Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

We finished most of our school this week! That's a good feeling of accomplishment. We learned about tornadoes and hurricanes, the Greeks and first Olympiad, and how fun adding to our timeline can be. We did have a revelation though. It is OK to change when something isn't working. You don't have to stick with something just because you purchased it. That is one of the many beauties of homeschooling. We are running in to this with our language arts.

Now let me preface this by saying that I absolutely adore how our language arts curriculum is taught. You learn to read by both phonics and sight words, and you learn grammar and composition by copying passages from what you have read. It helps reinforce everything when you tie it together through multiple subjects.

To get to my point of why we are struggling. The books used are very old verbiage (think nag for a horse) and have multiple names that sound similar (Hal, Val, Sam, Pam, etc). I am lost at what is going on. Imagine how a 6 year old feels! How overwhelming. He was crying when I pulled this book out. Learning how to read, or really learning anything, should never equate to tears.

With all of that said, I did some research. And I came across a program that I think is going to work wonderfully. It trades off reading between the teacher and student, there are activity sheets, and lesson plans. Best of all? It is free. The more I look at this program, the more I can see it working beautifully for us. We ordered a new printer as ours broke in the move. As soon as it arrives, we'll get started!

We also started Tee-ball this week! The boys absolutely loved it. They had such a great time. We could have done without the 90+ degree weather, but we can't control that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's All Greek To Me

Image
It is quite amazing how fun school can be, when you cater it to your child's learning and interests. Using good literature helps a lot with that too. We have been enjoying learning about The Ancient Greeks this week! The Parthenon, Olympics, city-states, and Hoplites have been topics of conversation around our house this week. We learned how the city-states were all at war with each other regularly, but had to follow a peace treaty during holidays. You know it is good when the 6 year old sees their history book and says, "Ancient Greeks! Yes!" We have also been learning about counting by 100's, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and how igneous and sedimentary rocks are formed. He can tell you all about how fossils are created as well. Since he wants to be a paleontologist, this is of utmost importance to him. Artie has really enjoyed some of the stories we're reading as well! I mean, who wouldn't like a story about a talking cat leading a boy to a trapped ...
Read more

From This Moment

Image
We had one of those moments this week. You know what I mean. The moment that something clicks. That something is fun. That you want more of it. Jonny asked me to finish a couple of our books we were reading. He asked me to keep reading because he had to know what happened next! He does this a lot with other books, but not typically his school books. He always enjoys the books, but just wants to play. That was so fun to see the excitement in his eyes when we got to the end of a suspenseful chapter, and to beg for more because you just can't stop. Artie has been more eager to want to do school. Jonny gets jealous because his school work takes longer. Qualms of being older, my boy. Matty locked himself in our bedroom and we had to call 911 to get him out. Poor guy was so terrified that it broke my heart. And then he road rashed his face on our driveway. He had a rough day. We also had another big thing happen. My husband has had a dream for many years. A dream that has fal...
Read more

New school year

Image
We are gearing up for our new school year, and the boys are very excited! They love school. They enjoy the fun books we read throughout the year, the one on one time with mom, and the flexibility homeschooling allows us. They each have their strengths, and their struggles. The beauty that we have is that we can embrace those strengths and move at their pace, and we can tailor their struggles to what they each individually need. This year, we are trying something new. We are going to be doing year round again, but we are mostly going to be following our YMCA schedule so we can take breaks about every 5 or 6 weeks. Bring on 1st grade and Pre-Kindergarten! And a rowdy 2 year old who likes to get in to everything he can.
Read more