Now a Word from my Inner Geek

When I was visiting our friends this week, I fell in love with a teaching resource. This happens so rarely that I can count the occasions on one hand, I think. I use educational resources, but usually with some pain, like wearing a shoe that almost fits but not quite. The ones that really really don't fit, and they add up fast, I put in the box or give away. What I really love about homeschooling is primary resources -- living books and cultural things. -- art, music, drama. And friends, and imaginary play, and conversations, and nature, and the truths and seasons and practices of our Faith (not in that particular order, of course). Those are the essential things, and the rest is the "tools" -- what gets you there, so to speak.

So many educational resources, I find, seem to hinder rather than help on that journey. Charlotte Mason speaks of too much teaching and little learning. I have to step out of my own way all too often, actually, and could stand to do it even more. But so many teaching resources, particularly in my family, have to be kept firmly in their place. If allowed, they start making learning painful and overly busy, like Martha in the Gospel story.

Anyway, the resource was Spell to Write and Read along with its companion, the WISE Guide to Spelling. How prosaic that sounds, of course. You were expecting something very thrilling, and instead you get spelling. But let me try to explain a bit.

I can't describe the books (which come as a "Core" package) thoroughly enough to do them justice, since I don't have them yet, but they are the kind of resources that put you "behind the scenes", so to speak. The program gives you the big, integrated picture AND the nitty gritty details, the "scope" and the "sequence". It isn't just teacher-speak, a pragmatic "how to", though it has lots of practical bits of advice. It has theory, but applied and explained. They are wonderful books. You can use them for years, and they are non-consumable. Unfortunately, I only have four kids who still need any kind of help with spelling/word analysis, but on the bright side, if I had bought the program for my older set, it would have been largely unnecessary (they were natural spellers and readers) and I would have bought the OLD version, which would have had to be replaced anyway, probably.

I admit that I am a language geek -- my other romances with teacher's resources have been with the progym (in general -- specifically, I like Classical Writing: Aesop), Latin (Henle), and analytic grammar (Whole Book of Diagrams) --plus Charlotte Mason's books and my Ignatian Implementation manual, both of which put the main educational emphasis on the use and understanding of language-- so that is probably part of it. I've had WRiting Road to Reading for years and have gotten a fair bit of mileage out of it. I have heard about SWR/WISE, which is based on the WRTR method, many times through my homeschooling years but was put off by the price and figured it was unnecessary since I was able to use WRTR pretty well, apparently unlike most of the people who bought SWR.

But after looking through the program for several days and taking piles of notes in spare moments, I decided it was worth the price (though OUCH -- I still would much prefer collecting10-15 wonderful living books to buying one curriculum, no matter how great I think it is).

So I bought the manuals, and I just can't wait till they come so I can dive in. Even if I never actually sat down and used them directly with the kids, I think they would be worth it to me just for the boost they would give my own personal understanding of why and how we teach the basics of spelling, writing and reading. I bought them mostly for ME. If they work out nicely with the kids, that is just a side benefit.

OK! I'll stop now!