Day 49

I guess this is the last day of Week 12!

We actually did a bit of testing today. It was a bit of a sobering experience. I am a "more or less" CMer *(see below) and so that is the context.

I found that Kieron remembered FAR better or at least was able to retrieve far better (those may be two slightly different things) what he had done more or less by rote memory than what he had read in living books, or had read to him.

Now, for context, I rarely ask for narrations. We discuss spontaneously but not after every reading. That's partly what I mean by "more or less". Charlotte Mason insisted on narration after every reading, and for the very reason that I have mentioned -- retention.

She thought the child should do the work of extracting things to remember from the text.... rather than operate by prepared questions and study sheets that would allow the child to soak in passively what needed to be known.

I shall have to reflect. I think also, perhaps, my questions were too broad and general, too much for a child that age. But I also think that he needs a way to "peg" general knowledge on to hooks for retrieval.

Anyway, besides the oral testing he did:

• A geometry test (interior and exterior angles, directions)
• a Renaissance quiz
• a quiz on matter and the four states

I read a bit more of Christ the King to him (finishing chapter 19) and I read him 2 chapters of Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal.

Oh ! and edited to add that the big project today was learning the basics of recorder-playing. I found an old recorder in a drawer and so Kieron and I looked up "how to's" and then he practiced for quite a while.

* "The reader will say with truth,--'I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles'; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering, not 'more or less,' but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon's antiseptic treatment; that is, from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied, for the rather casual 'more or less' methods of earlier days." (see Ambleside Online, What is CM?)

Tomorrow starts Term 3!

Study and Test-taking Skills

I was thinking about how I always seem to drift during review week and to some extent during exam week. It occurred to me that I could use those weeks as a sort of practicum to teach some study skills. I think this is one thing that Sean is having trouble with in school, partly because of the type of memory he has but also because he never really got much guidance in this from me.

Here are a few links I found on study skills for middle schoolers-through college.

• Launch Pad for Success
• Study Guides and Strategies
• How-To-Study
• Study Skills Guide for Students
• Study Skills
• Teaching Study Skills
• Study Skills Lessons for Middle School
• Study Skills Unit
• Study Tips
• Ideas for Review
• How to Study for Tests

I think perhaps I'll choose a couple of ideas to focus on during each term's end and thus use the reviewing as a sort of practicum.

Here are a few more:

• Study Skills Worksheets.
• Various link pages.
• Notetaking and more
• Study Skills Portfolio
• How to Study

More About Exams

We're heading up towards the end of the first trimester, so I've started thinking about exams. Last year we did a bit of Charlotte Mason type exams, at least in the first term.

I went searching online back then for resources and examples, but a few new ones have shown up online since then:

The Tyranny of Exams -- not against CM, but against the "competitive exams" so prevalent nowadays. According to this very interesting blog post, CM wrote:

We absolutely must get rid of the competitive examination system if we would not be reduced to the appalling mediocrity which we see, in China, for example, to have befallen an examination-ridden empire.

CM believed that exams were supposed to be an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they knew, not be caught out in what they didn't.

Ambleside Online has updated their site quite extensively during this summer and has a Exam Project site with examples of CM exams for different age levels. It also has a list of Big Questions that CM tended to emphasize in her exams.

Simply Charlotte Mason has a blog on exams, too.

From the sample PNEU Exams for middle schoolers you find a lot of examples of quotes given and explanations asked for, such as this:

"The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." Where and by whom was this said? What ancient story is referred to?

You also get lots of:

Describe
Explain
Give an account of....
What do you know of....?
Sketch...
Tell the story of...

and in language

Translate....
Parse...
Take from unstudied dictation...

In some ways, not unlike narration itself, except looking at a bigger picture.

