Well, C and I have finished Story of the World, Vol. 1. We both have enjoyed it; C loves it so much she is begging for Vol. 2. We are on Lesson 58 out of 120 in Saxon 54. Which means we have 62 lessons, 7 investigations, and 13 tests left. In US History and Geography we are about 1/3 of the way through the book. Currently we are studying the origins of the original 13 colonies, and early government under England. We've finished the New England colonies, and are moving on to the Middle and Southern colonies. We are taking a brief (2 weeks) break from Vocab, because it's just for extra practice, and C has informed me she doesn't like it. In science we are beginning Unit 3, about Light. Unit 1 was on insects and flowers, and believe it or not it was actually fun and interesting. (Who'd've thunk it? ) Unit 2 was THE LONGEST unit ever on mammals. Fortunately we both enjoyed that one too, and hopefully never have such a long unit again. I have no idea how Astronomy is going, because that is C and her dad's thing. : )
But the big news is.....Language Arts. Oh, the dreaded, horrid, Language Arts. 7 months ago when I began homeschooling C, she had had NO writing instruction whatsoever. She hated it. She knew virtually nothing. I can thank God she is a natural speller like me, and also seems to just naturally know how punctuation goes. However, the child couldn't write a decent sentence, let alone even know what a paragraph was. I was really dreading this year's English, because not only does she hate it....I love writing, and never had an issue with it, so it is very frustrating to me to see her struggle on what seems to me to be something she ought to just KNOW how to do.
We have actually covered almost half of the material in her 4th grade book. She has mainly done well, although we had a few issues on using encyclopedias, and I made her re-do the entire chapter. We did Units 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. You notice we skipped 4. That's because Unit 4 is all about writing reports. Written and oral book reports, and a written research paper. I knew she wasn't ready, and I knew I would probably just get angry and frustrated, even though the girl can't help no one had taught her. Finally, last week I could put it off no longer. I felt that since we were so far ahead in Language, that I could afford to devote an entire 4 weeks to this one unit. Actually, I had planned to allow 4 weeks soley for the research paper. We began the unit, and just went through each lesson. We came to the assignment: Write at least a 125 word paper about "George Washington Carver". I waited for her to balk. She didn't. She was very diligent about her work. She read an encyclopedia article, she took notes, making sure to put them in her own words. I assigned the rough draft. She spent 2 hours writing the rough draft. The only problems I found were the order was off, and there were 2 or 3 places I felt she needed to clarify a little more. I explained that someone who hadn't read anything about this man before wouldn't understand, and she had to write in a way that ANYONE would know what she meant. She went through and re-wrote the whole report, revising and adding/editing where I suggested. We went back through it. I found very few problems, and only had a few suggestions. Wednesday evening I fell asleep after dinner. I woke up. The house was silent. I found Daddy and E watching TV. C was in her room. A short while later, she emerged from her room, and shyly handed me her notebook. Of her own free will she had completed her final copy of her report while I had been sleeping. It was't even due yet. It was over 200 words long. I don't think I could have written it better. I found one error in the entire paper...she had left out the word "a" in a sentence.
I actually teared up. Who would have believed a few months ago my daughter could write so beautifully? She cried over paragraphs, and had no idea how to go about writing or researching. Who would have believed a 4th grader's report on an assigned topic would make me so emotional. Not only was it skillfully written, she finished it entirely on her own! It wasn't due yet; I wasn't pushing her because I know she hates writing. She said, "I wanted to surprise you, Mommy." Well, boy, did she! Even Daddy and 17 year-old sister were impressed. (I had her read it aloud to them.)
Big sister said, "Mom, there are seniors in high school who can't write this well! That's why I dropped out of journalism class....because I got so tired of the teacher making everyone learn to write paragraphs because they couldn't figure out how to write articles for the school paper." It was nice to hear that, because I know my pride was a result of loving my child, and knowing how hard she worked, and how far she has come. I might have been just a wee bit predjudiced. I gave her an "A" for her final grade on the report, and Daddy was offended. "WHY would you give her an A? That should be an A+" I said, "I don't give out A+'s in writing! There are so many ways to express things in writing, and so many opinions on what constitutes writing well, and A is the highest I will ever give."
Congratulations C. You made me so proud! I know you still don't LIKE writing, but don't ever tell me you CAN'T write! : )
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