Changes......

I spent some time rearranging our book closet. Our book closet is really the size of a small room and holds 18 years of books and curriculum. As I was sorting and moving supplies around, Sam joined me. He had an agenda.

Sam, "Do I have to do school with Charlotte?"

This took me a bit by surprised. I have been working towards having the kids work separately during skill subjects then working together during contenct subject. Honestly, I thought it was going quite well. Sam did not. His main complaint seemed to be related to the fact that Charlotte talks too much. I have to admit that she does talk a lot. Actually, she talks non-stop and usually on a tangent of the related subject.

So, I'm still cleaning and sorting. Sam is still talking about all the reason why he should be able to do history/science/art/etc. completely separate from his sister when something catches his attention. He opens up a crate full of math texts and sees CDROMS.

Sam, "You can do math on the computer? Why hasn't anyone ever told me about this??"

The product he found was Big Sis' and Big Bro's Teaching Textbooks Algebra program. He goes on to explain that Math U see is just a little too " little kid" for his tastes and that he really doesn't like the blocks.

Hmmmm. MUS has been working quite well, and I am not especially interested in changing a program that is working. However, one thing that I learned with my older son is that young men do better when they have some ownership with their schoolwork. So I got Sam on the Teaching Textbook website and let him take a look.

He liked what he saw and copied the placement test. He took the placement test and stated that he wants to do this! Hmmmm. Technically, I could just switch him over. We are almost completed with a level of MUS, and will be shortly making a math text order. I tell him that I will think about it.

I'm still cleaning and sorting. Sam is still talking about the really cool math on the computer and doing school without his sister's help. He sees something called Spelling Power. He pulls it out and takes a look. I'm not exactly sure what he sees since Spelling Power is this monstrosity of a book but he starts asking questions.

Sam, "Was this Big sis' and Big Bro's spelling book? Why didn't you do the tiles with them?"

This catches my interest. Sam has recently completed level 3 of AAS. I am a little leary of doing 2 levels of AAS with 2 different kids. I was toiling with the idea of switching Sam to Spelling Power. I tell him we can do a placement text next school day and try it for a while if he wants. He likes the idea of doing "big kid" spelling and not "little kid" spelling that requires using tiles.

I'm still cleaning and sorting. Sam is still talking about growing up and doing big kid school and not little kids school when he finds the Learning Language Arts through Literature stuff. He pulls out the Blue level and shares it with Charlotte. He shows her how to build words and read the early readers. I'm pondering how he even remembers using this. There they are playing with letter cards and reading when the next question is asked.

Sam, "I always liked this. Why can't I use this instead of the other stuff?"

This prompts me to ask, "What do you like about our school?"

He likes Apologia Astronomy and Story of the World. Charlotte pipes in and states that she does NOT like Story of the World and wants to hear more stories about girls. She claims SOTW world is just too "icky and about boys starting wars."

After a good laugh, I give up finishing cleaning the closet. I have a lot to think about. I was always able to combine my older kids in subject but they were only 15 months difference in age. Sam is an older nine and is transitioning to a logic stage of thinking. Charlotte is a younger six and is still very much a little girl.

So the question becomes would it be tragic to separate the kids in all subjects?