Archive for April, 2008

Minute By Minute

The first rule is going to have to be: do not hit snooze more than once.

We started with copywork, as we often do. I usually do this because it doesn’t involve a lot of complex thinking for the first assignment of the day. Today’s copywork: “For Jupiter is king to all alike; the fates will find their way.” Gillian was reading In Search of a Homeland last week and at the beginning of this week, so I tried to find quotes from The Aeneid for copywork. We moved straight into spelling after copywork. Today was the second day of Step 11, and I confess we skipped the tiles today and went straight to writing on paper. I know the tiles are an important part of the program, but when we do the tiles on the first day and she clearly gets it, I find it difficult to justify the time expenditure on subsequent days on the same step. Of significance is that we started dictation today! Phrases, not sentences, but this is a huge transition for her. Rounding out the language arts, she did one lesson of grammar (3.1). We’re still doing two lessons a day this week, but she’ll finish the second lesson after Sam’s gone to work this morning.

From one language to another: Gillian then worked to complete the translating portion of a parsing worksheet for Latin. She’ll finish the remainder after Sam goes to work, but I wanted to be sure she understood what was expected while he was still here and I had time to be right there to explain it to her. Then she practiced her Latin chants and listened to the vocabulary chants from the CD. After that, she went to do her addition drill while I copied her school playlist onto my iPod for tomorrow’s drive to my parents.

Ten minutes later, the addition drill was done. Wince. Meanwhile, I made a list (in TextEdit) of what all we needed to complete this morning, and prepared everything for history. She finished the drill and we did oral skip counting (2’s, 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s) before she started her multiplication drill. This brings us to where we are at the current moment. I started typing this entry and waiting for her to finish!

Now we’ve finished the multiplication drill, discussed Encyclopedia Brown (yesterday’s reading assignment), and read a chapter in history. Gillian’s done the mapwork for history and is doing her written skip counting (6’s and 7’s) before coloring (Julius Caesar) for five minutes. Not a bad show, considering it’s not quite 9 am, we didn’t really get started until 7:30 am, and some of what is left to finish wouldn’t be a consideration on a normal week (like the extra grammar lesson).

The rest of the day? Two math pages, both in Miquon, the remaining grammar lesson, the remaining half of hte Latin worksheet, and reading in Marco Polo (today’s reading assignment) and Julius Caesar (history reading). We’re meeting some friends at the park around lunch, and Sam won’t be home until around seven tonight, so my goal is to finish most of the work this morning, perhaps saving a bit for after the park.

Published in:DITL |on April 10th, 2008 |No Comments »

Ponderings On The State of School…

x-posted from my personal blog

01. History for Gillian for next year. Time period 1600 to 1850 in world history, so that’s a lot of ground to cover. In addition, I want to have her read supplementally about American history, specifically, during that time period. I have no idea how to accomplish this without going somewhat insane. This is why we’re going to do world history in just three years, glossing over any and all American history, and one year of just American history, when the fifth to eighth grade rotation arrives. Plus, if she does American history in eighth grade, she could probably take the SAT Subject Test for American history after that, unless they’ve really changed the difficulty level of those things. Nevertheless, none of that helps for the coming year. Or, for that matter, fourth grade, which is 1850 to the present in world history.

02. Latin for Gillian. We’ve totally slacked on Latin in the last few months, but I don’t want to start over completely at the beginning of third grade. I’m thinking we’ll start reviewing in the next few weeks and jump into some new material, slowly, over the summer, which would give her a slight leg up, at least, upon starting official third grade work next autumn. Or something.

03. Latin further complicates the plan in that, if we had continued to do Latin this year as planned, we would have started Greek in the first half of third grade. Now I don’t know if we should postpone it to the second half of third grade, or to the first half of fourth grade. How aggravating.

04. What to do with Jacob. I know that if I don’t have a plan in my mind, I won’t think to do ‘academic’ stuff with him. Just between Gillian’s school and having another baby, you know, some things are going to slip my mind, and I don’t want it to be me going in December, crap, I meant to read to Jacob more than once a month, and help him learn to use scissors, too!* or something like that. So I’ve got to figure out a plan, just for me. NOT to say, oh, Jacob, you MUST finish this, every day, or anything like that, but just so I’ll remember to offer various things.

