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A Gentle Feast


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In looking at her website, I'm not exactly sure how it works? If it's inclusive of all ages which form would you buy when they're divided by grade levels? I am on my phone so perhaps the website would navigate easier on my desktop.

 

Also, it seems to be a PDF purchase only, is that right? That would make the curriculum quite costly imho.

 

From what I can tell it seems very similar to Simply Charlotte Mason's "Keep it Simple" curriculum. Have you seen that? Its really lovely.

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I've got A Gentle Feast in my hands right now for Form 1, 2, and 3. I am planning on using it starting in August. Are there any specific questions you have?

 

What color year do you have?  

 

I was looking at White (Form 2) and saw the samples.  One thing I didn't see in the samples was what books are scheduled (apart from Holling C Holling books, Fables/Tales in the morning time plans, CLP Readers and The Way Things Work).    I understand not wanting to give the whole book list in the sample, but do you know what kinds of history spines (or other major) books she schedules?  (Did I miss that somewhere?)

 

Also, are you planning to use her recommendations for grammar and writing or will you substitute some?

 

Thanks!

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What color year do you have?  

 

I was looking at White (Form 2) and saw the samples.  One thing I didn't see in the samples was what books are scheduled (apart from Holling C Holling books, Fables/Tales in the morning time plans, CLP Readers and The Way Things Work).    I understand not wanting to give the whole book list in the sample, but do you know what kinds of history spines (or other major) books she schedules?  (Did I miss that somewhere?)

 

Also, are you planning to use her recommendations for grammar and writing or will you substitute some?

 

Thanks!

 

I have the White Year. There are three streams of history for Form 2: American, British, and Ancient.

 

For Form 2 the American history spine is The Story of the Thirteen Colonies by Grueber, but she uses the updated version by Christine Miller. She also uses The Story of the Ancient Greeks by Miller for ancient history and Our Island Story for British history.

 

I can't think of any other major spines that you haven't already listed.

 

I am substituting on some of the supplementary books just because I have some on my shelves that I already own that will work. I am not using the recommended grammar because I am actually teaching a hands-on fun grammar class at co-op this coming year and my Form 2 student will be in that class already. 

 

There is no formal writing or spelling scheduled (a la Charlotte Mason) only copy work, narrations, and dictation. We will use the copy work and I will also have her write one written narration each week, but I am adding in a formal writing and spelling program just because my dd needs/wants it. 

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I have the White Year. There are three streams of history for Form 2: American, British, and Ancient.

 

For Form 2 the American history spine is The Story of the Thirteen Colonies by Grueber, but she uses the updated version by Christine Miller. She also uses The Story of the Ancient Greeks by Miller for ancient history and Our Island Story for British history.

 

I can't think of any other major spines that you haven't already listed.

 

I am substituting on some of the supplementary books just because I have some on my shelves that I already own that will work. I am not using the recommended grammar because I am actually teaching a hands-on fun grammar class at co-op this coming year and my Form 2 student will be in that class already. 

 

There is no formal writing or spelling scheduled (a la Charlotte Mason) only copy work, narrations, and dictation. We will use the copy work and I will also have her write one written narration each week, but I am adding in a formal writing and spelling program just because my dd needs/wants it. 

May I ask what the spines are for Form 1?

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May I ask what the spines are for Form 1?

 

America First by Lawton Evans (free on public domain) for American history with supplemental books to read

 

Burgess Bird Book and 2 Arabella Buckley books for science.

 

Long's Home Geography is the spine for geography along with some supplemental books as well.

 

^^^^This is for the White Year. I'm not sure about other years.

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Overall, I'm quite impressed. It really is a beautifully laid out program where the entire family is studying the same historical time period, same Morning Time plans, same read alouds and tales (you can pick which forms you want to use for the family). Forms 1 and 2 can actually be combined for some of their studies and she gives suggestions on how to do that.

