Well after my marathon planning day on Saturday, including the 2am bedtime because I wanted to get it ALL written down, I spent Sunday afternoon just looking over my plans and going through the books, again. I wrote it all out after midnight, so I figured the chances that I had messed something up were pretty good.
It turns out that I didn’t mess anything up, but as usual, I had over-planned. What is it about book lists that makes me turn into a legalist?! Seriously, I have NO idea what I was thinking, writing plans down for all of those books. Our main curriculum is An Old Fashioned Education, which provides a massive reading list. After laying out the books in categories, History/Biography, Social Studies, Literature, Nature, I was able to decide where I had overdone it. I removed a total of five books from the list, and came down to just what we need.
This term we are covering Ancient Greece. It seems like so many of the books on the OFE list cover mythology that it was really overkill. Some families may choose to cover all of it, but I don’t feel that delving deeply into the false gods of Greece is the best way to teach my sons to follow the Lord. Not only that, but they are in 2nd and 4th grades… they don’t need to become Greek scholars quite yet! 🙂
The list we came down to is this:
- Bible: Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible (daily)
- Literature: continuing with Poems Every Child Should Know (daily); The Iliad for Boys and Girls (Tu/Th) by Church
- History: continuing with On the Shores of the Great Sea (M/W) by Synge
- Biography: Tales of the Greeks- The Children’s Plutarch (Tu/Th) by Gould; Famous Men of Greece (M/W) by Haaren
- Social Studies/Geography: The Spartan Twins (F) by Fitch-Perkins; Home Geography for Primary Grades (Tu/Th) by Long
We started school on Monday, and thus far we have finished school at 11:50 two days in a row!! It amazes me, but it shouldn’t. I planned carefully, looked at the reading realistically, and didn’t take on more than I can handle. These are in addition to our math, spelling, grammar and handwriting, of course. Science isn’t on the list because I haven’t quite figured out yet, but I will over the course of this week and we’ll begin it again next week. It will be our only after lunch subject. For now, this is enough.
As Joy at the Five J’s posted, lack of planning is a sure way to fail at homeschooling. (I know I linked to her in another post but her post is SO great, SO true, and SO necessary for us to pay attention to!) This term, I planned. I wrote it down. And I am following it. Hoping for many more repeats of the past two days!
How were YOUR first days back to homeschooling?
I have been following your site for a while. It sounds like your first week back is going great! Our first days back were wonderful. We just started homeschooling this year, and this is the first time our kids have not been reluctant to go "back to school" after Christmas break. They were up, dressed and ready to go – with pleasant attitudes no less – on time Monday morning. Our children are 12, 9 and 4, and on Monday and Tuesday our two older children were finished with all their lessons before lunch. I'm glad to hear that you were blessed as well!
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Um. Is that a trick question? LOL
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Our Christmas break was only two weeks and yet we had a lot of Urghs and Arghs and Harumphs this week. Needless to say it's been less than enjoyable. The 4th/5th grader forgot how interesting she previously found history/geography and science. The 1st grader forgot that she can't use the "I can't" argument with reading anymore. The 4 year old forgot that he can't bug his sisters to play with him while they are working and they forgot that they can't run off and do it when he asks!
My, my, how quickly we "forget" things. 😉
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