Maturity

This week has surprised me with homeschooling. This transition to Charlotte Mason was primarily for Davy. So I was anticipating spending much more time with him. But as it turns out he has taken to it like a fish in water. He is demonstrating comprehension of our reading assignments. His handwriting is so precious and neat that I wish I could turn it into a font. He made a 95 on his spelling test and has shown such great understanding of his Latin lesson that I am sure that he will ace his quiz tomorrow.

He still dilly dallies some due to his ADHD but he seems to be more hungry for knowledge. He spent over an hour on Khan Academy doing math assignments. That was over double his required time. He is spending much more time and effort on his piano practice. He is a math and science guy so fine arts isn't really his forte.

We had done overkill on science books over the past couple years so I was planning on just doing hands on projects once a week. But every day, he was asking for a science assignment so I added the physical science research from Easy Peasy online curriculum. 

What happened over the two month break? Seems he matured so rapidly. We want our kids
to grow but it is so bittersweet. Before we know it, he'll be off to college. I'm proud of how well he is doing and truly amazed at how far he has come. His reading speed is still slow and still a very literal thinker but if that is all we have to worry about then there are really no worries at all.

Charlotte Mason - first three days

We have homeschooled year round in the past. I loved the flexibility and summer time structure. This year, we had covered so much material and the older boys understand that other schools get summer breaks so I opted for a summer break from May to August.

I hated it! We did take some fun field trips but our days lacked the purpose and structure that homeschooling provides. But I kept it to myself and resisted the urge to start early. But this week, my oldest came to me asking for a test.

I said, "A test? Are you wanting to start fifth grade already?"

He said, "Yeah!"

I said, "Ok, let's talk to your brother."

Davy presented the idea to James and James agreed. So Wednesday was our first day of the new school year.

I have been planning since January. I have a shelf full of books to go through this year. We have used an eclectic method over the past four yrs and that worked pretty well. But there needs to be more focus on reading comprehension so Charlotte Mason is the method I chose. I wondered if I had too much for them.

So far, it has gone great. We did about half the work of week 1. We have done the weekly art lesson and science project. They have done some history, literature, grammar and more. We will finish up the first week next week keeping it pretty light because we are introducing a more demanding history curriculum and Latin. I want them to get a strong start. The next week will be our first attempt at a normal week. But even Friday which involved half the day gone from a trip to the pediatrician for the little one was very productive. So I have no doubt that we can fit in trips to the library and museums

But the totally best part of homeschooling was Friday night. I was peeling peaches and the boys were showing curiosity in the parts. So I gave them a peach pit to wash. They got their science notebooks and sketched the pit. They wrote a title and then listed observations, questions and hypothesis. We researched online and found a picture showing a cross section of the peach so one boy could draw the peach and label all the parts. The other started adding pages with insect drawings since classifying bugs was our science project this week. We have created an environment where all of life is about
learning rather than having learning confined to libraries and rooms with desks.