The boy begins his year of studies today. This will be his "7th grade" year, though that is a loose description having more to do with his age and the number of years in formal study than topics and levels worked on.
One of the biggest differences between homeschooling and traditional schooling is the ability to avoid "wasted time". As a 7th grader of course he would be involved in changing classes all day. The mere process of going from one class to another necessitates lost time. Here, no such loss, probably saves 45 min to an hour a day right there. No lost time at the beginning and end of class as the teacher greets students, takes care of daily "housecleaning", gains control of the unruly mob. Of course there are many small time savings as each topic is studied here, no disruptions, no unruly classmates stealing learning time, and no waiting for others to finish a task before moving on. Over the course of a day that probably saves another 45 min to an hour. Yet another savings is the simple act of getting to and home from school. That of course varies wildly depending on how a student travels and how far the student lives from school - but I imagine with all the morning prep and other time eaters involved he saves at least another hour per day over other students. So the least savings of time on an average day would be between 2 1//2 and 3 hours.
Then there are the days like today. As the first day of school, if he attended traditional school, nothing of actual education would happen. But for him it is jump in with both feet.
Here is his home school schedule for today:
* 1 hour reading book of his choice, after my approval, INKDEATH for now. He read maybe ten books this summer.
* read Kids Discover magazine on Shakespeare
* 1 hour creative writing (he is writing a dragon book)written on the computer so his keyboarding skills are practiced, as well as the ability to use word processing. Later we'll be going over his story and he will sharpen his editing skills
* 1 chapter in Charlemagne read, notes taken (writing project when the book is completed in about a week and a half)
* 1 chapter in The History Of US - chapter is on Western Expansion and Exploration, pre Civil War, Jacksonian presidency. Questions at the end, explain to me what was in the chapter, answer my questions orally
* Review Algebra 1 up to where we left off last year - heavy stuff starts tomorrow
* 30 min practice on guitar
* 2 hours work at barn - There is so much important stuff learned in this activity it probably deserves a post of its own.
* Discussion of the importance of efficiency (repeated theme throughout school year :)
* Listen to Rush (yup, I raise Rush babies) and discuss at least one theme from the program.
Today, being Monday is his longest school day of the week. We hit the barn by 8am, get home and do the book work, then guitar, then back to the barn to finish for the day. While at the barn he will likely ride as well as help me with the heavy stuff - no lack of fresh air and exercise. Probably will not stop for him to do whatever he wants until around 6:30 or 7pm. He prepares his own breakfast and lunch everyday. Sometimes his own dinner too, sometimes he even prepares dinner for his parents. Today he made himself tortellini for lunch. He also helps with the dogs, walks them, feeds them, cleans up after them. Why yesterday I even had him help me vacuum.
Earlier today he came down and told me it sort of felt Christmasy. Maybe sometime soon I'll write a post to explain that comment to you.
One of the biggest differences between homeschooling and traditional schooling is the ability to avoid "wasted time". As a 7th grader of course he would be involved in changing classes all day. The mere process of going from one class to another necessitates lost time. Here, no such loss, probably saves 45 min to an hour a day right there. No lost time at the beginning and end of class as the teacher greets students, takes care of daily "housecleaning", gains control of the unruly mob. Of course there are many small time savings as each topic is studied here, no disruptions, no unruly classmates stealing learning time, and no waiting for others to finish a task before moving on. Over the course of a day that probably saves another 45 min to an hour. Yet another savings is the simple act of getting to and home from school. That of course varies wildly depending on how a student travels and how far the student lives from school - but I imagine with all the morning prep and other time eaters involved he saves at least another hour per day over other students. So the least savings of time on an average day would be between 2 1//2 and 3 hours.
Then there are the days like today. As the first day of school, if he attended traditional school, nothing of actual education would happen. But for him it is jump in with both feet.
Here is his home school schedule for today:
* 1 hour reading book of his choice, after my approval, INKDEATH for now. He read maybe ten books this summer.
* read Kids Discover magazine on Shakespeare
* 1 hour creative writing (he is writing a dragon book)written on the computer so his keyboarding skills are practiced, as well as the ability to use word processing. Later we'll be going over his story and he will sharpen his editing skills
* 1 chapter in Charlemagne read, notes taken (writing project when the book is completed in about a week and a half)
* 1 chapter in The History Of US - chapter is on Western Expansion and Exploration, pre Civil War, Jacksonian presidency. Questions at the end, explain to me what was in the chapter, answer my questions orally
* Review Algebra 1 up to where we left off last year - heavy stuff starts tomorrow
* 30 min practice on guitar
* 2 hours work at barn - There is so much important stuff learned in this activity it probably deserves a post of its own.
* Discussion of the importance of efficiency (repeated theme throughout school year :)
* Listen to Rush (yup, I raise Rush babies) and discuss at least one theme from the program.
