Ok, so I'm thinking about transitioning to the Charlotte Mason method in hopes that it will be more interesting and inspiring to my first grader. She seems to be bored out of her mind with her work....and Lord, I am too. We're using Abeka and I'm thinking the busy work is just not stimulating her very much. Anybody out here doing CM? My first grader reads very well so would we have to continue with a phonics program of some sort? I mean, circling the "special sounds" and marking the vowels seems unnecessary for her. OR am I just crazy and this is what they HAVE to be doing in first grade? I picked Abeka because I was afraid I would miss something and needed the comfort of knowing everything I needed would be right in my hands. Now I'm seeing that maybe this was not the best choice for us. Any advice??
I'm having problems with Abeka as well. We've moved onto Explode the Code for reading, and it's going great. We've kept Abeka for math, but we don't do every single problem. If he gets it, he gets it.
We are doing Charlotte mason method. I have a kindergardener and we use explode the code for her phonics along with LOTS of me reading to her. I use pathway readers for her reading and read the words I know she can't read yet and let her sound out the others. We are now incorporating sightwords into the mix. Others may chime in on this but I don't think they HAVE to have all that busy work. Especially if you are doing CM. If you are interested in looking farther into the method check out www.simplycharlottemason.com It's so much more simpler than amblesideonline. One that page click on the curriculum guide in the middle of the page.
You can kinda do a modified CM/Classical education That's what we do. We do have our workbooks (Easy Grammar, Math-Lifepacs/Teaching Textbooks, writing Strands). And our textbooks - Abeka US History. BUT everything else is based off that history - we're reading historical fiction (pilfered list from Sonlight and matched up to the Abeka timeline) to go along to use for narration, copywork and dictionary work. So far, my kids are really enjoying. They're absorbing more from the historical fiction BUT, my oldest is really catching a lot from the Abeka. She found something on her own this week and correlated it to her History and her Literature reading. It's been a tad more work - but so far, neither of them have balked too much.
I just switched (thankfully) back to Ambleside Online which is a CM approach. In addition to the reading, we have for DD Emma Serls Primary Language Lessons which includes dictation as well as basic grammar and such, Saxon for Math, and for her Latin's not So Tough 2. Some of the readings are in audio book form some are printed from the weekly readings posted in yahoogroups for Ambleside (someone was super nice and divided all the readings into the weeks, then formatted the available books). We have other side-lines as well (dd is into Dolphins so is doing a dolphin report).... and now using Simply Schooling Elementary American History as well to emphasize what she is listening to in "This Country Ours" DD had a problem with the busy work as well and this is working out quite nicely so far (2 weeks into it after 6 weeks of workbooks and such)
We use AmblesideOnline as well. I can't recommend it enough as a great CM curriculum. The parts that work for ds(8) are: - Short lessons (10-15 min each) - No busywork - Excellent literature (living books) - Math, Grammar, and Phonics at his own pace - Nature, Art, and Composer Study (relaxed and fun) - A weekly lesson plan (instead of a daily one, so we can plan around activities) Good luck with your venture into CM. Whether you use a premade curriculum or piece things together yourself, I think you'll enjoy this method.
This is my opinion, of course it could vary from others, but this is what worked for us................. The way I look at reading and doing the special sounds, etc. is like building a strong foundation to a house. Without a strong foundation, the house will fall. By doing the special sounds, etc. you are building a strong reading founding, reinforcing the foundation and she will become an even better reader. With Abeka they do the special sounds, etc. up to 3rd grade and then they concentrate on speed reading and comp. Make it fun for her! IMHO!
I would recommend continuing phonics until they could read emergent readers without needing any assistance from you such as amelia bedelia and such. If she can read them without assistance then maybe skipping some of it. I tried CM this summer and went running back to my textbooks. I found that adding in some things like Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons gave us some fun different ways of learning than strict textbooks while still keeping our main foundation in textbooks. I am going to conitnue phonics with my 1st grader b/c I can tell a difference with my 3rd and 4th grader who did not learn phonics in the public school system. Both were excellent readers but as they get into bigger and bigger words not knowing the phonics rules hurts them and their ability to sound out words that they don't know. Another thing, if you seem to show that you think the work is boring it will filter down to her thinking it is boring. If it seems that you don't want to get started for the day, then she won't want to get started for the day.
She is reading probably around fourth grade level. She can pick up big words when we're out and about...words that she hasn't covered in her schoolwork. She was reading Amelia Bedelia in Kindergarten. Her PS teacher kept commenting on how she was reading so well when the other kids in her class were still working on sounding out letters. She's just a natural reader (math is a different subject though). Anyway, I'm frustrated with skipping ahead as some of the later assignment have them circling "special sounds" that we skipped. There are NO issues reading the special sounds it's just going through the identification of the special sounds that seems unnecessary. I hope that makes sense. I absolutely agree that my attitude can filter down to my kids. I definitely make our school time seem like fun and an exciting time to learn....NEVER use the word boring to my kids and don't bring that attitude to the table (or anywhere they can see or hear). Will be getting Math U See this weekend and will start a transition to more Charlotte Mason. I don't think the switch would be unsettling for us and I'm praying it will help make our homeschool more stimulating. Will be spending some time reviewing Ambleside and simplycharlottemason. Thanks everybody for your suggestions!!
I am an Abeka user too. My girls know the sounds, they have issues with the weird ones from time to time. If they know the sounds, this is what I do -- I have them read the words to me out loud. I mean really why mark the "th's" if they know what they are!? you will know if they know it. It has caused a lot less of the whines around here. Now... if I could figure out something for math to ease the whines.....
As home schoolers, one point of view we all need to maintain is seeing our text book and curriuclum choices as "tools" to help us accomplish our goals. Anytime we feel an obligation or "guilted" to do someting just because a curriculum guide tells us to even though our intuition tells us otherwise, it's important to ask ourselves what's the point of this activity. Home schooled kids are pretty quick to sniff out busy work. Having good foundation in phonics relates to more than reading; it generally produces good spellers. I would watch to see how she does on her spelling tests and if her scores dip, drill over the phonics rules that she's not applying. One muti-sensory program my wife and I used with our children years ago was based on the Slingerland and Spalding approach. These approaches provided the foundation for a reading program called Spell to Read and Write. You might want to check it out. Curt
I am a Sonlight user and have been for all 6 years we have homeschooled. All my children have loved every year - there is no busy work only good quality interesting learning to be done!! And I don't think Sonlight misses anything out. My oldest graduated as a National Merit Finalist - and with 7 AP exams successfully passed. She had a great ACT and SAT score too and won a number of scholarships. Meryl
