A friend and I were sitting in my homeschool room and having a good laugh.
“At what?” you may ask. And I would be very glad if you did, as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write this post.
You see, looking at a homeschooler’s bookshelves is very telling. It becomes rather obvious, fairly quickly, where they are feeling insecure.
Now, I have two bookcases devoted to history, but each shelf is devoted to a particular “time period”. (And then there’s the shelves devoted to reference material, Bible material, and geography material – all are “related” to history.)
On other bookcases, I have one shelf devoted to art / music, one for science, one for math, one for “extras” (economics, government, psychology, sociology. . .). I have a bookcase for literature — British, American, World, “early” literature (Curious George, Velveteen Rabbit) etc.
And then I have SHLEVES for reading and writing. Good gravy, do I have shelves for reading and writing! I even went through and culled a good portion of books from those sections when I re-did this room, and yet, I still have SHELVES!
Of those shelves, one of those is my “happy” shelf. It’s the one shelf of stuff I know I’m happy with. It contains Rod & Staff English, and aside from those books only contains the dictionary, thesaurus, and Little Brown Handbook.
Then, I have a shelf that consists of “ideas”. Meaning, I know I don’t like the books, but there are some great ideas within them that I could easily use, (like writing assignments and such).
And then I have the shelves for reading. . .
BLECH!
Reading is not going well for us at all this year!
In the last two years, I have tried a couple of different programs, and we are getting no-where. I even tried overlapping programs.
Oh, and can I just say, here, that there is nothing more discouraging than to hear the praises of a program by people you greatly respect only to know that you’ve tried it and found it. . .”unhelpful”.
All are among the many that I have tried. (Note: these aren’t all I’ve tried. . .)
Maybe it’s like potty training. . . it just happens when it happens. . .I don’t know.
Yesterday, I reached my “beyond discouraged” point. Is anyone else familiar with this feeling? When you are using a program and feeling discouraged, but you keep plodding along because you think surely something will click soon. . .and then, about a month after that you start reaching that REALLY discouraged point. . .and then, some time after that you reach the beyond discouraged point.
Please tell me that someone else is familiar with this feeling?!
So, I was combing my shelves last night. I hit upon the McGuffey Readers.
I bought these for “nostalgia”. My Grandma had come to visit us AGES ago (before children), and we went to a historic site that had an old school house on it’s premises. And there was a McGuffey reader on one of the desks, and my Grandmother picked it up, and then recited something from inside! Even she was shocked that she remembered it.
So, I bought the set (1836), just for nostalgia.
Today, a Saturday, I will be cracking the first book open for my little guys just to see how they take to it. It won’t be for “school” — it’s for “nostalgia”. So, they can see what Great Grandma did in school, and maybe how she had to do her lessons.
We shall see. . .
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On another note, Drew is doing exceedingly well in his college classes.
His last math test was a 125 out of 100 (she made one question a bonus).
His English scores are similarly high.
He was homeschooled! So, I must have done something right. Right? I’m not a complete failure. . .
Or he’s just too stinking smart for his own good.
Filed under: Homeschool / Related
