I’am a homeschool mom from the Philippines and i want you to know that you are God sent. We are now on our 3rd year of homeschooling and your videos are amazing.❤
Erin, your videos have helped me so much. My 2 oldest children (7th and 1st) grade have been failed by the school system over and over and your videos have given me the courage to pull them out and begin our homeschooling journey. Your kiddos are blessed to have you. Thank you a million times over ❤
I’m so excited to use A Gentle Feast for the first time this upcoming year. I’m only going to be using their LA and Reading by Sight and Sound for one child this year but excited to see how we like it!
I am so excited to start AGF this year with my form I and II students. We live in Canada and they have a complete curriculum for Canadians, not just supplements 🇨🇦 ✨
@@hollys6821 So when your purchase their membership (in the cycle or time period of study), you get online access to both the US and Canadian plans :) The booklist is complete, and very good. We have been very happy with the selections for both Form 1 and Form 2 students in Cycle 1 (1000AD-1650AD). I like that I can look at both Canadian and US booklists and sprinkle in books from US. :)
Thank you Erin for your videos! You have been an answer to prayer in times past and again today with your honest and open reviews. Love that your are passionate about homeschooling and not pushing any of your ideas and theories. You have a gentle way of bringing out the "T chart" of both positive and negative. Appreciate you very much!! You've been a huge help to us! ❤
I don’t know if it was in this video or not, but I’m trying to remember what you have chosen for foreign language instead of Duolingo. Could you remind me?
So you show that you use other stuff. I thought this was an all-in-one with exception of math? My kids are delaying learners. I have teenagers on 2nd grade level and then I have a 4th grader who is probably on a lower level with spelling/reading. I feel overwhelmed and looking for more of a family style learning. They also want to learn about food thru history. However, we also don’t want to be sitting at a table for 4-5 hours a day. How long does this take?
He actually does pretty good with reading and comprehension, his bigger struggle now that he’s older is more on the dysgraphia component of doing written narrations, spelling, etc. You definitely could do some of the books as read alouds or even audio books though, maybe have him follow along with a physical book as he listens. I find that the short focused lessons with the CM philosophy are perfect for dyslexic kiddos as it’s not as overwhelming as a textbook (and more interesting reading too). And doing verbal narrations and discussions about what you read is far less intimidating for kids that struggle with language skills. I usually have my son do voice to text or voice memos and then play them back to write out his written narrations and that helps tremendously!
Do you think AGF has a Christian worldview? In the FAQ's on her website, the answer to that question seems that she wants to provide the children with all kinds of ideas, not specifically Christian? Or she comes from the viewpoint that all ideas lead to God without directly teaching it...? Would like to know your thoughts after using it!
Charlotte Mason was a Christian and believed that all learning comes from a knowledge of the Lord, so it comes from a Christian perspective. The morning time packet does have a Bible lesson plan in it. But as a whole, most of the books are not directly Christian, but many of them, being older and written when more people were Christian, there is some influence but it’s not overt. Hope that helps!
Sadly, no, I have not had time to sit down and read them. Most of what I know about CM teachings is from For the Children’s Sake and other books about the CM philosophy like A Charlotte Mason Handbook, etc.
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler That makes me feel much better 😁 I have not either but have many other CM books same as you. I think you sold me on AGF, it seems like the most realistic CM curriculum for us. Love your videos ❣️
Yes, I think so! It might take a little bit to get into the practice of the reading & narration component, but she’s got so much helpful information about how to do it that makes it easy to implement. I would suggest starting with just your core subjects that are most important to cover and then ease into more of the extras once you’ve get into the practice of following the CM method. Blessings!
So I've been looking into Charlotte Mason..i don't want to do school online..i have watched dozens of Charlotte Mason RUclips videos and i still have no udea how it works
I feel you! There are a ton of resources for homeschooling where it wouldn't be online and wouldn't necessarily have to be the Charlotte Mason method to do that. If you like the idea of CM, I found the book The Charlotte Mason Companion to be super helpful in understanding the practical how-tos of implementing the method subject by subject. amzn.to/3EbyfhC The YT channel Simply Charlotte Mason with Sonya Shafer has a TON of CM specific videos (she also has a podcast & website with tons of resources). Leah Boden (Modern Miss Mason podcast) is fantastic as well!
