and a picture book or chapter book at bedtime.
I know that my son is OK. He is very bright and ahead of where he should be. However, I don't want to do him a disservice by not doing enough work. Our seatwork lasts only about 30 minutes, sometimes longer if he really gets into math and wants to do extra (happens at least a couple of times a week). He also likes to teach us dinosaur class sometimes. Morning basket time lasts 20-30 min. My kids do usually spend a couple of hours a day doing schoolish things on their own (Montessori, art, coloring, crafts, singing and dancing, exploring nature, creating their own science experiments, etc).
Sorry for the long post. I am just starting to really doubt myself here.
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: Nov 13 2012 at 10:26am | IP Logged
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No advice, but it sounds rather lovely and relaxed!  Are you doubting that they are acquiring skills, or have you been reading other blogs, forums, or curriculum sites again?   (my feeble attempt at humor)
Hang in there!
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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jawgee
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| Posted: Nov 13 2012 at 11:03am | IP Logged
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Looks beautiful, especially for kids the ages of yours!!
My 6YO does a bit more ONLY because he sits in for morning readings that are geared more for his older brother (who is almost 11). Otherwise, the schedule is very similar.
Oh, and regarding Science...my 6YO DS LOVED reading the Stage 2 Science books last year. Our library had a large assortment of them. He learned so much, and many of the books had experiments to go with the story. Just sharing that in case you want to add something more than Nature Study for Science.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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SallyT
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| Posted: Nov 13 2012 at 9:40pm | IP Logged
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Sounds great to me, Kristin. Re science, I really think that at that age nature study *is* the best science you can do -- it lays the foundation for so much, but chiefly it builds the habit of observation which later translates into more formal scientific pursuits. I did no formal science that I can recall when my now-15yo was 6, other than going to the zoo and various museums. His hobby now is microbiology, so I must not have sold him too short in the science department early on . . .
I really wouldn't worry. What you're doing sounds like enough to me, in a very rich, deep way.
Sally
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Aagot
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| Posted: Nov 13 2012 at 10:38pm | IP Logged
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It looks great! The classical kids series ie. " tchaikovsky discovers america" etc. is a fun and easy way to introduce composers. We play them over and over in the car.
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3ringcircus
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 9:41am | IP Logged
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I'm feeling similar, if it makes you feel any better. We are doing science, but no history/social studies for now. We get things done, but I don't know that we're doing enough.
Is it just me, or does it seems like it takes an awfully long time to get a little bit done w/ a 6yo boy (especially when I have the youngers in tow)?
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Christine
Mom to my circus of boys: G-1/06, D-1/04, S-4/10
Started HS in Fall'12
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 12:45pm | IP Logged
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After reading only your topic, my answer is.........
YES  .
Now go and enjoy . You are awesome!
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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SallyT
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 1:53pm | IP Logged
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Re one subject getting lost in the shuffle, which has certainly happened to us, I do try to make a lasting mental note of the fact that we haven't done much X this year, so that I will be purposeful about foregrounding it more in my book choices for the next year. It *is* science for us, often enough, though the kids do a good bit of independent exploration through things I've either deliberately or inadvertently strewn. We have LOT of old National Geographics, for example, lying around our house, and I find that they cover many bases. And we like watching Magic Schoolbus episodes from time to time. (and now, thanks to the 15-year-old, we also have petri dishes of e. coli bacteria for pets, and books about the yellow-fever epidemic all over the place . . . I feel like I'm living in a science-nerd reality show, which is the last thing I would have expected, given the education I offered that particular child in his formative years).
Anyway, it's not that the kids never do science, but we haven't always been very intentional about it. I did deliberately weave a good bit of science reading into our year this year, though it's not very coherent (but I don't worry so much about that so much with primary kids): we do a nature reading (The Living Forest) on Tuesday, then a little segment of Mary Daly's Introducing the Periodic Kingdom to Its Heirs on Thursday. My third grader is reading Burgess's Seashore Book for Children as an independent science/nature read, while the fourth grader is reading The Way Things Work. We also have Galen and the Gateway of Medicine as a Friday read-aloud, and that integrates history with some science.
I think this kind of thing gets easier as kids get older, for all kinds of reasons. I also think that our job with very young children -- preschoolers, early-elementary-aged -- is not to pump them full of information, but to offer things that will instigate wonder and questions. In the reading that you're doing, you're furnishing them with good language in which to think their own thoughts, raise their own questions, and frame their view of the world, and that seems crucial and exactly right to me. Offering them *story* is offering them the raw materials of their own later understanding of whatever is set before them.
When my 8- and 10-year-olds were younger (we moved to this house when they were 6 and almost-5), the kindergarten teacher next door used to comment all the time about how "advanced" their vocabulary was. We're a pretty verbal family all around, but of course the kids had also been read to their whole lives . . . Anyway, it occurs to me to think that a lot of what I see now in my 10-year-old son -- his ability to express ideas and make connections and understand stuff, whatever it happens to be -- must be related to having that kind of mental furniture in place. His early schooling experiences were pretty unschooly, and I didn't attempt to do anything formal with him until after he was 6, but we did read together a lot. I really do think that that, in itself, makes people's "mental continents" bigger and wider and more open to whatever settlers are going to move in later. If that makes any sense.
All that to say, again, that what you've outlined looks not only adequate, but rich and wonderful. I suspect that as time goes on, you will see the garden you're planting now begin to bloom in marvelous and unexpected ways.
Sally
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Claire F
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 6:41pm | IP Logged
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Alas, reading your post makes me wonder if we do too much  . It is always hard to know, especially as we start out on this journey with little ones.
I think you're doing so much great stuff. I wouldn't worry as much about time spent, since you have a depth and breadth that is wonderful.
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Wondering if I am doing enough
