more planning to plan and catch-up

I wrote a post on prayer and planning over here. Now that I wrote it, I actually want to DO it. So that's next on the list, besides helping Kieron get through the last part of Year 7.

Some more posts on planning, from 2007.

• When I Plan
• How I Plan
• The Big Picture
• Step by Step

We slowed to a stop on Holy Week and are just picking up again now. .... everyone got sick and I was doing some house-sorting so we didn't stay on much of a schedule.

Kieron has been reading My Book House series, Winds of Light series, and something else I can't remember. Oh, yes, a "time" story by Andre Norton -- can't remember the title.

I read some of Pinocchio to Paddy -- I'm not sure how he liked it except that he kept saying, "Keep Reading!" I had never read the real story before and was surprised by the satiric tone, sort of like Cervantes, it seemed. Good Books always surprise me with their voice.

Paddy's also having me go through Winnie the Pooh again. We also read Dinosaurs before Dark... a Magic Tree House story. That is, he read it to himself and then I read it to him.

Aidan has been "reading" Are you my Mother? and Ten Apples up on Top! to me and then having me read them to him. By looking around the floor I can see the archaeological trail of puzzles he has been doing.

Today I hope to have an actual academic day even if it's somewhat slow.

I have it pretty well decided what we're going to do next year as I wrote here. But I think we are missing out a bit on interests. It's something I don't really know what to do about right now but I'm putting it here for consideration.

Also, since I was just whining about being sick and letting homeschooling slide I thought this was great timing. So how's homeschooling going?.... (you're still doing better than Miss S)

Year 7 -- last lap

Year 7 Term III (word 2007)

Kieron and I have been dealing with fuzziness. It used to work for him to have me do a few things along with him and then jot down the rest on a piece of paper. Recently, though, that hasn't been enough. He gets lost in the day.... and so do I.

I decided to write out all that I want him to cover before summer break (subject to minor revisions). I gave him the whole thing on a clipboard and last week it seemed to be helpful. He still has his weekly Timetable (pictured on the sidebar) to refer to.

So over on the left side in gif form is this week's work. I have a section to "Carry Over" whatever he didn't get to the week before.

Above is linked the doc for the whole 9 weeks. If he keeps up he will finish in the first month of June. We'll see how it goes.

Next year he is going to do some type of Pre-Year 7.

Results of Ambleside Thoughts

I took the Ambleside plans and made a sort of weekly checklist that I am going to use for now.

I couldn't figure out how to approach it with my Year 7 son because we are in early American history and I didn't want to skip ahead. So I put him in the second part of Year 5 at Ambleside. Hopefully it won't seem too easy for him; many of the books are quite suitable for a middle schooler.

There are a couple of places that I changed things from the AO curriculum. In "history tales" there is supposed to be "Trial and Triumph", which isn't a Catholic book. Since Kieron read SO many saints bios last term I think he is all right on church history for now.

Then I added Current Events because we already do that a bit and I want to do more of it; a Year 7 child needs to know something about topical issues.

For Paddy, I'm going to be very slow with the Year 1 material. I figure it can easily take us a year and a half to go through the Year 1 material, so there will be time and space to keep up the literature trails we like to do together.


I put forms for Year 1 and Year 7 up in doc. The Year 7 pages are on the left in jpg so you can see what they look like.

You know, there really isn't all that much reading required.... I'm wondering if I assign too much reading when left on my own. Last term got sort of confusing because I was juggling so much material.... why do I do that? Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Plans for the Weekend

I'm going to read:

• Charlotte Mason's Home Education -- Reading, Narration and Writing
• Liam's thesis draft
• I also wanted to look some more at Faith's Fridge Schooling, and think about Anne Lahrson-Fisher's Fundamentals of Homeschooling.

Play

Parents who homeschool with the greatest success love to play with their children. They learn to protect children’s playtime. They appreciate how much learning results from many kinds of play. Play allows the spark of creative insight to flame – a most powerful learning tool.

Conversation

Parents who homeschool love to talk and listen to their kids. Conversation includes all communications – oral, written, and mathematical. Parents encourage and guide their children to love learning through daily conversation. Conversation builds strong families through the oral tradition of passing culture and information from one generation to the next.

Togetherness

Parents who homeschool love to hang out, go places, and do things with their children – together. This section explores several important family togetherness issues, and tips for coping with differing ages and stages. Togetherness suggests a process of staying connected with family and loved ones, building community, and learning to live with others in the wider world.

Growing Up

Parents who homeschool find ways to celebrate or otherwise note the myriad steps of growing up in a way that is consistent with a homeschooling lifestyle. Accomplishments, culminating events, rites of passage, and celebrations memorialize the path to maturity and independence.