Faith, Marriage, Motherhood, Homeschooling, Essential oils, Herbs, and Holistic Living
Faith, Marriage, Motherhood, Homeschooling, Essential oils, Herbs, and Holistic Living
Around four years ago a friend gave me the Charlotte Mason Companion. I glanced at it, but I didn't have space for more books, and at that time I didn't have time for more reading. So I put the book in storage. April is a big month for us. It's the month we purchase the coming school years curriculum. We have tried different curriculums year after year, always striving to find what works the very best for our children. One of the things we tried over the years was the Weaver Curriculum. It is a unit study curriculum covering pre-k through high school. I had to do a ton of tweaking to it, but it was one of our best years! Sadly our lack of space situation at that time prevented us from making the most out of the curriculum. And there was a lot of planning that went into it. Especially considering I had to tweak it for us. So the next year we decided to try textbooks again, and textbooks on CD. The CD textbook curriculum graded everything, and since it was all on the computer we thought that we had a win-win. Saving space and time, what could be better? That was one of our worst homeschool years. The year after that our lives were crazy as we were adding on to our home. I decided to try using a combination of textbooks along with methods I knew worked for us. The hardest part was planning again. I always felt so overwhelmed. We have done so much praying this spring about what would be best for the coming year. We decided that in April we may as well go back to Weaver. As I was brushing up on using it I started remember that with it there was still so much planning. Plus lot's of library runs where concentration and reviewing which books was necessary. Both were so difficult for me since John works all the time and I never have anyone to take the kids. And the fact that I knew I would need to tweak it for us again meant even more planning. But the vast array of books required for Weaver and hands on activities worked so well for the kids, so we wanted to make it work somehow. I decided that instead of library runs, we would just buy the books we needed. Hundreds of dollars worth of books. But it would be worth it for our children to truly learn and succeed and save running around time for me. My husband and I had many meetings and many prayers to look over things. He especially loved the Weaver concept even more then I. But he too was concerned about the planning factor. Finally he asked "Is there nothing like Weaver that has less planning?" Years ago I had glanced at My Father's World. The hefty price tags immediately chased me away almost immediately and I never thought about them again. I knew almost nothing about My Father's World curriculum but when my husband asked that question it came to mind. Together we went to the website. Instantly we knew it was what we were looking for. The books were books that even WE wanted, and we knew they were the kinds of books our children loved. And there was the Unit study factor which we loved. And all tied in with a little bit of classical education. Still, was it worth the money? I saw that it had a strong Charlotte Mason influence. "Time to look a little closer into this Charlotte Mason thing." I said to myself. The more I found the more I wanted to learn. Midnight rolled around. But I could not sleep, I was too excited about all I was learning. One of the videos I stumbled upon was an excellent video explaining the five types of schooling. It had a test to help people hone in on the best method for their family. After watching the video and taking the test it was all I could do to make myself go to sleep! I could hardly wait for morning so I could show my husband all that I had found. Next morning I showed my husband what I had learned, and the video. He took the test and scored the same as me! All of these years methods I was finding that worked best for my children were Charlotte Mason! And all the tweaking and extra planning I had been doing to Weaver, were Charlotte Mason methods! Even the math curriculum we found a couple years ago that is amazing for our kids is listed on the Simply Charlotte Mason website as a recommendation! That same morning, I asked my children separately what their favorite parts of school were. It was unanimous.
God has been guiding us all along towards Charlotte Mason methods. It's exciting to look back and see this now. Over the weekend I made just a few small changes to the school room to align it even closer then it already was to Charlotte Mason's ideas. I dug up the Charlotte Mason Companion and it's hard to put down. I highly recommend it! One of my favorite quotes from the book is; "She {Charlotte} taught that we, as educators of our children, must strive to work in co-operation with the Holy Spirit." I love this! I was elated to learn that like me, Charlotte felt that each child is a unique being, their own person. I love how she believed that children need time in the afternoons to pursue their interests, and then to be given books and materials in line with their interest so they can dig deeper. And of course the nature aspect of Charlotte's methods has me sold. This is something we were not doing enough of. I spent much of my childhood in nature. It was in the forests that Jesus became real to me at just five years old so I am a believer in outside time for kids. Charlotte Mason recommended structured mornings and nature walks in the afternoon where children can study nature and keep notebooks on what they find. I have a library at my children's disposal. And I assign books to them. But beyond this Charlotte Mason method recommends a book basket for reading time. With the basket children can pick through (books I've selected for a period of time for them to mull through). I never thought of this, and I love the idea!
This year we are going to do My Father's World since it has so much emphasis on Charlotte Mason influence along with the unit framework that we so loved from Weaver. Plus it also lines up almost identically to what my children expressed they love. I like that it has a bit of classical approach for the older years, I think my son will enjoy that being the history lover he is. I was thrilled to find much of My Father's World curriculum for far less on Ebay. So far I think I've saved around $200. I will fill in with additional "living books" like Charlotte recommended beyond what MFW sells, especially since we already have so many "living books"! I will keep them in Abeka Language Arts for now but I will be adding Charlotte Mason materials for copywork and what ever else I can get my hands on for L.A. In the meantime I will be learning everything I can about C.M.! We will keep you posted, but for now I am expecting our best year ever! If you homeschool, what are you planning to use in the coming school year?
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