Ahead and Behind

I got a little behind on my school updates, didn't I?  Maybe I didn't.  Oh, well.  We've simply been moving forward through our blocks, and I've been sizing up this new and different year away from Enki.  I think all I do is buy books now.

Willow has begun the Native Americans of the Woodlands block this week, and with it, cursive handwriting.  I was just looking over it in the syllabus, only to discover later that day that she was having a lesson from my mother.  She does have very nice handwriting, so it is one less thing for me to worry over. 

My thoughts on handwriting are several.  I do think form drawing is very important, yes.  Willow has spent the year going from the end of first grade onward in her forms, reviewing and working with more focus.  She has certainly improved.  Her printing has been hit or miss.  I do remind her to use her best writing in her lesson book, but there are inevitable typos.  I was thinking that cursive would have to wait another year, but I was wrong.

What she wrote in the picture above is after less than 24 hours of effort.  I'm impressed!  I think the difference is that cursive requires real concentration and she is someone who tends to hurry through things.  This is good practice at slowing down.  I'm still pondering over the Vimala alphabet for later on.  It may be the additional challenge she needs after tackling cursive handwriting, in addition to the character development the font touts.

In other news, we're working on spelling this year, along with some serious review of word families. Willow is a great reader, truly, but these things that are part of spelling have evaded her.  It was the one section on her standardized test that needed some improvement.  So, we're working with Spelling by Hand and starting with the easiest words.  We use our hands and we spell parts of words, like in Little Town on the Prairie.  We'll also revisit Enki's word families in the next week or so.  These are fun things, I think, and easy reviews.

My thoughts on Christopherus after six weeks is that it is not a complete curriculum.  I really do, all joking aside, own a lot of books now.  I sold books to buy more!  It's a suggestion for the course of the year, the curriculum, and I've had to reach inside to form many things into lessons.  It's an interesting transition.  Enki was, in a way, my teacher training, and I'm learning now what it takes to make lessons live inside me.  It's a lifelong effort, I think.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all comes out.