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alexandramarie

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Posts posted by alexandramarie

  1. Thank you everyone again for your replies.  Just to clarify, we do school Tuesday- Saturday.  Monday is my husbands day off, so we spend that as a family or do doctors appointments.  The unfinished work may be someone that I really wanted to get to Saturday afternoon, but then for example we had a birthday party.  My SOn does not use his math time wisely.  So if he hasn't complete two pages a day, he has to do math on Mondays.  

    • Like 1
  2. 2 hours ago, mms said:

    @alexandramarie

    You mentioning the Rainbow Curriculum made me look into the archives and I remember some of your older posts now. May I gently suggest that before you do anything to change your schedule or decide on curriculum you do some serious reflection on what you think is the purpose of education? 
     

    The thing is, CM, LCC and The Rainbow Curriculum are all excellent approaches to education. But they are all very different, even in opposition to each other. Spread a feast is pretty much the opposite of multum non multa and both are very different from Hunter’s radical focus on the 3Rs.

    That’s not to say that you can’t pick and chose bits and pieces from this or that. But, for your sake you need clarity about your abilities, your weaknesses and those of your children, and what your goals are for them.


    Also, from having been there done that, please be careful about adding more to school because you feel limited in other areas of your life. When things are in a flux, it is easy to daydream about the perfect homeschool. And I get it: sometimes the school part of homeschool may be the only thing over which we can exert any control. But, those are also precisely the times when imposing new expectations (esp unrealistic ones) may hurt our relationships the most because others’ inability to meet those expectations can be perceived as sabotage.

     

    Thank you for this; you are right.  I know the things I don't want; I am not sold on a classical writing program, I do not want my kids memorizing facts without their informing ideas.  I want an education based around living books and for my kids to to be able to narrate, discuss, and notebook after reading those books.  We do enjoy Latin and I do see the benefit of it.  Where we just moved there are a lot Spanish people, so I do see the benefit in learning spanish for conversational purposes, we are doing this as a family.  I want good relationships with my children, and right now I feel that going from thing to thing is effecting the atmosphere of our home.  What draws me to the Latin Cenetered curriculum is the simplicity of it ( drew also suggests an hour a day of family reading and then working kids up to an hour a day of independent reading.)  I love the hoffman academy.  We love poetry, art, and music as a family.  I do not like the Charlotte Mason way of teaching my kids to read, but prefer phonics ( I actually like 1st start reading).  I enjoy talking about scripture each morning and singing a hymn as a family ( although my older two just started clocking out of hymn singing).  My kids LOVE nature, it is actually my goal to get them outside two hours a day.  With LCC I would not do study guides.  I like the rainbow curriculum because I like the idea of tutoring my kids each day in reading and math and then giving them individual book baskets and me possibly picking some read alouds.  I  guess I don't know what I want.  I want children that love Jesus and others and value relationships.  I want children that have read deeply and been shaped by what they have read.  I want children that can express their ideas well.  I love that my daughter loves sewing and can play the piano by ear and has made a quilt by the age of 8.5.  I love that my son catches every animal and bug he can get his hands on.  I love that my oldest son was reading the Golden Bible to my two year old today and explaining to him about what Jesus did on the cross.  I have read the Latin Centered Curriculum many times, I have read Charlotte Masons volume 1 and 6 at least twice a piece.  I listen to Charlotte Mason Podcasts, Sally Clarksons Podcasts, and follow Mom Delights.  So I guess I have so many messages I constantly doubt what I am doing.  Above all I want peace and the fragrance of Christ to reign in our home.....

    • Like 3
  3. Just to clarify it is only my almost 9 year old and ten year old studying Latin.  I really don't want to debate, but Charlotte Mason had french history and english history going for class II. SHe then had ancient history.  The Stories from Rome is an intro to PLutarch.

  4. 7 hours ago, square_25 said:

    Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. I'm a big fan of unschooling a lot of things that aren't fundamentals and watching their actual passions develop. There's no way DD8 would read as much or create nearly as many things if she didn't have a ton of spare time. 

    I think that's another thing I strive for -- to make lessons something that may come in handy in the pursuit of their passions. It's convenient to be able to write if you want to make menus for an imaginary feast 😉 . It's convenient to know math if you want to calculate something. (It's convenient to know binary if you want to make a secret code, lol, on a more idiosyncratic note!  😉 ) That way, it's not that their passions become their schoolwork... it's that their schoolwork helps nourish their passions. 

    My son is super interested in reptiles right now.  HE just got a gecko.  I am trying to take advantage of this.

