Human Nature

Is it human nature or just my nature that already my learning plans have changed?  Meaning:  FOUR DAYS INTO SCHOOL.  Our first week is going well.  Which is to be (sort of) expected as I've been thinking obsessively about this for months.  But interestingly enough a few things became crystal clear to me within the first two days.  And our plans have changed a bit.  Not drastically (if you don't count money wasted....ouch) but enough to cause me to rework our plans.

Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading just didn't work out.  It REALLY didn't work.  I was drawn to this because it is touted as a complete 4-year language arts curriculum that preps kids for The Latin Road to English Grammar.  As I love Well-Trained Mind and the idea of classical education, and as latin really does make so much sense as a first experience with another language I thought this sounded great!  But I was told that a student, even if already reading, still needs to start with year 1....and it is just sooooooo dry and, well, impersonal and BORING (agh!  the teacher's videos were real bombs!).  The readers that she'd be reading at the end of the year are ones she can read already.  And I will NOT spend another $200 on the next level up when she does not offer refunds/exchanges for a product that we are not going to use. I've switched to a combination of a few things:  Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (to solidify the phonics), Journaling a la Diane Hopkins (which includes spelling and general language lessons), First Language Lessons (haven't started...we'll see as we go),  Spelling Workout A (recommended by WTM...I've ordered it but it may not be necessary if "Diane spelling" is working out), and READING--letting her read to me and the boys and just getting her reading a lot.

The journaling has been a big success and Wendy was so enthusiastic today when we started learning to tell time.  Tomorrow we end our week with a simulation archaeological dig in the sandbox