Secular Charlotte Mason

My son, his cyberschool teacher and I just plotted out his next 5 years and I have to say that after that meeting I am not really seeing how a CM high school experience can really prepare them for college. I just don't see it as being in-depth enough in most subjects. I really would like someone to come onboard and prove me wrong as my girls are hoping to do CM through the high school years (my son is already on a different path).  

If you are thinking about the high school years at all please come and let us know what you think! We all would really like to know.

Well, my oldest has been accepted to UNC Chapel Hill and while we are not CM purists, he created a living books/classical history track for himself. He was accepted to most of the colleges to which he applied.  He did have excellent SATs, except for math, and he had all "A"s at the community college.

One thing I noticed about my 2 teens - the boy who is a history/ literature guy did history without textbooks but preferred textbooks for science which he did not like.  My daughter, the future biologist, did biology with living books but preferred a history textbook.  We did use some textbooks for chemistry.

Both did literature by just reading and writing papers but they are both readers.

I may not have a clear idea of what a traditional CM high school would look like, however.

That is an interesting observation. At the kids' request, we have pretty much used living books and spines for history and textbooks with living books on the side for science. I found your post encouraging. Thank you.

The real test will be this year when my daughter is applying to college. We hope that she can get a community college science course with labs to add to her transcript.

I had an interesting conversation with Catherine Levison on this very topic over the weekend.  Her general recommendation is to continue doing the CM science at home, but with a light touch, leaving plenty of time for the child to take classes at the high school, community college or other "college prep" source to meet the more advanced science needs. I have to admit I was reasurred by her recommending what my son and I had just planned out for the high school years.  We then went on to discuss the ineptitude of the science classes at her local high school but that is another topic lol. 

Oh, I wish I could have gone to the conference!  I will make it up there sometime.  I'm going to order the Day Seminar on DVD you recommended.  This will be better for me right now anyway!  Wouldnt' want to forget it all before I actually need it!

You could go to the conference with our co-op next year if you wanted. The more the merrier.  I wouldn't bring the kids though.  The workshops and venders were great but the kids' activities were lacking. Some of us are dragging our hubbies with next year too.  Truly, it was WAY better than the conferences in Oregon. 

Ruth & anyone else who has done high school history,

What did you use as your spine for US History? I have plenty of supplemental reading and documentary ideas but I am having trouble choosing a spine that is suitable for the high school years.

Well, this has now been taken care of for me since it looks like he is going to take a history class that uses Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as "texts". Problem solved. Yay! (Both books are excellent by the way. I used LMTTM as a resource when I taught citizenship classes. )

Not a spine but also good, Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire. Drakon enjoyed the graphic adaptation.