Homeschooling year begins

We were going to officially start grade 8 for Rob last week. But finally getting hot humid summer weather for a bit made us put that off till this week. After our unusually wet and chilly summer the sudden onslaught of heat left us all sort of brain dead.

We started this Monday though. I teach math and english. I thought I would make our first English unit "easy." This year there is a heavy focus on (cue scary music) creative writing. To say that creative writing does not come naturally to my son is the greatest understatement in the history of my blog.

However he recently read a book given to him by his mentor at church. It is called My most excellent Year. It has some really good "coming of age" themes running through it but it is also a good launching pad for creative writing. The main characters write very entertaining diary entries as the chapters unfold. It also has a strong baseball connection. Rob lives and breathes baseball. In my happy little world I figured since he had read the book all ready, that i would read it too. (I had all ready started it) I would create some unit questions and some talking points for us to consider and essentially this would be a walk in the park. So here is our first English class.

Me: Rob, this first unit I thought we would use "My most excellent Year." It will give us some great examples of different writing styles and I know that it is a book you enjoyed..

Rob: (staring at me like I have 3 heads) But I all ready read it.

Me: I know that, and that is why I thought it would be fun to launch English with this. Now, can you tell me x y and z about the characters?"

Rob: (staring at me again remains silent for so long that I go pour myself a cup of tea.)

Me: Rob, did you hear the question?

Rob: Yup.

Me: Well do you have any thoughts on that?

Rob: I dunno

Me. Why is that?

Rob: Well I read it weeks ago!

ROFLMAO Oh my inspired little English student. So I had him re-read the first 50 pages and then answer my questions. On the plus side, I like the book too. Wait till we have to do Lord of the Flies or something icky though! Sigh.

KC will not officially start his Kindergarten homeschooling till after Labor Day. K and i thought it would be easiest to phase them in at different times. This way Rob gets used to his schedule and will in my happy educational utopia become the self motivated eighth grade student I envision him to be. In reality, KC typically schools some every day regardless. He is a strong emerging reader and loves to read, write and do math. But still, adding a formal class time for himself took a little thinking and preparing on our part. Wait till a few years from now when Lissa is in there too! LOL