Bringing My Son to Life

My son "hates school."

Which means a few things:

• he hates some of the topics we have to cover in order to get the high school diploma (which he sees as a necessary evil; it makes things easier in our province)

• he hates some of the work that has to be done; this is particularly true of math which delves into things that he does not enjoy and sees no reasonable reason to be doing such things. "When am I ever going to use this in real life?"
• he'd rather be watching YouTube videos, playing guitar or playing video games all day long and doesn't like having to be pulled out of that for other activities.

I was reminded lately that the last reason can often be the result of boredom: someone who is bored, who doesn't know what there is to do will turn toward entertainment because it's interesting. Meanwhile, it's like part of them is slowly dying.

This the boy my mother once described as a kid who really enjoys life. He doesn't anymore.

"How are you today?"

"Mm." His body language all day is one of being half-alive.

Me, I end up falling into the, "Omg, there's so much not done and we're running out of time so we need to do more [of all the activities he hates]" and don't help him discovering the more interesting things in life.

Today, I saw that life back in him. What did we do? He started out all blah as usual, upstairs in his room, watching some YouTube video (I was out running errands when he got up). We hadn't gone out to do anything in sometime, so I asked him if he wanted to go to the mall for lunch, then we could stop at the Apple store to pick up a new power cable for the Macbook he's using. Getting him out to the mall just helped liven him up. Visiting the Apple store did even more. Going to Canadian Tire after that (I needed new wiper blades and we looked for a new audio cable for the car), showed a side of him I haven't really been seeing lately. Then we went home and I helped him minimally make chocolate chip cookies and then he got busy covering the power cable with electric tape to protect it from fraying and kitty chewing (grr) and he's just ALIVE. It's so good to see.

I'd had thoughts before Christmas of starting our days with a walk. I didn't implement it. Why not?

Because I stupidly thought that because he wakes up so late, if we take a walk first, we'll have even less time to get work done.

Well, you know what? He is so unhappy about school, he's already not getting much work done. There are things I can do to find different ways to cover what needs to be covered, different activities that we could do together that will accomplish the same things.

What's more important here? To get all this school work done by the end of June and have an unhappy, half (or 3/4)-lifeless teen, or find ways to help him connect with the world around us, get him moving and doing life-filled things? Things can be stretched out to meet the requirements for the diploma. He can take an extra year. He can just accept crummy grades this year. It's not a big deal in the long run compared to raising a young man who know how to live.

So, that's it: my focus is on bringing him back to life. Get him involved more in cooking supper. Going out for walks and skating (we now have a skating rink nearby and he has brand new skates). Reading to him more from books that have nothing to do with school work. Have him think about what he would need to do as an adult to have a balanced, healthy life. Guiding him toward a balanced, healthy life now. I don't need to ban the electronics, just invite him to other things. Yes, still fitting in school work, condensing where possible, getting him WRITING (gah, yes, still an issue), but that's secondary. He needs to be brought back to life. And by golly, I'm going to do what I can to make it happen.

Semestered vs Year-Long Learning

I'm still thinking of my son's grade 10 (first year of high school here) year next year and how things will be organized. Even though I don't have resources picked out and more important things that need to be decided at this point, but it's on my mind. Although, the scheduling is part of figuring out how we'll actually go about things, what kind of time we'll have and what we'll be able to do with that time.

Technically, a semestered course should have just as many hours in it as a year-long course. So that's not really the kind of "time" I mean. It's more: How many hours per week are we going to have on a subject? How long are the individual sessions going to be? Then there's, Do I provide structure in terms of what we do on which day? Or do we just have our things to do for the week, the time is blocked out to pick those things? Or a mix: certain things, like reading and writing workshop time, are scheduled (or put on a certain day) and the rest just has a certain amount to work through?

The advantages to doing semestered is that you can be done with that course and move onto the next thing. The disadvantage is that you kind of have to plow through it and don't necessarily get to really absorb it. And if you don't have to kind of student who is prepared to plow through things...

I was originally thinking of doing some things semestered and some things all year, like perhaps social studies and science semestered and the rest all year. But now I'm second-guessing that. Is my son truly prepared to spend 5-7 hours a week on social studies for 4 months? It's doubtful. lol. It's just really not his style. And part of homeschooling him is to make this high school experience fit well with him, to approach things in an enjoyable way so that learning--even topics we wouldn't have chosen--is enjoyable. I'm also thinking retention. Now, I know the one online math teacher here recommends that students do the math course in a single semester because by the time the final exam rolls around, they've forgotten too much of the beginning stuff, but shouldn't that just mean that better review needs to be built in during the year so that it truly is retained? Yes, that's what I'm thinking.

What about you and your family? What do you do for your high school students? Do you use semesters or have you done it both ways and prefer one over another?

Montessori High School Schedule

I came across this and thought I would share it:

http://montessoriky.org/acedimics/daily-schedule/

I found it very interesting that they have 20 minutes of Care for the Environment and Closing time. I'm not entirely sure what the rest of the schedule means exactly, though. Does each grade have their own subject for each time block? Is the time block simply the time they can choose which of the listed subjects they can work on?


I'm not sure that such a schedule would be required at home with a single student. I do like the scheduled 15 minutes of physical activity, but I think I would make it EVERY day.

Is It Summer Yet?

I could use a looooong summer break. It'd be nice to just toss school aside for the next 4 months. But I suppose there isn't a good chance of that happening.

It's that time of year. Winter is finally over here and spring is turning quickly into summer on certain days. My husband has noticed the lack of work motivation at school--the kids want to be outside and doing things. My kids don't... Maybe I need to push them a little.

I to push myself a little. Get outside and take advantage of some of the nicer weather. Not all of it's nicer, though, like the 20 degrees Celsius we had--with wind gusts up to 50 km/h (that's 60F and 31mph for you non-metric readers). The temperature is an excellent one here for this time of year, but the wind killed all delight. It's better than the 90 km/h gusts we had a couple of years back around this time, so I will try not to complain too much.

This desire for summer does have me doing a bit of reflecting: What have we accomplished this year? What needs to be accomplished before the school year is over?

My daughter has to have all of her work submitted by the first week of June, I think. Then she's completely free from school work until the fall--well, that depends. She's considering attending an alternative high school where instead of having a typical schedule and listen to the teacher present lessons and such, they have, essentially, correspondence work but meet up with an advisor each day to make plans and track progress, there are seminars to attend and I think a few classes are acually in-class, like phys. ed. and art and cooking. We still need to visit the school and see if they'll even accept her, so it's not a done deal yet. If that's what she ends up doing, then she has the summer off of school work. If she doesn't do that, her plan was to finish most of the grade 12 English course during the summer so she would have one course knocked off for next year. With the board we are registered with for homeschooling and her online schooling, they have most of the coursework available to us all year, so she would just work on the side and submit it in September.

My son... I need to get him writing again. I don't do it consistently enough, but I need to get him writing. He's going to have a big shock next year with all of the writing he'll need to do, especially if I don't get him writing more now. Math, I should really see what's covered next year to make sure to practise the pre-requisites with him and just leave off any extras that aren't terribly important. And with chaos the past few weeks (since spring break, two dance festivals already that my daughter has danced 3 times in each one...), getting him back into a more reasonable work schedule and doing more work, period. With him, I can make him work until the end of June, though. ;)

Of course, the drawback about if it were actually summer is that I'm nowhere near ready to actually start high school work with him in September, so I'd have that much less time to plan, select resources, etc. So, maybe I'm not quite in a rush for it to be summer just yet. Maybe a little more relaxing--outside when the winds are calm(er) and the sun shining--might be enough for me right now.

