Well, I wish I could say that things went smoothly. All in all, we really enjoyed our new materials. The story we read was great and the conversation that accompanied it was wonderful. The problem is, I think I’m being too schooly. I don’t know how to implement this without being schooly about it. One of my major character flaws is the anal attention to detail I will pay to “following the plan”. Deviation and flexibility do not come naturally to me and I think this is where the conflict arises.
Anyway, Ryan was able to complete many things today without any issues. Iain, on the other hand, was hesitant about our new plan and got bored. He told me later that, he *can* do it, he just needs lots of breaks, with which I have no problem. I think I just expected too much today. It’s going to take some trial and error to get it “right” for us and how we are comfortable.
The whole reason I chose Moving Beyond the Page is because it encourages conversation and not rote memorization of facts. It engages us and entwines the subject matter with real life issues and examples. I definitely think this is a good fit for us, I just need to work on my delivery. 🙂 Ryan chose to begin with a unit study on Cultures. He is very interested in other countries so I wasn’t surprised at his choice. His materials include a huge variety of storybooks: The Irish Cinderlad, The Egyptian Princess, Why Do Mosquitoes Buzz and many other titles. I like it because these are stories that we wouldn’t have come across any other way. For some reason, my boys just don’t like to read and don’t want to go to the library anymore. They will listen to stories though and these seem like they will be great for all of us.
Iain chose a unit called Cycles. It involves the Life Cycle, Water Cycle, and Economic Cycle. With the unit we will be reading, Poppy, Charlotte’s Web, and The Family Under the Bridge. Also, Iain’s kit came with a package of Owl Pellets that go along with the Poppy story. We’re going to dissect the poop and look for bones and try and figure out what the owl ate. That is the one thing Iain can’t wait to do. LOL
Ryan expressed an interest today in doing the same lessons that Iain is doing so I think tomorrow we might try that. It may help things go more smoothly if we’re all hanging out together and talking about the same things. I will let you know.
If you’d like to read a review of it, you can follow this LINK and see what this reviewer had to say about Moving Beyond the Page.
I’d love to hear how it’s going….I’m seriously considering ordering a couple of these for my kids…..Louisa
ps. read ‘owls in the family’ I think by farley mowatt