Happy New Year! I've been gone so long I nearly forgot how to login and update my blog! This entry is random "stuff," just a warm-up practice to exercise an atrophied muse.
We're trying to get back into a routine after a long holiday. Our mid-semester break begins Thanksgiving week and ends after the New Year's week. We weren't scheduled to start school again until today, but because I enrolled us in a new co-op, we started last Tuesday.
I've decided that our break is too long. By the time school starts up again, we're not feeling energized, but rather confused. It's hard to pick up where we left off in our studies after so long a stretch. So, I think that, for 2007-2008 I'm going to break our 36 weeks of school into 4 9-week chunks. This is consistent with the "year round" school schedule and gives us ample time without burn-out.
I checked-out, from the library, "The Well Educated Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer. In it, Bauer guides her reader through literature selections consistent with the "Classical" education you might not have received. If you remember, we've structured our home school around the "trivium" based on the book "The Well Trained Mind," written by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.
It's such a wonderful book that I went ahead and ordered it from Barnes and Noble, along with the first 2 books on the reading list: "Don Quixote" and "The Pilgrim's Progress." We are already reading an abridged (for kids) version of Pilgrim's Progress that the boys are totally loving. Bauer provides instruction on how to read a book, as well. She provides an annotaded reading list for each of the major literary genres: Fiction, Biography, Poetry, Screen/Stage, and Historical non-fiction.
I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. Historically, my "resolutions" have given way to "resignations" where, despite all my hopes and plans for the year, I've resigned myself to the reality that: 1) I ain't gonna lose that weight, 2) I ain't gonna stick to an exercise program, 3) I'm a born procrastinator, 4) my house is still a mess. I think that covers it, my "2007 New Year's Resignations."
Of course, I'm still hoping this year will be different.