Montessori High School at Home Meanderings

Spring break has officially started, and what am I doing? Relaxing? Having fun? Catching up on sleep or reading?

Nope.

I'm working on high school plans, in part so I can set some plans in place for the rest of the school year for my son.

I've actually been working on things all week. I started a separate blog for people homeschooling high school in Alberta, I've been asking questions of people regarding getting credits (it's not the same here as many homeschoolers in the US do it, although at least we can earn official credits here as homeschoolers; not the case in all provinces). I've been thinking and mulling and trying to figure out how we can move in a direction where my son is reading and writing more and how we can do social studies, in particular, but also science next year, without relying on the textbook. Or ideally, touching the textbooks at all. Well, maybe some of the assignments or self-checks.

So, I find myself here shortly after noon on a cloudy Saturday morning, first full day of Spring Break, having already taken the car in for an oil change and eaten 3 chocolate chip cookies (what does that have to do with anything? no clue--catching up on sleep might be a better choice today) sitting on my laptop researching Montessori high school.

At the Austin Montessori School, this opening sentence catches my eye:

In the Austin Montessori Adolescent Community the adults collaborate to prepare an environment which meets the cognitive, social, and physical needs of adolescents so that they can continue their individual self development.

What are my son's cognitive needs?
*One, to learn to pay more attention. He is not ADD; more off in LaLaLand a lot. Not here and present. Perhaps having him learn meditation and other activities that encourage focus in the now would be useful. Other than watching YouTube videos of people playing video games.
*Stimulating, challenging, interesting, growing in logic, analysis, synthesis... He also needs to learn things like reviewing to prepare for tests and how to actually do things to remember information you might not remember automatically (I've been reading Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning and know, now, that I will quiz him often and train him to quiz himself and do things like narration in small bits, working up to larger sections to narrate and so on). Heck, he might even like some of the memory training tactics or speed reading and such. These are things that academics and other courses will address or incorporate, although I'm not sure they address logic as much as I'd like them to. Not explicitly. I do have a book for that, one we'd even started. I don't know if it has been found since we moved. (I still can't find our copy of The Hobbit...)

What are his social needs?
*He needs activities in which he can interact with others, but as an introvert, he doesn't need a huge amount of this. He does, however, need more than he's getting. He actually said one day not too long ago something to the effect that he does what he does (mostly be on his iPad) because he doesn't have friends around to do things with. The reality of living in a large city where homeschoolers are all spread out, he doesn't see ones his age very often, can't establish friendships with them, so, really, 99% of his friends are his 3 cousins (okay, I guess it's really 75%--he has one other friend) who all go to school and live at least a 25-minute drive away. It's tough. But I need to remind myself this is a need. My daughter has this need more than he does and it's one in which we've really struggled to get it filled without her heading to school (which, honestly, I think would not work well for her; as she's been spending more time with coworkers--who are, for the most part, older than her by at least a couple of years--I think she's seeing that her lack of "fitting in" very well is that, while most of her homeschooling comrades are younger than her, she does fit in better with a group that's older than her, despite her petite size, which high school kids seem to be very quick to dismiss her for for some reason, but I digress).
*Finding his place in this world. Okay, maybe not entirely, but getting a sense of having a role in the greater world. While he has shown interest in a job for the financial aspect of it, it could help with this social need, as could volunteering. (Note to self: Bring the kids to that one homeless charity's thrift shop that's just down the street! See if there's some way we can help.)

What are his physical needs?
*Healthy foods. I'm not sure why, but he said to me just yesterday or Thursday that he wants something set up so he can try to aim for a certain number of fruits and vegetables every day.
*Health class addresses some of this.
*Physical education--My plan is for him to do phys. ed. all the way through high school. Largely because he needs those credits, but also because he has a tendency, since becoming an adolescent, to just do NOTHING. His dad keeps bringing up that he (the 14-year old) should be on a team of some kind (although his dad makes it such a "grander" thing, "He needs to be part of something greater than himself", as though sports teams are the only way? but that's a whole other thing). I think the only way that would happen is to get him out and watching some of these sports in action, maybe get him going, "Hm, that looks like fun," AND having someone on the team that he knows. He is soooo introverted and it's a serious threat to not know anybody, or not know them well, when surrounded by a group of strangers. That said, if we were willing to dish out the money for a membership to the rec centres (which would end up being over $1000/year just for the two of us, or let's say we just do 6 months of winter, under $600...), I could set something up where other families/teen boys meet up with us every week to do sports. Not quite a team, but it would give him greater variety and wouldn't involve us trying to coordinate 4 vastly different schedules with only 2 vehicles. He really doesn't like the idea of having to go to a practice or two a week plus a game for something he's not super interested in and I can't blame him. His dad, on the other hand, played soccer all through elementary, junior high, high school and still today, in his 40s. He has a completely different mentality about it, so a sports team is always his solution. ;)
*Sleep.
*Good environment: Fresh air, air quality inside the home, etc.

There are probably others, but I'm getting tired of typing about this. Hahaha.

Okay, so with those three aspects in mind, how would you organize your homeschooling during the high school years? :D

Hm, you know, they've left out emotional in this, but I guess it's often classified as socio-emotional. Or psychological/emotional. I'm not sure where my idea fits in exactly, but the idea of a sense of accomplishment. This might just be a personal sense of accomplishment or one where there's a sense of making a difference for others (that's part of the social need, I suppose).

Where am I going with this?? My brain has shut off. All I know is I want something engaging, stimulating, interesting, even though most of the content will be decided for us. Something that truly respects his development. His sister decided to do the online classes and didn't really want me involved in it at all--her need for feeling like she can take care of things herself--but he's not the same child at all and isn't just going to take charge and get things done. I need to plan and prepare.

So, has my babble confused you? Inspired you? Informed you? How have you organized your homeschooling during the high school years Montessori-style?

June means...

June is here! That means a few things:

*last month of school; we don't finish, officially, until the last Thursday
*I'm already thinking about next year and doing some planning.


There are some things to decide still for my 16yo's classes next year, but she is still working toward the provincial diploma and has decided to switch from the online program she was doing to the basic homeschooling we had been doing. I think it will work much better for her, to be honest! There will be some work required in the planning, but course selections have to be made first. One thing that's nice is that she will be able to give input into the types of work she would like to do to meet the provincial outcomes.

For my son, while he's definitely made progress this year, it was, naturally, not anywhere near what I had planned on. But, without a plan, he probably would not have made as much progress, so I'm okay with that. He will be grade 9, which is the last year of junior high here. It really hit me how I have to do more "transitioning" next year, more adding in things that will be like the high school courses (I've decided to have him do the provincial high school credits because of just his general nature and approach to life! lol) he will have to do in grade 10. Writing will be a huge focus for next year and we've already picked Writing Strands 4 as a starting point. I may have him work through it faster than the book says to just so we can get to other writing sooner.

