Friday, March 23, 2007

story of the world

Will and I just finished reading together Story of the World Vol 2, The Middle Ages. While we didn't use the study guide and just read a few chapters every week, we really enjoyed Susan Wise Bauer's storytelling style to give us an overview of history. The globe sure got a workout as I pulled it out every time to help him understand the context and geography. I have to decide soon if we are going to begin Vol 3 now or wait until the fall, but I have a feeling that Will is going to ask me to start reading the next one pretty soon, "Please can we read more Mommy?"
I have noticed that when I start a new project like this one, learning Latin, or the piano I just tell Will to, "suck it up and learn it," while with Mary I tend to back off if she is not interested. They have different learning styles and different interests and Mary's might already be pushed to her limit being a year ahead in school. Perhaps I have been too soft, not forcing her to listen to extra history or learn Latin vocabulary. However, it is not like she is spending all her free time goofing off, but but hiding in corners of the house to read her "horsey" books.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you sound a lot like me! I have the same thing with my son and daughter. I push him a lot and her not as much. She also is a year ahead and I find that she seems to be a more diligent worker. My son is often distracted and trying to get out of school. Funny how they can have such different learning styles!

Heather (Sand Sea and School) said...

I do the exact opposite! I tend to push my oldest daughter alot more than my son- still trying to figure out why!

Easton is older than her brother, which tends to be the reason I fall back on..

Thanks for sharing!

Heather