Hi from Nicaragua!❤ I tried to go quickly to A Gentle Feast but I realized that all 4 cycles teach American History, is that correct? Thank you for your videos!
Hello! 👋🏼 Some of the levels do cover world history as well, but primarily focus on British and American history. It does cover many other subjects as well, so if you liked the idea of it, you could substitute your own history books to suit your own country! It is written in English though, but it doesn’t seem like that would be an issue for you. ☺️
A Gentle Feast is all the subjects except math. Their LA is separate though. If you only want to use it for history, you can pick whichever cycle you want to start with and buy that one and just use the history reading plan. You can get the online only version for $96.95 or add the printed planner for an extra $59.95. I don’t think you can buy just the planner.
Would this work well for a family living overseas who has limited access to books (can buy some and take them, and use the rest online) and has to do the core subjects in just an afternoon since we have language studies in the mornings? (I’m from your MOPS group in 2018, messaged you on IG with more 🙂)
This looks like a beautiful spread of CM learning. After checking out the books and familiarizing myself with what is included, am I off-target in thinking that A Gentle Feast is a re-arrangement of Ambleside Online lined up to keep each form running on the same history tracks to make things easier to learn together as a family? I see a few different books throughout the curriculum lineup, but generally speaking, how different are these two curriculum, really? I am sincerely curious.
I haven’t fully checked them side by side, but both being true Charlotte Mason lesson plans, I’m sure they do utilize a lot of the same books and resources. I had thought about using Ambleside, since it’s free, but I really loved how this has them laid out so everyone can be learning about the same things no matter the form level, as you said. It’s definitely a great resource for people who are new to the CM philosophy, but as you get more familiar, it’s definitely more easy to branch out on your own and use the method with your own choice of books, which we did quite a bit as well. This really make the CM approach less intimidating and easily accessible for anyone to try!
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler we used AO for a year and while it was good, it was a ton of preplanning for me. I would really like to get back to the CM way of schooling and I will be using AGF if we can get back to it. I love it so much and truly miss the beauty of it.
Do you mind if I ask how much you spend on the booklist and how many books are in the booklist? Thinking about using this curriculum but it is really hard to budget/know if I can even afford it when they don't provide the booklist until after you buy it.....
I totally understand! I would say there’s roughly 12-15 books for each of the form levels, but she provides links to free online versions for quite a few of the books. Many of the books you can find at your library and just reserve ahead of time if you know it’s coming up. I purchased used copies of the ones I couldn’t find at the library that I wanted to buy. Some of them we just skipped or used an alternate book about the subject that we either already owned or that I could find at the library or from a friend. Some subjects we skipped altogether, like natural history, so I never even bothered with books for those… I think that, coupled with the fact that for less than $100 for the curriculum for all your kids combined, it’s really quite an affordable option! And if you use it again with a younger child, it would be free for them in the future!
We ordered AGF for this upcoming school year. I'm excited and nervous, there is so much to understand about the CM method. How long did it take you and your kiddos to find your rhythm? Also, are you still using TT math and do you have any other recommendations? It seems to take both my 10 and 12 year old kids a long time for each lesson, which seems out of sync with the CM method. Thank you for any insight!
Excited for you! ❤️ Once I got my binder system set up for them, they adjusted pretty quickly, but it took me a little while to get that figured out… We switched to Saxon for math mid-year last year. And it’s definitely not the short, CM style lessons for that. But I felt like it was a needed switch for our family for this time. That’s part of the reason that we weren’t able to do all of the subjects in AGF. I think switching to any new thing, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it will definitely all come together with a little practice! Blessings!
Sounds wonderful. How long do each of the after groups end up doing school for the day? We have such a hard time fitting in all the subjects I want to cover because math and language arts are exhausting and take forever for us.
I would say if they are exhausting and take forever definitely re-evaluate what you are using. Apologia is short quick math we love and we like the good and the beautiful for Lang arts but My fathers world is shorter. Add enjoyable reading time. If it's taking you over 20 to 30 on each, go back a grade or do half one day and half the other. Don't struggle. Make it fit you. Do it only 3- 4 days a week too. We have done all.of above and I call it customizing- not defeat. ❤ This video sounds good too. I'm just a customizer bc my kids are ADD and l need to change if needed and make it fun.