It hit me, though, that grade 9 is high school in the USA and that perhaps the Montessori High School at University Circle might have some good ideas for me. They do! I'm copying and pasting exactly below from their page Younger Level Elements of Study. I won't have two years to cover topics the way they do for history and such and besides, I would like to continue with Canadian and American history as planned (even though we didn't finish French and British history this year; we could do a month of super quick overview). I do, however, feel that I need to move beyond just the CM-inspired literature and narration (which I barely had him do, to be honest; we did more discussion of things than narration) and back into Montessori-style projects and such. There's something about the CM-style that doesn't feel... modern enough... if that makes sense. In any case, I have this vision of having portfolios and/or notebooks collecting their notes, work, pictures, etc., related to the outcomes they are covering. I've had this vision before and it keeps coming back, but I've somehow never properly implemented it. And both my kids can take this approach next year, which will, I think, bring a better unity to our little group. (Oh my, it just hit me that if everything goes as planned, it will be my daughter's last year of high school!!! WHAT?!)

From the Montessori High School at University Circle's site:

Younger Level Elements of Study

In the first two years of their high school career, students’ understanding of the world is developed through introductions to the distinct perspectives of the following disciplines and integrated work across the disciplines in application to real-life problems.

History and the Humanities are focused on exploring the evolution of human civilizations throughout time through the lens of the question “How have we come to the here and now?” The unifying central value of humanities work is the quest for peace through constructive human endeavor.

History

History is the study of human civilizations through time with the intent to find patterns of cause and effect and to create narratives that make sense of the human story. History gives insight into the human condition by identifying human universals and hopes in order to create awareness of opportunities for positive change in the student. In 9th and 10th grade, students are focusing on important episodes in world and American history, and they develop a strong understanding of the roots and methods of the discipline. Students conduct original research, discuss primary and secondary sources in seminar, and develop clear and coherent writing. Students learn to orient themselves in space and time, assisted by the use and creation of maps and timelines. The overarching theme is the human tendency for migration, as identified by Maria Montessori, and its effects and consequences. The study of history is enriched by work with the following social science disciplines or lenses which provide an emerging social justice perspective appropriate to the adolescent:

Social and Cultural Anthropology

Social and Cultural Anthropology is the comparative study of cultures and human societies. The study of the particularities of social and cultural life and emerging appreciation of general principles that govern human societies fuel the students’ understanding of self and other, empathy, and a drive to be engaged citizens of the world. 

Psychology

Psychology is the study of human experience through thought and feelings and how they inform behavior. The introduction to psychology focuses on developmental and social psychology as a reflection of what it means to grow and become an adult in 21st Century society. It explicitly explores the role of motivation in exploration throughout history.

Geography

Geography is the interdisciplinary study of place in relation to economics, health, climate, plants/animals, and human populations. At MHS, geography orients to the study of place and human migration in close connection to orientation in time through the study of history. Students study both physical and human geography and build their understanding of how human population impacts the planet through the building of civilization, thus connect to the unifying central value of sustainability in the study of the sciences.

Philosophy

Philosophy is the critical, systematic study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Students are introduced to both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, with an explicit focus in 9th and 10th grade on the Enlightenment in relation to the study of revolutions and nationalism. Chinese philosophy in the context of European exploration and the evolution of global trade is also a focus.

Sociology

Sociology is study of society through empirical investigation and critical analysis to apply for betterment of society. Students are introduced to the discipline when they study the Industrial Revolution and socialist challenge to capitalism. They continue their study of migration, urbanization, and demographics in application to the history of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Political Science

Political Science is the study of theory and practice of politics and analysis of political systems and behavior. Students are introduced to the discipline in the context of studying the revolutionary political, social, and economic changes associated with Enlightenment thought and industrialization of the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Economics

Economics at MHS is the holistic study of humans’ production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services with the understanding that market exchange has ecological, ethical, social, political, and social-psychological dimensions. In 9th and 10th grade, students are introduced to the discipline in the context of exploring the history of colonialism and imperialism.

Current Events and Ethical Thought

Current Events and Ethical Thought (CEET) class challenges students to think through current events by employing ethical theory as a tool of both critical reflection and discussion as well as moral self-construction. CEET engages students to see themselves in relation to others and in service to society. The course engages students by moving through concentric rings from a virtue-focused individual ethics towards the ethics of human relationships, society as a whole, and the environment considering the ethics of distributive justice, distribution of resources, human rights from the perspective of the modern adolescent.

Integrated Science

MHS offers an integrated science approach that allows students to understand natural phenomena from the perspective of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and the earth sciences. The course’s integrative character is enhanced by unifying themes such as energy, or the interconnectedness of all life. The course also addresses the ethical implications of scientific discovery and incorporates the use of manipulatives, formal lab work, seminar, written assignments, and cumulative projects. The arch of discovery reaches from understanding the origins of the universe and of life to the central unifying value of sustainability.

Mathematics: Geometry and Algebra

The mathematics curriculum at MHS is unique in that students not only learn mathematical skills, but actively explore and come to understand the why of mathematical operations. The study of geometry, for example, includes direct work with Euclid’s The Elements to understand proofs as they were historically developed. Math class also includes seminar and lab time, which allows for open-ended exploration of mathematical concepts and individualized attention and progress in skills. 

Foreign Language: Spanish and French

Foreign language instruction at MHS gives equal attention to speaking, reading, and writing in another language. Both Spanish and French classes immerse students into the lived culture of places where these languages are spoken and include many opportunities to speak the language, project work, written assignments, and opportunities to go out, including optional trips to Spanish and French speaking countries. 

English Language Arts

English Language Arts works in close cooperation with the History class and focuses on the exploration of literature through studies of genres and forms, evolution of grammar and writing skills, as well as creative expression and other project work. The course opens venues for students to try out identities and create utopias to broaden their understanding of possibility. In addition, writer’s workshops, a popular elective course, offer opportunities to explore particular forms of writing such as poetry, dramatic writing, or the short story in a focused, two-week intensive.

The Arts: Visual Art, Theatre, and Music

All three areas of the arts are introduced to 9th and 10th graders, one semester at a time, with a choice of deeper exploration for a second semester in one of the arts. In all three courses, students are given the opportunity to develop their understanding of the theory and history of the arts, and develop their own skills through creative processes. Students are also given the opportunity to visit the institutions of University Circle and the city of Cleveland in order to experience the arts. Art is happening at MHS all year round, in theatre productions, music performances, including coffeehouses in the evenings, art exhibits, in electives such as Parade the Circle, and in the annual Arts on Magnolia event.

Physical Education and Health

Physical education, in coordination with the study of health, is focused on promoting the physical, mental, and social health of our students. Students may choose different PE activities each quarter. Options include work-outs at 1 to 1 Fitness, basketball, swimming, urban hiking, soccer, yoga, dance, and seasonal activities such as skiing or tennis. The health course holistically explores human health through lessons and project work on human development, nutrition with a hands-on component in the kitchen under the guidance of our culinary artist, and the impact of drugs and medicine on human health.

4 things that make "school" a royal pain...

As I see my daughter get stressed and struggle with her distance learning high school credit work, there are truths that have come out about what makes "school" a royal pain:

1. The government curriculum is so very often completely disconnected with student reality. Oh, sure, they try to get the kids to connect by creating questions that are supposed to make the link between their lives and the material they are thrusting upon the kids, but let's face it: if the material was actually connected to their lives and truly meaningful for most of them, the government wouldn't have to figure out ways to try to get kids to connect to it. And then there is the material that is there supposedly to get the students to develop their brain power, but when, at ages 15-17, what matters most is that they have a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives and they are spending 1-2 hours each day on math that has no practical, meaningful purpose to them (do you use the quadratic equation in your everyday life? didn't think so), is it any wonder so many kids drop out or just get completely stressed out and depressed?
   
