Experiment

[Miss Mousie]

After nine weeks of schooling, I decided we were ready for a break.  DS couldn't spend the week at Grandma's, though, and I wasn't comfortable leaving him rudderless for that long.  My solution:  Student's Choice Week.

 

I wrote up the following guidelines (modified slightly for privacy):

 

 

Each day, you must log at least four hours of educational work.  Doing more than four hours and spending your time productively will increase your chances of repeating this adventure.  J

 

Any work you do independently must be done in view of a parent.

 

If you’d like to do something away from home, give me at least one day’s notice.

 

If you’d like to do something with me (read aloud, watch a documentary, get online, etc.), you have to plan ahead – it can only be done while I’m home, and you have to let me know in advance what you want to do.

 

You can spend as much time reading as you like, but it must be a book you haven’t read before.

 

Start time can be as late as 8:00 a.m., but most of the work should be done by 11:00 a.m., as with our normal schedule.

 

 

This is how it looked in practice:

 

The first day (when I was at work all day), he "forgot" that the book had to be something new, and he spent 3.5 hours reading a novel he'd already read at least twice.  Since then he has followed all of the rules.

 

We had three outings:  once to a nature center/forest preserve, once out to breakfast (with books), and once to the library.

 

He spent a good bit of time messing around with TOPS kits, and spent a little time on Khan Academy, but mostly he read fiction and non-fiction.  We watched three documentaries together, and some Schoolhouse Rock grammar cartoons.  :)

 

If we do it again, I think I should require him to write up a tentative daily plan.  As it was, I had him make a list of possibilities, so he didn't get up on the first day and say "uh, I don't know what to do."  ;)  I don't think he ever looked at it after he wrote it, though.  So next time I might require a little more planning so he gets better at guiding himself.

 

Overall, though, I'm very pleased with how the week turned out.  I really do think we are both a bit refreshed now, and maybe next week we can get back to the drudgery of typing and grammar without too much fuss.  ;)

 

 

Just thought I'd throw this out to the Hive in case anyone is looking for ideas to shake things up a bit - without shaking them entirely OUT! 

 

 

[nannyaunt]

I really like this idea.  I will have to keep in mind as a possibility.  :)

 

[Kathie in VA]

Sounds like a really neat idea. Thanks for sharing!