Working on the school plans

I've been spending a fair amount of time this past week on brainstorming and working out a rough math plan for my 11yo. (My 14yo is doing online learning and therefore, I don't need to do ANY planning for her academics!)

Here is what I've done:

1. I went to  http://montessorird.com/index2.php?cPath=2_25_66 and copied the contents into a document that is only about my son's math plan.
2. I had a look at the one text approved for grade 7 math here and tried to decide if it matched up well or not with the RD sequence, but also just to get an idea of the provincial outcomes.
3. I know what my son has and hasn't covered, so I started with the beginning stuff (numeration and addition) and worked out a rough plan by hand for Sept-Dec, following the R&D manuals with some notes on specific activities or type of work to do.
4. I went through our provincial learning outcomes and added in things that fit with what I had already laid out. For example, there is a whole unit on statistics and probability which I've tagged onto the end of the other units as a continuation of working with fractions, decimals and percentages. Or the algebra elements, which are considered a separate unit in the text, are being incorporated with his work on the operations. Which, to be honest, I think is much better than the textbook's approach of spending a few weeks on an algebra unit and then it's not touched again until the next year. This way, he'll be working with early algebra stuff when we are working with addition, then again with subtraction, then with multiplication and then with division.
5. I'm treating geometry as a separate subject, so on the same page (I used columns), I put in the geometry elements which match up with what's going on in math. So, for example, for the month set aside for showing multiplication work, I've got planned to work on area and volume.
6. On the facing page (I opened up a notebook--left page was for math and geometry month-to-month planning), I wrote down elements that can just be slipped in here and there, to make sure he knows how to work with them and certain vocabulary is covered, like 2D and 3D shapes, types of triangles, mm cm m, how many weeks in a year...
7. I turned the page and finished up with Jan-April planning, which leaves an entire month free. Hm.

Okay, how about a little visual of the draft end product (sorry, I'm not sure how to make it show up in the right direction!):

I have no real idea of how much time it will take to cover certain things. I've given a month for multiplication, including large, which he has barely touched on. One month might not be enough. I've only given December for division, but now that I think of it, with Christmas holidays and division tending to be tough, I'll probably have to extend it. In any case, I now at least have a sequence to follow in things to introduce to him. I will have to break down specific lesson possibilities as I go along, but at least there's a framework within which to work!

And I have to say that while math has been very neglected around here with him, looking at the things from K-6 that he hasn't covered or mastered, well, the things important enough to do so, and adding in the grade 7 stuff, I'm actually feeling rather good about this year for his math. I do think we can not only cover it all, but that he will have a decent mastery.  He does not have difficulty with math; he has simply been difficult to actually sit down and do enough math.Which reminds me of something I would like to do still: Create a chart with all the different outcomes and columns for Introduced, Checked, Mastered. Lots of "Checked" options where I will be able to date and indicate where he is in terms of practice and mastery.

Speaking of mastery... I read of one Montessori school where starting in grade 6, they didn't move on to the next topic until they had reached a 90% mastery. I'm not sure what I think about that. On the one hand, they are older and perhaps it's developmentally okay; on the other, what's so wrong with working on more than one topic at a time? I don't think Maria Montessori really envisioned anything like this type of bookwork for the junior high level, but alas, it's hard in our society to just go, "Meh, let's just do farm and business stuff for 3 years." Maria also never got a chance to try her idea out; she may have not found it practical nor reasonable in the end.

I have also started working out a rough plan for social studies. I will start off doing all of the Great Lessons (my son has only ever seen the first one!) and then spread off from there into the science units I have and then the grade 7 social studies topics (history of Canada). I have plans to go further back than what our provincial social studies program has in mind and I won't be as fact-oriented as the school program, but give a large overview, planting lots of seeds, and let him dip into the areas he wants to grow more. When I think about it, the social studies program is so very limiting. They want to focus on one select group of aboriginal Canadians, for some reason; they focus on the same group in high school social studies, too. And yet, there are so many that the kids are never really told about! I have an idea of finding a map with some sort of indication about where the different groups traditional lived, more or less. I know many were very nomadic, but they still didn't go from BC to Newfoundland and back! My plan is to go even further back than that, to the last Ice Age and have a look at where it is believed the aboriginals came from and their movement through North and South America. I think the big picture is so important! Yet school social studies seems to be so focused on passing on the details.

