General Questions

Thank you. It does 🙂

(I'm just so enamored with your work that I can't wait to see how the curriculum unfolds from start-to-finish!)

Hello,

I designed the programs so that all time periods would be covered by all age levels. This allows families to come into the programs at whatever time period fits their needs. For example, a family who starts the curriculum with students in Year Two and Year Five, but who wants both children to study Pre-17th Century History together can do this, even without having completed Foundations. You can start any time period with any level. Ideally, it would be best to have completed Foundations: Year One, since sticking with any curriculum from beginning to end is always beneficial. :) But that is not always possible, so I wanted to make it as accessible as possible for all scenarios.

But, yes, I did write out the curriculum to see what it looked like if a student went into Program 1 as a Year Two student as well as Program 2 as a Year Two student. It does allow for a better cycle by starting a Year Two student with Program 2. And there is some overlap with regard to historical time period for both Foundations: Year One and Program 1: Year Two, so you could certainly start in Program 2 if you preferred. Charlotte Mason designed her curriculum based on the idea that students could start a history cycle at any point. She knew that whatever they had not had yet, they would cover again. I carried this idea into this curriculum.

The natural history is designed so that all students in Lower School B -in all four programs -will be covering aspects of the natural world. There will be enough natural history and science covered in the three years that students are in Lower School B to give them a solid foundation and the programs are not dependent on each other in the sense that one must be completed before having access to the next. Students will move in Lower School A with Year Five and in this level more science is added and studied even more intently.

I created the program guides so that families could share more topics and books, but also so that individual students would still be receiving the study they needed to best fit their age and level. It's a huge task and goal, which is partly why it's taking me so long. :) I genuinely want to do this well though. I hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply!

I think it makes sense to explore the topics in slightly more depth using whole living books rather than Mason's "lectures"; thanks for pointing that out!

As for a scope and sequence document: I'd love to see more of the overall picture of where this curriculum means to take our learners!