I was too ambitious. I decided to homeschool Niccolo during the summer, in preparation for the start of (semi)real schooling in September. My chief aim is to help him learn to stay still for longer than half a nanosecond, but should he pick up something else along the road, I certainly wouldn’t mind.

After much pondering I opted for a literature-based homeschool programme because Nicco really loves being read to. I based it loosely on Sonlight because I like their choice of books. And indeed stuff like Milly Molly Mandy has been a great hit. But, overbearing mum that I am, I opted for replacing some of their recommended books—which Nicco had already read or which he no longer enjoys because he finds them a bit basic—with classic, picture-less stories. My idea was to help him concentrate on the story itself as a first step towards reading chapter books. Well, it turns out it was a BAD idea.

I read about two of these stories to him, which I printed out from Project Gutenberg, before he made it clear that he wanted “a story from a book.” Upon further investigation, it turned out that he didn’t object to the stash of loose paper I was reading from, but to the lack of pictures on said papers. So I backpedalled quickly (for fear of putting him off reading altogether) and we are back to illustration galore. I never learned the concept of age appropriateness faster than in the last few days.

That said,  there are a couple of knights stories that I printed out which I think he would really enjoy. So my next project is to find suitable images to illustrate them—something like this knight from Karen’s Whimsy.

If I find the time, that is. Because just now I am knee-deep in another project: setting up the scene for Nicco’s birthday party on Saturday. More to come as I struggle to turn my in-laws garden into a medieval tilting yard….