We are now 11 weeks into the school year.  How did that happen?  Time just goes way to fast nowadays.  After a few weeks in, I started tweaking, and now we've sort of thrown out those lesson plans I worked so hard writing.

I have been reading lots of Ruth Beechick lately.  I think she's almost as inspiring to how I home educate as Charlotte Mason.  And in a lot of ways, I think they are very similar.

One of the things that needed adjusting, is Robbie's reading lessons.  He's been struggling, and we had already dropped spelling since it seemed pointless--if you can't read, you can't spell.  So, I've gone and dug out our I Can Read It books from Sonlight, as well as the Language Arts 1 I had put away.   We just started it today, but already I can see it's a better fit.

For Sarah, we are using the language lessons provided in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully.  I think once we've gone through those I'll dig out the Sonlight Language Arts 2 -- Reading With Chapter Books that I have put away.  She wants to be a writer, and this just seems a better fit for her than workbooks.  I think she remembers things better when they are used in context.    She is enjoying the lessons, except that it requires her to do dictation--which she hates.  I'm hoping it will help with her listening skills though, because that is an area that needs a LOT of work.

I've also adjusted our history lessons a bit.  Sarah is using History Odyssey, which was taking her hours at a time to complete.  Currently we are studying the Normans.  Instead of doing the whole lesson in one day  (which requires reading a chapter from a history text, 2 pages from Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, outlining that history reading, marking dates on a timeline, mapwork, and 2 short entries written about the Domesday book and the Bayeux Tapestry--WAY too much for one lesson!!) we are reading the historical novel The Striped Ships aloud, and taking our time to complete all those assignments.  Plus she's listening in on the Story of the World chapter about the Norman Conquests.  She is actually almost enjoying her history lessons now!  Yay! 

Sarah is also participating in National Novel Writing Month.  She is having fun just writing without worrying about making complete sense.   It's also helping her to work on description in her writing.   She tends to write only part of what's in her head--leaving the rest of us to wonder what she's talking about sometimes.  I'm hoping that stretching her writing to meet the word requirement (I think she's supposed to hit 10,000 words) will help her to get all the story written down.

I like the way our school year is shaping up.  We're adding in a few lapbooks here and there, and I've got a wall time line idea brewing as well.   I love it when my kids tell me that they love school!!

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