choose a path to follow with school! I have fallen in love with the thoughts of doing CM, mostly following the guide on simplycharlottemason.com, but kind of going my own path on history. Now I'm thinking I may want to go my own path on grammar/reading as well, adding in a spelling program (the free one from Zaner Bloser), and probably writing too. I like the idea of copywork, narration and dictation.. more CM sytle than classical versions of it (though they aren't much different), and I am in love with some free vintage grammar books on google books... but I worry about having to explain so much of the difference in language from then to now to the kids. UGGGG... why can't I process this all in my brain and make it make sense and work for us?
I think you can sum up your issue with over thinking We all tend to fall into the trap of worrying whether we will somehow mess up our childrens education if we don't choose just the right curriculum. But there is no right way or wrong way just the path that works for your kids. I 'waffle' as well call it here on some subjects too. But I look at it like house cleaning pick something and dive in. If it gets too harry move on to something else lol
Also she has a little buddy that likes to fill her head with all her ideas. :shock: Sorry.... How about you go through the vintage books read them before doing them with the kids, that way you can make some notes on your own on how to word it so they will understand. So, here is how you can do it for the rest. Make a Crzaymama CM style of way to do your stuff. Use all your ideas you already have and want to do with a twist of CM. Also stop listening to me and my constant curriculum ramblings. lol:lol:
lol.. JoAnna... I think I mess with your brain just as much! Uggg every time I think I have it figured out today I go back and think well why can't I do it this way... so yeah I'm thinking I will be doing things CCM style Crazymama Charlotte Mason style..lol I'm thinking I want to use ReadingA-Z and that covers grammar, I want to do copywork and narration and dictation too.. would that be too much?
on google books you want to look for Sheldon's; William Maxwell grammar; Mary Hyde grammar; and there are others... one of my favorites that is very CMish is With Pencil and Pen (google books there also).
Oh I like those grammar books too. I really like the "With Pen and Pencil" I had not seen that one before. I don't know more than what I see on message boards about CM but it looks like fun! I do have a few ebooks I found at Google books and they are readers: This Series of books embodies a graded system of moral instruction. The Golden Rule Series: The Golden Ladder Book The Golden Path Book The Golden Door Book The Golden Key Book The Golden Word Book The Golden Deed Book The Character Building Readers A Geographical Reader Everyday Classics The kendall reader Good Luck! Cally
Has anybody here actually used McGuffey's Readers, Ray's Arithmetics, and Harvey's Grammar??? I have some of these, but they are just SO incredibly "vintage" that I just can't see myself actually doing these...
over on TWTM board, there are several who use the vintage books. I think I will probably be going with vintage for Garrett next year.. right now he is going through Grammar Land.. a super cute vintage grammar book. The littles.. or well Rylee will be nailing down her reading and starting some copy work for 1st grade, and I'm hoping Reagan will soon be ready to start some learning to read.
I have the McGuffey readers(entire set) and I will be using vintage Math next year. My kids didn't balk at the McG as bad as I thought they would.I was prepared for the snickers and the criticism of the vintage artwork, the weird wording, and so forth. Didn't happen. I'm adding to that next year with Intermediate Language Lessons(1914, I believe) and adding Practical Arithmatic.I wouldn't have had the guts to go all vintage if I hadn't tried out McG first. I thought my kids would be super bored with the monochromatic colors, the farm references, etc. On the contrary, my super-hyper ds seems to appreciate the less visually stimulating pages. Dd thinks the wording is quaint and it just comes from a gentler time when people were so less.....aggressive and pushy. It's like a cool drink on a hot day. corny, but that's what I felt like coming off 'modern' texts.
http://books.google.com/books?id=NA...&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Here is a vintage math that I think I will be using with Rylee.. way too cute to not use!
I do know you can over think your schooling. I do that several times a year. And I get discouraged with myself when we don't stick to a style of schooling for very long or very consistently. It's kind of why the topper on my blog says: "Homeschool blog of a family led by Christ, eclectically learning, Charlotte Mason influenced with a dash of fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants mentality thrown in for good measure. One teen in college, one child learning at home. We're not crazy, we're just drawn that way." I'd like to stick with a more CM led schooling but its hard for this public school brain of mine who has a math textbook and latin program for the 6th grader. Hard to do the little amounts of time for learning. I try, I really try but math and some other subjects take us so long. I'm still learning. This was our first year attempting CM. I didn't embrace the whole of it, so I'll strive for that next year.
artsy, I definately reccomend spending some time looking over the curriculum guide at simplycharlottemason.com. Having a math program and a language is definately CMish. Now with my littles I plan on only using a bit of "bookish" math and more living math, but I am a die hard Teaching Textbooks fan for math beyond that. My oldest is learning spanish and asl (or is supposed to be ), and I think we may begin watching some kids programs that are on the channels that come to us in spanish via our dish network package (may as well use them for something right?). I do think I may have things figured out. Maybe..lol
I go through the same thing every year. We start out strong with our CM lessons and by December I worry that we aren't doing enough and I try to change it. I'm big on the copywork,narration,and dictation as well. We still do those but it seems that most of the other things go to the way side. I like SimplyCharlotteMason too. I use her copywork books and her history guides. But history is hit and miss in this house. That's one thing that I feel guilty about. I need to get it going again. I really like those books at google books. How do you use them? download them on a e-reader or do you print them out??
Ummm... I print them..lol I just HAD to have a laptop with income tax (a new computer was needed but not a fancy laptop, our old one died in Nov. and we were using our "Dino Dell" that is 10 years old..lol) with the reasoning being ebooks, but I just can't get into reading them on the screen so I print way more than I probably should I don't have an e reader, though hubby suddenly thinks I should get one. We will see... maybe someday. I'm just not a gadget type person. I still use a plain simple flip phone and am terrified of these fancy smart phone things that everyone else has..lol.
I have a certain 'teacher' inside that yearns to teach my children in a gentle, fun way. Then our real life comes into play, and the lack of time I actually have makes workbooks much more practical. I still am trying though, and have been doing more fun things like lapbooks, notebooking, and projects. One day though I'll be home all day, every day and can have a more relaxed school experience.
Me neither! Hubby bought me an e-reader for christmas and I have used it ONE time. I like it, but I'd rather have a book in my hand... I guess I'm going to have to start using it more or he'll get his feelings hurt.. I wish the screen on it was bigger though. But it is a neat little gadget. I'll be downloading some of those books you recommended.