  5. 8 hours ago, mms said:

    I am going to suggest something and I only have five kids and have only been homeschooling for six years so feel free to ignore since I have nowhere near the experience of some of these other ladies (who are, in fact, my heroes): Simply simply simplify and stop chasing after a unicorn.

    We are heavily Latin and language oriented here and what I have discovered is that if my children do their language and math studies well, they get such an intense work out that there is not enough mental energy left for all the rich extras that I want to do. What I thought was lack of application was overwhelm! And never were they so overwhelmed as the brief period during which I tried AO against my better judgment.  I also learned the hard way that if I am doing the basics well and I try to add in extras, I become stretched too thin and other areas of our life suffer.

    Here is what works for us:

    Math is a given and we spend anywhere from 15-60 minutes on it depending on age and stage.

    Once mine can read cvc words and know how to form their letters (we do cursive first) all English language arts are covered via dictation, copywork and narration. This takes 15-30 min per day depending on the child and attention span. We cover our heritage language studies similarly. In addition, each child had daily memory work of poetry, speeches or Bible verses (note: only one selection at a time!). We use the SCM memory box system for review. The exception is my oldest who uses Apples and Pears for spelling instead of dictation from literature.

    We start Latin at six or seven using the methods of Ella Frances Lynch, add in a textbook like Getting Started With Latin around nine or ten and First Form after that is completed. Until the child is ready for First Form, Latin takes 5-10 minutes max.

    During the school year, we do some group work over breakfast and/or lunch: catechism, some content read alouds, audiobooks) and my husband reads the Bible and a longer novel in the evenings year round.

    Even Eldest has only 4.5 hrs scheduled this year in sixth grade.

    So where does that leave the rest of what CMers call “the feast?” (Note, I am most definitely not a CM homeschooler lol.) Because they end up with so much free time they pursue those things on their own and spontaneously. Not always daily and certainly not in neat little boxes on a schedule, but: hours and hours outdoors (more than any official CM homeschool I know), handicrafts, nature journaling, hours of reading about every subject under the sun and then discussing it with each other and with DH and I. Oh the beautiful conversations we have had. My children dive deep into topics that interest them, but only if I do not even hint at the fact that it is part of their school work (shhh don’t tell!). And over the years they have covered quite a breadth as well. 
     

    I used to get really green eyed over the blogs of women who did AO and whose children produced works of art in their notebooks. But, that’s not us and that’s alright: my children love to learn and they do, even if they don’t notebook about it. Also, CM was not writing for the mother who did all her own housework, nursed her babies and cooked all the meals 🙂 

    Nota bene: this sort of spontaneous learning only started happening after a period of deschooling from previous manifestations of our homeschool and only after I let go of my expectations that they should do those things. I spent over a year full of nerves because they did not seem interested in stuff like I expected!
     

    Have you ever followed any of the Ella Frances Lynch threads? I highly recommend them and your children are just at the right ages for her methods. Also, I can not recommend this series enough:

     

    I give a lot of credit to you for doing your own thing.  I have always wanted to, but I feel it would be easier just to follow what someone else has planned.  Deep down this would be my plan.  Math, copywork, and latin daily. (How do they spend only 15 min on latin?  Last year my older two did Latina CHristiana which they enjoyed, but we spend 30-45 min a day).  Rod and Staff English and then written narrations for writing.  I would then have them notebook and study 1 content area a day on a rotation, for exmaple Modern History, Geography, Science/ Nature Study, Classical History, Classical Literature in depth.  We would do Bible and Memory work over breakfast as a family.  I would then have 1 hr of family learning a day where we would add in riches, arts, poetry and a read aloud following the same area of content for the day.  They would have 15min-1hr of free choice independent reading a day.  30 minutes of piano.  I would keep one family read aloud for enjoyment going at night.  I would also possibly get mcguffey readers so I could test their fluency and we could use them for dication and spelling.  Would this work

    7:30Bible over breakfast

    8:30
    45 min math
    30 min Rod and Staff ( I don't have this for the year, I have the Charlotte Mason grammar which is really only two days a week.  So I could alternate this with dictation)/ Reading Lesson with 7 year old
    45 min Content with written narration, notebooks, maps,  timelines, ect.  (I would read to my 7 year old)
    30 min Latin older two/ Read Picture Book Littles
    30 min copywork, mcguffey readers

    11:30
    Lunch, break, family walk

    1:00 1 hr family learning

    2:00 1 hr quiet time With independent reading
     3:00 Snack
    Free time and find 30 minutes for piano (I spend time with the littles)
    6:00 Dinner
    Read Aloud

    + I save deep cleaning  for Mondays on my husbands day off.  We school tuesday- saturday.  We practice hospitality every Saturday night, my kids love this!  Can I mention I have 5 boys and 1 girl, so there is a lot of energy and gross motor movements happening.

