I have 5 children: DD13, DS11, DD9, DS7, and DS4.

I have always homeschool the 2 youngest, however the 3 olders were added to my homeschool just 3 months ago (they are from a previous marriage) so I am on both sides of that coin. :-)

We started out using traditional text/work books when I added the olders, first using Abeka and then switching to Rod and Staff. Needless to say we began experiencing 'burnout'. Five kids, five levels and WAY too many textbooks and teachers manuals to oversee, organize and plan! :-/

So, we decided to go a Charlotte Mason route, using Ambleside Online. And while that was a *slight* improvement, it was still just too much time, too many subjects and too many levels, too many different books! lol Integrated is what I want, not only within a subject but also with children themselves. Ruth Beechick will be our ticket. I've implemented RB methods before with my youngers, but felt so insecure doing that with my olders, well now I am determined as I feel led to go back....

* I have the following Beechick books:
The Three R's
You Can Teach Your Child
Adam and His Kin
Homeschool Answer Book
World History Made Simple

* and I have on the way the following:
Heart and Mind
Biblical Education
Teaching Primaries

Right now I am scanning through YCTYCS, and am going to begin reading more deeply The Three R's and then YCTYCS more deeply. We are also officially ditching all of our textbooks and workbooks and just taking a much needed breather while awaiting our new things to arrive. We'll begin Beechick style math and history right away, as well as some good copywork.

Here is the plan:
Learning Language Arts Through Literature (blue, red, orange, and green - I found the older versions of orange and green, but had to go with newer for blue and red. My 13 and 11 yr olds will both do green since they are only 13 months apart in age)

Great Science Adventures once per week - supplemented with library books (world of plants - perfect for summer/gardening)

World History Made Simple twice per week (then a slow chronological history study beginning with the Bible up to Abraham, then into Our Young Folks Josephus - I have a great chrono living books that I'll put in my sidebar to download if anyone is interested?)

Math - for now I will combine DD9 and DS7 doing Beechick style math only, I will also combine DD13 and DS 11 doing Beechick style math and then try them in Life of Fred Pre-Alg (Fractions, Decimals/Percents)

May I have opinions?

This is what *I* see:
30 - 45 mins per day math
30 - 45 mins per day language arts
30 - 45 mins per day personal reading (literature, science, pleasure, etc)
History twice weekly - 30-45 mins
Science once weekly - 1 hour

That is a grand total of 3 hours of school at most, on any given day with almost NO use of textbooks! :) I am thrilled and feel a huge burden lifted...the kids are also pumped!

Our Current Reading and Read Alouds:

Mom:
KJV - Romans
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick
Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman
A Charotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
Romans, Verse by Verse by Michael Pearl
Escape by Carolyn Jessup
His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt
Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox
Whence Came A Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs
Fair is the Rose by Liz Curtis Higgs
The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

DD12:
Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
Secrets of the Woods by William J Long
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit
Various Books by Carrie Bender

DS11:
Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
Gentle Ben by Walt Marley
Robinson Crusoe Written Anew by James Baldwin

DD9:
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (read aloud to ds6 and ds4)
Understood Betsy
Kaya, American Girl
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

DS6:
First Steps by Pathway
Reading - Literature: The Primer by Harriette Taylor Treadwell
Frog and Toad Together
Tiptoes by Abeka
Fun With Pets by Abeka

Read Alouds (Everyone):
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
World History Made Simple by Ruth Beechick
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Peter Pan by James Barrie

There seems to be some misconceptions amongst homeschoolers between the methods of Charlotte Mason and Ruth Beechick, specifically, in the realm of Language Arts. I want to clear some of these up, being a perfectionist and all. lol

Charlotte Mason Methods
Grammar:
Charlotte Mason did not teach grammar through dictation as commonly believed, but rather, Ruth Beechick does. And this is fine if you decide to, but as I said, I want to clear the misconceptions! :-) Charlotte Mason actually taught beginning grammar at age approximately 10 and a more formal grammar to students starting around age 12 or 13, with a more textbook type approach.

Composition:
Composition, in the Charlotte Mason way, is taught via oral (or written beginning around age 9 or 10) narration. In fact, narration *is* composition in the Charlotte Mason methods right up until high school, when the child took a formal writing course. Ruth Beechick, on the other hand, used coywork and dictation to learn how to write. She cites Benjamin Franklin and Jack London as great authors who used the "copying" methods to learn how to write well.

Copywork:
Charlotte Mason had her students do copywork from good, quality, literary passages for handwriting, not for grammar or spelling, and never using copywork passages for dictation.

Spelling:
Spelling in the Charlotte Mason education is learned through doing dictation. Dictation in her schools began around age 10.

Recitation:
Recitation is used to prepare one for public speaking.

In her plan, composition skills were certainly re-inforced naturally, through the use of copywork and dictation, even though specific skills were not targeted.

Ruth Beechick Methods
In doing Language Arts the Ruth Beechick way, you would choose a passage to work with from a book that either you are reading aloud to your child or one that he/she is reading themselves. Choosing the size of the passage would depend on your child's age and ability.

Using the chosen passage, you would progress from copywork to unaided dictation, until mastery is achieved, milking the passage for all it is worth. Again depending on your child's age/ability you would incidentally teach grammar, spelling, vocabulary, composition skills, work on penmanship, etc.

You could choose a new passage every week or two, and repeat the above process. Ruth's method is not only a very natural way to learn, but completely integrated! Talk about simplifying your language arts. :-)

Welcome to my personal blog that will serve as a journal of sorts for my journey as a homeschooling mom to five children.   My sweet scholars are:  dd13, ds11, dd9, ds7 and ds4.   The Lord has blessed me!  

We live on Pheasant Ridge with 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 turtles, soon - chickens, soon - a pony, and soon - miniature donkey.   Our homeschool is greatly inspired by the ideas and methods of Dr. Ruth Beechick, though with an occasional Charlotte Mason twist thrown in.    ;-)

My generous husband is in the process of finishing our basement, complete with school room!  Though, I must say, I don't really care for the term 'school room'....the world is our school room, afterall, is it not?   :-)