 

I think what I appreciate the most, at least from first glance, is that the readings for each week are not too much. When I plan my own CM studies I tend to overload my kids with reading because there are just so many good books and I want them to read them all!  :laugh: She's really scheduled everything where it's thorough but not overwhelming. The second thing I appreciate as I'm prepping for the coming year is that almost all the books needed for the program are either ones I already own because they are common in CM circles or they are cheap. The most expensive book so far that I need to purchase is $15. I appreciate that she's not having you try to track down some obscure, expensive book to make the program work.

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  • 4 months later...

Overall, I'm quite impressed. It really is a beautifully laid out program where the entire family is studying the same historical time period, same Morning Time plans, same read alouds and tales (you can pick which forms you want to use for the family). Forms 1 and 2 can actually be combined for some of their studies and she gives suggestions on how to do that.

 

I think what I appreciate the most, at least from first glance, is that the readings for each week are not too much. When I plan my own CM studies I tend to overload my kids with reading because there are just so many good books and I want them to read them all! :laugh: She's really scheduled everything where it's thorough but not overwhelming. The second thing I appreciate as I'm prepping for the coming year is that almost all the books needed for the program are either ones I already own because they are common in CM circles or they are cheap. The most expensive book so far that I need to purchase is $15. I appreciate that she's not having you try to track down some obscure, expensive book to make the program work.

Chelli - I'm wondering if you have an update. I think you said you were starting in August. How have you liked A Gentle Feast?

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Sorry! I didn't see this until this morning. For some reason the notification didn't show up until today.

 

Long and short of it is that flooding from Hurricane Harvey destroyed the start of our homeschool (and 2/3 of our town), and we've only been able to squeeze in about a week of school since Harvey hit. Our church was operating a disaster relief supply room for three weeks so I made the kids help with that and once that closed the third week of September, we've been trying to hit our stride after a failed beginning.

 

All of that to say that I don't really have much of an update unfortunately or at least a review that I could in good faith stand behind. Give me another month and check back in case I don't remember to update.

 

The only semi-review I'll give after one week in (ha!) is that this program is just....easy. It's smooth to run. I don't feel like a crazy person trying to fit a million tiny subjects into our day. The books, so far, have been broken down into perfect amounts of reading for my girls. And I'm finding it very easy to tweak, such as swapping out book selections or even changing out or dropping entire subjects if I feel they aren't needed. It weaves together well, but if you let go of something it doesn't feel like anything is missing. Hopefully that made sense.

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Sorry! I didn't see this until this morning. For some reason the notification didn't show up until today.

 

Long and short of it is that flooding from Hurricane Harvey destroyed the start of our homeschool (and 2/3 of our town), and we've only been able to squeeze in about a week of school since Harvey hit. Our church was operating a disaster relief supply room for three weeks so I made the kids help with that and once that closed the third week of September, we've been trying to hit our stride after a failed beginning.

 

All of that to say that I don't really have much of an update unfortunately or at least a review that I could in good faith stand behind. Give me another month and check back in case I don't remember to update.

 

The only semi-review I'll give after one week in (ha!) is that this program is just....easy. It's smooth to run. I don't feel like a crazy person trying to fit a million tiny subjects into our day. The books, so far, have been broken down into perfect amounts of reading for my girls. And I'm finding it very easy to tweak, such as swapping out book selections or even changing out or dropping entire subjects if I feel they aren't needed. It weaves together well, but if you let go of something it doesn't feel like anything is missing. Hopefully that made sense.

Thanks for responding Chelli. And I'm so sorry for what you guys have been going through. We have quite a few friends in Katy that have been serving the city also.

No worries at all about not having much of an update at this point. I'll ask again in the future.

Praying for you guys and Houston.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry! I didn't see this until this morning. For some reason the notification didn't show up until today.

 

Long and short of it is that flooding from Hurricane Harvey destroyed the start of our homeschool (and 2/3 of our town), and we've only been able to squeeze in about a week of school since Harvey hit. Our church was operating a disaster relief supply room for three weeks so I made the kids help with that and once that closed the third week of September, we've been trying to hit our stride after a failed beginning.