    • Like 1
  6. Thank you ladies for taking time to consider my post.  You all gave me things to consider.  Lori I am going to take your schedule into consideration.  I do think I need more intentional times with my littles.  Every year I feel like I should do my own thing, but then I go ahead and follow a curriculum plan.. Maybe this will be my last year.  Like I said, I do love the Latin Centered Curriculum model (minus classical writing and possibly just rod and staff with written narrations).  I also love Hunters rainbow curriculum and I have always had that bookmarked.

    • Like 1
  7. 7 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

    If you need hyper-scheduled afternoons to crowd out bad habits, I think the large number of occupations can be great. But if your kids are building forts, reading, cooking, building imaginary worlds, playing instruments, etc in their free time, you don't need the scaffolding of strict afternoon occupations.

    Emily

    If I don't schedule my kids afternoons, they end up fighting and or isolating themselves in their rooms.  My ten year old with play legos or take care of his pet in his room and then he tends to get depressed from being alone; I am trying to figure out how to handle a ten year old boy.  If I don't schedule my daughter, she wants to be scheduled and entertained.  I guess I struggle, because I don't schedule chaos happens and fighting.  Maybe I am doing something wrong.

    I should add we just moved to a new state and my kids don't have any friends.  We did join a pool, so for now I am cutting few things and trying to get to the pool 1-2 hrs on nice days.  

  8. 7 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

    OK, back to add some of my take-aways from being in the Mason world for the last five years.

    First, there is a LOT of pressure to do everything. I know I've heard the phrase, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" more than a few times, and that makes cutting things very scary!

    Secondly, what makes a Mason education run LONG TERM is personal and family habits of learning, life, and exploration. You have a lot of little kids and this is where your focus needs to be (and I say that as a very academic schooler). What I mean is that you need to cut back on occupations and extras and build up bit by bit as habits are developed that make the education work.

    Thirdly, look at things that you are doing in life and don't need to be taught via a curriculum. We cut most music related stuff because we play instruments. We do less nature study than others because we naturally have a science bent. I schedule a certain amount of personal school reading each day, but I only have my kids have one book going at a time.

    Looking at your schedule, you have a lot of things that double up. Either do drill etc OR walk. If you walk on a day, skip garden time. Delay Latin until you've stuck with a curriculum for a few years. Is Nelms learning to read? If not, he has PLENTY of reading time without an extra reading slot. Can you take things that are scheduled "daily" and make them every other day? Cut either evening or afternoon read aloud. My kids would have rebelled if I had read aloud that much, though... It looks to me like you have a TON of readings.

    Another quote I've heard from a CMer is, "It is a feast. Take the parts that will nourish your family, but don't give everyone a stomach ache." I know my older kids (11, 13, 15) have picked up a lot of their skills and passions because of free time. If you need hyper-scheduled afternoons to crowd out bad habits, I think the large number of occupations can be great. But if your kids are building forts, reading, cooking, building imaginary worlds, playing instruments, etc in their free time, you don't need the scaffolding of strict afternoon occupations.

    Emily

    You have alot of good points, thank you! The reading is for my son who just turned 7, he still is not reading fluently and has speech articulation issues, so the reading is for him.  My older two read independently and then I have them each read me a poem a day so I can address any pronunciation issues.  The quiet read is independent silent reading for my older two.  It is a lot of reading though. 

  9. We also do Bible over breakfast.  Thank you everyone for your input!  My older two actually love Latin and it is one of the only things my son looks forward to.  I do think we need more time for math, although Charlotte Mason would only have 30 minutes spent on math at this age.  Piano does take about 1/3 of my attention.  I love the idea of doing one subject a day as stated in LCC and then having an hour of family reading and some independent reading.  Maybe only have the older two do one content book in depth daily and notebook, but this isn't the Charlotte Mason way.  My 1 year old is my last, so I know the chaos of littles won't be forever, although I am not rushing it because I love it!  

