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.

"Work is boring..."

First day back to school after Christmas break. My daughter put on a onesie, didn't eat breakfast, just kind of grumbled, "Can we get started?" My son got up, moped about--although he did get himself dressed without my asking--and once I started talking to him about the things I wanted him to work on, he was clearly grumpy. I grabbed him and asked him if he was Mr. Grumpypants today. He said no, it's just that work is boring.

*sigh*

I am reminding myself that Maria Montessori said that ages 12-15 should be doing hands-on, meaningful work for society. That academics needed to be pushed aside a bit. Our society doesn't really allow this. I even get comments from my husband about how he's worried about our son's future and he doesn't really see what progress our son is making.

I sometimes wish I could shake society into sense a bit.

At the same time, part of me says there should be a way for us to engage in projects or some other form of activities that would produce something--to please my husband and society at large--and still help my son grow in whichever way he's needing to grow right now. All he wants to do is play video games, watch videos on YouTube about video games and play guitar. And play video games with his cousins.

Now that the work has actually begun, the mental shift required today has occurred a bit and the mood is not so down. But... but... I'm still wondering what we can change, what simple thing we can change, that is in line with their development and enjoyable so that learning is seen as enjoyable and not a chore.

What do you do--Montessori or not--so that your teen children have a love of learning and don't greet each day with the grumble of "Work is boring"? Or if you are experiencing the same thing and don't know what to do, share! :)

Babble Planning--Junior High/Middle School

I've decided to babble plan. What is that? Just me babbling on "paper" while trying to plan out a homeschooling week.

My plans for my son have not been specific enough and so a lot of things haven't gotten done as I had planned. So, I will babble here and perhaps it will be of some sort of help to others--even if it's just inspiration to sit down and make a plan. ;)

FRENCH
*What has he done so far for French? ... Absolutely nothing. Okay, so what can he do? Reading, writing, grammar. I have not had him start writing a journal entry a day about what he's been doing. I was hoping his dad would get more into it, actually ask him, but things have been kind of chaotic and our son isn't up before Dad leaves for work, so... I can introduce it to him. Maybe have him write it like letters. "Cher Papa, aujourd'hui j'ai..." I also have grammar workbooks for him to work through, even just a page a day. For reading... I can resume reading Le voyage au centre de la Terre--except he's become quite bored with it (always that question: do you keep going? because you suspect he will enjoy it later? or just to see things through?)--or find something for him to read. Or maybe just start a different French novel for now, something simpler.

So, this means for this week:
-writing each day in the journal
-grammar each day (I need to find a book and have one specific page each day for him to do)
-at least being read to in French each day

ENGLISH
*What has he been doing for English? We started Writing Strands, but haven't really done anything this past week. I'm not convinced it's a good fit for him. Getting him to write even just a paragraph a day in French might actually be enough right now, although I do still like the idea of perhaps doing mini Writers Workshop sessions. (I'd need to refresh my mind how they work.) He's been reading Lone Survivor. And I've had a few days of reading The Hobbit to him and we discuss things here and there. I could always add in Sequential Spelling, grammar... COPYWORK! Ach. He desperately needs to work on his handwriting.

So, for this week:
-continue with silent reading each day from Lone Survivor (at least 30 minutes)
-reinstitute copywork each day; what will he copy???? Ha, Calvin and Hobbes dialogues came as the first answer. lol. (He still loves Calvin and Hobbes!)
-Writers' Workshop?? Would have to see what I can find online (ooh, my search has led me to finding something useful for readers' workshops http://www.appstate.edu/~smithtw/rcoe/RE_3150_web/Reading_Minilessons/Reading%20minilessons.htm). Looking at this document http://www.ttms.org/PDFs/05%20Writers%20Workshop%20v001%20%28Full%29.pdf , it's hitting me that the best place to start would be a mini-lesson on journal entries, possibly start from the beginning with sentences. Having him write about things he wants, too, and why, like an electric guitar and an amp ("Why do you want it and why should Maman and Papa help you purchase it?") or a hamster.
-ooh, last-minute thought: have him read poetry. But what? ("Shakespeare's sonnets.") Oooh.

MATH
-he's been doing a bit of The Key to Algebra series, now in book 2. Just need to do it more consistently and perhaps for longer periods! And I've restarted him on multiplication table drills.

So, for this week:
-at least 30 minutes a day The Key to Algebra
-multiplication table drills, like I set up the other day (I should probably just take a picture, but it's closing in on midnight here and I don't feel like it ;) ). Basically, I just wrote out things like 1 x 3, 2 x 3, 4 x 3, 3 x 3, 6 x 3, 3 x 4, 5 x 3, 3 x 6... Lots of repetition with the x3s.

SCIENCE
-we've touched on the school textbook a bit for the biology unit and the space unit. Could go back and touch on those or look at the other units.
-we haven't done any hands-on activities yet

So, for this week:
-touch on a different science unit each day (okay, except maybe Thursday--it'll be his birthday); I still haven't printed off the actual outcomes, which I think would be a better option to follow (research the outcomes) than simply following the textbook
-plan for at least one hands-on activity, ideally something connected with the science units

SOCIAL STUDIES
-we started watching Canada: A People's History

For this week:
I'd like to continue it and have him write something about what we watch. We also have some books and magazines out from the library on Canadian history, like issues from this magazine. Just a matter of being more consistent and deciding each day how much and what to do.

http://www.coverssell.com/?p=7573

PHYS. ED.
I haven't been having him track his hours, although he has been doing some exercise with the punching bag. I could always have him look up rules for things like playing badminton (we play sometimes at the rec. centre), tips for shooting baskets, something. Perhaps a year-long plan for phys. ed. topics would be in order.

LUA PROGRAMMING
Just need to sit down and do it with him.

---

I'm reminded by finding this http://teacherweb.com/ON/MA/juniorhigh/apt76.aspx that I haven't at all been doing a morning meeting with him. This will be important to discuss the work to do each day and have a routine to get moving with. And I either need to just set a schedule for him (which he seems fine with me doing) or a checklist (which might be more for me than for him). A daily checklist in a specific order that he can use as a schedule or can check things off in any order. There, sounds good.

Ok, it is shortly after midnight now. I can either stop and wait until morning to post or just post now. I think I'll post now. ;)

How do you plan for your middle school child?

A sample Montessori junior high schedule

I thought this was interesting from the Montessori Academy of London (Ontario):

http://teacherweb.com/ON/MA/juniorhigh/apt63.aspx

W.W. = Writer's Workshop

Given it's almost all the same, I'm guessing that they have simply set aside the morning as being for these different subject areas, but not necessarily at a specific time?

Junior High Weekly Timetable

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:50-9:00am	Morning Gathering	Morning Gathering	Morning Gathering		Morning Gathering
9:00-9:45am	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French	Full Band	W.W. Math French
9:45-10:30am	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French		W.W. Math French
10:30-11:15am	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French	W.W. Math French	Student Services	W.W. Math French
11:15-12:15pm	Phys. Ed. Sectionals	Prep/Set up Cooking Support Business/Tech Solo Time	Prep/Set up Cooking Support Business/Tech Solo Time		Phys. Ed. Sectionals
12:15-12:40pm	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
12:40-1:20pm	PLAYTIME	PLAYTIME	PLAYTIME	PLAYTIME	PLAYTIME
1:30-3:15pm	Science or Humanities	Science or Humanities	Science or Humanities	Art/Work Period	Science or Humanities
3:20-3:50pm	Advisor Time	Advisor Time	Advisor Time		Advisor Time
3:50-4:00pm	Care of the Environment	Care of the Environment	Care of the Environment		Care of the Environment