I knew that we would be moving just before the homeschool year started so I did something I haven’t done before;  I ordered a bunch of homeschool books.  They’re scope and sequence sorts of books that pretty much self-teach.  They have lots of exercises in them, many of them good exercises, and going through them you’re bound to cover everything that someone who claims to be an expert says you should cover.  My big focus for the boys this year was to get them writing more and writing better so I ordered spelling, grammar and reading and writing exercise books.  We have been steadily working our way through the books but not with great enthusiasm.  In fact, the boys approach the books with weary steps and big sighs as though they are going to the gallows instead of on a learning adventure. 

After six months, we’re pretty much settled in.  There’s still some painting to be done and some furniture to be found and the usual household stuff to do but it’s really slowed down to a trickle compared to the first few months here.  I realized last week that one of the really great things about homeschooling is that if something isn’t working, you don’t have to continue with it.  You’re free to lay aside a book (or three as I have chosen to do this week) and try something else.  For us, that something else is newspaper writing and blogging.  Yeah, I started the boys with their own blogs designed the way they want.  I have no idea if this will inspire them to write more but it’s worth a try.  After looking at some newspaper articles, D decided he would try writing a sports story on how the Maple Leafs are doing this year.  He pretty happily went on-line to do some research for it.  P is going to try a restaurant review.  We recently ate at the Mandarin, a Chinese buffet place, and he thought he’d write what he thought of it.  Hopefully, these ideas will go somewhere and writing will move out of the realm of drudgery and into the sphere of creative expression.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, right?