Music to my ears and a theory...

[matermagistra]

So my kids are on spring break for the next two weeks. While on break, I've had my 11 year old daughter doing Latin, math practice, copywork and fun reading.

Today after completing her Latin, she said, "I'm really enjoying this stuff you're having me do." Music to my ears!!!

What?! When we were homeschooling, getting her to do her Latin was quite a chore.

This got me to thinking about something. Perhaps since this is not required "schoolwork", or at least not called schoolwork, she views it as learning for enjoyment. If we were still HSing, she'd view it as drudgery because it would be required work. I still require it to be done, but it doesn't have the stigma of being "schoolwork" attached to it. I require it, but it doesn't have the stress of "we have to get this done to meet school requirements" attached to it and perhaps she now views it as doing it because she *wants* to and not because she *has* to for school.

I find this very interesting. And it makes me excited about what possibilties this opens for me and what I want her to study more in depth.

Have any of you who homeschooled and went to afterschooling notice this change of attitude?

[Christy B]

We are enrolling our oldest daughter in a local Christian school this year. Overall, I am very pleased with their curriculum; however, I would love to continue to supplement her history (the school will use a history text that I suspect is going to be rather biased). For example, we started Hakim's "A History of US" this year; when she gets to American History in school, I want to continue giving her reading "assignments" from Hakim. I'm thinking of keeping my younger daughter, who will be homeschooled, on the same history topics each year as my older dd. That way, we could do "homework" together in history (and I can sneak in those history supplements for older dd). Doing history together has been their favorite part of homeschool, so I don't think it would take much convincing, as long as my older daughter sees it as an extension of her history homework, and not something extra that mom concocted. :001_rolleyes:

I'm hoping to also add some vocabulary work, and she will probably continue to need remedial spelling and handwriting help at home. I'm hoping to find materials that make these subjects fun and interesting to her.

I've been worried that she will see this as "more work" (I'm sure having homework, etc, is going to be a big adjustment for her!) but hopefully she will have the same attitude as your child!

[Robin in DFW]

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