I would say our older kids are probably between 4-5ish hours including our group morning time. I wonder if you’re trying to do too much each day for math and LA? Or if there’s another curriculum option you could use that is less teacher intensive to free you and you kids up to do more independent work, if it’s taking too long because they are waiting to rotate with you? I know for me, when I started, I was trying to do spelling and grammar and reading and writing and penmanship every day, and that was WAY too much. You definitely don’t need to be doing all of those things every day. If that’s the case, try picking 1-2 a day, and even then limit the amount of time you spend on them to save your sanity (and your kids too!) Best wishes!
Love hearing the chickens in the background!
Ohhhh me too❤❤❤❤
ASMR
I’am a homeschool mom from the Philippines and i want you to know that you are God sent.
We are now on our 3rd year of homeschooling and your videos are amazing.❤
So glad to hear that! God is good! 🙌🏼
Are you going to share an end of year update on this curriculum?? I’d love to hear how the year went! Thinking of using it next year.
Erin, your videos have helped me so much. My 2 oldest children (7th and 1st) grade have been failed by the school system over and over and your videos have given me the courage to pull them out and begin our homeschooling journey. Your kiddos are blessed to have you. Thank you a million times over ❤
I'm so glad! ❤️ You’ve got this, mama!! 👏🏼
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am dipping my toe into CM method with A Gental Feast Morning time.
Yay! Hope you love it!
I can't tell you how much I love your content! I've been binge watching your videos the past few days!❤
Aww, thank you! 🥰
Thank you for being honest about the work load and modern kids attention span.
I’m so excited to use A Gentle Feast for the first time this upcoming year. I’m only going to be using their LA and Reading by Sight and Sound for one child this year but excited to see how we like it!
I am so excited to start AGF this year with my form I and II students. We live in Canada and they have a complete curriculum for Canadians, not just supplements 🇨🇦 ✨
That’s so cool! I didn’t realize they had a Canadian version!
Thanks for that tidbit of info! I was just wondering about that!
Hi! Where can I find the Canadian curriculum?
@@hollys6821 So when your purchase their membership (in the cycle or time period of study), you get online access to both the US and Canadian plans :) The booklist is complete, and very good. We have been very happy with the selections for both Form 1 and Form 2 students in Cycle 1 (1000AD-1650AD). I like that I can look at both Canadian and US booklists and sprinkle in books from US. :)
Just ordered! Thank you! I feel like you and I are the same person lol which is why I am SO thankful for your channel!
Love the chickens and the breeze in the background 🐓🐥🌳🌬️🍃
Your chickens are cracking me up! 😂
Thank you Erin for your videos! You have been an answer to prayer in times past and again today with your honest and open reviews. Love that your are passionate about homeschooling and not pushing any of your ideas and theories. You have a gentle way of bringing out the "T chart" of both positive and negative. Appreciate you very much!! You've been a huge help to us! ❤
Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my channel! ❤️
Thank you for this! I always love the content you put out.
We have 2,000 chickens and everyone is always shocked at how loud they can be!
Oh wow! We only have about 65, but yes! 🐓
This is awesome Erin! Thanks for sharing. i'm contemplating this curriculum :)
My pleasure! ❤️
Thank you for sharing. Your home is in a beautiful setting.
Thank you so much!
A Gentle Feast is so good!! We are using the Cycle 4 Morning Loop next year 😊
Oh cool! Would love to hear how you like it!
Hello ❤! Can you tell me which missionary books and reading books you use to teach them the word of God ?
Would this be good for reluctant readers ? 🙏🏻
I don’t know if it was in this video or not, but I’m trying to remember what you have chosen for foreign language instead of Duolingo. Could you remind me?
Had to mute it and read the CC, but great content. 👍
I like your digital weekly lesson plan. Do you have a link for it?
How would you like this if it was just for your youngest (my oldest is 7) but I have 3 coming up after him.
So you show that you use other stuff. I thought this was an all-in-one with exception of math?
