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FYI: Charlotte Mason Institute's new CM curriculum: much lower price


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I'm not sure; I am sure that I never implemented AO to its fullest because it is so hard to do so IMO.

 

The biggest difference is that all kids are doing the same general time frame and that there are fewer books, done better. There are extra helpings for kids who read fast or need more but I no longer feel like all we do is read and narrate all day with no end in sight and no help in figuring out which of the "free reads" are useful or important. (Some of the AO people have their kids read all the free reads; I can't imagine and I have one really fast reader.) There is more coordination between the "free reads" and your work.

 

Nicole Williams also has implemented Natural History in a much more holistic way now that the PNEU works are available to read online and she was able to do more reading on what the schools actually did.

 

Emily

 

I guess the biggest difference seems to be that all the kids are on the same history schedule?  and they provided you with daily schedules with time limits?  Otherwise there are the same amount of subjects in both programs. 

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Couple of more questions.

 

How long does your typical day last?  What is your start time?  Do you combine subjects with your kids and if so, which ones?  Do you do the reading and activities that they suggest?

 

I probably wouldn't be able to get everything in even if I went with CMI's program as I am not an early riser and I have commitments outside of the house two mornings a week and commitments in the evening.  I have been following AO for many years now and I am familiar with all the books and tweak as I need to.  Although the cost is doable, I am unsure of the books.  I would have to buy most of them so cost would be a factor too.  I do like the idea of having the kind of support seems to offer and the daily schedule is planned out.  Not sure what I want to do.  sigh.

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I believe I am jumping in.  :)  I need more time to "learn" some of the subjects before my kids get there particularly math, foreign language, etc. My oldest taught himself EVERYTHING almost from 7th grade on and I outsourced many things.  I don't want to depend on having to do that for my younger two.  It just takes SO much time away and really not a lot is gained from what I have seen.  So if I can spend my time learning them so I am prepared to help them along the way it would save them so much time and frustration!

 

I love planning but it has taken SO much of my time (since I am such a perfectionist) that having it all laid out for me is so worth it!  I am very excited about all of the extras and helps that are included for implementing the program.  I might have to tweak a few books since it is has a few things we have read to death (particularity my youngest) but with the extras given as choices it shouldn't be that hard.  :)

 

I am so thankful this is available and thanks Emily for sharing with us all!  I am SUPER excited too that I am going to be able to go to the CMI conference this year!  My hubby and kids are great giving up their vacation to go so we are coming to KY a bit early to do a little sight seeing.  Can't wait to check out the ark and The Creation Museum!  Will anybody else be going to the CMI this year?

 

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Couple of more questions.

 

How long does your typical day last?  What is your start time?   Do you do the reading and activities that they suggest?

 

I probably wouldn't be able to get everything in even if I went with CMI's program as I am not an early riser and I have commitments outside of the house two mornings a week and commitments in the evening.  I have been following AO for many years now and I am familiar with all the books and tweak as I need to.  Although the cost is doable, I am unsure of the books.  I would have to buy most of them so cost would be a factor too.  I do like the idea of having the kind of support seems to offer and the daily schedule is planned out.  Not sure what I want to do.  sigh.

 

 

Maybe I can help a little.  All of the main subjects are done in the morning so that you have time to do other things in the afternoon:  nature study, music practicing, handicrafts, etc.  There is usually depending on the age an hour possibly of other reading in the afternoon but for the younger years all of their main work is done in the morning.  I haven't used Alveary yet but it depends I think on the age of the child as to how long the morning looks.  What are your kids ages/grades?

 

Do you combine subjects with your kids and if so, which ones?

 

There are some subjects that you can combine I will post a link to help you see what that looks like from their site.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X7W8TIXZ9GGAPr8V0FbKzz-ip78waOgKT6WH7R1Vb9o/edit#gid=1520625835

 

For me even though I like AO, I felt that it didn't coincide with what CM had to say on "times" and meeting each child.  Who could finish all of those books listed if they were sticking to her time table?  If I didn't read all of the books I felt like a failure!  I have found in the past reading too much too fast my kids would not remember anything!  However, when I slowed down and read smaller portions they were able to remember so much more and isn't that better to learn some things then none!  Rereading her works and looking at how CMI is trying to really implement what it would really look like today is so helpful and refreshing!

 

HTH some.  :)

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I am really considering too...seems like such a great resource even if I have to substitute a few since we already have done them.  Decisions....  Wonder if they have a support group of those who use it...wouldn't that be fun!  :)

 

There is a forum for Alveary members. :) 

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I hadn't realized that your kids are younger than mine; my kids are 12, 10, 8 (and 5 and 1). My oldest two would go nuts if I tried to read everything to them, and my 8-year-old has requested to read some of her to-be-narrated books independently, though I hadn't required it of her yet. Since she can read them to herself and narrate exceptionally well, I think it'd be thoughtless of me to require her to listen to me read them aloud. Of course she's always had free reading on her own. She's certainly not reading Pilgrim's Progress on her own, and she is now joining us for some of the older together books.

 

Emily

 

Yes, my oldest is only 9....so we're still very much *together* which is, I think, his general preference.  But we may be in a transition stage that I do not yet recognize.  We will experiment to see how much he can handle on his own--he's a dreamy, artistic, visual-spatial child who sometimes struggles to stay on task.  Reading on his own might be helpful to him, now that I think about it, because he can be in charge of his pace and ponderings.  Hmm, we'll see!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just enrolled us for next year! The books look amazing and I've been enjoying all the ADE podcasts for the last couple months. This looks like a great program for us.

 

I have no idea what to do for math...we may just continue with MUS for the most part and add in HOE/Rays. I also will have a high schooler, so I'll have to figure out what to do with her. She'll be using AO Year 7 for some subjects and a couple books from Memoria Press, but I'm hoping to combine for history and family subjects.

