Field Report: 1st week

[seaben]

I'm feeling more reflective this year about the whole process. When we were thrust into full time home schooling last Spring, I scrambled around looking for resources and was still trying out various routines and structures. I think this year since I knew Fall would be at home ahead of time, I planned more based on what I learned.   For me that means focusing on the areas of weakness, foreign languages and Science. But also where last time  I felt time pressure to cover a  ton of material  to make up for deficiencies over the course of the year (We went over the entire US History from start to end for example) now I have more of a worry about pacing to fill the whole year.  It would be really easy to rush through all of Medieval History or Economics and finish by January.  What I need to do is add enough research, writing and projects to increase depth.

We've generally been following this structure. After breakfast is done around 8:30, we have a discussion of tasks for the day. My 9th grader usually can manage with just  a discussion  but the 7th  grader needs a written list to track everything.  My main morning goal is to get a writing prompt done and then the priority of other topics shifts to balance the week out.  Lunchtime is the next big bloc of time I have to talk things over but the kids pop in during the day with questions and that leads to mini discussions and dialogues.   Overall everyone adjusted back to the routine by the second day or so.

Curriculum-wise I’m still evaluating both the OpenCourseware Chemistry materials and the econ textbook (Bernanke) for gr9.  I outsourced conceptual physics for gr7 to an Athena’s Academy online course and I have a friend do a 1 day / week tutor session for Algebar to free up some time.  Most of the other pieces feel set except for signing up for language classes which I’m feeling more certain I’m going to do.