Charlotte Mason method

[Hunter's Moon]

I know high school CM and the lower grades form of CM are a bit different but maybe I can get more help here than at the High School boards.

 

I decided to use Ambleside Online for History and Literature. I see that there are suggested textbooks for both courses.

 

We went past our budget and can not afford anymore books, no matter how cheap, even from Amazon.

 

Do I *need* the textbooks for the course to be a course? Can't I just learn from the living books and research I do? I thought CM's method was against textbooks so why would Ambleside suggest them?

 

Any help would be much appreciated :)

[Kfamily]

What year are you considering?

[Hunter's Moon]

Year 11.

 

I was going to do Year 10 but I have already done U.S. I and most of the readings are what I have already done.

[Kfamily]

Well, I hesitate since my dd is only in 8th grade and doing an adapted Year 8 so I don't want to steer you in the wrong direction. But, since no one else has responded I can give you my thoughts.

 

Have you purchased a history text already? I wasn't sure from your signature if you had or not. If so, you could use this as a spine or backbone to help you keep a timeline of events and a base perspective. If you haven't then would you want to cover this time period with living books, speeches, documents only? If this is where you are leaning then I would suggest that you use all available books, speeches, documents from the site (AO has many linked so you can use them for free) as well as all/many of the books recommended from the supplemental lists as your library has available. I think it could be done but I would approach this with great care. Perhaps you could keep a Book of Centuries or at least a timeline style notebook as well.

 

Hopefully some other moms with more experience will respond and give you more advice.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Kfamily

[Hunter's Moon]

I have an American History text, many.

 

I also have a World History text.

 

But the ones I have aren't mentioned on the site. I'm sure they could still be used, I was considering it. I am just not sure how.

 

What is a book of centuries? Could you please explain that a bit more?

 

Thanks :)

[Kfamily]

Here is a link from Simply Charlotte Mason about a Book of Centuries. I can link more info. later.

 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/book-of-centuries/

[Kfamily]

Here is another link from a CM site I like a lot:

 

http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-and-when-to-begin-book-of-centuries.html

 

Here is one more:

http://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR34p720BookofCenturies.shtml

[Hunter's Moon]

Thank you so much for all your help :)

[Spock]

Year 11.

 

I was going to do Year 10 but I have already done U.S. I and most of the readings are what I have already done.

 

My boys did year 11 last year. We didn't like any of the spine books for 20th Century, so we ended up just reading the other books, plus some books I owned and added or substituted. I think having a good overview book would have tied everything all together, but we managed okay without.

 

The spine books for year 11 aren't really textbooks, though. They are books by a single author written to give an overview of the 20th century for interested adults, not books written by committee for a classroom.

[Hunter's Moon]

My boys did year 11 last year. We didn't like any of the spine books for 20th Century, so we ended up just reading the other books, plus some books I owned and added or substituted. I think having a good overview book would have tied everything all together, but we managed okay without.

 

The spine books for year 11 aren't really textbooks, though. They are books by a single author written to give an overview of the 20th century for interested adults, not books written by committee for a classroom.

 

Thank you, that makes me feel so much better.

 

What I plan on ding for History is what I am going to do for Literature.

Before I read a book about a certain time period or event, for ex: Armenian Holocaust, I will research the author and the event further and then I will read it. I wasn't sure if that would be enough, but then looking on more CM sites, it says that History and Lit. were tied together so it should work if I read the History books as I would the Lit. books.

 

Thanks for everyones help :)