Friday, September 05, 2008

Back to School

You can tell we've been back to a more regular school routine by the fact that there has been little blogging this week. Nathan and Luke started back with math, grammar, memory work, and Latin last week, but this week we also added Caleb back in. Next week it will be Jonathan's turn to start up (see how I'm easing back into this? LOL), and we'll also go back to our regular full complement of subjects, including spelling, history, writing, and science. Wow, is that really all the subjects we do? I guess so. It just SEEMS like more.

I am planning on starting Greek this year. My plan is that we'll just focus on the alphabet until I have the baby (and get around to ordering Elementary Greek), and then we'll go deeper. We're also still doing the recorder, although Nathan is the one who is the most motivated. He's really coming along!

For memory work, we are in the middle of Isaiah 53, which we'll finish, and then I think we'll work on Phil. 2:1-18. We're also memorizing Gen. 1:1-5 in Latin, and after we're done with that, we'll move on to the Apostles' Creed both in English and in Latin. Of course in English we have Rich Mullin's great song to help us along, so that should be a piece of cake. I haven't seen a version in Latin, unfortunately, LOL. Since I don't have any history thing to work on, I'll probably pick a poem from The Harp and Laurel Wreath to start.

In everything else, we're just plugging away. Nathan's almost done with Saxon 7/6, and when he's done with that, he'll start Saxon Algebra 1/2. Sigh . . . one of my babies is starting algebra! I'm so happy. I always loved algebra, so hopefully he'll feel the same way. Luke is still in Saxon 6/5, Caleb in Saxon 2, and Jonathan is in Saxon 1.

We're still going to use Rod and Staff for grammar again this year. I was pleased with it last year (well, technically Nathan and Luke both still have about 20 lessons to go in last year's book, which they are finishing because I am just that anal). I love the emphasis on diagramming. I am a diagramming kind of girl. I always liked those complex sentences our high school English teacher, Mr. Sundberg, used to give us. We're also doing Writing Strands this year. Writing is still a weakness for the boys, and it was never my favorite thing either.

We're still in the 4th Story of the World book, the one covering modern times. We moved slowly on that last year, I'm not sure why. Not for lack of interest and outside reading, that's for sure! I guess we just ended up on a 6 year history plan. It will work out well though. Next year, when we start Ancients again, Caleb and Jonathan will be ready to really participate.

Because we had another friend and her 1 year old daughter over all day Wednesday, I moved some of the Little People out into the family room from the playroom. This has turned out to be a brilliant move, as Anna has been very happy playing with them while we do school. For some reason she never wanted to be in the playroom unless one of the boys was in there with her. Grace has even showed more interest than ever. Nice! We'll see how long that lasts, of course, LOL.

So we're getting back into the school routine. If only I had a housekeeper to take care of all the pesky cleaning--then I'd be set to go!

2 comments:

Johanna said...

How funny that you loved the diagramming but hated the writing. I absolutely abhored the diagramming and loved writing. I find this especially interesting since the whole purpose of diagramming is supposedly a foundation for writing better. LOL. You do so much with the boys. I am still amazed. We do a little Spanish but I would not attempt Latin or Greek with them. I looked at it and thought about it but it just seemed very overwhelming.

Sandra said...

Yeah for diagramming!! It helps so much when writing Latin sentences as well (since the order of the parts of the sentence are different than in English.) When I taught English and Latin and I mentioned diagramming sentences, the entire class looked at me with blank stares. They had no idea what that was. And consequently had a very hard time picking out verbs (yes, I'm not kidding!), direct objects, adverbs, etc. in the sentence. Three cheers for diagramming!!!