Keeping on Track (and Finding a Track to Follow)
It is now, in the Midwest, midwinter, and now is about the time when I begin losing track of where I want our homeschool path to go. The winter blahs have set in particularly hard this year, because the Lord has seen fit to drop tons of ice and snow on us here in Nebraska. If wrapping up in a warm blanket and hibernating was an option, I would be the first in and the last out. My Jasper is the same, only much crankier.
I used to lose track of what I wanted to teach Jazz during these months, due to trying so hard to keep warm and to get my sluggish self into doing the housework and cooking. I would be so disappointed in myself, and in Jasper, for not living up to some unrealistic goals I had set for myself as well as him (for how can he do things that I cannot seem to accomplish, when I am the leader here?) I was getting more and more away from the whole idea of homeschool, and then I began to take a different approach to my own thinking.
One of the ways I used to find a track to follow was to get a copy of our local public schools' informative pamphlets about what your child should know, grade by grade. Some of this I used, and some of this I didn't, and a lot of it I embellished. I also have made extensive use of the series, "What Your Second Grader Should Know" which has a book for every grade level. These provided a good, classical education, and really gave me a lot of things to add to our curriculum. I also, before I give Jasper a new concept to learn that will be difficult (i.e., anything mathematical) I begin at the beginning. For example, this year we are working on fractions, so I made sure he had a pretty good understanding of multiplication and division. Then for the "meatier" parts of beginning real fraction work, I got curriculum books from the library beginning with first grade math. We proceeded to second and third grade, and will continue on until we reach his seventh grade level, and go on from there. The beginner books are really good for dyslexic people, because the print is usually large, the lessons short and sweet, and easy to understand and accomplish. They are also usually brightly colored, so that they are not dull. We began a week ago, and are already up to the third grade book.
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