2. The government curriculum tries to be conceptual, to have kids think, but given they give students a whole whack of things to cover, let's face it: it's really about memorizing. My daughter said it even last year, multiple times: "They don't really want me to know and understand this, they just want me to memorize it." This is not education. And while she can do a whole bunch of things and get 80-100%, because she doesn't really understand what she's doing (like she could do when we were simply homeschooling and not doing government course), it leaves her feeling like she doesn't know and hasn't learned anything. Well, she's right, isn't she?
   
3. The student who understands point 2 can struggle with areas where opinions can be shared because they know that so much of most answers depends on having the "right" answer and to snap themselves out of that way of thinking can be difficult. And then sometimes the things they want students to have opinions on are really somewhat "out there". Do students truly have opinions on some of these matters? Not very likely.
   
4. Testing means so very little, yet counts for so much in marks. Especially the diploma exams we have here: 50% of your final mark in grade 12 core subjects. Ridiculous. And what difference does it make if a student has certain formulae memorized or not? Again, what are they looking for: memorization or understanding?

To touch back on 1, as I've seen my daughter struggle emotionally this semester, I have looked things up and read something on a page about depression that said, in my paraphrased wording, depression is our inner, authentic selves screaming that there is something wrong, that there is a disconnect between what honours our true selves and what we are doing. The work my daughter is doing to get this stupid (sorry) high school diploma is not in sync with what truly matters to her. She would much prefer doing art and working on digital media and learning how to design websites and playing her violin and perhaps reading and writing... That she has to spend time understanding "nationalism" and "identity" and memorize all kinds of dates and people and be able to write wordy papers on something that seems to straight forward and common-sensical to her and she has to spend hours and hours trying to figure out how to solve meaningless math questions...  It has taken its toll on her. Things that were fun aren't quite as fun anymore, especially since there is the constant knowledge in her mind that there is more school to be done. The diploma is important to her, however. And so, we will have to work together to help her deal the best with the 4 points above.

What other things do you find make school a royal pain?

First Two Weeks Under the Belt!

A lovely week, each day wonderfully planned out, my children getting everything done each day they need to with positive attitudes... This was my vision for our first week. ;) It's not quite how things panned out.

Our first day, I lost my most recent plans for my son. Could not find them anywhere. So I grabbed an old plan and picked a few things to do. Those have become our "staple" for each day: Religious Studies (usually Bible reading and discussion--boy, did we have fun with the Proverbs 1 reading since the French translation we have uses the word "stupid"!), math (almost every day), history of some sort most days, and my mind is drawing a blank. Oh, some days with copywork. He resists it so much, but his handwriting is not good. And he still has to think about some of the letters. He needs lots more practice! Here and there, he has also done some computer programming, an Irish lesson.

So, my plan for his Charlotte Mason-style approach has been sort of followed but my plan wasn't specific enough; I didn't sit down each day to really plan out what the day would look like, so it's been so-so. At the same time, I'm so pleased with all the different things he's already covered! For now, the reading I assign him is definitely on the low side in terms of amount, but because it's low, he's adapting well to being assigned these readings. I know I need to take the next step and increase the things we do but there's been a bit of a snag:

I've been sick.

Not just sick, but lost-my-voice kind of sick. This creates a definite problem given some of the readings I'm doing aloud, both for him to learn to listen and narrate back and because of the difficulty or unfamiliarity with the language, like in the French history book I got (it's in French). Not only that, but because I started getting sick on the first school Friday, my brain hasn't been able to function well enough to think what more to do and actually have the gumption to implement it. I managed to teach my French class last week and by that evening, pretty much had no voice. I saw family on the weekend that commented I was losing my voice; no, no, I corrected them, I was regaining it! lol. Btw, this drink is fantastic for sore throats or laryngitis:

http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Sore-Throat-or-Laryngitis

My daughter is doing much better with her studies this year, staying on top of things, being self-motivated to work in the evening if she didn't manage to finish something important during the day, things like that. She is quite enjoying that she can usually get her two core subjects done by or just after lunchtime, but then she feels a bit like she ought to be working on other things. I had been leaving the other time more open, but she may want more specific things as musts that I expect her to get done. Of course, now we've hit a snag in that she's sick and I actually gave her a sick day today to just try to recuperate from the entire weekend. She was feeling fine about being home and excited about different activities going on, but a disappointing, draining and ill-making weekend have left her blah and moaning a bit about not knowing about going to school or not (it's a moot point for this year! but when she's blah, the emotions go strong).

This brings us all to the beginning of the third week. Well, and now the first day of that week is done, so, four days left. If you are having a bit of a rough start, too, it's okay! Pull up your bootstraps, think about what you could plan for tomorrow that would make things be smoother and "make it so!" For me, my make-it-so plan is as follows:

• Remind myself of the subject areas for my son that I feel are the most important right now: religious studies, math, history, copywork.
• Remind myself to focus on routine and habits (like morning prayer time with the kids before we get moving on school work!) rather than all the little things I want to try to remember.
• Write out an "ideal" plan for the rest of the week (it'll really only be 3 days for him since his cousins will be over on Friday, all day; it's just cruel to make him spend the morning working lol), but highlight those things I reminded myself were the most important things to get done.
• Remind myself to be very specific in my plans: I too often use one or two words because the idea is clear in my head when I tend to think about it. But when I sit down to follow the plan, do I know what those words actually encompass? Which book I had in mind? How much to read? Etc.
• Time to relax with a cup of tea (or the above-mentioned honey and lemon drink) and really let go of it all. I don't know about you, but I easily get caught up in thinking and thinking and thinking about things and sometimes, you just have to let the thoughts go, let them simmer in your subconscious and then deal with it again later. Down time is important; vital when things are chaotic or not working the way you had hoped.

If this doesn't all help me, I know that journalling can do me wonders!

What about you? How has the school year gone so far? What little things do you do to try to capture the reins again when things seems to be going out of control?

Oh, the nerves are starting...

I tend to get a little nervous with the beginning of a new school year. This year is going to be so different from last year, the butterflies are very much aflutter in my stomach!

I am trying to have a vision for our school weeks, how I'm going to make it work with a CM (in the morning) approach for my son (and his narrating orally to me until at least Christmas), my daughter having to work on English and math (which she ought to be able to do mostly alone), German (which we can get a year extension on, thank goodness), music, phys. ed and a sort of life skills class (the first two need me to provide some guidance and set weekly criteria that the school course doesn't provide), but otherwise should be able to do on her own), plus her potentially being at the outreach school one or two days a week AND another girl who will be working just on an English distance learning course for the first while and here 3 days a week. I think there are too many unknowns that I can't control that leave me realizing that I can figure out a vision all I want, but I need to be realistic and be prepared to change the vision.

Mixing in my son's CM work with the others is the big challenge. I had initially envisioned my reading to him a bit during the day, him reading one of the readings to me and his doing the rest on his own, but my asking narrations of him here and there. Is all this oral work going to work well with two high school girls present who are going to be trying to focus on other things? I think I need to be prepared to not be as involved in his school work as I thought I would be. Be prepared for perhaps delayed narrations when he can do a few at a time. And then I had this vision of afternoons being more open. If my daughter gets her academics done in the morning and so does my son, then afternoons were open for music, art, phys. ed., nature study, Montessori-type research and self-directed/group studies... With the other girl here, that changes things a bit. Well, I suppose it doesn't have to, except perhaps the nature study. But I could do that with my son, at least, on days where the other girl isn't here. Or take the occasional break with her here and do it with her, too. :)

But I also had this vision of reading certain books right before lunch. Do I still do this with the other girl here? I suppose it's not a bad idea. Should just make sure that I keep the same books for the days she will be here. But butterflies flutter more at the possibility that it could be a flop to do so.

