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One of my very favorite aspects of using Charlotte Mason Methods is Nature, artist, and composer study. During Grace's elementary years we for the most part educated with Charlotte Mason Methods. As she has grown older and next year will start the 10th grade we have only kept some of the methods going, not for lacking of wanting to but mostly because of my daughter's learning styles and quite frankly fear on my part. I lost faith that I could actually "do" high school while continuing with Charlotte Mason's line of teachings. I was weak and ultimately feel deep down inside that we should have stayed that route. One of the main reasons we gravitated to a more of an eclectic and relaxed way of homeschooling as opposed to all Charlotte Mason is because Grace doesn't really enjoy reading that much. She is good at it and she loves for me to read aloud to her but assigning books upon books for her to read from the age of 12 until now (about to turn 15) it just wasn't feasible to read most of the books and the types of books that were assigned on some of the schedules that were recommended. Plus she wasn't a big writer and the written narrations were killing her. Now she has matured some and all of that is actually coming together nicely. The CM methods were still interwoven in everything we did especially history, science, and literature. I say all this because now I feel like I get a second chance with CM.
Starting in August I will be tutoring three 5th grade girls in my home three days a week. I plan on using mostly CM methods to do this. I know these girls and they will love getting to study artists, composers, and nature study along with all the other basic subjects. Something I am looking so forward to doing again is Nature Study. I have all the supplies I need with the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock and lots of Outdoor Hour Challenges I had printed up for Grace years ago. The interesting part is that Grace will now be excited about going out with the girls as well and helping them learn about nature and sketching items in their nature notebooks. I am so excited for the new school year to begin in August. Lots of planning to be done beforehand, but excited none the less.
1 comment:
We have encountered some of the same issues--with both reading and nature study. There have been topics and approaches that we had to walk away from and then revisit. I think the difference is as you say--one of age. I love the book you have featured here--maybe we can revisit the Nature Journal as well!
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