Oddly enough, the verbs in the exams are quite similar to those in the public-school standards such as California's. Where I think they differ is that the CM exams referred to particulars and to specific books of literary quality, whereas the CA standards, for example, refer to general knowledge and often to abstract ideas. I think that CM expected students to read excellent works and dig out the meat for themselves, so to speak. Whereas many of the standard-based lesson plans I find online, at least, are like this, or this. There is a well-meant attempt to pull students in with references to their own experience and conventions, but I think CM would have thought this missed the point of a liberal education, designed to foster the ability to look past one's own time and frame of experience. And the modern standards seem to be designed towards teaching the child what to think about the events he reads about.

It SOUNDS nobler in a sense to say "Study the early strengths and lasting contributions of Rome" than to say "Give an account of Horatius at the bridge". But I fear that the student in the first mode will basically be taught to say what the teacher or the textbook says about "strengths" while the student who has read about Horatius and perhaps then read Macaulay's poem will understand the strengths in a much more lasting way.

I had planned to write down study questions for my Year 7 student as we went through the coursework this term, but it did not happen. Sigh.... anyway, I'll probably work on that in the next couple of weeks. Those verbs I isolated are helpful -- now I just have to relate them to objects. I have to admit I am finding the Standards useful in looking at the big picture in what we're doing. I'll try to write more about that some other time.

Exams are kind of humbling for me because they make me realize how much we haven't gotten to that I meant to. For example, Music and Art, and handwork. Nature Study has taken a back seat too. And by no means the amount of writing I had hoped to do, though I think he's gained some ground in mental idea formation by the discussions we've had.

essay exams, narration, composition

Some types of essay verbs -- from Taking an Essay Exam

classify: Into what general category/categories does this idea belong?
compare: What are the similarities among these ideas? What are the differences?
contrast: What are the differences between these ideas?
critique: What are the strengths and weaknesses of this idea?
define: What does this word or phrase mean?
describe: What are the important characteristics or features of this idea?
evaluate: What are the arguments for and against this idea? Which arguments are stronger?
explain: Why is this the case?
identify: What is this idea? What is its name?
interpret: What does this idea mean? Why is it important?
justify: Why is this correct? Why is this true?
outline: What are the main points and essential details?
summarize: Briefly, what are the important ideas?
trace: What is the sequence of ideas or order of events?

Another take:

The following words are commonly found in essay test questions. Understanding them is essential to success on these kinds of questions. Study this sheet thoroughly. Know these words backwards and forwards.

• ANALYZE: Break into separate parts and discuss, examine, or interpret each part.
• COMPARE: Examine two or more things. Identify similarities and differences. Comparisons generally ask for similarities morethan differences. (See Contrast.)
• CONTRAST: Show differences. Set in opposition.
• CRITICIZE: Make judgements. Evaluate comparative worth. Criticism often involves analysis.
• DEFINE: Give the meaning; usually a meaning specific to the course of subject. Determine the precise limits of the term to be defined. Explain the exact meaning. Definitions are usually short.
• DESCRIBE: Give a detailed account. Make a picture with words. List characteristics, qualities and parts.
• DISCUSS: Consider and debate or argue the pros and cons of an issue. Write about any conflict. Compare and contrast.
• ENUMERATE: List several ideas, aspects, events, things, qualities, reasons, etc.
• EVALUATE: Give your opinion or cite the opinion of an expert. Include evidence to support the evaluation.
• ILLUSTRATE: Give concrete examples. Explain clearly by using comparisons or examples.
• INTERPRET: Comment upon, give examples, describe relationships. Explain the meaning. Describe, then evaluate.
• OUTLINE: Describe main ideas, characteristics, or events. (Does not necessarily mean *write a Roman numeral/letter outline*.)
• PROVE: Support with facts (especially facts presented in class or in the test).
• STATE: Explain precisely.
• SUMMARIZE: Give a brief, condensed account. Include conclusions. Avoid unnecessary details.
• TRACE: Show the order of events or progress of a subject or event.

Boring, I know -- yawn.