There was a video I saw of a middle school science project where they had done an enormous diagram of a cell (can't remember if it was an animal or plant cell) and had little explanations of each part. This got me thinking that for social studies, I need to think outside the box. Sure, a research report is a good idea, but it's important to get more creative, or to suggest more creative ideas: Create a model of an aboriginal settlement, for example. Make a small translation dictionary of one of the languages. I am thinking of keeping the elementary focus of the fundamental needs of humans as the overriding "theme" for the work, but I will have to check around and see if that's normal for upper elementary or not. Or to find out what upper elementary students do focus on and tie it in. (You may be asking why I'm looking at elementary if my son is grade 7. Well, he is grade 7 but he's not yet 12, and just how he is, I still think the 9-12 work is very suitable for him.)

All right, it's almost 9pm on a Friday night. I ought to pull myself away from this computer and do a bit of winding down!

Inspiring the Non-Writer to Write

The title of this post came to mind this morning as I was getting ready. I had, before that thought, been thinking about Charlotte Mason (as an approach) and my son and what to do with him this next school year as a writer. Do I take the CM approach and just do copywork until his handwriting is decent and he's had a fair amount of practice and exposure to punctuation, sentence structure, etc., and have him do oral narrations? Then Montessori came to mind, with the early guided writing activities. Eventually thoughts came to me sitting down and writing out my thoughts and then the title just popped in.

Inspiring the Non-Writer to Write

That is what I want to do. I would like to inspire him to write. The only "writing" he does at the moment are PS3 messages to his cousins. Now, that's all fine and dandy and has him asking about spelling and punctuation, but, let's face it, that's not going to help him much if one-line messages are the extent of his writing abilities.

There is a huge push in educational circles (not homeschooling ones, really) to just use the computer. "Let him type/dictate. He doesn't really need to know how to write it out by hand." That just feels like dumbing things down to me. The hand is so integral in the development of our brains and thinking... If he can get his fingers to move in the right places for typing, then gosh darn it, he can use his hand to write out letters! :)

I realize I'm faced with potential difficulties: the lack of physical skill in writing letters, maintaining size and spacing, etc.. This work will have to be separate from the "inspirational" part. Especially at nearly 12 years old. The thing is I have to make sure that the physical skill aspect does not dominate the inspirational side; that would be a sure demotivator!

Which all leads me to the big question: How do you inspire an almost 12-year non-writer to write?

Turn to what he loves a little voice whispered in my head.

Okay, what does he love? Baby Blues comics. (Nope, not kidding. lol. He has taken every one he can out of the library, I think. It's the only thing he's been reading lately. And he'll read the books over and over and over.) And he still loves Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield. So, there's an idea right there for the fiction/funny side: Work on making his own comic. There is certainly enough that happens in this house for content... ;)

What else does he love? Computer/PS3 games. Hm... What sort of writing ideas can come from this?

*start a blog with his reviews about games (this does mean typing, but I could have him write it out by hand first)
*um... (anybody have anything they can add???)

He loves playing: Lego, Nerf, in forts... *mindsgoneblankforideasthere*

He loves animals, too. He knows so much about all kinds of insects, sharks and dinosaurs. Just last night, we were watching Raiders of the Lost Ark together and I said something about the opening story and wondering where it was taking place. Ds said it was in Mexico. No, it can't be, I said, because the native tribe isn't Mexican. They look more South American, rain forest-like. But he said the Mexican red kneed tarantula that they used only lives in Mexico. Well, by golly, he was right about the tarantulas! The scenes are supposed to be in Peru, so I was right on that part, but those tarantulas do not exist in Peru. :)

So... Projects on animals. But what could be really inspirational? The idea of a blog connects him with the greater world, gives him a chance to share things with others. The comics are things he can share with cousins (or hey, even start a website with his comics) and others. The standard project ideas are, well, disconnected and boring. Or maybe not. They just don't seem "real". How many lapbooks have you read as an adult lately? ;) That said, if I start a lapbook or some other type of project on something, he will be likely to follow suit, so I guess I can't really dismiss the idea entirely.

