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mommiepappa
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| Posted: March 04 2008 at 1:00pm | IP Logged
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I am seeking the wisdom of all of those CM veterans. Coming from a very scheduled literature based cirruclum with a brutal LA program that can put my daughter into tears, we are finally moving in the right direction. I have been reading/studying the work of Charlotte Mason over the last few years and am feeling more confident in losening those reins and letting natural learning take the place of the "checked boxes".
My question is this. Is it okay to switch now? We are midway through a year that hasn't been working. I want to drop all the workbooks, drill sheets, etc... and want to replace them with notebooking, lapbooking, reading what and when we want (not twaddle). My 8 yo daughter is a definite type A and loves structure. So I was just going to outline the day each day and give her that to check off. History - check, English - check, Science - check and so on.
Part of me feels like if we quit our current SL2, we will have given up. Any advice for this forum newbie? Anyone been in the same boat?
Kat
Mom to four beautiful girls
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JuliaT
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| Posted: March 04 2008 at 5:27pm | IP Logged
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I would slowly switch over. If you did it all at once, no matter how much your dd hates it, it would probably cause culture shock. I would start with a few subjects that you think would be easy to implement; picture study, composer study, poetry, etc. Start with that for a few weeks, when you feel confident with that then add some more CM elements. Do it gradually to give your dd time to acclimate herself to the changes.
Good luck!
Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 04 2008 at 7:47pm | IP Logged
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Don't feel badly or that you have given up - we need to do what works for our own families.
If I were in your shoes, for an 8yo, I might try and drop the LA that is making her cry and try to make that your first foray into the wonderful world of CM. Incorporate some copywork, get her to tell you back some of the great stories you are reading together (narration), and when she gets proficient at copywork she could try her hand at dictation.
Maybe look at the Bravewriter site for some more ideas on doing LA (her writing tips have that CM idea behind them).
Just my 2 cents...
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 04 2008 at 8:18pm | IP Logged
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There is nothing wrong with dropping something that clearly isn't working. I say drop the guilt and have fun!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Leonie
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| Posted: March 05 2008 at 4:15pm | IP Logged
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I'm with Theresa - I'd drop something that wasn't working and look for some joy! This flexibility is one one of the assets of homeschooling, imo.
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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mommiepappa
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| Posted: March 07 2008 at 5:23pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the encouragement ladies. I don't really have guilt over dropping the material. I guess I am just not that confident in myself yet. I have basically dropped all the English portion of LA. We do reading with copywork and narration for now. My dd is not thrilled with copywork because she doesn't like writing that much. She use to. I think it is because she is worn out from all those workbooks!
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mommiepappa
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| Posted: March 14 2008 at 10:34am | IP Logged
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I have pulled the new living resources that I would like to use for history, science, etc... But since I am over 40 (big grin) and have a tendancy to forget things, I feel I still need a schedule of some sort to keep up with things. Can anyone share how they organize their schedules? Maybe lead me to a CM type downloadable planner or someone's sample page?
Thanks in advance. We are on our way to the library to pick up our gazillion books!
Kathleen
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SallyT
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| Posted: March 14 2008 at 12:36pm | IP Logged
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You might check out Simply Charlotte Mason. They have an online planner which I'm trying out on a 30-day freebie-trial deal. It's not cheap to get the actual subscription, and I'm not sure I'll commit to it(we're so unschooly at our house that planners tend to be frustrating rather than helpful!), but it's been interesting to rough in things we want to work on.
It's kind of a neat tool in that you choose a subject, and it gives you a list of CM-style books to choose from to schedule in, or you can add your own. If you were at a loss for books to use for a given subject at a given time, you'd always have ready recommendations, which can be very helpful. The subjects listed are all CM subjects, too: poetry, copywork, Shakespeare, picture study, nature study, and so on. I find it frustrating that the only religion heading is "Bible" -- I scheduled in "Daily Mass" under "Bible," because there was nowhere else to put it, and I wanted it in our plan for the day!
Anyway, the organizer is hard to explain, but if you go and sign up for the free trial and mess around with it a bit, you can see whether something like that would be helpful to you. I have heard people swear by Homeschool Tracker, which won't run on my Mac, so I was looking for something comparable online when I ran across this and decided to experiment with it. It might be that that level of accountability will help bolster your confidence -- there's nothing more reinforcing than seeing what you actually do accomplish, even without check-boxes.
Sally
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Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Taking the plunge to CM