Today, being Monday is his longest school day of the week. We hit the barn by 8am, get home and do the book work, then guitar, then back to the barn to finish for the day. While at the barn he will likely ride as well as help me with the heavy stuff - no lack of fresh air and exercise. Probably will not stop for him to do whatever he wants until around 6:30 or 7pm. He prepares his own breakfast and lunch everyday. Sometimes his own dinner too, sometimes he even prepares dinner for his parents. Today he made himself tortellini for lunch. He also helps with the dogs, walks them, feeds them, cleans up after them. Why yesterday I even had him help me vacuum.
Earlier today he came down and told me it sort of felt Christmasy. Maybe sometime soon I'll write a post to explain that comment to you.
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"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Is it okay that I wish you had been my mother even though I'm older than you are and it's kind of a weird thought?
;)
Yup, that's fine. I wish I had been my mother, in fact I think most of my mothering is in reaction to (not imitation of) my mother.
Always wondered what was involved in the everyday learning of the average homeschooler. Interesting post.
Rush - as in Limbaugh? Or as in Geddy, Alex, and Neil?
Limbaugh - but I am familier with the other Rush :)
You have very lucky kids...that routine used to be 'normal' for most kids (even though schooling took place at the school, but no one put up with b/s there). And when that routine happened, responsiblity reigned and we didn't have the problems we do today.
I would love to do that with LD. Your son is very lucky.
As far as the lunch, LD would approve. He's a tortellini boy, too.
I know, that is the frustration. And most of what teachers deal with is BS put on them by government mandates (usually created by people who have never taught) or parents who do not allow discipline. I am 100% in agreement that the mess we have now is not the fault of most teachers, and the result is the kids are able to learn less and less. I keep saying most of "teacher training" these days is actually crowd control.
My daughter, the high school teacher, deals with similar issues with administration you do. Last week she got a call at home from her principle who was angry with her for letting the county "AVID" coordinator that there was a scheduling problem at her school that was not being resolved. Why did she go to the coordinator? Because she had already approached two different administrators in her school and they had done nothing. She is a very good teacher but I fear that in advocating for her students she is going to anger her principle to the point of getting fired. The principle is an idiot.
Oh, I didn't realize AVID was national. I thought it was just our district. LD started the AVID program this year. While I see some great benefits from it, I'm also seeing how this is going to impact him in ways that may be a bit too much for him to handle at this point. I'm not sure we made a good choice on this one. I should have just let him go for yearbook/journalism.
At my daughter's school AVID is aimed primarily at the Hispanics (though not solely) and only those with talents and abilities that would get them far if they knew how to use/channel them and if they had parents that knew how to steer the kids in a productive way. In her school's community high school graduate parents are the exception, and virtually none have parents that attended college or tech schools. She fights hard for these kids, but catches much grief in her school because the administration (and several of the "AVID" advisors) would rather just have the name of the program, not the actual work of the program. She WILL advocate for these kids, at the expense of her job if necessary. They love her, and she is making a difference.
I don't know if any of the "middle schools" have AVID here, I think just high schools.
She feels very strongly about this program.
Wow, yeah, I wish I could have a group of students whom I could just keep all day and take them anywhere and we could learn in these ways or others. It's true that a school setting where you are funneling hundreds of students around from class to class, to the lunch room to be fed, to buses, etc., causes a lot of wasted time.
I could go on for days about other changes I would make to make education better.
At the school where I work, I would be happy for a child of my own to have about 60% of them, but the other 40% are so awful... it can be a nightmare. And the biggest problem of all is that they are allowed to continue being awful.
Whew, too much to say and not enough time OR brain power right now after a full day teaching...
As for AVID, some middle schools in our state do have AVID. Our goal in my district is to get there at some point. AVID is definitely best (in my opinion, anyway) for kids who will not learn organization, time management, goal setting, etc., at home and who need help knowing how to make themselves marketable to the university of their choice. It is also helpful for the kids who do not have parents at home, or whose parents are too busy or don't know how, to hound them about their grades. So, I watch my AVID students' grades like a hawk and when they slip I pester them to death so they don't want to experience my pestering any more :). I'm really good at being a pest. A lot of my immigrant students have been left behind in the US by their parents and either live with friends or aunts or uncles who have children of their own.
I do know that if I could start a school of my own, I would keep it small and set it up so that teachers could truly collaborate and connect what is happening in different subjects so that things are seen in more context. We would DO a lot more, rather than just hearing about it. We would go places and see things for ourselves. Students would be encouraged to take charge of the direction of their education by exploring things they are interested in in more depth. That is why I would keep it small, because it would be difficult to facilitate this while making sure they learn enough about everything and not just what they like. You know, kind of like homeschool :).
Sorry if this was disjointed! Me brain be tired.
Wow, I love your school schedule. I toy around with homeschooling the girls but know that I don't have the patience for it. Plus I need time away from them. We are considering a small Christian school, though, first because it will teach the values we want our girls to have, second because it is small and third because I don't think I'll have as much problem pulling my girls out of school to travel when I am paying for them to be there vs the city taking my tax dollars, underpaying the teachers & overpaying the superintendent.