I suppose I need to keep along these multidisciplinary lines. English class has us often writing just for the sake of writing. But he'll be studying various things and the writing can be incorporated in meaningful ways. *noddingheadhere* Meaningful ways. Worth repeating. When you have something meaningful, the motivation and inspiration are already there. I can show him poetry but tie it in with science (Ode to Tarantulas?) and more.

Distractions around here are messing with my thought processes, so I'll leave this for now. If you have any ideas to share, please do!!

Summer's almost half-done!

Yikes! We only get two months of summer here for the school year and with July already nearing its last week, it means summer is almost half-done! And what have I done for school prep?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

lol.

Well, I've thought about stuff. As I've decluttered things and found potentially useful resources, I've put them aside to use. But I haven't sat down yet and really thought about next school year. Or even this August, for that matter. Not that I want to start school this August (um, actually, as of this coming Monday!) but I will have my nieces and nephew during the day while their parents are working and I would like to have at least one presentation a day, establish a routine, etc. They are so used to just having complete free time at my place since they usually only come after school for a bit and the odd day off school; I haven't established any kind of real routine for any of that. So, I'll need to do things gently. Ease into it. But what am I easing into? Not entirely sure. I guess I have to figure that out!

But my mind is mostly on my son and his upcoming school year. My daughter's main work is already planned (ie she's doing online courses where the work and structure is decided upon by outside teachers), but there are still extras to make sure to include: meal planning, cooking, financial stuff... Oh, and her French class. She will be doing French with two other teen girls, but I have not yet planned anything for it. Ach (think German exclamation with that 'Ach'), got to do that, too. Back to my son...

My son will be 12 in September. He's always been a bit of a "different" sort of kid, different sort of learner. I never figured out how to break through or use the bond he had with his cousin when they were both little and give them as much Montessori as I gave my daughter and another girl I was homeschooling at the time. I had more children in the house at that point, too (my two plus four others), so it just made things more difficult. In any case, I would do things, he wouldn't connect, I'd leave it. But he's always been a kid who lags a bit, then catches up super quickly and even often gets "ahead". (I will never forget his Buzz Lightyear drawing. I actually still have it somewhere. He wasn't quite yet 3 and had spent all of his time drawing up to that point being elliptical shapes with dots: potatoes, he said they were. All of a sudden, one day, he draws this figure: a head with hair, eyes and a mouth, a body with arms and fingers at the end of the arms, legs going out from the body part with toes at the end. He had skipped all kinds of steps. It's what he does. He did the same thing with walking, talking, later on with reading... That's just how he is.)

So... I have this funny learning son who would be grade 6/7 if in the school system. As a homeschooler, he is registered as being "year 7", which just means it's his 7th year of school, but I can choose his curriculum. Had we sent him to school, we would have actually waited a year. When you have a kid who learns by lagging then jumping the way he does, starting him the year we started homeschooling would not have been good. At times, I do think I should have waited to register him for homeschooling. He just loves enjoying things around him more than he likes to do academic kinds of stuff. Which is why I ended up essentially unschooling him. Until now. (Can you almost hear the slightly evil "heh heh heh" and see me rubbing my hands together in anticipation? :D)

He knows this coming year will be different. For one, I will have LOTS of time to do lessons with him. Second, he is much more aware that other kids in the extended family are doing things he can't do. He doesn't like that. Makes him feel kind of stupid. He's not the slightest bit stupid: he just has not done anything remotely the same for work.

On one of my Montessori lists, we were discussing how many Montessori elementary schools post the local outcomes for the students to be aware of working at meeting. This idea has been stuck in my head as something to do with my son, but to have the outcomes for grade 1-6/7 available and as the 'target' stuff to have lessons with and do projects on. Not all of it, because we've got some silly topics in some grades for social studies and science (I'm pretty sure he doesn't need to cover the topic of My Family, nor Colours) nor do I need to include certain math things, for example, that he can already do. And as I write this, I find myself questioning: What is this going to look like exactly? This is what I need to figure out. How am I going to organize and present these outcomes? And do I include the grade 7 outcomes? Part of me goes: "Well, he's got a lot of "catching up" to do and he's youngish for his age, not at the Erdkinder point, so perhaps it's best to just look at him as a grade 6 student." Another part of me goes: "He is so capable and will catch up without any difficulty. Why not just put it all out there?" Both parts are equally weighted at the moment.

