SCM vs. Pam Barnhill

[BlsdMama]

I'm seeking to purchase inspiration, LOL.
:P

I welcome in the CM bent mamas to discuss.

I have a HUGE challenge in that I crave morning time, but it really doesn't fit our needs.  I have a senior, sophomore, and freshman all the way down to a 6yo & 7yo!
We *do* sit down.
Bible time, scripture memorization, history cards in the AM together.  We also are reading Pilgrim Progress together.

I'm seeking MORE, but I don't know what???
I like Pam Barnhill. I like her tone, the way she writes, etc.  But, I also admit, she has younger kids than me, only three, and they're fairly close in age.  
I also don't need just one more thing.
I use Rod & Staff English, IEW Writing, and IEW Fix It - all flow and work beautifully.  I use Nicole the Math Lady & Saxon - LOVE it.  
I am looking for sweet and beautiful and table time together, the only difficulty is that age span!!!! 

[Another Lynn]

What about Brandy Vencel's blog?  You could look at her morning time plans.    https://afterthoughtsblog.net/  I think I would look for inspiration on the internet and not spend money on resources per se.  You're already have some good things going, so you don't need to add much more, imho.  

[domestic_engineer]

"Purchasing inspiration"....  I love that phrasing and honesty!

I'd buy something from Cindy Rollins.  She's inspirational but also did it with a large spread of ages.   She's got an Advent-themed book that you could purchase on Kindle and start immediately, if you've got the bug to implement right now.

I'm wondering though, what exactly you're wanting to add without adding "just one more thing"?  I'm assuming you don't want a checklist of things-that-must-get-done (which is the feeling I get when I look at Barnhiill's products).  But rather perhaps you're looking for something simple to execute in order to enjoy learning as a family?!?!  If so, what about making a youTube playlist of things you want to cover and just watching them as a family. (I know there's a channel that teaches solfege and another channel that puts out a hymn a month. Or this channel that goes week by week through the events of WW1.  And of course there are tons of how-to-draw channels.)   Or just browsing as a family thekidshouldseethis.com.  On a less electronic note, here's a lady that has posted memory work for each week of the year.

[Zoo Keeper]

I will get genuine here and say that I love morning time.  With the right kids. 😉  I had those kids for a while.  It was great.  We read the Bible together, did some memory work, read a poem/diagrammed a sentence, read a few chapters of one book together each day.  Very special time together and I loved it.

Then two of my oldest started outside jobs/commitments and really had to get their school done NOW, so can we cut this short today, mom? We ran into this scheduling issue over and over.  Our together time wasn't together at all with the older ones watching the clock and getting grumpy.

So, I still do Bible reading and some memory work together, but 1/2 hour long reading is done with the younger ones only while the older ones are free to go do _____. 

If I remember correctly from one of her talks, Cindy Rollins did have her huge lovely morning time, but the older kids were free to cut out to other things after a certain point.  I had to come to that too. 🙂  

I crave that MORE as well, but (for us) it doesn't work as well with a senior, a freshman, an 8th grader, a fourth grader, and a K student.  Most of my morning time (outside of the Bible time) is catered to the elementary crowd--specifically to the 4th grader, with occasional sops thrown to the K kid or the 8th grader.  I comfort myself with the fact the older ones DID get this stuff (all the reading aloud and discussing and laughing together) from me at one point. 

I have found my older ones listening in when I read to younger ones and hoping I didn't notice. 😉 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Zoo Keeper

[domestic_engineer]

I also thought that I recently heard Cindy say that she didn’t necessarily have morning time *every* day. And this gave me “permission” to have seasons of morning time and seasons without morning time. When you see her binder of hymns/memory work, she obviously did it pretty regularly. But for some reason hearing her say that there were days when she didn’t do morning time enabled me to give myself grace. 

[BlsdMama]

On 12/13/2020 at 1:42 PM, domestic_engineer said:

"Purchasing inspiration"....  I love that phrasing and honesty!

I'm wondering though, what exactly you're wanting to add without adding "just one more thing"?  I'm assuming you don't want a checklist of things-that-must-get-done (which is the feeling I get when I look at Barnhiill's products).  But rather perhaps you're looking for something simple to execute in order to enjoy learning as a family?!?!  

 I have made my own plans for years... the catch is, I mind less blowing off my plans rather than someone else’s. What I truly want is someone to magically make everything understandable, relatable, and value added for the first grader, the senior, and the six kiddos in between. 😉

I will take a closer look at Cindy Rollins.

[BlsdMama]

On 12/14/2020 at 7:47 AM, Zoo Keeper said:

I will get genuine here and say that I love morning time.  With the right kids. 😉  I had those kids for a while.  It was great.  We read the Bible together, did some memory work, read a poem/diagrammed a sentence, read a few chapters of one book together each day.  Very special time together and I loved it.

