random thoughts

So Sunny got her Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book after completing her list of work ... it went fairly well, so I started another list and she could choose another prize. It was taking me forever to come up with things for her to do - mix games and interesting activities with "boring work" type of things (since yes, I do think she should practice penmanship at least a little bit) and after awhile I thought, "This looks boring even for me. I wouldn't want to do this."

In the end, I did make some lists of things for both Sunny and Posy to do until the end of November with prizes that they could choose at regular intervals. The lists are more vague and it's the same list every week:

Math - the same number of assignments every week in our online program

Language - Sunny has 1 spelling list, writing a letter to a family member (her choice), some handwriting practice, and 1 word game (like Scrabble). Posy has handwriting practice and reading out loud.

History and geography - one President of the US and one state to learn a few things about, and Sunny gets to choose the President and the state. She started with South Dakota.

Science - choose an animal and do some specific things for a short animal study.

So they have some choices in there but it's the same thing every week and no more planning for me because this is it for the rest of our 2011 school year. The prizes are things like baking cookies, going out for ice cream with Dad, picking out a bunch of flowers at the store, or of course another new book. I know a lot of people build their prize/treasure boxes with stuff from the dollar store and that's all well and good for them, but I can't stand the clutter. My house is enough of a disaster as it is. I normally don't have assignment lists for Posy but she wanted in on the rewards so she has to earn them too.

Running into the wall of "This would be boring to me so of course Sunny doesn't like it" has made me really think about how I want to do things differently in January. We're almost done with this school year and we've got a lot to do between now and Christmas. No point in seriously rocking the boat right now. But for next year ... hmmm ...

AC brought up the idea of an Explorer Post awhile ago but we haven't really talked about it since. But that's the sort of education method we're leaning toward - putting materials in front of the kids and letting them mess around with things and see what they do. Not so much with the worksheets and sitting quietly so an adult can talk at you for forever. We give the girls art supplies already and they're very imaginative with their dress-up clothes and puppets and blanket forts. We read tons about all kinds of things. I have no concerns about reading comprehension because Sunny will rattle things off to us like nobody's business and if she doesn't understand something, she asks. AC wants to get more into the science end of things - water properties, more with gardening and dirt and plants, looking at the stars at night ...

He keeps saying that he wants the girls to "explore" and I finally asked him, "Explore WHAT?" I need specifics. What materials, exactly, does he want to be available to the girls? What specific activities does he have in mind to do with them? For that matter, what subject areas does he think they can handle right now when they're still so young? He said that he'll think about it and get back to me. We have a family vacation coming up in 17 days (for my birthday) with a 12-hour drive each way - we'll have plenty of time to talk then.