So here's a picture of the board I use for a lot of my teaching. I just recently wrote out the days of the week and the months in the four main languages I'm focusing on. In order and color-coded:Black: English
Blue: Greek
Red: Latin
Green: Spanish
My main focus, besides English, is on Greek and Latin. Spanish is only a few minutes a day using some flash cards for household objects. However, I am intending to use our local library for some Spanish resources like books, DVDs, and books on tape.
I am not having Sean write in anything except English and Greek, since they have distinct alphabets. He is doing so well, and he could easily read all of the words in the picture. His reading ability in Greek has improved dramatically faster than I imagined. And as we daily read books in English (like Frog and Toad and such), he always surprises me by knowing words I've never officially taught him.
So we've been doing well in our homeschooling (besides the swine flu this past week---EEEEK!!), but I have an admission to make, and hopefully it will make other moms out there feel better. Remember the post I did about Sean's schedule? Well I do have to admit that the schedule is more like an idealized goal. I don't follow it exactly, but most days I do manage to hit the main subjects: Reading, Math, Bible, Greek, Latin, Spanish. The other things, especially the categories like art and music and science, have unfortunately been pushed out of our schedule. However, I do intend to get more focused next semester, so hopefully we can incorporate these other subjects too. The most important of all, I believe, is to make sure I read to Sean and that he reads to me daily. If we have a bad day, and everything else gets pushed aside, at least I'm sure to do reading. So, when you read this blog, please don't think of me as a supermom or a time-oriented task-master for my children. The schedule is our goal (and, admittedly, it hasn't even been followed exactly for ONE day!!) but we always remain flexible, because flexibility is half the fun of homeschooling. :)
