I’m trying to get at least the first few weeks of school planned before school actually starts. Steven has decided he wants to start on September 1st, instead of starting on the 8th like regular school. I think his hope is to earn himself some days off before his birthday (something I mentioned in a previous post).
We learned last school year that a rigid schedule definitely does not work for us. Steven sometimes needs some extra time to finish an assignment or needs a break or 5 because he can’t focus, and my work schedule is unpredictable. So instead of posting an hourly schedule, I’ve posted how much time should be spent on each thing daily. The plan is to at least do French and Music before I work each day. We’ll also do phys ed in the morning if there’s time, but that might end up being after work some days. And then there will be daily assignments, along with Prodigy and reading time, to be completed while I’m at work. I’ll put the assignments in a duotang every week and write the breakdown on the weekly whiteboard. If he decides to work ahead, he can finish the work early and have more free time later in the week, but the day’s work needs to get done (unless I realize I’ve given him too much, which might happen, lots of trial and error here).
Steven wants to only have school Monday to Friday, but we’ve discussed the fact that some things will need to be done on weekends depending on my work schedule. As independent as he is, he will still need help with some things and I need to evaluate some skills. He says he’s ok with it as long as it’s “fun stuff” like science experiments and oral presentations.
The plan for assignments right now is to more or less work our way through one unit at a time (there will be some overlap). Every week will start with a current events assignment. I think it’s important for him to know what’s going on in the world around him, and also this will give a weekly opportunity to read, write about, reflect on and discuss these events, so he has lots of practice in a lot of the skills required for Language Arts. I have a worksheet made up the current events assignment, but I think I might be asking too much for one day. We’ll try it on September 1st and see how it goes, and I’ll update it for the next week if necessary.
The other days each week will be focused on one subject or unit. Steven wants to just check things off the list (and earn those days off), which I think is fine. He focuses better when he can just dive into one subject, and this will let us spend more time on things that catch his interest before moving on. I’ve also told him to let me know if there’s something he wants to explore. I don’t know if we’ll be homeschooling for 1 year or 3 (that will be up to him) but while he’s home, he has the opportunity to research and learn about anything at all. If it doesn’t fit into the curriculum this year, I can always make it a Language Arts assignment, or an Art assignment, or something else depending what it is.
We’re focusing on math to start because that’s easy. I was always good at it and Steven has always been good at it too. We’ll get it all done at once, or at least do a few units before moving onto something else if we’re getting bored. He’ll be playing Prodigy all year even once we’re done with the math assignments, so if I notice he’s struggling in some parts of math we can always go back and review them. Week 1 assignments:
Week 1 assignments and links to get them:
Tuesday: Current Events
Wednesday: Numbers to 1000000 Booklet ($3)
Thursday: finish the booklet if necessary, read Math Rules: Divisibility, Pattern Puzzles
Friday: Budgeting Project
I’ll have to wait and assess how the first week goes, and if I’m assigning too much. But the plan is to review decimals week 2 and fractions week 3 and then combine integers, decimals and fractions week 4.
That’s it for now. Stay safe out there!