I know for math, we definitely have to cover all kinds of elementary things he has not really worked on, plus just have him do more work in areas he has not done enough in to master, like large addition and subtraction.  My brain just paused there. I do need a basic plan for the year of when I can anticipate showing him different things, be it for math, science, social studies or language. (Language, oh boy, that's one we have to work on a lot.)

I'm going to have to do some more thinking and brainstorming offline rather than losing people with my endless train of thoughts here. I will come back at a later point to share what I've figured out. (Oh, and now I've seen the labels as I finalize this post and see "Work Contracts". Something else to mull over.)

Spontaneous Repetition At ANY Age!

When I think of spontaneous repetition, I think of very little ones, like the stories Maria Montessori shared about children doing something over and over and even just the little ones who have been in my care over the past 14 years (mine and others'). There is such a natural tendency for them to repeat something over and over and over. They are focused, intent and just have this need.

It apparently is not just for little ones. :P

My son, who is 11, got his first house key on Sunday. Monday, the repetition began: lock, unlock, lock, unlock... And not just the deadbolt on the back door, but the doorknob, too.  He showed his little 4yo cousin how it worked in all of the doorknob and deadbolts to the outside/garage. It got so bad, it was driving me crazy. So he then took up just doing it from outside rather than leaving the door open and doing it. Tuesday, he kept his key with him and every time he went outside to play, he locked the door. He'd come in for water or to get something and would unlock, do what he needed to do, then back outside and locked the door. It was really quite funny!

He did it again yesterday, but was not in-and-out so much. Today, the novelty seems to have worn off. Or I guess in Montessori terms, the need has been fulfilled.

Do you have any stories of an older child doing something almost obsessively repetitively?

Restart!

Exams are done and I tried to get them going this week, but it didn't work. The weather, time of year, people sick and feeling blah... There was a definite need for just some downtime.

I am trying to envision the coming week that I want. ;) I don't know if the 17yo will fall in line--he's got some family stuff going on (he's not mine) and his 2nd semester doesn't officially start until Wednesday, so I'm not sure he's going to really get started on that work until then. So be it. [EDIT: HA! I've planned and prepared deadlines for him for Friday. He'll get to work tomorrow. :P One motivational factor is that two of his distance learning teachers have NOT been accounting for weekends and spring break in their deadline calculations, and he definitely doesn't want to be working during spring break, so he needs to start earlier, or work faster.]

My daughter has been blah this week, too, although she has been attempting to get into work. But it's been hard. She's even found just concentrating on reading hard this week, despite being an avid reader and normally fine with hours at a time. Hopefully this week will be better.

The plan for this week: restart! Take baby steps at reincorporating Montessori more into our lives. How have I let it go so much? I have thus far this weekend had a look at some math albums I bought from R&D, looked at an old message about the folder system Donna Bryant Goertz used in her classrom, have had the urge to start reading Montessori again--I think it fuels me and keeps the vision right there in my face--have worked out a grid to figure out lessons I can give my son. It's just a basic chart. Here's the jist of it:

LESSONS	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Writing
Spelling
Math
Science
Geography/History
Music/Art
Reading

It is as much a planner for me as a work tracker/planner for him. I can add things in and he can pick an area to spend time in. For example, I've added things where I have something to show him, do with him or a lesson to give; blanks are for him to decide if he will work on it then and if so, what he will do:

LESSONS	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Writing	Calligraphy drills		Calligraphy letters		More Calligraphy letters
Spelling	pick: French or English		pick: French or English		pick: French or English
Math	Next booklet in fractions *do at least a few of the written	*do at least a few of the written	*do at least a few of the written	*do at least a few of the written
Science		Report sheet for Leo da Vinci
Geography/ History
Music/Art					(do something in both areas by the end of the week)
Reading

It's a start! I have on my wish list to do something from the Chemistry album with him this week, too. I should maybe just plan it in and then it will force me to do it. ;)

Okay, off to find this book:

 

It's really about kids in difficulty, but it is so inspirational and gives such a good feel for how Montessori can be at the elementary level, I really, really love it and recommend it. It's even good for parents who just want a better insight into kids and things parents can do! I wish there were a good book about the Erdkinder level. :-/

From the mouths of babes...