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  • 1 month later...
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  • 4 months later...

Thank you for sharing! This is exactly what I was looking for. I just signed up!

 

For those of you thinking about it, here are some links.

 

This is a 45 minutes FAQ video on it: https://player.vimeo.com/video/212783825

 

This is their public FB group for questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/691934810967004/?pnref=story

Thanks for sharing these. Super helpful.

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I have a few questions.

 

I know it's October but I'm thinking of switching. Is there an option for a January start?

 

Do they just use the Science program from Nicole at A Sabbath Mood in form 2 and up? I love her work.

 

How does the community respond to people who swap things out? I don't mean make significant changes. More like "we've read that free read (or history bio or whatever) 100 times" kind of swaps? Are they ok with changes related to doctrine? For example, we are Jewish, we aren't going to use J. Paterson Smyth, we'd use something appropriate to our tradition.

 

What are the free read lists like? In years 1 and 2 my older daughter did read the whole AO free read lists. My younger daughter though really isn't getting into some of them though.

 

Thanks for the input.

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Now that it's October, how's it going for you and your family?

 

 

 

Now that it's October, how's it going for you and your family?

 

I am loving it.  The "connections" my kids are making are great....I love how it is so interconnected.  For my 1st grader I was often wondering how much he was remembering and taking in but we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday and he was able to take all we had read about bees, flowers, etc. and was able to answer every question the instructor asked!  I couldn't believe it!  I plan on staying with it....I did make a couple of changes where he should for his age be at 1B but I bumped him up for most subjects to 1A and then just kept him at 1B for science since he had not had those books yet.  It is very easy friendly can use what you want you don't have to do everything.... and we did have to make two different book choices since my son had read those but for the most part I have done everything as scheduled.  I am most excited about how they have done the foreign language...it has really worked so well and it was definitely a different way of teaching that I could have come up with.  It's working so well!  We just finished week 9 so we will be having exams in a few weeks, I'll post my thoughts after they take them.  :)  We are in the pilot for forms 4-6 as well (for my 9th grader). I am liking most things there are a few things I don't know how well they are working but they are not the big subjects....for the most part I am really liking all of the choices and the schedule that I have laid out for us has worked beautifully....no more stress of trying to get it all in!  Or feeling bad that we are not covering "enough" to me it is a perfect amount of work and it has gone smoothly.  I'll be curious to see how exams go to get a better feel of how much has sunk in.  :)

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I have a few questions.

 

I know it's October but I'm thinking of switching. Is there an option for a January start?

 

Do they just use the Science program from Nicole at A Sabbath Mood in form 2 and up? I love her work.

 

How does the community respond to people who swap things out? I don't mean make significant changes. More like "we've read that free read (or history bio or whatever) 100 times" kind of swaps? Are they ok with changes related to doctrine? For example, we are Jewish, we aren't going to use J. Paterson Smyth, we'd use something appropriate to our tradition.

 

What are the free read lists like? In years 1 and 2 my older daughter did read the whole AO free read lists. My younger daughter though really isn't getting into some of them though.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

You can start anytime but you only have availability of the lesson plans until the end of June I believe.  July starts the new year with lessons I believe.

 

Yes, they are using Nicole's science program for forms 2 & 3.  Yes, I enjoyed using those last year but am not currently... (Form 4-6 - don't have you using them since she hasn't completed them all and that in the upper years she focuses on the three subjects one per term where as in the Alveary you do all streams of science each week so in essence we are doing Botany/Biology (2 days), Chemistry (1 day) and Physics (1 day and then 1 day of a lab in 9th grade) each week with one day focusing on a lab and lab work of Biology in the afternoon.  I am really liking this because the kids will not forget those subjects when we just focus on one at a time.  In the end I can still on their transcript put one year of each but we will be just stretching them out for three years and then the final year we plan on doing dual enrollment).

 

There is no problem in swapping things out it is just used as a tool for you and you are not enslaved to it.  I know that at AO they are many "purists" and it just isn't that way at the Alveary.  HTH  There is no problem in using something that is closer to your tradition however many of the reads are more tilted closer to a more Christian doctrine.  You should check out the book lists to see if that will work for your family.

 

Free reads list are quite extensive for each form there is a good page-2 pages.  Focusing on historical reads and biographies that need to be read.

 

HTH, let me know if there is any other questions I can help with.  :)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just chiming in here to say that we are also very pleased w/ the Alveary curriculum.  This is my sixth year of homeschooling using a Charlotte Mason approach, so I'm pretty seasoned, and I'm still very happy with our year.  

 

I have made some changes to simplify our lives; my 2A (5th grade/10 year old) student isn't doing Latin, for instance, and I made a couple of book swaps.  Instead of following their Bible plan, I use my own.  That kind of thing. It's still working great. I printed out the exams for the first term today and was looking over them and was genuinely excited.  I can see a lot of fruit from our year so far.  And that is even after implementing the curriculum in part (with my own swaps/steamlinings) and also imperfectly (ie, some days we just don't get to everything!).  *Even so* we're having a fruitful year.  The big surprise for me has been how my 10 yo has responded to some of the readings and the insights/connections he's drawing.  We have a book or two that we don't love, but that's par for the course no matter what we use, and I'm perfectly comfortable swapping books out after trying them for a term. 

 

So perhaps that helps answer the question about swaps, etc.  There's definitely no problem making swaps!  The website even emphasizes that the curriculum is a tool to be used, not something to be slavishly followed. Seeing as how I have never, not once, slavishly followed any curriculum, that reassurance is nice for me. ;) 

 

If you have any questions let me know. My kids are 2A (10 years old) and 1B (first grade/6 year old). 

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