Life on Planet Caddick

We finally finished reading The Lightening Thief. As a fun learning moment for Zach I decided to rent the movie and have him compare. I know this may seem like a no brainer to most of us - the movie rarely lives up to the world you've created in your head. But for my reluctant reader I thought it was something that needed to be pointed out. Some comments - "I imagined Annabeth with blonde hair.", "They took almost all the good stuff out.", and lots of "That's not how it happened in the book.". His final review - "If we hadn't read the book that movie would have been pretty good.". Yes son, it would have. What I learned while listening to him comment was that he remembered a ton of stuff from the book. Way more than I thought he would. That makes me so happy! I always wondered if he was paying attention or not - I guess he was. This week was our spring break. We have about two months left of school. I've been busy buying next year...

Our first year of homeschooling we used Sonlight. Obviously we've moved away from that - when I get ready for a new year though I always look at Sonlight. There were so many things I loved about it, but far more that I didn't - so I know not to go down that road again. By far my favorite part of Sonlight was read alouds. We read Charlotte's Web, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and tons of other books that year. Some I'd read and some I'd never heard of before. I always enjoyed that time. This is our first year homeschooling again after my son spent fourth and fifth grade in public school, which is why we are having some adjustment problems this year. A third grader is really different than a sixth grader! Yeah, we'll call that one of my "duh, mom" moments. In our recent revamping I've started reading out loud to my son again. I know, he's almost twelve (12 - oh my goodness!), and probably doesn't need me reading out loud to him. But although he's a...