My 10yo son, over whose writing abilities I have been fretting recently, was trying to write down gift ideas (he has both a birthday coming up and an early Christmas--my in-laws go south for the winter!) and couldn't figure out how to write "ear". I said something about if he know how well boys his age in school could write. He responded with something that I can't even remember, but didn't really address what I had said. I said something about boys in school his age having done a lot of writing and being able to write a lot by now and did he realize that--or did he even care? (The French expression doesn't sound so negative. LOL.") His reply:

"I don't really care." (smirk)

Ah... lol. What a kid. I have to have faith somewhat that whatever I can introduce to him and he will do, he will be motivated enough at some point to go even further. At least, that's what I'm trying to convince myself of. I could honestly see this kid being in a Montessori elementary class and he'd still spend his time reading, probably doing science, doing math, maybe making maps and doing pin maps, but avoiding writing like the plague. There has to be a reason for him. Same thing for when he learned to crawl (not until 10 months), walk (not until 15.5 months), talk (not until 15.5 months) and read (started just before he turned 8), all of which he masterly performed within a very short while after deciding to finally do it. He has no compelling reason to write yet. Maybe I need to find a paleontologist to be his penpal. ;D

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow...

I'm actually feeling rather nervous about tomorrow. Especially once I sat down to work out a sort of schedule for my two and realizing I don't like having a schedule. lol.

For my nearly 14yo dd, especially, who has never worked on a schedule, and I do like the Montessori approach of controlling their own time more (although, admittedly, if she were in a Montessori school, she'd probably have a schedule; something for me to keep in mind), I just ended up going, "What am I doing?!?!" It felt so off from what would work well. I think a sort of schedule for my son would work to start--he's kind of had a short routine schedule this past year. Now I want to add things in.

But I think I'm changing too many things at once. It just all felt so artificial as I was writing out the specifics of what to do tomorrow morning. I need to regroup and restart my plan.

REBOOT ;)

I do really like the idea of starting off with a Bible verse or some other religion time. I have most of the Faith and Life series and we've only made it 3/4 of the way through book 3. That could definitely part of our morning routine.

Ds is used to having handwriting--although I admit to not doing it as much as I would have liked to have had him do last year. I've been noticing improper letter formation and will be starting off focusing on that. Dd at this time could just move onto her own work, whatever she chooses. I'll tackle that in a minute. In any case, I will have him start off by writing out the alphabet, lower case, and I will take note of which letters are problematic. I know his p's are--he always places them on the line rather than the tail below. I'll also have a look at just how nice the letters are. I think, though, I might like to have him then compare his letters to my letters and to have him tell me what's different. We'll tackle the ones he sees clearly are different first.

Ds is also used to doing math in the morning. I will do a place value lesson with him tomorrow on that.

Now, what to do after that??? The CM schedule had in Drill, which I was skipping, then Repetition Poem. I like the idea, but think that's one of the last things I ought to introduce.

What other subjects are there?

Science: I had meant to have picked some books for him and I haven't. What are some ideas as I sit here? I could look at the provincial program of studies. I could have him use his science kit (I like that idea!). He's had this one kit since his last birthday--and his next one is less than a month away--and not once done anything from it. I think he found the set up confusing. That could be a fantastic project tomorrow. If we actually do something from the kit beyond setting things up, I could have him narrate to me what we did and I will write it down in a science notebook. This, of course, has me wondering if I even have notebooks...

Social Studies: I'm rethinking having him do social studies with his big sister. First of all, I don't know how much government would really interest him, even how I plan to go about it. Second, being stuck waiting for him would not work when dd is ready to move along--she is far too used to her individual pace and I see nothing compelling about having to present something twice. Three years apart is quite a difference, especially since dd is much more academically inclined. My thoughts at the moment are perhaps Canadian history and geography or world geography, with picking some areas to learn more about. I can throw the ideas out there tomorrow and observe the reaction.

