A Little Rebellion Every Now & Then

Twenty-five days of school this year, and we’re doing well.

We’re more or less where I’d like us to be for spelling. Spelling is still her biggest weakness, so we’ll likely double up on a step sometime next week. This week we aren’t doubling up because we’re going to be doing a comprehensive review, which includes the words that are already filed under “Mastered.” So, I think that if we can do an “extra” step each week for the next four or five weeks, we’ll be at a good place by the time the baby makes her appearance.

All of the other subjects are going really well. The only exception to that is science, and we are once again falling behind schedule where science is concerned. I can’t really find the time for it some days and other days it seems just like so much work. Still, we need to catch up before November, so that’ll be on the agenda in the next few weeks.

The biggest annoyance so far this school year? Book ten of Developmental Math is backordered. I have the solutions manual but not the student book. Since the solutions manual is the student book but with the answers added in green type, I’m having to scan in each page, use Photoshop to remove the answers, and then print out each page. I can’t put off Level Ten for longer, and since it’s backordered at the publisher, there’s no guarantee as to when we might possibly see it. In terms of good news, though, I scanned and printed all of the work for the coming week today, and when I was done with that, I was more than halfway through the book. So, I suppose one could say that there is a light visible at the end of the tunnel. It’s not hard to do, it’s just sheer drudgery.

The excellent, important news is that we finished our summer history! There are several books that fall under the category of supplemental reading that we’d like to see Gillian read between now and 11 August, but I don’t think it will be a huge problem, plus they definitely fall under the category of supplemental and not essential.

Spelling is also going really well. We finished Step 18 (out of 23 steps in Level One) this morning. We’re actually doing two complete sessions per day. This is mainly because she’s been so far behind in terms of spelling level, and about two months ago, I noticed it was starting to come much easier to her. So, I’m taking advantage of both that and the lack of other subjects during the summer months. Spelling is easily the most teacher-intensive curriculum.

Other things… we’re still working on her addition (and, therefore subtraction) facts as well as her multiplication facts memorization. I saw two recommendations for helpful products over the weekend and we may purchase those as well as everything else we already have. She’s just at a point where she cannot move forward without these things memorized. We’re going to work on some science during July, as well, and we’re working on Latin once more.

Overall, summer’s going well, and most of the plans for next year are set. Hooray!

I sketched out more details for our summer of history tonight, and it appears that we will finish SOTW2 by or on Thursday, July 10. This is a good spacing; if we have supplemental reading, it can be available for the remainder of July and all of August, and there will be almost two months without SOTW to whet her appetite for more come autumn!

I don’t have history planned out well for third grade. I know that I want to continue doing SOTW and covering world history, but I also know that she needs to have more in-depth study of her own country’s history. Not because I’m particularly USA-is-better-than-everyone-rah-rah, though I do have a healthy dose of patriotism at times, but because I know that the standards for testing and what people are ‘expected’ to know do contain a lot of American history. I also feel that being informed about your country’s history and government is an essential part of being an involved citizen - which I hope all of my children aspire to be.

With that in mind, I’ve essentially decided not to supplement world history, just covering it through SOTW3 with the accompanying map work, coloring pages, and review questions/narration assignments. The difficulty, though, is that I am sure there will be at least a few things for which I’ll want to make exceptions! I did decide to concentrate our reading comprehension and literature primarily on historical fiction focusing on early American history. That will make some decisions easier, but there are still so very many excellent children’s history books. I also have Zinn-for-kids, want to buy Hakim, and have the Children’s Encyclopedia of American History. Oh, and she got The American Story for Christmas last year!

The difficulty may be finding enough time to read all of these wonderful books.

I also am having doubts about grammar. I don’t really want her doing a fifth grade grammar book in fourth grade. While I know she could handle it, there’s no real advantage to it and I don’t want to push push push for it to happen. Ideally, we’ll add in some supplemental workbooks from both Critical Thinking and Evan-Moore (editing, punctuation), and take the remainder of GWG Grade 3 (just Chapters 4 and 5 remaining, so a total of forty lessons and two chapter reviews) a little more slowly. We’ll still begin GWG Grade 4 soon after finishing GWG Grade 3 (around January?), but take plenty of time to finish it. If she absolutely is bored silly, then we can start GWG Grade 5 in late fourth grade. I do want to add supplemental diagramming workbooks, too. So we’ll still do grammar four or five days a week, but only three days will be in GWG, and one or two days will just be supplemental workbooks. I think the Evan-Moore workbooks are designed to be done daily, so we may do those all grammar days.

