I think we can officially say now that we have "started a new school year". I started a new lesson plan book on Monday anyhow. Right before we went to WSS, my order from Rainbow Resource came, and Monday was our first day for some of the new things for this year. We started the new spelling program, How to Teach Spelling, with a review of short vowels and consonant sounds. Might as well build up Nathan's confidence level with stuff he knows! The program focuses on teaching the various letter combinations that make each sound, and there really isn't a list of words for each week and a test a the end. I think that will be good thing for Nathan. Every day there is dictation, both of nonsense words (that just use the rule, so you really have to think about that rule), and of real words, and you are always reviewing the past diphthongs and blends that you have learned. We'll see how it works!
We also started Classical Writing. This writing program is based on the progymnasmata which is a "carefully graded set of composition exercises to prepare the students for the study of formal rhetoric" (from The Latin-Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell). The idea is to study the theory of writing skills you use, then analyze and imitate great writers who are using those skills, and then practice by writing a composition on your own.In the first level, we are studying individual fables. Each week (well, every 2 weeks for us), we take a different fable, analyze it according to what skill we are working on, and then eventually they write their version of the fable, using the skills we've worked on. For me, this is so much better than the old "write a story where you are a historical figure" or other types of creative writing. Some people are really good at that. I'm not, and so far, the boys haven't seemed to be either. This way you are studying what great writers do, and then imitating them, so that eventually (in high school) you can write using a variety of different styles depending on the situation at hand. This is what great speechwriters of the past, such as Abraham Lincoln, did, and it is very effective, especially in situations requiring logical arguments or persuation. Those seem more likely situations for the boys to some day be in, given their personalities, as opposed to needing to creatively write a 500 page novel. So we'll see how the program works. I like the idea of it! We started off Monday with "The Tortoise and the Hare", that old classic.
So that is the new stuff. Luke is still in Saxon 3 for math, and Nathan started mid-August Saxon 6/5. We're still plugging through Story of the World 3 for history. That got short shrift last year with the new baby. We only have 7 more weeks of Latina Christiana 1,and then it will be on to LC 2. That also came in the big box o' goodies from Rainbow. What else . . . for grammar, we're doing Easy Grammer this year, and we're only doing it maybe twice a week, since we do so much grammar in Latin, and also in Classical Writing. I think it will be more on a need-to basis, if I see weak areas or areas we need to review in particular.
I started Caleb officially doing school back in August when Nathan and Luke were at art camp every morning for a week. We're using Veritas Press Phonics Museum, since I already had it all, and Saxon 1 for math. That's pretty much it for him, although he listens in to history and whatever science we do. He picks up some Latin too. I've decided I'll start Prima Latina with him and Jonathan when Caleb is in second grade and Jonathan is in first, like I did for Nathan and Luke. That worked well.
Oh, one other new thing we've started is reading poetry. I went to a homeschool support group meeting the end of August, and poetry was the topic. That has never been a huge interest of mine, but after that night, I went home feeling like I should do more with it. So I dug out my book of classic children's poems and started reading them every morning after our Bible/prayer time. The boys are really enjoying them! I also got a book of Shel Silverstein poems the last time I was at the library, and those have been big hits too. Who knew?!
Our homeschool co-of, TNT, started today. It was Caleb's first time to be in a class, and he was so very excited. He gets to take his backpack with his lunch in it, as well as his pencil box. He skipped the whole way across the parking lot. The first unit is on problem-solving. The next unit (end of October-November) is Ancient Greece, which is what I am teaching this year. I guess I should get on that, LOL. Anyhow, at home I only have Jonathan and Anna. It was so quiet!
So now you are all caught up on where we are for this school year!
No comments:
Post a Comment