Smrt Lernins

If I have any other Michael Clay Thompson curriculetes* out there reading my blog, your input on this would be most welcome.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to get Captain Science rolling on his new MCT language arts curriculum. We have the whole Town level at our disposal, so any topic staging I do won’t have to revolve around the ordering of and waiting for books to arrive.

The recommended order of events seems to be:

1. Start the four-part grammar text (Grammar Town).
2. Halfway through grammar text, start the Latin-based vocabulary (Caesar’s English I).
3. Upon completion of the grammar text, begin writing (Paragraph Town), poetry (Building Poems), and practice workbook (Practice Town).
4. Upon completion of writing/poetry texts, start next level of grammar text (Grammar Voyage).

Is my understanding of the recommended order of text introduction (per this elemetary curriculum guide) correct?

Because Captain Science has such a good foundation of grammar already, I am considering starting him with the Latin-based vocabulary at the same time as the grammar, then alternating writing and poetry once the grammar is completing. I don’t forsee completion of Grammar Town taking any great length of time. Any strong recommendations for or against these plans?

I suppose I could just scatter the books around on the floor and let Captain Science chicken-peck at them at his own pace, but I guess I’m just the conventional type.

*There is something practically athletic about developing rigorous curricula for our classically educated children, isn’t there? I suppose we could also be curriculists or curriculeers, but that’s not nearly so awe-inspiring.

Monday went pretty darn well for our first day of trying to homeschool with a broken arm. Captain Science read one short book on Greek history and one short book on Greek gods. He did three chapters of grammar and was able to take a short review quiz online. We did a chapter of Life of Fred about Roman numerals. I wasn’t actually that familiar with them myself, so together we made a chart of units, tens, and hundreds. He did a little writing with his left had and dictated some answer to me. We had a nice time!

Homeschool co-op was ok, especially because martial arts was canceled due to Officer Daddyman having mandatory firearms training (hey, you want your cops to have regular refresher courses in that!), but by the end of the day, Captain Science was tired and very sensitive. He cried during his film making class, because his classmates wouldn’t listen to him and because he was given a small role due to group concerns about his broken arm getting in the way.

We’ve had a lot of success with naps this past week, but today was a bust, as we weren’t home until 3:30. No nap = extra sensitivity from both boys. Joy! Even Babypie is a little cranky from lack of a proper nap, and I’m cranky from lack of them having a nap.

We’re struggling to get a follow-up appointment for the Captain’s arm. It’s all “leave a message” and pass the buck and “no, this isn’t who you call!” I’ll be glad when this mess is all over.

This is a little feature Patchfire does every Wednesday. What can I say? The Earnest Mom is such a copycat of The Organized Mom.