My kids are delaying learners. I have teenagers on 2nd grade level and then I have a 4th grader who is probably on a lower level with spelling/reading. I feel overwhelmed and looking for more of a family style learning. They also want to learn about food thru history. However, we also don’t want to be sitting at a table for 4-5 hours a day. How long does this take?
How does your dyslexic kiddo do with a program that is so heavily literature based? I'm afraid my kid would to so frustrated and retain very little.
He actually does pretty good with reading and comprehension, his bigger struggle now that he’s older is more on the dysgraphia component of doing written narrations, spelling, etc. You definitely could do some of the books as read alouds or even audio books though, maybe have him follow along with a physical book as he listens. I find that the short focused lessons with the CM philosophy are perfect for dyslexic kiddos as it’s not as overwhelming as a textbook (and more interesting reading too). And doing verbal narrations and discussions about what you read is far less intimidating for kids that struggle with language skills. I usually have my son do voice to text or voice memos and then play them back to write out his written narrations and that helps tremendously!
Do you think AGF has a Christian worldview? In the FAQ's on her website, the answer to that question seems that she wants to provide the children with all kinds of ideas, not specifically Christian? Or she comes from the viewpoint that all ideas lead to God without directly teaching it...? Would like to know your thoughts after using it!
Charlotte Mason was a Christian and believed that all learning comes from a knowledge of the Lord, so it comes from a Christian perspective. The morning time packet does have a Bible lesson plan in it. But as a whole, most of the books are not directly Christian, but many of them, being older and written when more people were Christian, there is some influence but it’s not overt. Hope that helps!
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler I believe we have a similar worldview so I was curious about the book choices in AGF. Thank you!
I have interested in AGF but always feel a bit confused by it. Excited you did this video!
Did you read CM’s books?
Sadly, no, I have not had time to sit down and read them. Most of what I know about CM teachings is from For the Children’s Sake and other books about the CM philosophy like A Charlotte Mason Handbook, etc.
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler That makes me feel much better 😁
I have not either but have many other CM books same as you. I think you sold me on AGF, it seems like the most realistic CM curriculum for us. Love your videos ❣️
Thanks for this video! I am contemplating this curriculum…would it be easy to start a third grader that came from public school on this?
Yes, I think so! It might take a little bit to get into the practice of the reading & narration component, but she’s got so much helpful information about how to do it that makes it easy to implement. I would suggest starting with just your core subjects that are most important to cover and then ease into more of the extras once you’ve get into the practice of following the CM method. Blessings!
So I've been looking into Charlotte Mason..i don't want to do school online..i have watched dozens of Charlotte Mason RUclips videos and i still have no udea how it works
I feel you! There are a ton of resources for homeschooling where it wouldn't be online and wouldn't necessarily have to be the Charlotte Mason method to do that. If you like the idea of CM, I found the book The Charlotte Mason Companion to be super helpful in understanding the practical how-tos of implementing the method subject by subject. amzn.to/3EbyfhC
The YT channel Simply Charlotte Mason with Sonya Shafer has a TON of CM specific videos (she also has a podcast & website with tons of resources). Leah Boden (Modern Miss Mason podcast) is fantastic as well!
Hi from Nicaragua!❤
I tried to go quickly to A Gentle Feast but I realized that all 4 cycles teach American History, is that correct?
Thank you for your videos!
Hello! 👋🏼 Some of the levels do cover world history as well, but primarily focus on British and American history. It does cover many other subjects as well, so if you liked the idea of it, you could substitute your own history books to suit your own country! It is written in English though, but it doesn’t seem like that would be an issue for you. ☺️
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler Thank you for your response and thank you for the idea!! 🥰
I’m on their website and possibly missing it. I’m just looking for a history curriculum. Do I just buy the cycle one book?
A Gentle Feast is all the subjects except math. Their LA is separate though. If you only want to use it for history, you can pick whichever cycle you want to start with and buy that one and just use the history reading plan. You can get the online only version for $96.95 or add the printed planner for an extra $59.95. I don’t think you can buy just the planner.
Ah I’m not sure how I missed this video… I guess I missed the sale 😑 it’s the 16th
Ah bummer! I do feel like it’s very affordable even without the sale though! Less than $100 for the whole family!