Then two of my oldest started outside jobs/commitments and really had to get their school done NOW, so can we cut this short today, mom? We ran into this scheduling issue over and over.  Our together time wasn't together at all with the older ones watching the clock and getting grumpy.

So, I still do Bible reading and some memory work together, but 1/2 hour long reading is done with the younger ones only while the older ones are free to go do _____. 

If I remember correctly from one of her talks, Cindy Rollins did have her huge lovely morning time, but the older kids were free to cut out to other things after a certain point.  I had to come to that too. 🙂  

I crave that MORE as well, but (for us) it doesn't work as well with a senior, a freshman, an 8th grader, a fourth grader, and a K student.  Most of my morning time (outside of the Bible time) is catered to the elementary crowd--specifically to the 4th grader, with occasional sops thrown to the K kid or the 8th grader.  I comfort myself with the fact the older ones DID get this stuff (all the reading aloud and discussing and laughing together) from me at one point. 

I have found my older ones listening in when I read to younger ones and hoping I didn't notice. 😉 

I get what you’re saying here.  It makes good sense to cater to the younger group.  I’m just unwilling.  I adore ages 11-12 and up.  Having three kiddos already graduated and moved out, I really want this last semester with our 17 year old. She is a very independent worker as she is dual enrolled. However, she and I crave time connecting too.  She is an extreme introvert. It is a challenge to live in a household of busy, younger, distractible siblings. Ere is so much more to equip the older ones before the wide world opens up...

[BlsdMama]

On 12/13/2020 at 1:42 PM, domestic_engineer said:

 

I'd buy something from Cindy Rollins.  She's inspirational but also did it with a large spread of ages.   She's got an Advent-themed book that you could purchase on Kindle and start immediately, if you've got the bug to implement right now.

 

On 12/14/2020 at 7:47 AM, Zoo Keeper said:

 

If I remember correctly from one of her talks, Cindy Rollins did have her huge lovely morning time, but the older kids were free to cut out to other things after a certain point.  I had to come to that too. 🙂  

Cindy's book, Handbook for Morning Time is out of print.  I looked but I don't see much for resources.  I have Mere Motherhood.  Am I missing something?

[domestic_engineer]

I imagine you could dig through her blog and find resources. http://www.ordo-amoris.com

or listen to her Mason Jar podcasts. 
 

But I think these will just help you form/add to your own morning time rather than following someone else’s plan. 

[domestic_engineer]

Could you do Shakespeare as a family?  Read through some retellings until you find one that resonates with everyone. Then go through the original text of the chosen play and have your olders read the parts dramatically. 
 

ETA:  I don’t have quite the same span of ages as you do, but bribery with snacks has worked well this year to keep the youngest at the table and content. 

Edited January 2, 2021 by domestic_engineer

[Zoo Keeper]

14 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

 

Cindy's book, Handbook for Morning Time is out of print.  I looked but I don't see much for resources.  I have Mere Motherhood.  Am I missing something?

I listened to her talks from Circe and I read her blog for years.   So, I don't remember exactly when/where to source my remembrances from... 😉

Her blog is full of good stuff-- a nice mix of reality and aspiration. 🙂

[serendipitous journey]

Well, I just purchased Pam's Morning Time for us.  So maybe I can report back later! 

She actually suggests aiming Morning Time at the older ones, and she does (if I recall correctly) mention that some children could leave morning time sooner. 

And: one thing that has worked fairly well for me, in rounding out morning time, is the fine arts plans from Harmony Fine Arts.  She has free samples.  I bring my laptop over to the table (several years ago we invested in a large-screen laptop for pretty much this reason) and we look at & discuss a painting.  Then I find a YouTube performance of some of the suggested music (I often spend a few minutes searching for a performance that is more interesting to watch than the one HFA links) and the boys can draw or mess with Thinking Putty or whatever while we listen. 

When I do this regularly, it adds a hard-to-define depth to our lives.  Very CM in influence, I think. 

Daily poetry was similar, when we did it, but I've fallen off the wagon.  😉  Ditto with Shakespeare, Plutarch ... am trying to get back on it again ...

[Porridge]

1 hour ago, serendipitous journey said:

When I do this regularly, it adds a hard-to-define depth to our lives.  Very CM in influence, I think. 

I find this to be true for us as well, when we do picture study (we use SCM resources). In order to fit it, I ended up not trying to loop it with other things. We did nothing but picture study and a read aloud for a few weeks, then nothing but Plutarch and a read aloud for several weeks,  etc.. I guess you could call it Block Looping 🙂. I find if I do that, I’ll actually get to all the things in the loop, whereas when I try to loop all of them at  the same time, somehow the complexity makes it such that I feel stressed or we just don’t end up enjoying it or getting to everything.

