A Homeschooling Mom of 15 Answers Questions About Reading, Recording, and Grammar

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Well, I have this new plan, a plan to have more fun, less stress!

It’s all about shifting from mostly blogging to mostly vlogging.

I have enjoyed blogging these past thirteen years, but I find putting my thoughts into mostly words is taking more and more time away from the other things I love doing, such as creating history guides and grammar books and recording books, so vlogging is the other obvious choice.

Advantages:

  • I can talk directly to you, which helps us communicate better.
  • I don’t have to spend as much time writing posts, which means I’ll have more time to create nifty books, guides, etc.
  • I’ll be able to publish more often.

So, this post is going to be all about addressing some questions from a dear reader using video. The questions she asked (paraphrased here) were:

1. Why do you switch to the revised McGuffey readers after completing the second of the original McGuffey’s (we affectionately refer to them as the “McGee’s” in our family).

2. Do you have to record everything in The Record Book? This seems rather labor intensive.

3. “Why do you feel its necessary to do formal grammar in addition to McGuffey, lots of solid reading and regular writing?”

4. “Do you require certain reading or let your children choose freely from the good books you have?”

I hope you find my answers both informative and, ahem, entertaining

 

 

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8 thoughts on “A Homeschooling Mom of 15 Answers Questions About Reading, Recording, and Grammar”

  1. First of all, Sherry, I do LOVE your new Gentle Grammar program, and so does my eight-year-old. I would be delighted with any products or resources that you create that use the McGuffey’s Readers or Ray’s Arithmetic.

    I had wondered all of these same questions that were in the email. I am glad that you chose to address them through video. I like getting to glean more information and wisdom in less time. I was considering Harvey’s Grammar for my older son, and am glad you mentioned it. God Bless!

    Reply
    • Glad to hear the video is working! I have been feeling so much less pressure in my own private life since I have been making a slow switch to mostly video. It takes less time for me to make the videos, so it’s great to hear it is less time consuming for you as well. Besides, sometimes it’s really hard to put into words things I can share in a picture 😛 Thanks for letting me know!

      Reply
  2. Hi Sherry!
    Saw your video when you posted it, but saw this post today! I love the vlogs because I can actually listen to them while doing other things…like washing dishes, or nursing the baby! I am loving your products 🙂 We are using the Middle Ages study, as well as The Lesson Books and Gentle Grammar. It is such a blessing that you offer the Pdf’s as well.

    Watching your earlier vlogs and reading your blog posts is what turned me onto McGuffeys, Harvey’s, And Ray’s/Hamilton Arithmetic…and many more! It has been wonderful!

    Reply
    • That’s great, Catrina! I’m the same way–not much time to read, but bunches of time to listen while I’m taking care of life in the real world. I am enjoying vlogging a lot, but still want to offer lots of products for you to enjoy via my site. Your input is so valuable to us–thanks for taking the time to give some feedback 🙂

      Reply
  3. LOVE everything about this “new” way of blogging! I love the videos, much easier to understand & see how exactly things work, plus an added bonus is your sweet encouraging voice! I just love it, I feel so empowered after these videos 🙂

    Just wanted to add 2 things, my kids actually love McGuffey’s and these books you make. Literally the subject they favor most. Two, the girl said they affectionately call them McG’s…so do I & my one daughter calls them McGuff-Guff’s. She’s silly :). She’s also the one who says (just like your daughter…) when writing on the colored pages that the letters that go down in the red go down into the lava (& she feels sorry for them) & the taller ones float in the white sky. Creative little things all these kids are.

    Thanks for it all as always, love the videos!!

    Reply
  4. First I want to say thank you so much for all the work you have put into these resources and how you have made it free or affordable for other moms!! It has mad my homeschooling life of 9 a little less stressful and more organized.
    Here is my dilemma…I am having a dumb moment. Two of my kids are currently using level one in gentle grammar and so far so good. We are on onlon lesson 20 changing has to have and vice versa. Stumbling on problems #3, #4 and #5. If you change have to has do you remove the words Do or Does? I looked online and the rule is if you have do or does you need to use have. If I leave the do or does and put has it does not make sense.

    Is there any place we can get answers to these books if we are not sure ourselves? Thank you, one confused mama

    Reply

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