Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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kristinannie
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 4:33pm | IP Logged Quote kristinannie
We started first grade today and it went really well with a CM approach (with a little Montessori added in). My daughter did almost all Montessori, but listened in on most of the read alouds. It was a peaceful, beautiful day. I just have this nagging feeling that I am missing something. I know that CM is a solid education, but it almost seemed too easy, too seamless, too natural. I know these shouldn't be complaints, but that little voice in the back of my head is screaming, "Where are the grammar workbooks? Where is the proof that you did something?" I was not homeschooled and I do not want to do school at home. CM is so beautiful to me, but it is sometime hard to just let go of everything I thought I knew about education and trust in the process! I guess I just need to read Jen's (Mackfam's) blog some more to see that my kids will turn out great at the end of this adventure in CM homeschooling!

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guitarnan
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 5:44pm | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
If you want proof that you did something, keep a short daily list of Montessori activities, read-alouds, things you did outside (nature study) and anything related to art, music, catechism, etc.

Your real proof will come soon enough, when your sweet girl uses words she learned from read-alouds, identifies birds or trees or whatever you're looking at each day and starts to narrate back to you some of the stories she's heard.

You have lots and lots of time for workbooks...later. (Like in high school, for SAT practice, perhaps.) Enjoy this time with your lovely children. You'll treasure the memories later, I promise! (And, yes, they will learn to read and add and write up experiments, really they will!)

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Marcia
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:28pm | IP Logged Quote Marcia
Yes just let go! You will see the results soon enough. And I must say that my nearly 8 year old boy learns the majority of his schooling through the "science of relations". He'd rather sit with an older man (priest, grandpop, etc) and learn things from them than to hear me give a montessori lesson or ask for narration on a history read aloud.
But ask him to tell you how to build something in the wood shop? He can tell you from start to finish from spending time with those materials! :) And how to lead a horse? or how to chain up a bulldozer on a flat bed? All from spending time with men in his life. :) School is all sorts of things.



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kristinannie
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:37pm | IP Logged Quote kristinannie
I actually did see some fruit from CM methods today (I have been doing CM exclusively since January). John Paul did his first narration on an Aesop's Fable (off my Kindle...I never found that book ). The fable was only a paragraph, but he gave me a wonderful 2 sentence narration and then proceeded to draw a connection between another story we are reading. It is just so hard to get that public school out of me! Something this beautiful for my family cannot be the wrong way of homeschooling. I love the support you ladies give me. This is just so different from what everyone expects, but I know it will lead to a good end result and be a much more enjoyable process!!!!

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