    • Like 1
  10. 7 minutes ago, Susan in TX said:

    I could be mistaken since it has been awhile since I have read through Charlotte Mason's Home Education Series but I am pretty sure that one thing her method emphasized was that lessons were kept to the morning hours and afternoons were set aside for the children to play or work on their hobbies. She was a proponent of what she called "masterly inactivity" which was giving children lots of time to be on their own without a parent or teacher directing their activity. You can read more about that here: https://www.amblesideonline.org/CMM/topicalmasterly.html

    One of the things I don't like about Ambleside Online and other Charlotte Mason curriculum is that they try to do way too much. If you look at what was done in Charlotte Mason's schools you will see that they scheduled fewer books each term and in many cases only scheduled a portion of each book. Here is one example of what was scheduled for the First Form (grades 1-3) https://www.amblesideonline.org/Programme93I.shtml 

     I was very inspired when I discovered Charlotte Mason. I read all six volumes of her Home Education Series. I tried really hard to implement an Ambleside Online type of homeschool. I have also tried being a classical homeschooler and tried using Memoria Press for awhile. But in my 27 years of homeschooling what I have learned is that less is more. The years that we kept curriculum minimal (usually due to lack of money to buy everything) were our best. 

    So over time I have fallen into a very minimalistic type of homeschooling and it has worked really well. We focus on the basics: math and phonics until around 3rd/4th grade then math, spelling, and grammar. Everything else is just reading good books and living life. 

    Susan in TX

    Yes, that is true about morning lessons, but after Form 1 all the handcrafts, nature work, and leisure reads are added to afternoon hours.  She also had things like composer study and playing the piano on her program and other works of literature that did not fit into the morning timetable.

  11. Lori, the Speech is me doing speech therapy with my seven year old.  Writing is actually copywork; are not using a writing curriculum.  The line between each half hour block is showing what my older two are doing while I work with my 7 year old.  I really like your ideas and am going to take them all into consideration!  

    • Like 2
  12. 15 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

    What are your children doing that is taking them nearly all day?  Assuming grades 2nd, 3rd or 4th, and 5th, in our homeschool those grades take about 2 hrs, 3-3 1/2 hrs, and about 5 hrs total.   

    My 2nd graders spend about 30-45 mins on math, 15-25 mins on phonics, 15-20 mins on reading, 15-20 mins on writing.  (I don't do a formal separate history or science with my 2nd graders.)

    My 3rd/4th graders spend about 30-45 mins on math, 30-45 mins reading a literature book, 15 mins on spelling, 20-30 mins on writing/grammar, 30 mins on science reading, 30 mins on history reading.  

    My 5th graders spend 45-60 mins on math, 45-60 mins reading lit, 15 mins on spelling,  45 mins on writing/grammar, 45 mins reading science, 45 mins reading history.

    All of them spend about 15 mins on religion studies.

    I alternate their science/history with additional activities like geography, additional reading/writing assignments, projects.  So one the days they are doing those, they aren't doing the reading but the other work.  Art/ nature studies are just part of what they do, so I don't count that separately.  We are always hiking, observing nature, talking about things, etc.  We also watch the CNN 10 min student news during lunch during the months it airs.

    I shared a link above

  13. I have 6 children 10 and under.  I love Charlotte Mason.  It seems each year I try a new Charlotte Mason Curriculum, hoping that it will be the perfect fit for our family.  I have tried The Alveary, Amblesdie Online, and this year CMEC.  Charlotte Mason may seem light but once you add all the afternoon occupations and leisure reads, it is a lot.  Right now I have 7 hrs of my day scheduled with either school lessons or what my kids should be doing in their leisure time.  I think this is way too much for my littles to handle, because I rarely have time just to be.  We are constantly moving on to the next thing.  I have my oldest two combined for all things but Math and Piano ( we use Hoffman Academy). Besides Charlotte Mason, I have always loved Latin Centered Curriculum and always go back to reading it, but it seems no one else is doing it.  Last year we did Memoria Press for half the year, but that drove me crazy because I couldn't stand all the study guides.  Any thoughts on how to streamline.  I will use what I have bought for CMEC, but I am thinking maybe of cutting some things and combining more.  Piano is a priority for me ( I spend 1.5 hours a day having my kids do a piano rotation.  We did our trial run of school last week.  I have a 7 year old (who is not an independent reader, I suspect dyslexia because it runs in my family, but he is making progress. I have a motivated 8.5 year old who can do almost anything I ask and I have a 10 year old boy that doesn't want to apply himself to anything).  Thank-you

    • Like 1
  14. I am writing this post just as an example of a simplified curriculum; because I always like seeing other people's ideas.  I finally feel like I don't need to tweak anymore (well at least until we reach 7th grade, then I will re-evaluate) .  

    We use First Start Reading and Core Skills Phonics along with Memoria Press' recommended readers.  You need no handwriting program; this teaches printing.

    We use Memoria Press Traditional Spelling and then onto Rod and Staff Spelling.