Would this work well for a family living overseas who has limited access to books (can buy some and take them, and use the rest online) and has to do the core subjects in just an afternoon since we have language studies in the mornings? (I’m from your MOPS group in 2018, messaged you on IG with more 🙂)
Hi Melody!!👋Great to hear from you! I hope you're doing well! I replied to your IG message. :)
This looks like a beautiful spread of CM learning. After checking out the books and familiarizing myself with what is included, am I off-target in thinking that A Gentle Feast is a re-arrangement of Ambleside Online lined up to keep each form running on the same history tracks to make things easier to learn together as a family? I see a few different books throughout the curriculum lineup, but generally speaking, how different are these two curriculum, really? I am sincerely curious.
I haven’t fully checked them side by side, but both being true Charlotte Mason lesson plans, I’m sure they do utilize a lot of the same books and resources. I had thought about using Ambleside, since it’s free, but I really loved how this has them laid out so everyone can be learning about the same things no matter the form level, as you said. It’s definitely a great resource for people who are new to the CM philosophy, but as you get more familiar, it’s definitely more easy to branch out on your own and use the method with your own choice of books, which we did quite a bit as well. This really make the CM approach less intimidating and easily accessible for anyone to try!
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler we used AO for a year and while it was good, it was a ton of preplanning for me. I would really like to get back to the CM way of schooling and I will be using AGF if we can get back to it. I love it so much and truly miss the beauty of it.
Do you mind if I ask how much you spend on the booklist and how many books are in the booklist? Thinking about using this curriculum but it is really hard to budget/know if I can even afford it when they don't provide the booklist until after you buy it.....
I totally understand! I would say there’s roughly 12-15 books for each of the form levels, but she provides links to free online versions for quite a few of the books. Many of the books you can find at your library and just reserve ahead of time if you know it’s coming up. I purchased used copies of the ones I couldn’t find at the library that I wanted to buy. Some of them we just skipped or used an alternate book about the subject that we either already owned or that I could find at the library or from a friend. Some subjects we skipped altogether, like natural history, so I never even bothered with books for those… I think that, coupled with the fact that for less than $100 for the curriculum for all your kids combined, it’s really quite an affordable option! And if you use it again with a younger child, it would be free for them in the future!
We ordered AGF for this upcoming school year. I'm excited and nervous, there is so much to understand about the CM method. How long did it take you and your kiddos to find your rhythm? Also, are you still using TT math and do you have any other recommendations? It seems to take both my 10 and 12 year old kids a long time for each lesson, which seems out of sync with the CM method. Thank you for any insight!
Excited for you! ❤️ Once I got my binder system set up for them, they adjusted pretty quickly, but it took me a little while to get that figured out… We switched to Saxon for math mid-year last year. And it’s definitely not the short, CM style lessons for that. But I felt like it was a needed switch for our family for this time. That’s part of the reason that we weren’t able to do all of the subjects in AGF. I think switching to any new thing, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it will definitely all come together with a little practice! Blessings!
Thank you Erin! ❤️ And blessings to you as well!
Sounds wonderful. How long do each of the after groups end up doing school for the day? We have such a hard time fitting in all the subjects I want to cover because math and language arts are exhausting and take forever for us.
I would say if they are exhausting and take forever definitely re-evaluate what you are using. Apologia is short quick math we love and we like the good and the beautiful for Lang arts but My fathers world is shorter. Add enjoyable reading time. If it's taking you over 20 to 30 on each, go back a grade or do half one day and half the other. Don't struggle. Make it fit you. Do it only 3- 4 days a week too. We have done all.of above and I call it customizing- not defeat. ❤ This video sounds good too. I'm just a customizer bc my kids are ADD and l need to change if needed and make it fun.
I would say our older kids are probably between 4-5ish hours including our group morning time. I wonder if you’re trying to do too much each day for math and LA? Or if there’s another curriculum option you could use that is less teacher intensive to free you and you kids up to do more independent work, if it’s taking too long because they are waiting to rotate with you? I know for me, when I started, I was trying to do spelling and grammar and reading and writing and penmanship every day, and that was WAY too much. You definitely don’t need to be doing all of those things every day. If that’s the case, try picking 1-2 a day, and even then limit the amount of time you spend on them to save your sanity (and your kids too!) Best wishes!
The chickens are kinda distracting