WHAT? You want me to WHAT?

My eldest's incredulous look when I suggested we do research at the library truly was priceless. We've been watching a really interesting series on mammals. Except for the "REALLY GROSS" bit on birth (I love preteens!), Jane's absorbed the information like a sponge.

Since it's something that interest her, I suggested we find some books to read and she write a few pages on a mammal. She was dismayed at that idea. :-) I want her to enjoy learning and in turn learn about what interests her, at the same time she needs to read and write, daily. I figured this loosely defined "paper" would give us a chance to explore what our goals are together as we home school.

I say us, because I see our relationship as symbiont, neither one of us succeeding in our goals (Jane's education) without coexisting together.

So my vague ideas and my mother's willingness to take Ean on his "off" day of Kindergarten left us alone to tackle the library where we dutifully typed in mammals. We quickly found over a thousand entries on a good 100 web pages. Words of previous English instructors lecturing on the importance of narrowing a topic echoed briefly in my head while Jane and I scanned the list. Luckily the word "Coyote" jumped out at Jane and we were spared any more "research". We quickly found a few books that were perfect, not to long or scientific, just basic facts in an easy to read "YOUTH" type format.

One book was kind enough to bold important words, which I had Jane write down the meanings when she read the first chapter later that morning. It seemed like an awful school-ish sort of thing to do, but keeping in mind that Jane doesn't always comprehend or retain what she reads, it seemed like a good chance for her to stop and think about the meaning of the words, and text of the book.

We'll talk more about what she read on Monday. I plan on showing her an outline, both in reference to note taking (she could use all the help she can get with organizing her thoughts) and in paper writing.

Hopefully her math curriculum comes soon. We're covering a smattering of topics across the board but I'm not math minded so I don't naturally turn to math examples while teaching her. I'm more of a thought, idea person, so that's how our conversations are geared. It works great for Social studies, English, literature and even science (we had a great conversation on why Pluto is no longer a planet Friday) but eh, not so much for math.

We did stop by a local store with educational resources and picked up some great references to help guide us through some of our topics. It is a bit daunting to see a whole world of opportunity out there to study and knowing we can only brush the surface of a fraction of it. That is why my ulitmate goal is to teach my girl HOW to learn, so she can have the tools to find answers to whatever questions she's searching for.

This will be an interesting journey, of that I have no doubt.