I have figured out one thing and kind of told my daughter, but realized today just how important it will be: She needs to create a schedule for herself. I just found out that she can have the year-long extension on her German course (for a small fee), and to be able to get this course done properly, and to do the necessary review to recall everything previously done and keep practising with me (the course is pitiful in the area of practice), she needs to have at least 3 times a week scheduled for this course. End of story. She has music to practise I would say 5 days a week, plus the aural skills and theory to work on. She has the life skills course to work on and phys. ed hours to track (I ended up doing the tracking last year; I won't be this year) and even to plan and phys. ed assignments to do... She has to have a schedule. Maybe not a stone-carved schedule about specific times she's starting, but at least a "30 minutes Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons" kind of thing. And I think I will work with her on GTD principles so that each week, she's sitting down, thinking about the things she has to get done, should get done and wants to get done and to adjust the schedule or daily checklists as needed.

Just writing this all out helps with the nerves! :)

The New Year Is Almost Here

Just taking some time this Saturday morning to think about this fall, my kids' schooling, what went well, what needs to be tweaked and what might need to be thrown out all together with 2013 starting. ;) But, let's face it, my mind is more on starting off 2013.

As we sort out my daughter's health issues, I do believe that will help get things on track better with her. She has already decided that she will resume math next week, with the aim of getting the second-last unit done the first or second day officially back. She has until the end of January to get the math done--the unit work, a project she needs to do and the final exam--but it's the only subject she has with these sort of requirements, so it should be okay. I think we do need to sit down and go subject-by-subject with things and figure out a plan for January in terms of what to get done. Her novel study for English ought to be one thing--if she gets that done, she will be on track for a full-year course. But art is getting neglected, her phys. ed. hours haven't been tallied and sent in, German... who knows where that is. She has science and social studies starting second semester and they will likely take up a good amount of her time.

As I write all this, my mind goes back to her health. We can have all the plans we want, but if she's not feeling well, then it's very hard to push things through. At the same time, my mind is going we need some sort of routine. Routines help. They can be hard to start, but they help in the long run. I'll need to think about this more.

When it comes to my son, I reread what I last wrote. I do definitely want more "real life" work with him. Some ideas off the top of my head:

*menu planning
*cooking
*inside gardening: what kinds of things could we grow in the house? what would we need?
*household care--his laundry, dealing with stains, fixing things in his room, cleaning his room... ;) ; he already has been using the snowblower this winter and shovelling the driveway and walks, largely because my husband broke his big toe and developped an infection in it and really had to stop doing as much
*pet care--he keeps saying he'd like this pet or that pet, which are all impractical at this point (like a rabbit), imho, but if he can participate more in the animal care around here, and we can get his room clean (only possible place for a caged animal), then it might be a possibility
*building things--um, what could he build?

He's gone grocery shopping with me a couple of times recently. I had been in the habit of going alone for years--it was faster and we bought less. (lol) I do think bringing him along more often will be good and can be tied in with things like the menu planning: "How much does it cost to buy everything we need for that meal? Etc." He did get a lesson in looking at the price tags and comparing prices based on volume and started using it right away with other things.

He does still love doing science things so I do need to resume that. He loves working with the chemistry sets and experiments and all that.

One thing that definitely is not working is allowing him to go off into his room each morning under the guise of reading. I've realized lately that he's actually laying down for most of it, just reading his comics. Hm. There's more to life than laying in bed reading comics! It's my job to show him that. I'll really need to do more reading and research and get a plan and perhaps schedule in place. Schedule--that has me thinking...

As I face the next part of our school year and current schedule, I know in my heart I don't want this schedule next year. It is good income with the French classes and is fun, but the schedule makes it hard on us: Monday afternoons I'm unavailable, all day Thursday, busy. There's something about it that affects our flow. Granted, dd is in a program on Thursdays which will be starting on Jan. 10, so there's that upheaval anyhow, but... As much as I am loving teaching the French class kids, my heart is yearning for something different, for it to be just us. Income-wise, this means I'm going to have to figure something out, but I've got some time for that. Online classes through Learn It Live, perhaps, or writing or some online business I can work on early in the morning or in the evening or get more earnings from Stampin' Up or a combination thereof or... Something. I'll put this desire out there with the faith and hope that the answer will come to me. :)

For right now, that's enough thinking. It's no longer Saturday morning, but 12 noon and I'm hungry. :)

Winding Down Toward Christmas

Four weeks of school left until Christmas holidays!!! I entitled this post "Winding Down" but it's more like "Picking Up"! lol. A lot to get done in the next weeks.

I figure my blog is as good of a place as any to work out some school plans for this coming week. Here's a peek into my planning process (at least the planning process I'm using today lol!):

First, a look at our schedule:

MONDAY: morning is open for school work, online session at 11am (maybe), afternoon is busy with my teaching a French class, evening is partially busy with dd having dance class

TUESDAY: all day is available for school work pretty much, dd has an online session from about 11-11:45, nothing going on in the evening

WEDNESDAY: main school hours open, I have a Stampin' Up meeting in the evening

THURSDAY: my usual crazy day--advanced/older French class girls in the morning, beginner/intermediate class in the afternoon, nothing going on in the evening

FRIDAY: my nieces and nephew have the day off school, which means I will give my son the day off school; dd and I can work on stuff though, dd has dance in the evening

WEEKEND: Nothing specific planned either day, except Mass on Sunday.

Specific items this week not listed above?
*ds and I need to go to this one library to drop off items; could be done Tuesday or Wednesday


15yo dd's to-do's
*MATH: dd needs to catch up in math (easy with this particular unit) and I think she's supposed to be doing a test this week; if she's ready for Friday, might have nieces, nephew and ds keep themselves quiet and busy with the computer or a movie so dd can do her test in the morning. I also can't forget that it would be good to have a routine of working on some basic thing or something she's already covered before she gets into her current class work. Just one question would be something.
*GERMAN: dd still hasn't contacted her one German evaluator to do her first oral assessment
*GERMAN: she ought to finish the 2nd booklet this week and send it in (although we don't have an envelope... they only sent us one and it got used last week)
*ELA: get the one assignment done she was working on last week; my personal goal with this: do everything in my power to help her get it done. It's stressing her out that it's not done and she got a good start last week and didn't get a chance to finish it.
*RELIGION: have a look at the one question from the first unit that's bothering her; get her going on the reading for the second unit; should also have a look at the actual schedule for this class and see how much reading she should have done by now
*ART: She has a personal goal of doing some art each day; would like to figure out a way to help her with that goal (using the MindMap program comes to mind; and/or Homeschool Tracker, which I've just discovered my referral code link doesn't seem to be working properly :() We bought some little things to paint on; finding something to actually paint on them would be good. She does have a course to do, too, but it's not as stimulating as what she'd like to do! She feels like she's not "exercising herself" in this area, if I might use that term, and also feels like she's not really getting any instruction. I wonder if there are any Christmas art camps going on in the area? Or if she would be allowed to take some classes aimed at adults? Something to explore. Could even be a Christmas gift, depending on the cost of a class.
*PHYS.ED.: we really ought to update her physical activity log and she needs to assess how much general physical activity she gets over the course of a day (she's supposed to asses how much she walks to go shopping or walk the dog or this and that)

I think that's it for her. In terms of scheduling, just a look at tomorrow: I'd like to see her get an email off to her German evaluator first thing, work on her ELA tomorrow morning and possibly her math. In the afternoon, she could take her pick of religion, art or even her German. We can assess after I come back from picking up her cousins if she'll work on more then or after supper or what.