Art: I haven't picked an artist to study. I have some pages from a Monet calendar; I could always start with Monet. It could be interesting to do another one though. Of course, he could also spend some time drawing tomorrow. We've got a bunch of fantastic instructional books.

Music: He has not touched his guitar in ages. Now, guitar's not something I'd really want to be doing with him in the morning, but he could always disappear to his room during the regular school year. There is a kids' instructional book that I bought sometime ago that he has not touched. If I present it to him and do a lesson with him, he might continue with it.

French: I want him reading more in French--which he's sort of started doing (Calvin and Hobbes--it's a start!). The writing will come later once his handwriting's better and he's had more practice with narration. The other thing to tackle is grammar! I could have him learn avoir in present tense tomorrow. It could also serve as copywork. I had something else originally planned, covering terms such as nom commun and nom propre, but I think I'd like to just get into the verbs and take it from there.

I could also add in geometry as a separate subject.

Now, all this written down, what is he likely to actually do in a 3-hour period and in what order should I suggest things (since he's nowhere near just picking the order on his own)?

*Bible/religion
*handwriting
*math
*social studies
*science
*French grammar
*art
*music

If we actually do all that, it will be amazing. ;) However, it could end up being one of those things where he spends about 15-20 minutes per subject, which means he'll be done in a couple of hours. If so, I'll take it from there and work on presenting more to him. Like Latin, dictation, etc.


---

Now, what about my dd?

She can start off the day with us and the Bible. After that, she'll have her choice of the following:

*math: I'm not sure if she's ever done exponents with 10's, so I'll do that with her. If that's fine, I'll move her into place value with the "developped form": 32 465 = 3 x 10^4 + 2 x 10^3 + etc.

*social studies: I don't have any French resources yet for this. We do have a Kingfisher Encyclopedia of History (I think that's what it is) as a starting point to look at early civilizations, their lifestyles, what sort of government would have have needed, etc. I want her to either tell me about it and the write down what she's told me, or write something down pretending she's telling it to me. My goal is not note-taking.

*science: First order of business will be to have her decide if she is going to cover one unit at a time or more than one at a time. There are advantages and disadvantages to both! If she does one unit at a time, she'll start with the first unit and have about 24 school days to work through it. If she decides to tackle 2 units, then we'll extend that time! Approach: Read a short section, be able to tell back, write down any vocabulary words, answer any questions that are a part of the text.

*French reading: I found Les misérables but have not even read the first page yet. I need to do that and write down words or phrases that she might have difficulty with. (I expect to have difficulty with it--despite my years of French Immersion schooling and then most of my university in French, I have actually done very little in terms of French literature!) Her assignment, after I go over some things, will be to tackle a small section and then do a written or oral narration. I might also find some historical background to it so that there is some sort of context provided before she gets going!

*French grammar: Verb conjugations in the present tense, starting with ER verbs. A little review! She can come up with a bunch of verbs and then work out their conjugation and maybe a few sentences. (She actually likes coming up with silly sentences to practise verb conjugations.) One thing I ought to check is there are new grammar and spelling rules since I studied them. The old are still acceptable, but I really ought to show her the new. I am quite certain that some of the ER verbs have had their conjugation rules change when it comes to doubling letters for certain verbs; not sure if accents have been affected. (Those of you unfamiliar with French, I'm sorry--you probably have no clue what I'm talking about and I'm sharing a bunch of babble!)

*German: This is her one key course this year. She would like just to be able to converse more than follow necessarily the program of studies. I'm thinking I wouldn't mind getting all her abilities up enough that she could skip a course or two through distance learning or be able to get easily into a private one-day program we have here in town (although she has thus far shown an extreme aversion to any sort of lessons on the weekend and would rather have a job!). If we do enough, she could probably do the grade 12 level correspondence next year (grade 10 year) and be done with the formalities while we continue improving our German together. Well, okay, I need to remember a lot first. ;) So, what to do for tomorrow? I think I should take some objectives from the grade 7 (first year for one track of the German second language options) level and focus on vocabulary that we can use in day-to-day situations. I wish they had a vocabulary and expressions list like they do for French! But alas...