But I do think I learned a lot from writing essay exams in high school -- it occured to me that these types of imperative verbs could be used as forms of narration.

Here also are Narration Ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason.

There are some thoughts on Narration at AO.

Over the years we used many different narration techniques. Narration, to me, is similar to a 'workout' - you emphasize different muscles at different times.

In the early years, the habit of attention is the main goal. Children learn to train their minds to interact with the material, not to look out the window, think about what's going to happen after school, or poke their sibling :-) My child might not always get out of the reading what I would have gotten out of it - and they might even miss the three or four points I would like them to know, but they are learning the habit of attention. Learning a few random facts may make them sound 'educated' but they will be ill-equipped in the discipline of self-education for the work ahead that requires serious concentration and attention.

A post about literary analysis and narration.

Old Exam Questions for 6th grade

I found these old exam questions, based on PUO-type exams, that I made for my 2 children who were then in 5th and 6th grade (they are now 17 and 19 years old).

I thought it was interesting to come across these just after I did exams with my present 6th grader, who was back then about 4 or 5 years old.

The other thing that was interesting is that my 19 year old saw the papers on my table and started reading them, then answering them as he went along. Some of the questions are obviously general cultural literacy. But it was surprising how he could still answer most of the history questions even after so many years. I think that is probably support for Charlotte Mason's literature-based method.

All the books mentioned were books read that first half of the year, so the kids were doing a lot of reading. Brendan still remembered almost all of the books and also could identify almost all of the quotes.

Aidan was less than 2 years old at this time and very care-intensive, G Tube fed and needing oxygen at intervals, and developmentally about 9 months old. This kind of exam took a lot of energy for me to put together back then, and I don't think I tried it again that year.


HISTORY

Choose one of these saints and tell something about his or her life work and character.

• St Dominic, St Anthony, St Edmund Campion, St Hyacinth, St Therese of Lisieux, St Joan of Arc, St Catherine of Siena, St Francis Xavier

Identify:

• Whose mother dreamed about a barking dog?
• Who travelled to Japan to be a missionary?
• Who lived during the reign of Elizabeth I?
• Who went to war to save France?

Choose one of these martyrs and tell what country and under whose rule they were killed.

• St Thomas a Becket, St Thomas More, St Edmund Campion, St Paul Miki, st Joan of Arc.

Three of these saints were contemporaries(lived at approximately the same time) while one lived later. Pick out the one who lived later.

• Dominic Guzman, Francis of Assisi, Edmund Campion, Hyacinth of Poland

Put MA by the ones who lived in the middle ages and RE by the one who lived in the Renaissance.

Put these Japanese events in order:

• civil war, period of isolation, St Francis Xavier comes to Japan

Write a sentence about three of the following.

• The Crusades, The Black Death, the Tartars, Oda Nobunaga, Richard the Lionhearted, Henry II of England, the Ring of Fire, The Saracens, the Albigensians

Choose one of the following religions or heresies and tell something about it.

• Shinto, Buddhism, Albigensianism, Islam

Identify the quotes:

1. "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"
2. If all the swords of England were pointed at my head, you threats could not move me."
3. "The questions of a fool do not anger a wise man, but the answers of a wise man may anger a fool."
4. "The quality of mercy is not strained, but droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven."
5. "A pound of flesh."
6. "In the raging fire of the world there is no peace."

Geography

• On a map of Asia, mark Japan, the Pacific Ocean, Korea, and China plus as many other areas as you can.
• On a map of Europe, mark as many countries as you can, also the Mediterranean and the English Channel.

Readings


Choose one of the following Shakespeare plays and tell something about the story.

