We finished The Hobbit this weekend. In all, it took me about 9 days to read it to her. I guess that's the "Tookish" side of me, for that was certainly an adventure.
But not as much so as you might think. After all, Georgie and I have read over twenty chapter books this year, including everything we could find by Roald Dahl and all of the Chronicles of Narnia. Paddington didn't quite hold our interest, which was fine, but she truly loved The Hobbit, and rarely gave me a moment's rest between installments.
We also started Pimsleur French this week. Georgie seems to like it, but Lily, naturally, is absorbing it best.
I'm currently reading For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, and I'm so glad that I am, because this book--an outline of the Charlotte Mason method--very much confirms to me that I'm on the right path with Georgie. Lots of books--good books--and lots of playtime, with the thread of Christian truth throughout. That's it. No worksheets (although I think we'll still do the geography pages). Teach mechanics of the 3 R's at her pace and level, and let her read and explore her way through life, with my guidance.
I love that. I know already that that works best for my super-gifted child (gifted in every sense, including OCD and hyperactivity, but with a spooky attention span and memory). I want her to love learning every day of her life, and I never want her to feel that her first 18 years are a sentence that she has to get through before real life starts. Real life has already started, and there are real people in it and real things to do.
I want her to be an avid learner at 5, at 55, and at 105, Lord willing.
I want her to always get a thrill from learning new things; I want to teach her how to teach herself, and I never want her to quit reading because "she knows everything," or because a certificate says she's free to stop learning.
Right now, she sees the withholding of books as a punishment. May she always feel so.
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