    Once printing is mastered I have my children copy all their memory work into a Composition Sketchbook; about 1  line a day.  At this point we add New American Cursive.

    Memory work:  3 psalms a year, 3 O.T. passages a year, 3 N.T. passages a year, 3 poems of choice, 3 Hymns ( I also keep Memoria Press recitations on hand, but we do not do it all and I do not use this for copywork.) 

    Once Cursive is mastered they start copying two lines of cursive a day of their memory work into a Composition Sketchbook.

    In Grade 3 we start with Rod and Staff English along with one written narration a week.

    In Grade 4 I up it to 1 written narration a day; they get to choose which reading they write about.

    Grade 4 we start Memoria Press Latin with Latina Christiana.

    Each child is placed in their own year of A.O. The only thing we add is the Visits to Series from Simply Charlotte Mason.

    We have 1 hour a day of family learning ( the children read their own poem of choice aloud and this is where I correct my readers in pronunciation or help them with difficult words.  This time includes picture study, composer study, nature jounraling, painting, crafting, singing, calendar, we also do 10 minutes of Spanish a day as a family).

    We also use Hoffman Academy.

    Our day looks like this.
    7:30-8:00 BIble reading and Hymn singing and Scripture recitation over Breakfast

    8:15-11 English, Math, Spelling, Handwriting, and 2 A.O. Readings
    11-12:00 Lunch and Recess outside
    12:00-12:30 Latin with 4th grade (my other kids continue to play)
    12:30-1:30 Family Learning (start naps for littles)
    1:30-2:30 Quit Hour (my oldest two finish up A.O. readings- I may sit and close my eyes and nurse my baby and use an audiobook if there is a challenging read)
    * the only thing we have left is piano, which my oldest do for 20-30 minutes.. We have a family read aloud right before bed

    • Like 2
  15. I love Rod and Staff.  Level 4 has instructions written to the children.  I do not make my children to every problem.  I glance the teachers manual to see if there is anything I want to go over.  We are using level 3 and 4 this year and workbook grade 1 for my 6 year old; with manipulatives.  Rod and Staff gets math done and makes sure basic facts are mastered.  We don't do flashcards; the problems in the book are enough.  I have also tried Right Start and Singapore.  I kept coming back to Rod and Staff and have decided to stick with it.  I actually ordered and resold right start twice because everyone said how great it was; but we never did the math games and my kids were not mastering facts and the manipulatives were too much for me.

    • Like 1
  16. I really like to streamline. If I am using Rod and Staff English and having my kids do one written narration a day and lots of oral narrations and discussions, do I need a writing curriculum?  I keep going back and forth between getting something like Writing and Rhetoric or just allowing Rod and Staff to be enough.  My children will be in 3rd and 4th grade.  We use a mix of Latin Centered Curriculum and Ambleside Online/ Charlotte Mason.  Charlotte Mason didn't believe in teaching composition, Latin Centered Curriculum says your don't need to do grammar.  I want to do something... I have 6 children, so I want whatever I choose to be the most effective and efficient.

    Thank you!

  17. 11 hours ago, rose said:

     

    I've been thinking about this thread. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that having a large family necessarily does take some things away from our children BUT I'm also convinced that there are innumerable blessings in having a large family as well. I can't read so often to my younger children as I did with my older children but my younger children have so many more companions. I've noticed that when my older children were young I had more time for special projects but I also controlled much more of what they did. Now with my young children it's the opposite; I don't have time for all the projects but I allow them much more freedom because I just need them to be busy. My parenting style is completely different but I think that my children are better off now. They do get short changed in some ways but I really do think that it's worth it, even from their perspective.

    Thank you Rose for those sweet words of encouragement and that reminder!  As far as not being able to read as much to my younger kids; I do notice they are still getting read to a lot.  My olders love to read picture books to their younger siblings; it's such a sweet thing to watch.

    • Like 2
  18. Have you done copywork and do your children read books for themselves.  I have noticed my children naturally write correct sentences even though we don't do formal grammar and writing yet, because we have been doing copywork for years and as soon as they could read they had to read books for themselves... Maybe continue with the grammar, but make copywork a priority. 

  19. 7 hours ago, homemommy83 said:

    I love momdelights.com and plan to incorporate her lesson books with our Robinson books...they are great.  I am also having a new little one...in the morning😁...pray it goes well.  My kiddos are 15, 13, 10, 8,5,and 2 and half ...and tomorrow newborn.  I love to streamline our homeschooling.  You may like Our House on Youtube...Karen is so encouraging.

    Praying for you!

    • Thanks 1
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