The big thing is that it puts us ready for grade five, logic stage grammar on target with fifth grade. I will have to decide between continuing with Growing with Grammar in logic stage or switching after fourth or fifth grade to something like Hake (Grammar and Writing, 5-8). I can see the advantage to switching, to make sure that there are no retention-type problems. I can also see the advantage to staying with what works! Two more years before I have to make that decision… thankfully.

We are, in theory, set for a summer ‘history intensive.’ We’re reviewing Chapters One and Two in Story of the World: Volume Two, and we’re going to ‘do’ Chapter Three tonight as well. In an ideal world, we’ll do at least one chapter a day, sometimes two, depending on how important I deem the material. The goal is to finish the book with some of July remaining. We’ll take, then, the rest of July and all of August free from history, and be ready to start, on schedule, Story of the World: Volume Three when we start third grade work at the beginning of September. I’m so very excited about this coming year of history - 1600 to 1850 includes so many fabulous things, and there are so many fabulous books to which I just can’t wait to introduce her.

I feel a little bit strange about how we’re conducting this middle ages and renaissance time period, but I know we’ll read some books in that “free” July and August time, not to mention the rest of the year, and she’ll cover the same time period again at least twice before she graduates high school. How many people can honestly say that about their own educational experience? I say ‘at least’ twice because our own plans would have her covering it around sixth grade and around tenth grade, but assuming we continue with Master’s Academy, they will do medieval times during her fourth grade her as well.

The status of other subjects for the summer? We’re doing math only to bring her math facts memorization level up to the same level as her understanding. I’m fairly confident that with that done, her math level with skyrocket even more next year. We’re done with grammar until the fall, over halfway through Growing With Grammar Grade 3. We’ll do spelling at least once a week, hopefully more often, since it’s a weak area for her, and hopefully around the beginning of July, we’ll begin doing some science work. We are even further behind in science than we are with history and I’m at something of a loss as to what to do about that. I don’t want to shortchange her chemistry and physics, but until I prove to myself that we’re going to stay on target, I hate to spend even more money on science curriculum. We’ll be working on Latin more or less steadily and as normal.

I like our summer schedule, though. History, Latin, and math drill daily; some practice in spelling; science beginning later in the summer. I know that next week, when we’re all going to day camp, will prove challenging - finding the energy in myself for schoolwork after a long day will be difficult at best - but I think we can do it.

x-posted from my personal blog

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.

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.

Homeschooling is difficult with a toddler. That’s a good summary for our homeschooling life since my last post. We’ve managed to find a new rhythm only in the last two weeks, but I’m feeling very optimistic in some respects. There are other places where I know we can’t really ‘make up for lost time,’ but in many ways, we can, because we kept up in the very basic subjects, and because Gillian is quite smart. We’ll be starting third grade grammar in next week, or when the book arrives, and her mathematics skills are above average for second grade. Her reading level is far above average, but we need to work on comprehension. All of this is easily done.The more difficult subjects arise when it comes to content. We’ve participated in an enrichment program for art, music, and drama this year, and she takes ballet and tap classes as well. It’s history, science, and Latin - the very things we enjoy the most - that we’ve let slide the most. I think it’s because the subjects are not seen as ‘essential’ by the world at large. I have a hard time deciding what to do, as far as supplementing our spine texts for science and history, which further makes us stuck in the mud.  At this point, the plan is to begin a fun, quick, mostly unsupplemented overview of the last of first grade history and science, moving quickly to second grade history and science, finishing sometime during the summer. During the summer, that will be the only subjects we’ll undertake, along with Latin, and we’ll be able to work with history and science during the week quite soon, as we make progress in other areas. Latin we may postpone longer, and really concentrate on it during the summer. I hope! 

I can’t believe it’s already time to start planning in earnest for next year.

I’ve started on my list of items at which to look during the convention. I don’t really want to hear any of the speakers, so we’re just going to pay for entry into the vendor hall. I think that the fee will be worth it both in terms of saving on shipping costs and by the fact that Sam will actually attend with me and look at the materials.

So, at what to look?