12yo ds's to-do's
*MATH: part of me thinks it would be really good to get some question cards going, like the stamp game cards, so he can have questions he can just grab and work on, or I can grab and have him work on. At the same, I think of how much work it will take and wonder if it's worth it. In any case, we had started working on area, so I think we ought to continue.It'll be good practice for his multiplication tables, too. I'll need some grid paper and question ideas. Part of me is also toying with the idea of finding a particular Life of Fred book we have and seeing if he'll work on that independently. Not sure. He much prefers having a kind of "seminar approach" instead of just working alone. Sudden idea: Have a routine of working on some basic facts first, then move into the lesson or practice stuff.
*SCIENCE: I keep forgetting to buy Alka Seltzer to do the next science activity in the manuals (both the physics and the chem have activities requiring Alka Seltzer!). However, I do have The Story of Science which I thought I would start reading with/to him. What about follow up work? Some could be him giving a written recap (I would have to set up the sheet first; he has really done very little written work in all his school years) and others might have some natural work to come out of it: build a model, do further research, try an experiment...
*SOCIAL STUDIES: Have a look at the books we have out and where the start of the science book fits in with their timeline of sorts. It just hit me that we started looking at the history books and their info, but we didn't look at anything covering when the aboriginals came into Canada (I would like Canada to be a focal topic this year with him). Will have to do a slight back track and include that. Starting his own timeline with all this stuff would be useful. It might be more important to get moving on this part rather than the science history stuff right now. At the very least a bit of an overview of how people settled in Canada long, long ago.
*FRENCH:
-Handwriting. I've dropped the ball on this. I meant to buy a new copy of StartWrite on Friday (my old one stopped working when we updated our Mac sometime ago) because they were having a $15 off sale and I completely forgot. I'll just do something up by hand. Or maybe work with him letter by letter in cursive to see first how things are, where his difficulties lie. Once that's done, then we can focus on specific movements or letters.
-Grammar/writing. I have workbooks still he's never finished. They just feel like busywork as I bring them up. I need to get him writing. The whole writer's workshop idea hasn't worked because I looked at the middle school guidelines and with him, I almost need to go back to the elementary (he really has done almost no writing!!! Maria Montessori would scold me, I'm sure!!). I do have that series, what is it called? Shoot, it's designed for homeschoolers. He doesn't like working from it because it's in English, but I could tell him what to do from the lesson and have him do it in French. Grammar and spelling lessons can come out of what I actually get him to write. At the same time, is some isolated program like this a good match? Yes, says part of my brain. Better this than nothing while you try to figure out what would be better. Okay, wise little voice. ;). He has also expressed hesitation because he doesn't know how words are spelled. While I don't have a French spelling program, I do have a good vocabulary resource which we could use as a starting point for spelling patterns.
*RELIGION: Here and there in the morning, I'm remembering to read to him a section from Faith and Life. Did I ever share that we finally finished the grade 3 book (yes, he's in grade 7 lol). It's good foundational stuff, something Faith and Life recommended we do when I first bought the stuff when dd was starting jr. high.
*READING: I have a requirement from him about reading something other than comics each day. I want him to not only tell me how much he's read each day but tell me a bit about what he's reading.
*OTHER: There's nothing else he has to do for homeschooling here and nothing else I'm insisting on. I could encourage some home ec. (I really ought to encourage some home ec., like cleaning. :D ) I could encourage him to keep working on his comic writing, maybe pull out my guitar sometime and start working through this one kids' lessons book we have (that will get him pulling out his guitar). This thing with me leading is something I did years ago with the older kids and it worked fantastically. I remember one thing I started was a notebook of things that interested me. I would copy/print off pictures and then write notes about them. They all wanted their own notebook. Little things like this I need to keep in mind, plan for. Of course, that was a time when I was journalling pretty much daily, reading Montessori lots. I'm going to have to look at my schedule and manage my time so I can work on my inner preparation. Anyhow, what else in this "other" category? Phys. ed. He's been doing push ups and sit ups in his room fairly regularly, apparently. I really need to get them to a rec. centre sometime. Maybe look at how much a pass costs so we can go each week even, when we have the time.

With the week thought out, what is the plan for tomorrow?

MORNING
*ds is usually up by 8. I'll read to him from his religion while he eats (that's our routine). After that, I'll ask him what he wants to work on first: handwriting or math. Fit in more stuff where possible.
Actual lessons:
--handwriting: work through each letter of the alphabet with him
--math: use the grade 7 text we have here as a basis for questions to give him; make sure to have graph paper, a ruler and a pencil available, as well as the multiplication table finger chart
--social studies: find websites with information about the migration of the first peoples into North America. If there's something that really catches his interest, go with that.
That'll be enough for tomorrow morning. He'll have the usual reading requirement which he does on his own time.

*dd is usually up around 9am. She's been trying to get up earlier, but with illnesses around us like crazy, it just seems to wear her down more and make school work that much more difficult. My job with her is to keep being there as a support and encourager. And ideally, I'll have a MindMap of just the subjects and some branches to write on printed off. She can fill in what she'd like to focus on. I need to learn to review my plans so that I remember all my little notes to myself. At 11, we're supposed to be online with the advanced girls from the Thursday French class.

LUNCH
-lunch and final prep for afternoon French class

Okay, I feel sort of ready for tomorrow. lol. Fingers crossed all goes well! Then there's the rest of the week to tackle. I think sitting down and blogging daily would be tremendously helpful to me. It's like journalling.

----

That long planning session out of the way, that leaves three other weeks before Christmas holidays. My French classes go to Dec. 20. During that time, dd definitely needs to keep on top of her math and is hoping to get ahead a bit--otherwise she has to do a unit test almost as soon as she gets back from Christmas holidays. We'll have to keep an eye on the schedule. (Just a thought here: A colour-coded calendar page might be in order for school work deadlines for the next month! Homeschool Tracker Plus) does have a schedule thing, but it's been ages since I've used it. I don't think it gives a printable calendar-style overview for a month, just a week at a time, which might not be a bad idea in itself.) With ds, I just want to get him moving more with lessons. He won't do anything on his own and I need to remind myself of that. Once he gets hooked into something, then he might do stuff on his own, but right now... I need to be prepared to do lessons, have specific work for him to do, etc.

Of course, on top of all that, there will be Christmas gift-making classes and cards to make and send out to family and friends and Christmas shopping to do and birthday gift shopping for my step-dad and everything else that preparing for Christmas involves. Which reminds me that I was thinking about how we can bring in more expression of our faith into our days. I know so many families who have all kinds of practices; we really don't do much. I was thinking Advent could be a very good way to start. That will be something else I will need to prep for!

All right, enough for tonight. With all the typing I've done today - here, on another blog and for NaNoWriMo - I'm sure I'm developping Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. lol (bah, Blogger or my computer doesn't like my Canadian spelling of words like "colour" and "developping"). Time to do some yoga, methinks!

