In Freedom's Cause - Revisited

When I'd posted a few weeks back that we were giving up Henty's In Freedom's Cause, I felt like a huge failure. It's okay (with me) if I'm not big into teaching music, or that I don't know the answers to math right away, or that I'm not completely enamored with science. But literature? Reading out loud? That's the whole reason I homeschool. (To keep my children captive while I read books under the guise of educating them.) And while we have sometimes quit reading books for various reasons, I never thought I'd quit Henty because it was overwhelmingly boring.

Dorothy questioned why these books were so popular anyway. She doesn't like them either, and she listed several other authors that are equal (uh, only better). It was a brief comment but stuck with me.

Although I stopped reading In Freedom's Cause out loud to Holly, I was determined to continue reading the book on my own. My interest had been piqued, and it wouldn't be so daunting reading it to myself. I wouldn't have to skim over parts that said the same thing five times. I would no longer stop to discuss side issues with Holly, and we wouldn't be wasting time by rolling our eyes at each other as I droned on. I was actually kind of looking forward to reading solo.

That lasted for half a chapter.

Around the same time, I'd been searching for Braveheart. I know it's a really violent movie, but my focus was on having Holly know the story. My library's copy was misplaced, and Robert finally rented it. Meanwhile, after discussing it with a friend, I changed my mind about letting (forcing) Holly to watch the movie, still thinking I would watch it myself. I just had to know how the story turned out.

But since I don't like to watch movies of any kind, it sat around unwatched until it was overdue, and we returned it.

In the end, I printed off a few websites about Wallace and Bruce, and Holly wrote a blurb about each one. I read her papers to finally find a quick and easy ending to the story.

On the plus side, almost any book now seems tolerable. We're reading Morning Star of the Reformation, and while it's not Holly's favorite book, she's not minding it that much because she knows how bad it could be.

Another reason I wanted to stick it out with Henty was because I'd planned to skip an upcoming unit on Chaucer--I was lacking the Barbara Cohen book that the curriculum calls for. Last week, I found that used for a great price, so we'll do it after all, and I won't feel like I'm skipping too much in history.

In a nutshell (haha), this is how my school year's gone. I start out with a great idea, then think about it four different ways over the course of a month and finally dump it.

Meanwhile, I'll be keeping my eyes open for Rosemary Sutcliffe, Mary Ray, Barbara Willard, etc. as Dorothy suggested. Thanks again, Dorothy, you don't know how freeing and encouraging your response was!