 

All of that to say that I don't really have much of an update unfortunately or at least a review that I could in good faith stand behind. Give me another month and check back in case I don't remember to update.

 

The only semi-review I'll give after one week in (ha!) is that this program is just....easy. It's smooth to run. I don't feel like a crazy person trying to fit a million tiny subjects into our day. The books, so far, have been broken down into perfect amounts of reading for my girls. And I'm finding it very easy to tweak, such as swapping out book selections or even changing out or dropping entire subjects if I feel they aren't needed. It weaves together well, but if you let go of something it doesn't feel like anything is missing. Hopefully that made sense.

Hi Chelli,

I hope things are normalizing a bit for you after all of the trauma. You mentioned that we could check back and see how things were going with A Gentle Feast Do you have any additional updates for us?

Thanks!!!

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Hi Chelli,

I hope things are normalizing a bit for you after all of the trauma. You mentioned that we could check back and see how things were going with A Gentle Feast Do you have any additional updates for us?

Thanks!!!

 

 

:bigear:

 

 

(I discovered A&P Spelling and MiF through your helpful recommendations, Chelli.... thanks!  So I'm curious about your experience with this, too)

 

Thanks so much for reminding me! I knew I'd forget.

 

So my official on the blog review is coming out in early 2018, but I'll share some basic thoughts.

 

Pros:

  • Book choices (good mix of more modern and older titles and books that I already have on my shelf)
  • Morning Time plans (perfect, absolutely perfect balance of CM and traditional Morning Time)
  • Lots of teacher support (once you purchase a package you have access to the forum and private Facebook group where there are Youtube links for all of the poetry, art, music studied so you don't have to hunt those down, also a book about how to give CM exams each term, various schedules to look at, and immediate author feedback on any changes or problems/questions you are having)
  • Easy to swap out books you already own or prefer (there are no questions or assignments for a specific book so if you wanted to use something else it doesn't throw anything off the planned schedule other than whiting out what you don't need/want) 
  • Cheap in the long run (After purchasing the four years, you would have a full CM curriculum for 1st through 12th)
  • Student workbooks that include all poems, scripture, book passages, creative writing prompts, etc. all printed with space to copied right there in the workbook. This is a super nice feature although we aren't using it because my kids like to do all that in their own notebook. I can see it being super handy and useful to have it all in one place.

Cons:

  • I'm not sure how easy it would be to combine the entire family for content subjects. The Morning Time plans are already prepared to combine all children together, but once you get into the actual core of the program it looks to be more difficult. For history she gives some suggestions of how to combine kids that are in Forms that are close to each other, like combine Form III and II or Form II and I, but nothing about how to combine III, II and I or more. I'm not saying it's not doable, but it might take some work. Also the combining would only be for history, the science plans are written to each form with no suggestions of how to combine. This isn't a big deal to me since I don't like combining my kids anyway, but I know a lot of hs families want to combine. They are all studying the same time period in history so that's nice.
  • Not super STEM heavy. In true CM fashion, the science plans for upper grades is pretty weak compared to what most homeschoolers on this board do for middle grade and high school science. The science is solid, but not super rigorous. TBH, I think it would be difficult to write a CM curriculum with super rigorous science unless you had a science background yourself which most CM homeschool moms do not (more lit and history)
  • Lack of great literature. The offerings for literature time are slim and sparse. All of the books recommended for extra reading are historical fiction centered, so I completely rewrote the literature part of the plans for my Form III and Form II girls. I wanted to infuse our day with some great books to read, but continue the slow, savoring approach to learning and books that the curriculum has. It was an easy add in, but it did add in some time to our day.
  • Added in creative writing prompts. This one might actually be a pro for some people, but included during language arts time are creative writing prompts that are pulled from various subjects they are studying. It's a very Brave Writer-ish approach (Free Write Fridays) meshed with CM. We skip over it and use actual writing curriculum in that slot. Mainly because I hated creative writing prompts in school and my kids don't seem to like them either. Though, I do like that she has the kids do more than just narrate or write narrations with what they are learning.

Let me know if you have any more questions or need clarification.

HTH

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