I know I want to look at RightStart. At the very least, I want to get the Math Card Games Kit and the Fraction Puzzle. I want to take a look at the scope and sequence of Levels C through E. I don’t think I’ll change programs for Gillian at this point but I haven’t totally decided against it. Finally, I’m seriously considering going ahead and purchasing Level A. I know I want to use it with Jacob starting at some point during his “K3″ year (especially as he’ll be 3 1/2 before we ever start “K3″) but I also thought that some of it could be “fun” for Gillian without her really realizing it’s a form of review.

I know I want to go to the Classical Home Education table. If I haven’t purchased it by then, I want to get R.E.A.L. Science Life (Level One), for use during the remainder of this school year and over the summer. I’m also definitely going to purchase R.E.A.L. Science Earth & Space (Level One) along with the supplemental materials.

I’d like to check out the poetry memorization program that Institute for Excellence in Writing produces. I want to find out more about Phonetic Zoo, too.

I’m waiting on the Sonlight catalogue to see if there’s anything I want to purchase from them. I’m seriously considering purchasing Core 2, or at least parts of it, and using it as a supplement to SOTW 2 (and possibly 3 & 4, since it does cover from the “Dark Ages” onward to modern history). I don’t know. Even though I hate having something scheduled for me, I’m not sure that I don’t need something scheduled for me.

I’m hoping to take a look at various modern language programs. I really still want Gillian to learn Spanish, but I need something that requires little to no teacher interaction. On top of that, I’d prefer something that wasn’t computer-based. I know I’ll have to compromise on at least part of that, which is another reason I want Sam with me. He’s a good sounding board, most of the time.

Luckily I already have what I need for spelling, handwriting, writing, grammar, and history. I have a few “real” books I want to buy for both history and classical studies, but I will do that via amazon. I really have what I need for mathematics as well; the Math Card Games Kit will be a supplement, and it’s highly unlikely I’ll ditch the Miquon/Developmental Math combination with Gillian.

After approximately a year of trying to use the “open” upstairs room as a combined schoolroom/office for me, we’ve thrown in the towel.

While the plan was a good one, it failed to consider one very important factor. Namely, Jacob. He’s not good at playing alone, and putting him in the playroom adjacent only result in tears and screams. I would attempt to teach or read over the noise.

The end result of that was not doing school at all.

Then I merely brought the books down and went back to doing much of our work at the kitchen table. The problems with that, however, were exactly the same as they had been before we moved the schoolbooks up the stairs. I had school papers and books on the table at mealtimes, I had them taking up room on the counter and barstools, and I even had them on Sam’s chair, still, at dinnertime. Worse, the chaos of it all meant that both of us were in a hurry to get school done quickly, ignoring all subjects I could possibly consider non-essential.

Now we’re finally doing what I initially wanted to do when we moved into the house. For whatever reason, I couldn’t see how doing school in the sunroom could possibly work. Now I feel like it’s the only thing that possibly can.

I made a list last week of all that had to be done, from the very obvious (move desk to sunroom) to the not as obvious. The list is not complete, but it’s complete enough that with some work tonight and tomorrow, we should be able to do school in the sunroom beginning on Monday.

Why the sunroom? The sunroom has Jacob’s water table, which will keep him entertained. The sunroom is just off the dining room and kitchen, which will let me give Gillian an assignment and then go to wash breakfast dishes, prepare lunch, or finish other kitchen chores. The sunroom also has the easel, which has a chalkboard on the reverse side, which will also keep Jacob entertained. Will it be easy to keep Jacob entertained, even with those factors? No. We’re going to work on his ability to play by himself, as well. (The goal is thirty minutes by September, plus Fridays I’ll be taking him to the Y for Parents’ Day Out from 9am to 1pm, at least some of the time.)

The peculiar form of masochism, however, is that this involves moving books. The homeschooling books had completely taken over a small, three-shelf bookcase in the office, as well as two shelves of tall, five-shelf bookcase. The tall, six-shelf bookcase in the sunroom held yearbooks (mine as well as Sam’s), one double-shelved row of children’s books, three plus rows of pregnancy, birth, and parenting books, as well as art supplies, API materials, LLL materials, and ALACE materials.

No, I’m still not sure where everything is going to be once we’re done moving books.

The good news is that I should have more than adequate shelf space for the homeschooling books, especially since I commandeered the drop-leaf dining table that acts as a sofa table in the sunroom. I made it into a shelf with bookends.

I still think this is all a form of masochism.