I haven't been reading as voraciously this week because I've been madly planning the buying spree for next year and going as far as mapping out schedules. Thoughts:
*I was looking over the Duke TIP King Arthur samples and feeling kind of overwhelmed about how much writing it involves and, thus, how much time it will take. Then I realized that I can actually change our plans and not do it next year. This was a big relief. It's geared toward 6th grade and up gifted kids, so it would probably be something of a stretch for my not-as-reluctant-as-before-but-still-sometimes-stubborn-rising-5th-grade-writer. I had it in my head that we needed to do it next year because we're doing the middle ages then, but really the world won't end if we either wait a year and do it as a literature study or even--gasp--don't EVER do it.
*I am considering doing some Killgallon stuff for English with Ari next year and taking two years to cover MCT's Voyage level. Still mulling it over but 1. I think more time with the writing assignments, really nailing them, would be a good thing for him and 2. slowing down means we won't finish all the MCT language arts by 8th grade. That might be good. Still thinking.
*I realized last night that I'm attempting to come up with four separate reading lists for history next year: read alouds for everyone, books to read to Gus/books for Gus to read independently, Ari's books, Milo's books. There might be some overlap, but still. But I have a rough draft of Ari's reading list. Ari's list is science, literature, and history (mostly historical fiction) combined; he'll do all of this during his reading time, then read/outline from (probably) History: The Definitive Visual Guide, while Milo and Gus do supplemental history reading. If I stick with this, Milo will have an hour and fifteen minutes of assigned reading some days, between literature and history. But reading is his favorite subject by far, so I don't think he'll mind.
*The (tentative) list:
Adam of the Road
The Door in the Wall
The Second Mrs. Giocanda
Catherine, Called Birdy
The Trumpeter of Krakow
The Omnivore's Dilemma (young reader's)
Archimedes and the Door of Science
The Mysteries of Beethoven's Hair
The Wind in the Willows
Tom Sawyer
The Westing Game
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
I have a bunch of others I can add in if we get through all of these. I'm also waiting on the MCT literature studies to see if they'll fit in for next year. Also, I had been thinking of some Dickens, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe, but they don't seem to be there, do they? Well, tentative. Input welcome, particularly as I haven't read most of these myself.
2 comments:
I read The Trumpeter of Krakow, I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I didn't like it at all. I barely followed it and didn't learn anything much from it. I was probably too young.
I read The Door in the Wall, too, and I remember liking it, but I again don't know how old I was and also don't remember much about the book. Just that I liked it. In fact I just looked on my shelf and I still have a very old, falling apart copy of it. So I must have liked it.
I just looked up what "Duke TIP King Arthur" is, not speaking your home school language. And I was wondering, why not just give him Once and Future King to read next year, it's a good enough book that I would imagine he wouldn't mind reading it again a year or two later if you wanted to do the Duke TIP thing then.
I think we're going to do some version of King Arthur as a read-aloud with everyone next year--that's why it's not on Ari's list. Thanks for the thoughts on the others! apparently I never read anything from or relating to the middle ages as a kid, myself.
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