A Very Wordy Wednesday...

Another beautiful sunrise on my way to work

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Lao Tzu

A couple of things with our new plans are not working out as well as I'd like. But, you know what? That's okay, because I have back-up plans too! And some things are better than I had hoped, so it's not all bad!

The Misses

Our science program ... :( I wanted it to work. I really did, but it just isn't resonating with my kids, and when they don't match up well with a learning tool, they don't learn. So, we're back to BFSU, with topical books from the library, and The Boy's beloved Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (oh, and Janice VanCleave books plus all our various project books for the hands-on aspect). More documentaries too, since we love those! I took some time yesterday during The Boy's fencing class to check off all the lessons we have done and to put the rest in the order I'd like to do them, planning to finish up volume 1 this year so we can start volume 2 this fall. We're starting off with some energy studies, and I was lucky enough to find a few library books right off the bat, no holds! I think a big part of the issue here is that the kids don't want to wait another year or so before getting into physics, or even another half year before learning about geology. BFSU intertwines topics, since all of science is really related, so we get to explore all four major branches throughout the year.

Story of Ancient Greece... hmmm. Can I just say it didn't harmonize with what we want? Don't get me wrong--it is a lovely book, but something about it just doesn't appeal that much to my kids.

The Big Hits

K12's Human Odyssey... WOW! We've read just a few chapters, since I only read aloud from it once a week. It is well-written, enjoyable, easy to read aloud, and we're learning a lot about ancient Mesopotamia!

The National Art Gallery's Activity Book -- True, we've only done one activity from it so far, but it was so much fun! (I wish I had made one too... I should do that!) I personally like the balance of information and hands-on.

Brave Writer Lifestyle... I think the key here is that we do a variety of writing projects, not just pages x-x of a pre-written program every day. We've done grammar this week, and read poetry as well as some reading about poetry, done some copywork, and The Boy is scheduled to do some free-writing this week as well.

The Shoes Books... a bigger hit even than the American Girls books for The Girl! We just finished up Ballet Shoes, and we're going to get going with Dancing Shoes. I loved, loved, loved these books myself between the ages of 9-11'ish, so I am not surprised she's enjoying them too. If you haven't already, you can read her review of Ballet Shoes here.

And Truckin' Along

Explode The Code and Beyond the Code... The Girl is making real, tangible, good progress in reading! She's doing ETC by herself and then having me check the answers. She reads aloud to me every day, and she's remembering words she had trouble with before, like "the" and short words with long vowel sounds, etc. I didn't put this under Big Hits only because while she does the work willingly, it is not like she totally looks forward to it.

Soaring with Spelling...  I like this program because with the pre-tests each week, I can see where exactly he is struggling, and then we can work on that. I like that it has review units built in. Between this and Word Roots, The Boy is finally spelling a bit better!

Coming Up

And we're officially studying for the National Mythology Exam. I am only hoping that the registration paperwork made it in before the deadline--I do wish they had online registration... I almost missed the deadline, and am crossing my fingers that the snail mail form made it in on time!

Oh, and The Boy decided he needs to read through the entire set of A Series of Unfortunate Events! Thankfully I have the first several books on hand already!

And it is back to school for me! Tonight I head off for a new semester, with...

I'm taking the "advanced" Shakespeare class, with a professor whose specialty is indeed the Bard. I'm halfway really looking forward to this class, and I am halfway nervous, since I have no idea how advanced it is, or what the workload will be like. We're reading 4 of his plays over the semester-- Pericles, Coriolanus, Hamlet, and The Tempest. Out of that list, I have previously read only the last two.

I'm also nervous about my directed writing units. I meet with the professor for that class just once a month, and I have to write ten pages of nonfiction each month. What to write about first?

Anyhow, enough rambling for the moment. Hope you're having a good week!