School planning for fall is almost complete. I've decided on a Charlotte Mason approach which might amuse you, if you knew us. All that nature walk, spend 6 hours a day outside stuff is probably (definitely) not going to happen. None of us are outdoorsy. We are, in fact, devoted indoors men. In the words of Scott Adams, "if I wanted anything that was outdoors, I'd hire someone to bring it inside where civilization lives."
Having said that, it is a goal of mine to get outside more, so I've come around regarding the outdoorsy aspect of CM. I think it will prompt me to get outside even if I can't follow all her recommendations fully.
But what actually attracted me to CM was the combination of twaddle-free books and narration. My daughter has fine-motor delays which cause great difficulty writing. However, she has no cognitive delays and is actually a quick learner. Every rigorous curriculum that I looked at (and those not so rigorous) required a tremendous amount of writing for even the youngest child. Workbooks, copy work. It's just not possible for her right now.
Last year, I bought a kindergarten in a box program, thinking I would shoot for the middle and modify. Well, that was $100 I might as well have flushed. The writing was still too hard and everything else was too easy. And the curriculum was so integrated that I found it impossible to modify. I had the frustrating feeling that we were falling behind in areas where she could excel because she couldn't keep up with the writing.
Imagine my joy upon finding Ambleside and discovering that CM didn't even recommend written narration until the 4th year. I love that the non-writing aspect is integral to the program, not something I'm trying to jerry-rig. I don't really have the confidence to do major modifications to a program and, with a baby in the house, I don't have the time.
I'd already decided to do Winter Promise's Animals and Their Worlds, because Mia loves animals and I love a schedule all laid out. The best part: AW has a option for K-1 and another for 2nd and up all included on the same schedule. You just buy the schedule and a different book package for whichever option you choose. So naturally, I bought the schedule only and a mix of books from each of the options to cover our needs. I'm very optimistic about this program.
I'll be covering history, geography and literature with Ambleside Year 1. We'll substitute the recommended copy work, with our handwriting program (HWT) and, hopefully, some poetry memorization.
Add in Math-U-See: Alpha and we're pretty much done.
If that goes well, there's art, music, foreign language and probably more to add in later. We start officially on August 18th, so wish us luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment