Looking ahead
I finally made some decisions regarding next year for the children regarding grammar and writing and feel at peace with the choices I made. I like to always be looking ahead to the next year as we work through the current year so I know where we need to be when we get there. I have struggled this year to feel at peace about some of our choices and it’s nice to now know the next year as a plan, as well as a back up 
The children tried Rod & Staff Grammar this year but Bugaboo absolutely hated it! It was so hard to have him so upset about 10 minutes of his day. After much thought we dropped it. We completed two units and I know that information is more than a lot of kids get in a year. At this point we borrowed the Michael Clay Thompson Grammar Island to read together. It has been fun but I can see Cutiepatootie doesn’t get the funny stories, so she probably isn’t getting the entire gist of the lessons. She liked Rod & Staff grammar though. Do I put her back in it but allow Bugaboo to do a less thorough program? I really would like to offer the same education to my children. That has been my dilemma.
I really like the idea of Charlotte Mason education but our History, Math and literature choices are going so well. I don’t feel the urge to dump our entire routine to pick up theirs. I am however intrigued by some of the ideas. We have followed a Classical model of education so far and been pleased with it. I am not strong in language arts so this model served well in making sure they had a solid foundation. However, I like the idea of more gentle grammar since my son despises it so much. The question is could I teach a more relaxed grammar and he still learn from it? I certainly did not learn much in grammar, lol! Cathy Duffy mentions repeatedly in her, “100 Top Picks for Homeschool”, book that if you are using a strong grammar program you don’t need to do it every year. Hmmm, this idea intrigued me! So if we do a solid program like Rod & Staff one year then we could review the next year while focusing on writing? That idea I could feel at peace with. So the children will be doing Daily Grams next year for our grammar review. They have had solid grammar for years. I think a light review for a year is deserved and they won’t forget what they know. Writing was harder. In this case my younger loves to write and would do anything I threw at her in that area. My older is not into writing and I really do not want my children at the same level for math or language arts. There is too much competition to bring academics to that venue. It would not be fair to either one. The problem is I did not feel drawn to any writing programs at the elementary level. Many were challenging. Many were detailed. Many looked boring, boring, boring! I have to teach it. They have to do the lessons. I knew that we would be miserable. Then I realized they could be in different programs. Age wise Cutiepatootie just isn’t ready for a challenging writing program. Mentally Bugaboo doesn’t want to do a writing program. This week I came across Writing Tales and knew it was perfect for Bugaboo. It’s classical in nature but allows freedom of thought at the end. For Cutiepatootie I found the Royal Fireworks Press Aesop’s Fables. It’s a lot of coloring and writing! Perfect for my drawing child. I have no idea where I will put her later on but this year it’s the right fit and it will get writing focused on.
So we will continue with grammar this year using Sentence Island and Practice Island from the MCT items. Next year grammar will be a daily short review and we will focus on writing. I finally feel at peace with the choices we made.
As far as my Charlotte Mason interest goes we will be doing the Artist and Hymn studies. I believe Module 6 for each. Science will be through Sonlight. I could say we will add in Nature Study like we did last year but I do not know. Depends on the weather and how much else we get done in a day. We are still very Classical. At this point it would be hard to change everything to go that way. It does not feel right to do so. Perhaps if we had started out in that area. Who knows. Right now I feel good about our educational choices. I feel like everything is being covered. I look forward to next year. Means we have to finish this year first
This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:28 am and is filed under Education 2010-2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
