SCHOLA: Homeschool Lite

Monday, February 07, 2005

Homeschool Lite

Today started out with good intentions and we all know where those lead, right?

After dropping the little one off at preschool, we ran by the bank and the post office to do a few quick errands before returning home and hitting the books. Then, being in the neighborhood, I remembered the $10.00 Staples gift card I had in my wallet, a promotion to visit the store's post-Charley reopening, which was about to expire, and the print cartridge I need to replace. We stopped in there. On the way home I saw signs for a big quilt show scheduled for today and tomorrow that I had intended to see, but had forgotten about. Had to drop in to admire the displays and buy a few raffle tickets. While we were there, I received a call that my old laptop, yeah, the same one supposedly fixed last spring, was ready to be picked up. Back across town we went. We grabbed sandwiches at our grocery store's deli and then it was time to pick the little one up already.

One down, four to go.

Tomorrow is P.E. day, the girls are working on their Presidential Fitness Award with the homeschool group, followed by swimming lessons.

Wednesday we are heading down to Naples to play with our snowbird homeschool friends! Yay!

Thursday S has an orthodontic consultation, the preschool has early dismissal, and they all have swimming lessons.

Friday is a day off for the preschoolers, which means with L home, we won't get our schoolwork done either.

Better luck next week.

----

On a more productive note, I believe I have finally found a spelling curriculum that works for G. McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book is so simple. The words are arranged in groups by construction and use diacritical marks. The book is small and slender, like the famous McGuffey readers, so is not the least bit intimidating. There are a total of 247 word lists. G is very excited. We started with the first list, one syllable words, short "a" sound spelled "a" (am, an, at, etc.) Being so easy, it was a great confidence builder. Spelling Power's format of the daily test and review of misspelled words was effective, but the word lists jumped around too much. We'll continue in a format similar to Spelling Power using McGuffey's lists. Some of the words are very old-fashioned, "wen" and "ken" for example, which required some explanation, and it was funny to see her squirm when asked to spell "fag" and "sex."

No comments:

Post a Comment

SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.