a homeschooling rule of thumb and a new tactic

today chana did it in the car. we did chazara on the way, and shevii on the way home. shevii was quick and fairly easy, so we did it in one day.

i mentioned to chana (who was getting a headache) that i was thinking about why she feels so negatively towards chumash. because she spends the majority of the time being involved in what she DOESN'T know instead of being involved in a positive, accomplishing feeling.

so i was brainstorming with my educational consultant, emily amie witty. she suggested numerous ways for me to increase the percentage of positive chumash experience. many of them i didn't see myself implementing. for example, to spend more time doing pesukim she already knows feels like a waste of time to me (in homeschool in general i have a rule of thumb: if she knows it already, or will somehow acquire it herself in a few years, then skip it and let her do her own thing instead). i had told chana that i would calculate the number of words she knows in shishi compared with the number of words she doesn't know. but emily suggested i print out the aliya and have her highlight herself the words she knows in one color and the words she doesn't know in another color. and then she'll see how much she knows. and then display it prominently so she can frequently notice and enjoy it and/or show it to those who will appreciate how much she has learned. it's a fabulous idea. if it works out well, i will have her do it with an aliya from a previous parsha so she will get a feel for how much she has learned.