Obviously this is our first year of homeschooling. I want to make this transition easy on my boys. Some subjects I had to just break down and purchase a textbook. Other subjects are a bit more lenient, in my opinion. Literature is easy! Or it should be... I love literature and I didn't want to buy a box curriculum when we already own so many books. I created a literature packet, with the names of books that I would like to cover during the first year.
Does anyone else have to create extra assignments to ensure your children are actually reading the assignments? My oldest doesn't read. He skips pages and lies about reading what's assigned. Once he bombs a test and it's obvious he didn't read, he acts shocked. Does anyone run into this? More narrations? More comprehension checks? Outside of just beating him over the head with the text, I'm pretty lost on what to do.
Just kidding about beating him with the text.
#NotKidding
First, my oldest is doing 10 weeks of Poetry. Here is the link -> 10 Weeks of Poetry Link. The first 3 weeks involved quite a bit of reading. We own a few poetry books with authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and William Shakespeare. We also checked out a huge poetry book from our local library.
My oldest started writing his own poetry. I read some of it...and...well.... :-/ It could use some work. That's okay though! I'm not sure what I expected - but let's just say it definitely wasn't 'O Captain! My Captain! :-) He also wrote me a paper on Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee. It seems that paragraph writing may be another thing we need to work on... ;-) We'll just keep adding to the list.
He's really not having fun with poetry. At all. He would rather read books like Harry Potter, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, or even his Lord of the Rings book set. That's okay... I didn't like poetry much at his age, either. I keep thinking that if I keep it up with him, it will make writing so much easier as he gets older.
After the 10 weeks of Poetry is complete, I would like him to continue writing poetry every Tuesday and Wednesday. Just regular free-writing assignments, but on topic with whatever book we may be covering.
Does anyone else have to create extra assignments to ensure your children are actually reading the assignments? My oldest doesn't read. He skips pages and lies about reading what's assigned. Once he bombs a test and it's obvious he didn't read, he acts shocked. Does anyone run into this? More narrations? More comprehension checks? Outside of just beating him over the head with the text, I'm pretty lost on what to do.
Just kidding about beating him with the text.
I really can't wait until we're through with this poetry unit. Our first actual book in literature is My Side of the Mountain! I LOVED that book when I was a kid. I still do. The idea is so fascinating to me. Wouldn't it be nice to just live off the land? I'm not as confident as the boy is in the story. My first forest meal would probably be joyfully delicious berries that have me lose it from both ends, then cause me to seizure into a coma. Once my body stops shuddering, I would just die by myself in the woods.
I am not a pessimist. I'm a realist.
No comments:
Post a Comment