I've just looked things up. Things we could work on are just basic house vocabulary and question words like wer, wo, wie, wann, was... Ich möchte is a great expression to know and easily use. (I would like...) I will have to take some time and make up a vocabulary list. Mind you, we have the one workbook that covers both grades 7 and 8, so I could maybe just focus on that, plus household daily things. That would work. For tomorrow... Shoot, I think my brain just shut off. lol. ... Oh woot!!! I just did some searching and found a vocabulary and expressions list! Yay!

Other than that, there is art and music. For art, she has a painting book and I will simply ask her to do one of the lessons from it. We have all the necessary materials for it. For music, I will ask her what she wants to do: keep going with piano? try the flute? both? something else?

That's enough for now. I must go rest my brain a while! Too much stress today with various things. :/

School is almost here!

Next week is back-to-school week. Hubby has to be at school (he's a teacher) on August 30th, although the students aren't back until Sept. 1st. My niece and nephew are with a different school system and they actually head back to school on the 30th. The 17yo, I believe, is expecting to start on the 1st.

I have had in my mind that I would like to have 30th and 31st to homeschool just my two--well, with my youngest niece and the little guy here. Every time I sit down to write out a plan, I get stuck. I have butterflies in my stomach. I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing!

I'm trying to change things this year and really go about things in a way that I can make it all happen. Books that I have been reading have been helping me flesh out goals and my determination to follow through on them, and one of my 4 key goals right now is my children's education. I've got the drive, I've got the will--I just don't know what I'm doing.

What better way to flesh things out than by writing? :D

That's why I'm here right now, writing.

I pulled out a printout of a CM school schedule from way back when. It reminded me that I don't have to plan the whole day--just his 3-4 hours in the morning. I am NOT doing a CM-style schedule, having him change lessons every 20 minutes or so. But I am looking at covering the various subject areas, as I think having a lot to provide him with and for him to choose from will be highly beneficial. I'm not going to cover every subject every day, so I find myself kind of stuck. I have to balance things with having other kids to provide lessons to, to help, to change diapers and potty train... I guess I'm feeling stuck on how I'm going to make this work. (Writing that, I have come into my head, from The Secret, that the "how" is the domain of the universe and my job is to figure out that "what". lol) All right, I need to forget the "how" and just focus on the "what" I want to cover.

What does the CM schedule that I found on the AmblesideOnline site have? (Remembering that they did school over 6 days instead of just our 5.)

The particular sample schedule, which I have to admit I don't know if they changed the schedule each week or what, although I think they must have because there's no mention of Shakespeare in any of the schedules, has as the Monday plan:
*Old Testament
*Arithmetic
*Dictation
*Drill/10 minutes of play
*Repetition of a poem
*Geography
*Writing
*French

I won't be doing drill, but this breakdown isn't bad. Looking at the week as a whole, arithmetic is done 5 out of 6 days; easy enough for me to be prepared to give him math work each day, alternating between concepts (arithmetic one day, geometry the next, back to arithmetic). Of course, because I'm not doing drill and the song stuff they do, I could always add in geometry as a separate subject. (I went through the provincial curriculum not so long ago and I really felt that geometry could be treated as a separate subject, but complementing whatever arithmetic he was covering--multiplication lends itself to looking at area, for example.)

One of the CM books I read talked about giving lessons, not just having subject time, giving the child the work and have them go at it. I need to make sure the lessons are super short, but this has how it's often been with him anyhow and following Montessori, so that's not a problem. With the Old Testament, I think that's a great place to start and I could preview the first chapter of Genesis, see if there's anything to bring up, then have him read it and do some sort of follow-up work: a picture or oral narration. My 13yo could read it, too, and could do a written narration and/or some sort of art (she's very artsy!). While I have not done CM with them and have not done narration formally with her, she is a natural narrator, giving full details of movies, books, dreams, situations that occurred with brother, cousins... Very detailed. lol. Always has been. It's really remarkable. But I digress. Her oral narration is fantastic, so I am not hesitating at all in having her go straight to written narration. (Her age group timetable also start with Old Testament, so combining the two kids' work on this is perhaps rather easy, although I expect I will be able to have her at some point read more than one chapter.)

