Thursday, October 08, 2009

New and old learning techniques

Back when I was a newbie to homeschooling I fell in love with The Well-Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason. It was the education that I wanted for myself. Unfortunately, the approach did not mix with Mary at 6, or 7, or even 8. She wanted to DO, to be on the go and of course her reading lag did not help. So, we fell into a mix of materials and a lot of child-led activities. By mix and blending; sometimes pushing and sometimes waiting Mary, and then Katie, have grown and learned.

Ever the optimist, I planned out to start this year trying out a literature-based approach to history, a blend of living books for science and keep my fingers crossed. And, wow, at 9 & 7 they are really enjoying learning this year. I'm enjoying teaching this year. Add in that they LOVE Math Mammoth and the style it is presented so far...and I am almost giddy.

Today, we finished with school by 1:30pm but the girls were so into the the books we are reading that we kept going until just before 3pm.

Yesterday I found out something nifty...I could download You Tube videos to our mp3 players. Which means Mary can listen and watch videos such as these as often as she wants.





And, yes, she just about has the Presidents all memorized.

Homeschooling is FUN!!

Peace,

Amy

1 comment:

Aurora Orsini said...

What if someone cooks up a plan to make cartoons that would help people learn the complicated stuff being taught in college? Haha! Anyway, there are kids who want to learn in a "my pace, my way" style. It's good that she's able to catch up, even if she has this reading lag.

A family of six living and learning. You might catch us outside in the mud or working on crafts. We always seem to be on the go, come on and join us.