 

 Sorry this is a slight tangent from the OP

[BlsdMama]

On 1/1/2021 at 9:18 PM, domestic_engineer said:

 

But I think these will just help you form/add to your own morning time rather than following someone else’s plan. 

This was fun my first two decades of homeschooling, but now I just really want someone to boss me around. 😉 

[BlsdMama]

15 hours ago, serendipitous journey said:

Well, I just purchased Pam's Morning Time for us.  So maybe I can report back later! 

She actually suggests aiming Morning Time at the older ones, and she does (if I recall correctly) mention that some children could leave morning time sooner. 

And: one thing that has worked fairly well for me, in rounding out morning time, is the fine arts plans from Harmony Fine Arts.  She has free samples.  I bring my laptop over to the table (several years ago we invested in a large-screen laptop for pretty much this reason) and we look at & discuss a painting.  Then I find a YouTube performance of some of the suggested music (I often spend a few minutes searching for a performance that is more interesting to watch than the one HFA links) and the boys can draw or mess with Thinking Putty or whatever while we listen. 

When I do this regularly, it adds a hard-to-define depth to our lives.  Very CM in influence, I think. 

Daily poetry was similar, when we did it, but I've fallen off the wagon.  😉  Ditto with Shakespeare, Plutarch ... am trying to get back on it again ...

So, this is largely what we’ve done. However, morning time has been growing. It used to, essentially, be our Bible time, then I moved on and worked with littles. We pulled IEW into our Table Time (following Bible) and I like sitting at the table with middles and bigs.

The issue, if we get to the heart of it, is a certain beautiful and mischievous six year old boy, who is altogether far too happy to wander away. And this has been our norm.  However, this same little six year old boy really must learn to sit with us for a bit, even if it is wobbling on a balance board and hopping on one foot. 

I am pretty much doing two separate morning times, which takes up an incredible portion of my day, and makes me feel as though I must choose between beauty and function. Granted, I blame four kids doing Barton for this as well.  (And this does not include the 6yo who really must learn basic reading at some point, ideally soon.) 
 

We’re in a great place for Literature and Read Alouds. I’m so happy with math these past two years. The older girls are doing physics independently and Labs in an outsourced class. They are taking a Lit class this semester on Shakespeare with two plays. 
 

Big kid morning time - Scripture/Bible Study, one of Bunyan’s lesser known works, Geography, timeline cards, poetry

Table Time - IEW Writing and Fix It

Table Time - Math with the 10 & under club

Little Kid morning time - FLL, SOTW, poetry memorization, literature

Little kids study science with our 12yo. This takes us past lunch. Eat, then Barton, and my day is overly full.

Thursdays are outsource days and Fridays have a chunk out of them as well. I guess my issue isn’t “not enough” as much as I’m not feeling satisfied with the flow, the rhythm, and that each child is getting what they need from me in this season?

 

 

 

 

[ksr5377]

Yours are older than my oldest, but I was also struggling for something to do together as a family now that we're spread out from K-8th grade.  Just the different sleep patterns alone were making morning time difficult.  We started a mandatory one hour lunch together this year instead, at 1pm.  We eat, sometimes do poetry, sometimes work on memorizing something, sometimes listen to an audio book.  Between lunch and lunch clean-up it's only about 10-15 minutes together but it's really helped to add back the idea of our whole family learning something together.  

[domestic_engineer]

@BlsdMama did you ever end up buying anything?  Inspiration did not hit me this summer, so I’m ready to purchase inspiration. 
 

also did you see the Cindy Rollins’s Handbook of Morning Time is back in print in a revised version?  It’s on Amazon. 

[caffeineandbooks]

On 1/3/2021 at 8:08 AM, WTM said:

We did nothing but picture study and a read aloud for a few weeks, then nothing but Plutarch and a read aloud for several weeks,  etc.. I guess you could call it Block Looping 🙂. I find if I do that, I’ll actually get to all the things in the loop, whereas when I try to loop all of them at  the same time, somehow the complexity makes it such that I feel stressed or we just don’t end up enjoying it or getting to everything.

Block Looping is a great name!  I am so stealing it.  I like the idea of spreading a Charlotte Mason "feast" of subjects but I too feel stressed about having so many balls in the air.  Block looping has worked for us this year, broadening what we cover and regularly giving us things that feel new and fresh without frantically trying to cover 15 subjects each week.  We've done several art blocks, a grammar block, a Greek alphabet block and some famous scientist blocks.  Thanks, @WTM!