A Little Rebellion Every Now & Then

I’ve been spending a lot of my thinking energy on mathematics lately; specifically, arithmetic, and the mastery thereof.

Gillian does a great job at understanding the concepts and processes behind a lot of arithmetic, but what she hasn’t yet mastered is the immediate recall. That is, she’s not ‘learned her facts.’

On the one hand, she’s still not even six years old, and pushing her to memorize too quickly isn’t a great plan. On the other hand, though, this lack of knowledge means that’s she slowed on work that should otherwise take her a matter of minutes.

We just purchased a lot of new resources for math. Starting next week on Monday, we’re going to do CaluLadder drills on a daily basis. I’ve purchased some flashcards (just for addition, so far) that we’ll go through on daily basis. We’ve also got learning wrap-ups that she enjoys doing.

What I’m not sure about, though, is whether I should pause in terms of our formal curriculum while she masters the addition and subtraction facts, or if we should continue onwards. If we continue onwards, I think that mastery will likely be achieved around the time we want to introduce addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing, which seems to dovetail nicely. I considered concentrating on multiplication concepts while we master the addition and subtraction facts, but ultimately, multiplication facts have to be mastered as well… which leaves us back where we started, in a manner of speaking.

Today was an excellent mail day. Two from amazon and one from Memoria Press, and I’m expecting another one from amazon marketplace later in the week.

Arriving today:

• Boxed set of McGuffey’s Readers
• Ludmilla Zeman’s ‘Gilgamesh Trilogy,’ as I call it - Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh
• Geraldine McCaughrean’s One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
• The Latin Centered Curriculum
• An NVC book on parenting
• Audio cassette version of Parent Effectiveness Training
• Memoria Press’s Introduction to Classical Studies

I’m still expecting D’Angelo’s Composition in the Classical Tradition, which I got used for a terrific price.

On the list to buy next week:

• Lost of math books and other fun math things
• Outline maps on CD-ROM
• REAL Science and some Jim Weiss CDs, both from classicalhomeeducation.com
• A bunch of stuff from amazon, including The Harp and the Laurel Wreath, Outrageous Women of Ancient Times, and a dictionary for Gillian

Mmm. Books.

We’re on a very light summer schedule for school now. Gillian has various camps this week and the next two, as well, but I still think it’s quite doable. It was this morning, at least - less than one hour, before she went to camp. After she gets home and has a snack, we’ll read and listen to her Spanish practice tape.

So what are we doing for summer school?

Daily, we’re

• Finishing The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading;
• Continuing onwards in First Language Lessons: Levels 1 & 2;
• Doing copywork;
• Completing Time, Money, and Fractions & Developmental Math: Level 2, as well as working in various discount-store-type workbooks; as the summer progresses, we’ll do some work in Developmental Math: Level 4 and Level 8, and start Miquon Blue, if she wants.

Apart from that, we’re still doing La Clase Divertida (slowly but surely), we’ll keeping reading our chapter book, she’ll practice reading, we’ll read picture books to her, and we’ll do some activities out of Building Thinking Skills: Primary at least once or twice a week.

It’s enough to keep our minds engaged, I figured, while also giving us a bit of a break. There’s no pressure to get specific books out of the library (on this animal or that animal, or because my schedule said we should check out this book this particular week). I wasn’t even going to keep First Language Lessons in the mix, but the time committment is minimal, and I don’t want her to forget the poems and definitions she’s memorized.

Only problem there, of course, is that we’ll finish FLL not at the exact end of first grade, as I had thought we might, but approximately halfway through first grade. I don’t think the next level of FLL will be out by then. Soo I guess we’ll start Growing With Grammar. It doesn’t involve a lot of copywork, and if the author stays anywhere near her projected schedule, I don’t have to worry about running out of books to use anytime soon.