September's gone, October's here

September was an interesting month:

• my 14yo dd started high school (at home) but with an online program rather than me being the "primary educator"
• confusing teachers whose lack of clarity have led to my 14yo being quite behind in one subject 
• she and I got sick (and to be honest, it's been over 2 weeks and we're still not completely over it); 
• the first two weeks couldn't have any sort of routine due to my niece being in the transitional phase to start kindergarten
• various activities--although very worthwhile activities, like a homeschool picnic, homeschooled teen get-together at a recreation centre, a Friday Mass and potluck followed by playing at the park and my daughter already off to camp one weekend with her Rangers (Girl Guides for high school students) group
• family get-togethers, including my son's 12th birthday, my mom's birthday (I probably shouldn't share her age :D) and more
• start of evening activities
• a Stampin' Up! meeting for me
• start of the French classes I am running and all the changes that have ended up happening within them
• start of picking up my nieces and nephew after school each day, something that takes an hour in all to do!

It was a tiring month! Getting used to a different routine is definitely hard. I've been realizing just how much I am a "comfort zone" person. I guess we all are to a certain degree, but I am seeing clearly now how my comfort zone borders are getting in the way at times. But we are still managing to adjust. And I have to say: I am loving it just being me and my kids!! My son has never really known not having others around during the school year: he was a year old when I started looking after full-time kids. My daughter was only 4, so it's pretty much all she's ever known, too. I love not having to be prepared for 8am (or earlier), I love just how relaxed everything feels around here (well, except Thursdays, when I have 2 French classes, and Monday afternoons when the other French class is held). I love that my kids can sleep in. I did, however, have to wake dd up yesterday morning at 9 because she does a few online class meetings each week and she has one at 9am every Tuesday morning. She doesn't usually sleep that late, but she did yesterday! I will add that she is loving being able to do that, too. She had toyed on and off with the idea last year of going to high school--mainly so she could hang out with certain friends--but given she's a natural night owl and likes to sleep later and is hitting that stage in the mid-teens where she needs to sleep more, she is really appreciating the fact she does not have to get up early and scramble off to school.

She's "getting there" with getting on track with her work and getting into a work routine and starting to maximize little pockets of time to catch up. With my son... Well... Let's say he is as resistant to change as I am, if not more. I have noticed a few things, however:

• If I don't call it work and it's fun and has nothing to do with math or handwriting, it's not "school".
• He will read comics all day if I don't invite him to do something else. I suppose the good part, at least, is he has moved on from just Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes to The Far Side and Pearls Before Swine (although I do wonder how many things he doesn't understand! That's okay: there are certain things in them he doesn't need to.)
• "Inviting him" does sometimes mean I simply need to start reading something to him or sit down next to him with something and get him going.

What have he and I accomplished so far this school year?

• We've made it through some of the Montessori Great Lessons. Yes, that's right, some. One of them took far too long. But he loves them, so it's all good. (Those, btw, are not school in his eyes. Not even going outside and measuring how long an apatosaurus was. The weekend after we had done that and some other things to do with that Great Lesson, his Grand-papa asked him what he had done in school this week. The only thing he mentioned was math. lol)
• We've worked inconsistently on math, but he does understand the early algebra stuff very well. So well that when I gave him 4 questions to try to do on his own, when I checked to see how he was doing, he had marked as correct the 3 he had already done. I have not begun geometry with him, but since his sister has started a unit on trig, it could be a good time to start some work on triangles. And keep up the algebra.
• We have worked a couple of times on handwriting. I have decided I am definitely going to push the cursive handwriting--not for when he does his own writing stuff, but for the instructional part of it. I have also decided to step back and have us do letters next to each other so I can see how he is actually doing them.

That's all I can think of!

The weather has finally started changing into more fall-like weather and I always forget how much it drains us. He is sleeping more, which is good because he had months of likely not getting enough sleep, but tired in the morning. I just feel like I can't get a proper night's sleep. But, with it being only us today until I have to leave to pick up my nieces and nephew, we can take things slowly and I might even fit in a nap. :)

On a completely different note, my Montessori heart gets broken every time my kindergarten niece tells me about getting a sticker on her hand for good behaviour. It's even become a part of her after-school games, where she will tell someone they can't get a sticker unless they behave well. :'(

Sucking him in ;)

My "evil" plan is working! Ha ha ha ha ha! (lol)

I started reading the second Great Lesson yesterday, the Coming of Life, and it led to my son pulling out one of his books on... hm, either pre-historic life or specifically dinosaurs, not sure which... and bringing up all kinds of things and tying in this and that and so on and so forth. Yes, he loves animals, including prehistoric animals and just about anything, to the point that last night he and I were watching "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and at the part where we see Uncle Monty's animal room, he said something like, "I'll probably have a room like that when I'm older. " lol. In any case, we didn't manage to finish reading through the whole lesson yesterday, what with the little related interruptions/discussions and other stuff going on, and I was going to finish it today, but reorienting ourselves, he was reminded that I had said we should go outside and measure just how long 70 feet is. So, since it was beautiful weather at that moment and since the weather's been blah and even changed from nice to blah very quickly, we went ahead with measuring distances. We took some sidewalk chalk and a metre stick and I calculated how many metres 70 feet is on paper. (Ha, can anybody see a potential math lesson to suck him in with here? :D) We picked a starting point and marked every metre. He decided he wanted to see other measurements, too, so we took note of 14 metres (the wingspan of a particular dinosaur; I can never remember the names; the bucket is at the starting line):

21 metres, the length of a smallish apatosaurus (I tried to take a picture from the side to get a real feel, but I would have had to get on someone's roof! lol):

and 40 metres, which was the length of I can't remember what.

When we told my niece about it being the length of some dinosaurs, she kind of looked at us like we were nuts. lol.


I, incidentally, had initially written down 70 m and when we went outside and I said something about 70 m, my son gave me a look and asked what we were measuring that was 70 m. I said the apatosaurus. He said it was 70 ft. I was silly enough to have to go check; he is always right with these kinds of things!

In any case, he was a happy camper with the school work this morning and recognized it was school work and he was enjoying himself and decided he would stay outside with my 4yo niece (kindergarten starts for her next week) to "do phys. ed." (jump rope and then ride around the block a few times on his bike).


Dd is doing okay getting started with her online school work. She's a tad behind in math because it wasn't really made clear ahead of time where she should be in her work by now and what exactly she was supposed to be doing, so she ended up doing some work she didn't need to do at all (oops) and she just needs to learn about not being too perfectionist when doing certain school work--especially stuff that isn't being handed in! She'll catch on with the pacing. She finished her English that has to be handed in, but that first English assignment is always so hard because so much of how something is marked depends on the teacher, regardless of how many rubrics they give you about how they will mark. She's done some stuff for phys. ed., hasn't started religion yet, hasn't started art (the last two are full-year and just because of the nature of the courses, won't be a problem to catch up on) and we have no clue what's going on with her German course yet, so that's not touched at all either. But she's got the mandatory stuff done and is now enjoying having the afternoon free to do as she wishes. :)

All I can say is: TGIF. :D











I, incidentally, had written down 70 m at first and when we went outside and I said something about 70 m, my son gave me a look and asked what we were measuring that was 70 m. I said the apatosaurus. He said it was 70 ft. I was silly enough to have to go check; he is always right with these kinds of things! lol.

In any case, he was a happy camper with the school work this morning and recognized it was school work and he was enjoying himself and decided he would stay outside with my 4yo niece (kindergarten starts for her next week) to do phys. ed. (jump rope and then ride around the block a few times on his bike).

1st and 2nd days

Yesterday, we managed to have about an hour of school time. We then went out to do some back-to-school shopping (hadn't done that yet! goodness) and some other errands that had to be done. Had a special back-to-school lunch (Tim Horton's sandwiches) and took it easy the rest of the afternoon.

