After a pretty good Memorial Day weekend that placed household responsibilities, health and light studying ahead of video games and television, while still making some time for fun, (hurray for us) it was time to get down to business.
I was surprised to see that our oldest, who still goes to school, was up before the rest of us, and cooperated perfectly with the process of getting ready for school and waiting for the bus. The youngest got a head start on his morning physical fitness exercises, and was ready to begin school at 8:30 a.m.
We had a terrific day. I wish they could all go this smoothly!
I made a list of classes, and let him know that we would spend 30 minutes on each class. Sometimes he might work through until the timer goes off. At other times we stop at the 20 minute mark and review his work.
The classes were:
Writing
Spelling
Math
Social Studies
English
Reading comprehension
Science
Maps
First he chose reading, and read 30 minutes of The Hunger Games.
He chose maps next. It's in the 4th Grade Scholastic Success book, and he flies through it easily. He completed pages 365, 366, and 367.
Next we did spelling using book one of Sequential Spelling. We've only been working with that book since near the beginning of this month, and we are already at day 36. By the end of this week we'll be one quarter of the way through the book. He loves Sequential Spelling because he's achieving a level of success that works well for him.
Science. I drew a blank, so I opened CK-12 Life Science For Middle School in the Kindle and together we read the first chapter, "Scientific Ways of Thinking." We need to review the websites within that chapter, and then read the review questions and re-read the chapter to find the answers. I need to make a mental note to gather all of the Human Anatomy materials I've compiled and turn them into a comprehensive unit. This morning I was unprepared and thankful to have a textbook on hand.
For math he finished page 376 in Comprehensive Curriculum in the 4th grade. It was a page filled with multiplication problems, to strengthen his skills. I would like to see his speed improve but he is making progress.
Next he chose Grammar, and he worked in the Scholastic book, pages 122 and 123. While he did this I checked his math.
For Social Studies we watched about 20 minutes of The Interrupters, (the edited version,) with several stops for discussion: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/interrupters/#b
I'd like to finish this documentary and then begin working on Nevada State history and government for social studies.
Lunch: Last night we had a wonderful vegetarian homemade pizza for dinner, and today for lunch we had leftovers. I told him that after the listed classes were done for the day, he could choose to work on music, watch a science documentary or watch more of The Interrupters. As a result, lunch took about ten minutes.
He did ask if he could choose art as one of his extra choices but I explained that he can sit and draw anytime. If he wants to do art we need to have some sort of a prepared program. So clearly I also need to get the art unit ready.
Writing: Scholastic, starting with page 178-179
Reading Comprehension in Comprehensive Curriculum, page 94-97
I appreciated the way I was able to get little tasks done as he completed each block. He still needed me to provide some guidance and clarification, and some things I had to do with him, such as watching The Interrupters, but I was able to make a phone call, place the nuts for tonight's dinner in a bowl of water to soak, rinse the sprouts, fold some laundry, put together a pack of supplies for his brother's tube feedings at school, etc.
He chose for his optional activity to watch more of The Interrupters, and we made it about 44 minutes in.
In summary, this is a plan that works well for us at this time. I would like to find some time to work on units for human anatomy, Nevada history and government, and art.
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