Thursday, September 24, 2009

homeschool so far

we are ending our third week of school. i'm just marveling about how it's gone. it's gone SO much easier than i had hoped. the kids are really enjoying it and so am i!
henry is the only one giving problems. i really have to hold his hand at certain times of the day. the first week he bucked at how much math he'd have to do. i just wrote it out as he did it orally- no fuss, no muss. just took it lightly and easily, showing him that it's not really that big of a deal. the second week he was sick. this third week he's done better. i've told him to just set a ten or fifteen minute timer and just do math for that time. when the timer goes off, then just stop. now, i thought this advice i got from a friend would surely mean that he would just fiddle for 15 minutes and then close his book. but, NO! he busts his bum to get it ALL done. in between subjects if i don't watch him, he'll go off and find a book and hide and read.
the other kids- max and samantha- they really pound it out. they want to get through with it quickly.
"what's next?" they'll say.
i have a spreadsheet i write up sometime the week before telling them what to do. there is a section where they can check off each task.
henry's subjects are history, backyard naturalism, poetry, vocabulary, math, latin&greek, music, religion, and geography.
samantha has the same but no science.
max has the same as samantha but no greek&latin or history.
i'm following suggestions from laura berquist's book designing your own classical curriculum

2 comments:

Momma said...

Wierd! I wanted to ask you how you liked the curriculum. I liked what you shared with me on the phone, and I like what I have seen on the net. I really wish I had seen this curriculum when I went a'searchin' for home studies.

I hope to read this book that you have suggested to get a better idea of what these studies include.

I would wonder if it could transition smoothly from the lessons we are currently on. As I like the studies we have been using, I would prefer something more along the religious lines.

I can't state enough of how I had seen this earlier. I guess that is also the coolness of homeschool. We can switch it up anytime!

elizabeth said...

i think it would be pretty easy to start incorporating some. religion is basically the baltimore catechism book no. 1 for your oldest. history has alot of religion in it so i'd switch to a more catholic take. latin and greek right now is just root word cards. this week was tropos, metron, and philia.
it's really super easy and the kids love it. that's really the important part- nurturing the love of learning. so key.

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