Today... I'm not feeling great. My son didn't wake up until after 8--that's not usually a good sign. Dd wasn't up and ready until 9. I started having aches come in, my stomach is off, my head gets dizzy... So, it's do-what-you-want school today. They've been reading. Ds has complained of feeling like doing nothing but wanting to do something. And of a headache. Well. Quite the way to start the new school year!

Dd has been thinking about attending school at least part-time for high school (starts next year). I asked her today what it was that she liked about this one school we are going to look at, so I have an idea of what it is she's looking for and can look for different programs. Her response ( :'( ): she feels like she doesn't get anything done here. Broke my heart! Part of me was so convinced that mainly unschooling would cause her to just dive into what she wanted to learn, but that is not the case. I have already committed to providing her more this year--I must keep at it!

Planning and more planning

I've been working a bit each day on summer plans, as well as school year plans. The past couple of days have been focused on looking at my province's math curriculum and pulling out the useful outcomes for the year, so that I can then make some sort of plan.

Let me tell you, some of the things they put in the curriculum... It just leaves me scratching my head! Why oh why oh why?! There are places where my jaw practically dropped going, "Why is this remotely important to have in there?" Like for grade 9. The ONLY outcome for chance and uncertainty is:

"Demonstrate an understanding of the role of probability in society."

What? This is, what, a 5-minute conversation with them? Something that is probably already understood? No calculation outcomes, no, just "demonstrate an understanding...".

In any case, I now have all the outcomes I want listed and can try to create a plan from that for the year. I know Montessori often separates arithmetic from geometry, so the kids work on geometry all year in addition to their arithmetic. US schools typically put algebra into its own course, too. If I think of the math outcomes as being 2 or 3 separate courses, that could help in terms of giving time to work on a concept and integrating different areas a little more.

Boy, have I got some work ahead of me!

I've also fleshed out a better schedule idea for mornings for next week. I'm not so sure anymore about the weekly themes. Not with the little ones, anyhow. On top of that, I've worked on the 17yo's first day and first week plans, laying out a little more my role, my expectations, etc. I know the more I write it out, the more it will simply become a part of my thinking and I'll be more likely to do it automatically, rather than trying to remember or not being sure.

Let me write some of it out again. :D

First, I have done most of the reading and writing for him, what with his LD label. He was supposed to have been learning to use technology, but he got so behind--and I felt guilty for it, because part of me felt I should have done something different--that I didn't end up pressing this issue. Well, I'm going to press the issue and I've already warned him. One thing he will do on his first day back is work on training his MacSpeech software. I know part of his resistance to this is that he has to talk into it and he feels silly and stupid. That's just too bad. lol. He can lock himself in my den if he wants privacy, so that's not a problem. With the training, it's a little tough because he can't fluently read the passages he's supposed to read aloud. That might require me copying out the passages, we work on the reading of them, then he goes and trains the software. It could take a week or two to get the thing properly trained; that's okay. If it's not properly trained, he will just have to correct the mistakes it will make; it doesn't stop him from using it.

Part of the week plan with him is to first of all, each day be aware of when the deadlines are for the 3 subjects that will have deadlines and see where he is in the work. It's a bit of a shame that it's not worked out what to do day-by-day, but the deadlines are usually every week or two, so it's not too bad. The first day of the week, he and I will look at what is due and figure out a minimum for that week (if the deadline is in 2 weeks) or figure out the daily breakdown. When that is decided, I am holding him to it. This means that he works ALL day long until he's done the allotted work and if he doesn't finish, he has to bring it home with him. Same thing for the weekend: if the week's work is not completed, a list will go home (I might email a copy to his dad, too) of what needs to get done.

One thing I've said to my dd is that I'm not going to let his being behind affect our ability to go out and do fun things. He will have to be on track or ahead to come with us, and if he can't come with us, the expectation is he will be at home finishing his work. The school he's registered with was going to implement a new policy where kids have to go into the school until they finish overdue work; if they aren't still doing that, I am going to ask his teacher advisor if we can set that up.

Something that will have to be decided with him is how he wants his schedule. There can be an advantage to just taking a huge block--like 3 hours in the morning--and just working through as much as you can. BUT he has such a tendency to drag things on. I suppose the worst that would come of it is he would have to bring work home. I'll still let him have some say and provide some schedule options. One schedule will have a large block in the morning and two smaller blocks in the afternoon. Another will be the opposite. Another will have 2 subjects in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Well, sort of. He's got English, science and social studies as his academic subjects, and then phys. ed. and a health-type class. The phys. ed. and health are 2 separate courses, but I'm thinking them as a single course. One of the subject blocks could be split in 2 and he could work on both a bit. The other option is to have him work on those mainly at home and the final block of the day could be "catch-up" and study time. Yet another option is to focus just on the academic subjects, do 2 hours of one, then an hour of another, lunch break, finish the last hour, then do the final subject for the remaining 2 hours.

Regardless, assuming that he will show up around 9 like last year, this will be the schedule:

9-12
lunch from 12-12:30
12:30-3:30 (or until leaving)

6 hours to tackle 3 academic subjects is plenty--if he learns to focus. Setting the above limits will help, I hope! A couple of minutes at the beginning will be taken to tackle some skill building--math, vocabulary, etc. This is one aspect I haven't quite figured out yet. But the above is very solidified in my mind and on paper. I believe it will work well. :)

Things starting to click a bit together

The more I read from "When Children Love to Learn" and from a book by Alfie Kohn, "What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?", the more I have a clearer vision of how things will unfold next year.

Alfie Kohn's book is one I took out from the library sometime ago. I don't know why I can't seem to sit down and just read through it because every time I sit down, I love what I'm reading. Today, I saw it in the shelves (maybe that's the problem: it's smaller than most books on my shelves!) and thought, "Oh, that's going to be due soon. I should sit down with it." It's at a point that reminds me so much of CM--about how learning ought to be the focus, not results. That's exactly what CM is about--there is no requirement for how much the children should know in the various subjects, it's all about the process and learning for their own sake.

I had been thinking of maybe having my daughter do a pretend provincial exam at the end of the year--well, not pretend, just use an old one. If she wants to then, sure, we'll do it; but I'm thinking now I won't even think about using some of the exam prep things during the year. I don't want her focus to be on how much she will learn for some arbitrary test. It's also got me thinking more about high school and if next year can be a good model year, we can continue that way for her academic subjects until grade 12, even if she's doing a diploma. She can do just the grade 12 courses she needs, with proof that she has been working on the subject matter throughout grades 10 and 11. When she gets credit for grade 12 academic courses, they automatically give credit for the "prerequisite" grades 10 and 11 courses.

This will give us so much more flexibility and we won't have to stay exactly on provincial curriculum--just have to prove that she has covered the prerequisites, is capable, but it doesn't have to be exactly the curriculum. She'd still do German through correspondence (her choice!) and most likely signed up with a teacher for art credit (either through our homeschool board or through a private school here in town), we'd get her phys. ed. credits and whatever other easy option courses she wants to cover as she went along. This feels like such a huge relief: she CAN get the diploma without us sacrificing good learning throughout the first couple of high school years just for the sake of properly meeting the curriculum and doing final exams.

On the flip side, if she wants to be eligible for certain scholarships, she will need official marks all the way through. I think I'd rather say, "Too bad, it's just money." They don't amount to a lot and I think our quality of life and learning is more important than a bit of money to help defray post-secondary costs!