Making changes...

Making changes is part of what homeschooling is all about, at least in my mind. Changes allow us to pursue things differently, to take new paths and explore new rabbit trails.

The first change is just for Cassia, from Modern Curriculum Press' "Plaid" Phonics and Spelling Workout to All About Spelling. Why the change? Well, while we like the looks of the MCP books, they just didn't keep Cassia's attention long enough to learn anything from. When she is asked to basically just read and write, she gets bored quickly. Yes, chances are she has some learning issues, but since I am not having her diagnosed at this point, it is really only a suspicion (very high functioning Asperger's seems most likely). All About Spelling offers a multisensory approach... kinesthetic, visual, and auditory. I like how easy the program is to implement. Even though we have just started, I have read the whole teacher's manual, and it is all very clearly laid out.

I plan to have her keep using Primary Language Lessons as well, two to three times a week. We do this primarily as oral exercises, although I have her do copywork as well.

Our other change is, once again, history. While we are really enjoying reading A Little History of the World, our overall history seems a bit... well, lackluster. I have been thinking about the fact that we didn't really do much last year (basically unschooling that didn't work for us), and I had really wanted to cover American history. I reviewed the Core Knowledge sequence I had downloaded some time back, and my extensive notes on it, and thought we'd switch gears for a while, covering American history from pre-Columbus through colonial times between now and Christmas break. After Christmas break, we'll switch back to world history, covering ancient Mesopotamia through ancient Greece, and including units on ancient India and China, unless the kids want to stick with American history. I have a ton of resources for American history, from 3D map printouts to craft books, and much, much more. To make it appeal to Cassia, I am using the American Girls books, and to appeal to Cyrus, select titles from the My Name is America series, and homemade lapbooks. I'll continue to read good books aloud to both kids as we go. I'm thinking we'll approach it as literature-based unit studies... starting with The Birchbark House, then a good book each on Columbus, and Pilgrims/colonialism.

For science right now, we're going to continue with The Story Book of Science, with occasional other books added in, and some hands-on stuff. We also have 4H projects like Flight Dynamics, a biweekly kitchen chemistry lesson at a friend's house, and starting this week, monthly experiments from Totally Irresponsible Science. And wherever I can tie science into our history studies, I will.

In other news, I have been having a hard time deciding on my path through graduate school. After much discussion with M, I have decided to take some time off from formal academics after this semester. I may take a pottery class, or painting, but nothing that requires numerous essays and papers. I need to refocus, and decide where I want to go. And speaking of changing my path, I have a job interview on Tuesday for a job I would really like to do in place of the job I have now. We'll see how it all turns out!