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seven2hold
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| Posted: Oct 26 2010 at 12:48pm | IP Logged
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If you have a large family (including highschoolers)and were going to give advice to another large family interested in easing into CM homeschooling, where would you begin? What if they've tried it before? What if this family has a hard time letting go of a grading system?
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Kathy
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 26 2010 at 1:45pm | IP Logged
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Read alouds, reading together as a family. Although with that age spread they may find the need to have two different books, on geared to the younger set one to the older.
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Erin
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Lori
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| Posted: Oct 26 2010 at 8:29pm | IP Logged
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Who says you can't have grades for now? Even if it's based on a rubric (grading standard) for effort, you can still call it a grade. Who is more attached to them, Mom/Dad or the kids? 
Or do you mean grade levels? Wherever you can combine ages/grades for topics of study, you can always require more in depth response to it, if you want...
And prepare independent work for the older ones to do while you're working with the younger ones...as well as have the older ones pair up with a younger one from time to time (Oh, how I wish I had high schoolers at home for school!)
And just start with the basics...reading/writing, math, science, history...you can add more as you get into a routine and are comfortable. I'm not comfortable yet! 
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Lori
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 27 2010 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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Hmmmm....If I were easing "back" in to CM with a large family...I'd probably do what Erin recommends and start with read alouds as well. I'd also begin asking for narrations.
Since you have older children, I think it's pretty important to communicate with them so I'd also probably start some conversations about why I felt a move in this direction to be important. Let them offer feedback, concerns, criticisms. I haven't been in the position of needing to compel a teen in a direction like this so I can't say what I'd do, but I know conversation & communication would be a part of it.
If you're still unsure yourself, I'd READ, READ, READ....everything I could get my hands on - both about the philosophy and especially about the practical! There are a lot of people that share on their blogs how the practical works for them and that is SO helpful to me!
Once you've had conversations and everyone is ready to move forward, I'd look at what you've got going for history and literature. The next step would be to consider the time period the kids are studying (no problem if they're all over the map there!) and begin working in living books and asking for narrations. Living books and narrations is where I'd focus next because it really is at the heart of a CM education.
If I could make a recommendation...I'd recommend the Simply Charlotte Mason Seminars on DVD. The Books and Things seminar would be fantastic for you!! And The All Day Charlotte Mason Seminar is my favorite. There is a touch of philosophy of education there, but it's mostly practical-rubber-meets-the-road help. I think you'd find them enjoyable.
As far as the grading system...I probably wouldn't make a big deal of it but just slowly let it fade out of the picture. If you need to grade, offer grades on the attention offered during read alouds, or the effort given during a narration. As Lori mentioned, you can create your own rubrics for grading so that you keep this feature if its important to your family - but your rubric is based on the foundational keys important to a CM education and not on the typical grading standard. You can still grade math and latin, etc.
Hope this helps!  Good luck!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Jenifleur
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Wow ~ thanks for the links. I need the immersion method, LOL!
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mama2many
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I'm NEW to homeschooling and looking to move from Seton to CM.. I'm reading Real Learningright now, and it's really striking me as EXACTLY what I need for our learning environment..
My oldest is 9 1/2 so we're going to have some rough bits, but most will come from dh.
We were BOTH public schooled, MIL was a public school teacher for 40 years, so she's SUPER supportive.. 
But when God calls, not everyone "outside" understands... right?
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Krystin
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seven2hold
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| Posted: Oct 29 2010 at 6:20pm | IP Logged
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We are reading. We are reading a few different books. I haven't begun narration yet. I suppose this is the next step.
Jen,
The CM seminars look very tempting. They are just not in the budget. I do have Real Learning and am reading it once again.
Lori,
It's the older kids that want the grades.
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Kathy
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: Oct 29 2010 at 6:30pm | IP Logged
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seven2hold wrote:
| We are reading. We are reading a few different books. I haven't begun narration yet. I suppose this is the next step. |
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Here is Jen's post on Narration, and at the end she links to HIGHER UP & FURTHER IN's fabulous posts on Narration too.
And, here are the threads with NARRATION in the subject topic.
And, this thread in particular has lots of great links.
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Suzanne in ID
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Jenifleur
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| Posted: Oct 29 2010 at 9:53pm | IP Logged
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Thanks! I looked through part of the links. So much information there!! Where do I begin! 
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Erin
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| Posted: Nov 08 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged
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Kathy
I was just over at Simply Charlotte Mason and saw Making the Transition to CM and thought of you.
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Erin
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mama2many
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| Posted: Nov 09 2010 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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Thanks, I know that wasn't for "me" but I appreciate the link!!! 
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Krystin
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seven2hold
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| Posted: Nov 09 2010 at 1:15pm | IP Logged
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Erin,
That link is *just* what I was loking for! Thank you!
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Kathy
Wife to John
Mother to DD(91), DD(93), DD(95), DS(98), DD(00), DS(01), DS(03), DD(05), and DS(07)
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Jenifleur
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Yes~ thanks so much!!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Ease into CM with 6+ Children?
