yes, we are still here :)

I haven't been posting simply because we've been too busy actually schooling and living. But we are definitely still on track. We had a great Halloween and Thanksgiving and are now closing in on Christmas.  I'm trying to incorporate the holidays even if we don't do a full unit study on them.  So we learned about the history of Hannukah and lit a menorah on Monday. Yesterday we watched a PBS documentary on the childhood of Jesus. Today we will watch the History Channel special "Christmas Unwrapped" and continue to read aloud from Dickens.

We have added in The Story of the World,, both the book and the activity guide, which corresponds to the The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia perfectly.  I read aloud the chapter in Story of the World, then Michale reads the corresponding pages in the Kingfisher book independently. We do the map work and the tests as well.  He really likes it and it adds a bit of context to the reading we were already doing.

I also purchased Typing Instructor For Kids Platinum (Windows/Mac), as it was on sale and I had a gift certificate to Amazon. Michael has done very well with the free program we were using so I felt justified upgrading.  Today he actually did more lessons than assigned, so I think that was the right decision!

Our other big change is in writing. Rather than plugging along we are backtracking a bit, to pick up some of the foundational skills that the public schools just didn't cover. The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease: Instructor Text (The Complete Writer) is our guide in this. On the advice of more experienced schoolers we are working our way through levels 2-4 at an accelerated pace. The objective is to use dictation and narration to build up the mental skills one  needs to write well.  An excellent lecture on the reasoning behind this is found here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/elementary-grades-mp3.html. It is WELL worth the 3 dollar price tag.  If you have young children I can't recommended it highly enough!

I know it probably seems like we have made a lot of detours and course corrections in our homeschooling journey this year. My thought is that one of the benefits of homeschooling is being able to tailor the education to the child's needs. This first year is all about determining those needs and finding the programs that best serve them.  So far I've been very happy with all the curriculum choices we have made, some have just been a better fit than others. Some educational testing that Michael had done last week may give me even more insight regarding his strengths and weaknesses, and help me to help him even more.

On a totally different note I realized one of the benefits of homeschooling this week.  We've all been pretty sick, and not up to doing "regular" schoolwork. However, rather than waste the time entirely we've watched several documentaries each day, and read aloud, and read independently.  I feel that we've covered our Science, Social Studies, and Religion objectives for the week while getting to stay curled up on the couch under blankets!