Grade 4, Lesson 1, Day 5 ~ The Boys Take Their First Test

Today I gave the boys a spelling test. It was the first time ever; in general I am against testing but really how do you find out if they are learning their spelling words if you don't test them to find out? They don't write enough for me to naturally correct spelling and help them learn the words they have trouble with. It can also be a bad thing to correct spelling in creative writing as it can stifle the creative process.

Friday is our day to "catch up" or finish anything we needed more time for during the week. We finished the social studies writing and drew a cross-section of a lemon for science.

I think that whenever we choose a curriculum there is a tendency to want to get our money's worth from it and we don't always question the whys behind the assignments nor do we always change the assignments to best meet our children's and family's needs. We don't stop to consider which parts of the assignments could be done in a more organic manner. In other words, we don't always look at the ways that it is too similar to traditional schooling.

I feel fairly committed to using Oak Meadow this year, but I am seeing that it will work best used as a spring board. What is the point of this assignment ~ what are we meant to learn? Is this the best way to approach it?

I can say after one week that I hate, hate, hate not doing main lesson blocks. Hate it! I might have to rearrange everything to change it. Here I spent nearly $300 on the various OM books needed because I wanted more direction, and now I am thinking that I have to do the work to pull it all apart. I'm going to give it another couple of weeks though before I start the deconstruction.