Nothing is ever as good as it seems

I spoke to the principal of the school with the music program and it is, well, underwhelming.  There is a private Montessori school here that I love--if they had two openings it would be a tough decision for me but this decision? Easy.

So a'homeschooling we'll go.

Decisions, Decisions

Yesterday at Seryozha's birthday party I got a phone call from Dr. L, who is the older kids' violin teacher.  She is on the school board and wanted to tell me about this program at one of the area elementary schools.  It's a pilot program that includes violin lessons in the curriculum, as well as free violin lessons after school for students.  This is an amazing opportunity since Liza wants to go to Juilliard School; I can afford only to send them to a half hour lesson each a week.

We have always homeschooled.  While I'm old enough that the black and white thinking of my mid twenties has passed, I'm still skeptical of public schools.  I support them because I feel that society owes it to its children to provide a free education; I'm pretty socialist in a lot of my leanings, but I don't feel that the American model of education is terribly effective or even positive for most children.

However, I'm also not about to ignore something that could be a great opportunity simply because it's "school".  That would be silly.

Dr. L feels that Liza and Alyosha are gifted musically and thinks that they would thrive in this program (she also thinks that they would make the program look good and, since the idea is to expand it throughout the state, this is important).  She urged me to contact the principal and interview her, telling her that I was sent specifically by Dr. L.

So I don't know what to do.  School has already started and the kids have never been in school.  They have expressed interest since they are seeing the neighborhood kids going to school, although I figured that this would die down once we go the homeschool year underway and their days were busier.  I guess that I'll just wait and see how the interview with the principal goes.

Disregard all that was said...

Because I decided to go with Oak Meadow after all.  I've been looking over the first grade curriculum for H and I love it.  For a kid like him I think it will be perfect.  I'm excited to look over the fifth and seventh grade curricula as well, which is where I've decided to place A and L, respectively.

For the just turned 2 year old S I'm going to begin using Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.  Right now he is eating blueberries and growling at me like a monster.

The road to hell and all...

Remember several weeks ago when I wrote that I would be buying a packaged curriculum for the kids this school year?

Yeah.  That didn't work out.

Almost a month off of school for me and a complete lifestyle change for all of us (from a home on 17 acres in the country with dairy cows to a townhouse in the city) has renewed my sense of purpose and I've been busy making plans for homeschooling.  I reread (and reread again) The Latin-Centered Curriculum and it really spoke deeply to me.  Using only my iPhone, as we hadn't yet gotten Internet set up at our new place (this happened today, which is why I'm able to blog), I tried to glean as much information online as I could about LCC.  I've done this before but it seems, to me, that you really absorb something when it's truly time for you to do so.  I can read and intellectually understand something all day long but it isn't until it fits right in with where I am in life that I have that 'aha' moment.  Such is the case with the multum non multa philosophy.

I have decided to use Oak Meadow first grade with H (6)--with his issues it is a better fit than the more rigorous classically inspired curricula at this point.

For A (age 9) I will use:

• Hawthorne's A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare; progymnasmata (Classical Writing Aesop); Narrative; Copywork; Recitation for English Studies
• Lively Latin for Latin
• Famous Men of Rome for Classical Studies
• Story of the World 3 for History
• The Young People's History of the United States and select reading material for Modern Studies
• MEP for arithmetic
• REAL Science Earth and Space for Science
• tutors for Russian and Violin

For L (age 11) I will use:

• Progymnasmata (Classical Writing Homer); Harvey grammar for English Studies
• Lively Latin for Latin
• The Children's Homer for Classical Studies
• Story of the World 4 for History
• The Young People's History of the United States and select reading material for Modern Studies
• MEP for arithmetic
• REAL Science Earth and Space for Science
• tutors for Russian and Violin

There are still some things I want to fit in, such as Religion (you may have noticed, if you are familiar with The Latin-Centered Curriculum, that I've modified Christian Studies).  I have some very good books about various world religions and I would like to study this.  I've read the claim that one needs to be familiar with Bible stories in the interest of cultural literacy and, while this argument has its merits, I believe that we need to have a familiarity with the stories of all major world religions.  Also, I need to weave in Artist and Composer study, which should be somewhat easier after the class I took in Music Appreciation over the summer.

So the task I have will be to schedule everything so that we can schoolwork done when we have errands (for example, H has therapy and sees the chiropractor on Monday mornings, the older kids have violin Monday afternoons) and how my husband can manage on days that I am at class (I literally pull all-day classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester).  This is certainly possible--the older kids especially are at an age where a lot of their work can be done independently.  Other work they do is rolled together (for example, Science, Russian, and Modern Studies).  It will just take some planning.

When I'm done writing the years-worth of lesson plans (something I've never tried to do all at once before) I'm going to print it and the various other pages I've made (scope and sequence, book lists, et cetera) out, take them to Office Depot, and have them spiral bound.  I've always been a 3-ring binder type who ends up with the seams all busted and stuff falling out all over the place--I'm going to simplify and beautify this year.