Arithmetic: Well, I have things written up on my other computer, a plan of the topics to aim to cover each month. Seems to me that the starting topic for arithmetic is place value. For the first day of school, I could do a review lesson with him, see where he's at in identifying place value, and adding in 3 more bits of information, then having him create his own questions and identifying the place value. Actually, a perhaps better start is to see where he is in terms of breaking down numbers (as in, 18 567 = 10 000 + 8 000 + 500 + 60 + 7)--I think seeing what the numbers are made up of lends itself better to learning the name of the positions.

Dictation: Uh... He's still barely writing properly. I think I need to scrap dictation for the first while and instead have this as his repetition time (which is also done in Montessori, so I love that!). That means I'll have to find a book or a collection of poems that he could try to memorize. I have a great book of Poems for the Young that I could use, or maybe print off some of A Child's Garden of Verses. There is a free version (or possibly more than one free version) available online. Can't remember if it's at Project Gutenberg or not. Ideally I will find some good French poetry by Tuesday!

Geography is next on the schedule: Hm. I haven't figured out what I'm doing with him on this. His sister, for social studies, will be spending the year on government--I've modified the provincial curriculum and will be starting the year off looking at how people governed themselves in ancient times. I'd like to have the two sort of working on the same thing, just to make things easier. I suppose Geography time is a good time for him to read a bit about an ancient country and tying it in with a map. I will have to figure out what I'm doing for this!!! I had not gotten that far in his sister's plans to know what she's going to start with exactly and which resources we will use.

After Geography is Writing--this will be his copywork time. We are starting off the year with me giving explicit instruction in forming letters, both cursive and print. He uses capitals where he's not supposed to for letters like P--it looks the same in both upper and lower case and he just doesn't seem to get yet that a lower case lies on the line. So, we are starting from the beginning. I think I will tie in Writing Road to Reading with this since we're doing this somewhat remedially and the approach for learning letters--past the sandpaper letter phase--is really good. I will tie in the idea of narration, having him explain to me how to make a letter so that it looks good and sits on the line properly.

The final subject for the day is supposed to be French. That's excellent. Except that I'm not sure what to do since French is our home language. lol. I suppose I need to decide if I will have him read and narrate during that time or if we'll cover grammar.

Now, I said the final subject is supposed to be French because the above, if he takes the rough amount of time from the Parents' Union School schedule, is missing the 20 minutes of drill and play and the Dictation time, which is supposed to be about 30 minutes. That's nearly an hour missing. What should I tack on as another subject or two? He loves science, so I think that would be a great way to end the formal day for him. What to cover? I hadn't really decided what I would do this year for science with him, I don't think. Part of me is interested in maybe quickly covering the provincial elementary curriculum--all kinds of things he hasn't done that he would really like. I could skip the somewhat superfluous things. I'll have to decide quickly. And figure out another subject to add in. Or maybe not skip dictation, just keep it simple to start with. Hm...

Looking ahead to Tuesday's subjects, I see Latin. I think Latin would be very cool to introduce to him. He's already been grasping certain things from all of his own reading on animals and I just think it could be very interesting for him, a new challenge related to what he loves, to start learning a bit. The thing is: I really, really don't want to use an English-based program and I have not yet found anything for kids in French. I'll keep looking or I'll maybe buy and English program, translate the lesson and then present it to him. (Oooh, just found this http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/lesson01/default.htm--could be fantastic as a starting point for me to create lessons if I can't find a suitable French resource. Great thing about French being a Latin-based language is that it will be even clearer what the Latin words mean!)

I don't know if he's going to want to continue with German studies this year. If he does, that could replace the "French" classes. (But then, what to do with the German class in the schedule? lol)

Well, this is a good start for a fixed plan for the first day. I'll have to go through a plan for my dd, but tomorrow. I'm getting rather tired and don't want to think anymore. ;) And then I'll have to finalize resources and the actual lessons, won't I? And then figure a plan for my 3yo niece!