*With Jacob, it’s more likely he’ll cut something that he’s not supposed to, and then I’ll say, I meant to help him learn to use scissors appropriately, but hey.

Published in:Musings, Future Plans, Plans |on April 9th, 2008 |No Comments »

What We Wish, What We’re Handed

I’m once again in the throes of a dilemma that I’ve had periodically for a couple of years now. That is, neoclassical versus traditional classical.

I like the idea of traditional classical, or latin-centered, or however we would like to term it. I like the idea of simplifying the curriculum, and especially the ideas of starting Latin early, pursuing both Latin and Greek from a relatively early age, and doing more in-depth study of Grecian myths, important figures in the classical world, and the formative, foundational works (that is, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid).

Then again, it was the idea of the four year cycle, the chronological study of world history, that brought me to homeschooling in the beginning. I don’t like the idea of waiting to do formal science study, and the science study recommended by the leading advocates of latin-centered education is nowhere near as rigorous as I feel it should be.

Aside from all of that, I - like all other homeschoolers - have a real kid, not a composite of what a kid “might” be or “should” be at a certain age. As much as I would love to either drop spelling as a formal study, or simply rely on something like Spelling Workout, that is largely self-directed and quick, I have a child that needs a step-by-step, formal spelling program. As much as I want to start writing immediately, or a few months ago, her spelling difficulties mean we definitely have to wait until the fall, and possibly even longer. Luckily, we’re planning on using Classical Composition, and the first level has just twenty lessons, so we could, in theory, wait until November or December, even, to begin.

Waiting to begin something when I’m nine months pregnant, or tending a newborn, makes me nervous, though.

So those are some of the thoughts are occupying my mind at present. Yesterday, I said I’d do a little DITL. No pictures, though.

07:00 - Hit snooze. Repeatedly.
07:40 - Finally get out of bed. Get Gillian out of bed.
07:45 - Start schoolwork. We start with copywork, as it requires the least amount of thinking, IMO.
07:50 - Spelling, which always takes longer than I think it should. The tiles are just a little too exciting, I guess? Still, we spelled words with the short ‘e’ sound, always an accomplishment, and discussed syllables.
08:00 - Drill work, alphabetization. This takes her quite a long time, which tells me it’s good we’re working on it and trying to improve it. I never thought something so simple could cause such difficulty.
08:15 - Grammar, first half. We did today’s bit of Oral Language Lessons, and she read the manual for the first grammar lesson we need to do today. We’re doing two a day this week, because of spring break and the fact that we slacked on grammar during March. She did it fairly quickly, since we had a race to finish.
08:30 - Latin review. She remembers a good deal of Latin, which is good.
08:35 - More grammar. This one takes a little longer, both because of the subject matter and because of the nature of the exercises.
09:00 - Time for breakfast.Around breakfast, Sam had to leave for work. So after they finished breakfast, I turned them loose to play. Still on tap for later today are math drills, a couple of math pages, a run through the Latin chants again, and a chapter in Story of the World.

The moral of the story is that I need to go to bed earlier tonight than I did last night, so that we can manage to get started at 7 or at least 7:10. The extra thirty to forty-five minutes would make a big difference in what is accomplished while Sam is here to keep an eye on Jacob.

Published in:Musings, DITL |on April 7th, 2008 |No Comments »

The Inherent Conflict

I think I understand why many people who practice “attachment parenting” and related styles of life often unschool.

It’s simply that you feel unbelievably torn between your children when you’re attempting to do actual schoolwork with an older child and not force a younger child into something that you’re uncomfortable doing. Yep.

Things are better than they have been in quite a long time, though, and I have optimism for the future. Which is good, since we’re adding another one in November. I know my mother thinks we’re crazy. Too late now, though!

I think I’ll do a DITL post tomorrow as far as homeschooling goes, anyway. If I’m really ambitious, I’ll take pictures, too.

Published in:Musings |on April 6th, 2008 |No Comments »