Time for an Evaluation
No New Year’s Resolutions for me. They are too easily forgotten. Instead, in regards to our homeschool year, I am going evaluate what has been working and what has not. After finishing our first week back after the holiday break, here are my thoughts.
What has been working this school year:
1. Using Sonlight Core 1 for both children. They love the books so much so that Pumpkin Girl usually asks to borrow them when we’ve finished one. Most of the time she’ll reread the whole thing, whether it’s a history book or a novel, over the course of a day or two. Then she’ll hoard it in her personal stash or in her “secret place”, affectionately known as the Pit of Never Return (they named it that, not me!). We do whatever Science experiments interest us and that we can manage to do with Nicholas underfoot. Boo completes the science worksheets, Pumpkin does not.
2. Explode the Code books. My children are both very strong readers, but they can use a little phonics practice. The ETC books are perfect for them and don’t involve a lot of writing. Phil says that they like them so much because they are Chinese and all good Chinese students thrive on workbooks. This from a man who’s report card once said, “Philip does not finish all of his homework.”
3. Horizons Math. I tried so hard to make Singapore Math work, I really did! I struggled with math my whole life and hoped to give Boo a good foundation in “mental math.” But it just wasn’t a good fit. I actually started him halfway through the first Kindergarten math book. I had him doing 3 pages a day to make sure all the basic concepts were in place. When we reached shaky ground, we slowed day to a page a day, then sped back up when we were ready. He’s now in Horizons 1. I console my competitive nature by reminding myself that Horizons is said to be advanced by one year.
4. Reading to Learn Readers for Pumpkin. Having a kindergartner reading at a 3rd and 4th grade level presents itself with some interesting problems. Mainly, how to provide her with the opportunity to increase her reading skills while keeping in mind that maturity-wise, she is very much just 6 years old. I found the answer in these wonderful Mennonite readers. The difficulty level is perfect. New vocabulary words are in bold and you can look them up in the glossary in the back. The stories are very wholesome, with good moral messages. I didn’t buy the teachers manuals, but I don’t think I really needed them. Pumpkin often stops reading right in the middle of the story to tell me what she thinks is going to happen next or what the characters should do. I can tell she has no trouble with comprehension!
What has not been working
1. Spelling tests for Boo. They were like pulling teeth. In doing a little research, I discovered that most of his spelling mistakes aren’t really mistakes. He spells phonetically, it’s just that the English language doesn’t follow it’s own rules. By doing dictation and copywork, most of these spelling “mistakes” will correct themselves. We’ve dropped spelling completely.
2. Following the Sonlight Language Arts reading schedule. With Boo also reading above grade level, sticking to the LA 2 schedule just wasn’t working. I’m already having him do 2 reading assignments a day, and he would do more if I’d let him. I don’t want to drop the readers completely because all the books are so good, and I don’t want to move him into the Core 3 readers because at that point, they line up with the history books.
3. The Sonlight Language Arts worksheets. I think they contain w-a-y too much grammar for a 2nd grader.
4. Boo’s religious education classes. My first cause for concern came when Boo would come home with a 6×4 index card filled with his 2nd grade printing of one of the prayers that he was supposed to know. Printing out the Our Father is a lot of writing for a 7 or 8 year old, especially when it’s on an index card, not the handwriting paper they are used to. It was supposed to be study guide, but 1) it was practically illegible and 2)he’s known the Our Father since before kindergarten. It seemed like a lot of busy work for this very important year of First Reconciliation and First Communion. I’m not going to bash his class any further because I am not in a position to help, so at this point it would be nothing but gossip. Suffice to say, I’m not too happy with the situation.
What I’m going to change for the remainder of the school year.
1. I found a different set of readers for Boo, this time they are Amish. I don’t want both children using the same ones because Pumpkin was soooo delighted to have her very own readers that no one in the family had read before. I’m hoping that Boo’s new readers will also allow him to read at a 4th or 5th grade level, while not being too mature for him.
2. I still have all the wonderful readers from Sonlight. I have decided to let the children read these by themselves instead of out loud. I’ll give them an assigned amount of reader, probably following the Sonlight LA instructor guide. Then, they will do a narration of the chapter they read. I will use the dictation/copywork from Sonlight that is taken from the readers.
3. I am going to drop the grammar exercises in favor of copywork from other sources. We will study grammar another time. I’m going to use The Writer’s Jungle as a guide for writing assignments.
4. I ordered catechism books from Seton Home Study. I had the chance to look at them at a friend’s house and I think they’ll do the trick. I won’t pull the children out of religious ed because they enjoy the socialization (ack! it’s the S word!). They were excited to see our new religion books when they were delivered this morning, so I don’t think it will be too hard to incorporate them into our schedule. At least this way, whatever busy work they are doing in class, at least I know they are being well educated at home.
So there you have it, where we’ve been and where we’re going. I’m hoping Boo’s new readers show up soon. When we’ve tested them I’ll report back.
