We were disappointed to find out the social distancing had to be prolonged for another week, but we went for it. Praying for all those affected directly by COVID-19, we pressed on with our homeschooling and tried to make the most of our time at home.
Both my children have finished their math books, so we are reviewing a lot of material right now, before starting on higher grades. In language arts, they finished their test prep books. I discovered they both lacked grammar notions that I have taught them.
Since I had a Rod and Staff grammar textbook which we have not used at all, I decided to teach them both simultaneously out of that book. That way, it is easier on all of us. Susan Wise Bauer lauds R&S for their English instruction and she recommends we start in 5th grade if not earlier and just go through their book focusing on grammar, not so much composition assignments.
One of my children is in fourth grade, the other in sixth grade. We are working out of a fifth grade book and it works, because they have gaps in their grammar knowledge. I love teaching grammar. It’s my original playground. Yes, math is nice, and I like teaching it, but grammar is my first love. So I love it.
We do not do any assignments in writing yet. Even the writing exercises, we do them orally. I want to use this time in the beginning as a review before we sit down and write things down. We do need to get back into our writing curricula, but those are separate exercises.