Homeschool has been puttering along and I'm glad I took a more RC (Robinson Curriculum) approach a couple of months ago to the 3R's because I'M STILL SICK! WTH! I went back to the Dr.'s only to find out that they didn't dose me correctly on my med's so I had to start a new round of antibiotics. I can finally hear but still am struggling with congestion, sore throat and ear problems. So concentrating on the 3R's has been a real blessing.
The new Sonlight Catalog came and it made me think a lot about where I was with school. I love that RC uses just a booklist and you let your kids free to read as much as they want. I love the old books but I also knew that it didn't have a lot to offer the younger years until about 2nd or 3rd grade when your child is reading well enough by himself. I also knew I wanted to add more modern books. Plus we love read aloud time around here. I've always used FIAR with the kids and they learn so much from it. We love the books, I love that it takes very little time and kids really remember what they've learned. But I also love Sonlight. I have Core 4/5 and Core A and we had to shelve Core A last year as it was just over my oldest head. We haven't really followed the 4/5 schedule because it jumps around soooo much that I found it annoying. I left out the science books so the kids have had free reign to just "read" and look at all those pics over the last year. The Bernstein Bears has seen ALOT of wear...but I was feeling like it was time. Time to pull out Core A and dip our toe in to see if my oldest was ready. He was! He really loves the Boxcar Children and has even been able to follow Hero Tales which was a complete bust last year. I attribute all of this to the fact that I've been using the RC list as a read aloud list and been reading those older books to the kids over the last six months (and he's older of course!). In case your wondering how I used the RC list I picked everything that was about 3rd grade and below and read them to the kids at whatever time of day I had available.
So now I just have to figure out how to incorporate all my favorite curriculum's into my "perfect" curriculum. So far what that looks like is morning: 3R's, Sonlight stuff and then afternoon FIAR time and read alouds from RC all day. It's working pretty well and it SEEMS like a lot when I'm saying it but the reality is it takes maybe 1 1/2 hours a day to do all the 3R, Sonlight & FIAR stuff.
Whew! off to go blow my nose...
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