• Merchant of Venice, MacBeth, Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Define:

• samurai, shogun, bushido, chivalry, crusade, heresy, tsunami, kamikaze, quixotic, martyr

Choose one saint's book for a review:

• St Hyacinth, Pope John Paul II, St Dominic, St Edmund Campion, St Francis Xavier, St Anthony of Padua, Heroes of God's Church, Hunters of Souls, If all the Swords in England

Choose one other book:

• Lord of the Rings, Archives of Anthropos, Winds of Light, Bugles and Bonnets, Seven Sleepers, We Were There with Richard the Lionhearted, Knight's Castle, Time Garden

SCIENCE

• Choose one kind of snake, one kind of other reptile or mammal, and one kind of insect or spider.
• Tell what you can about it -- what you have seen yourself, if you have seen one in life or in a picture, and what you know from reading.
• Draw a picture or diagram.

,

Exams Addendum

Cindy at Dominion Family wrote a post on how she did exams with her Year 7 students.

Kristie at A Walk in the Woods wrote about Exam Week (sort of CM)

Post-Game

I posted about exams on my other blog and the final paragraph went like this:

I hope all this doesn't give you the idea that examinations in a homeschool have to be intense or stressful. If they are prepared for, and modified to the family and students' situation, they should be a challenging but basically positive experience, giving everyone a chance to display what they have learned, and vary the routine of the school year. You could plan a short break from school, a field trip or some kind of celebration to mark the finish to the past term and the prospect of a fresh start in the new one.

I wanted to remark on that last sentence. Yesterday after I had typed up Kieron's narrations and gotten all the exam posts up on the blog, I sat down with the three youngers I have at home presently, 11 and down. We played. And played. And played.

• First we played chess.
• Then I made dinner while the littlies played with playdough. (we made a fun meal -- sausages and pancakes for dinner -- Kieron helped).
  
• Then I made a whole bunch of floor puzzles with the littlies, only it ended up mostly being Kieron and me since the puzzles were still too hard for the little ones.
• Then we went hunting for more games (in the process I straightened our games closet a bit while Kieron chatted with me).
• Then we played SET.
• Then we played Notre Dame UNO.
• Then I gave Aidan his Wilbarger brushing and Kieron talked to me about all kinds of things.
• Then I read to Paddy and got him to sleep.

This was between about 5 and 9 or so, so LOTS of together time.

I think that for all of us, the playing was somewhat related to the exam thing. I don't think the exams were hard or stressful for Kieron. The littlies got pushed to the side a bit while we were doing them, but it wasn't that long, so I don't think it made them feel cast out in the cold.

However, one of my big "issues" about formal academics is the potential compartmentalization. Life vs learning; Mom vs teacher; serious vs frivolous. To put it another way, if I write down everything Kieron says about what I think of as an educational subject, but pretty much ignore him "uh-huh, uh-huh" when he is talking about his dragon game or something else close to his heart -- well, there's an uncomfortable twinge with that. Clare is old enough and observant and articulate enough to reflect on her homeschool experience, and one of the things she liked about our homeschooling was that we tried to keep a flow from one thing to another. Tried, but sometimes misstepped, and she remembers the missteps as salutory lessons.

JoVE who so often brings out something I'd only half-mentioned or half-thought of, made an interesting comment about her "inner unschooler". I have been thinking about this and hope to blog about it on my Spacious Place blog. Exams do not seem unschooly, do they? Nor do all these forms and assignments I've been posting on here. I have been silent about that because I can't quite figure out what to say. My inner unschooler is a right-brained thinker ;-). She tends to feel and experience and see (if I let her do it) .

If she, my inner unschooler, were given a chance to come up with her understanding of this exam thing, she would say she didn't like the word and wished there were another word that didn't imply Grand Inquisition.

But in a way the exam itself was one of the best parts of the academic year for her sensibilities, because we got to be informal, discuss, reflect and look back, focus on the positive, observe in a context -- all the things that she, particularly, enjoys a lot. (of course that makes it sound like unschooling is all about ME not the kids, but I'll have to leave that there for now and pick it up some other time)

The games and puzzle session seemed to be part and parcel of the whole thing, in a way. The whole day was draining for this introvert (and Paddy got a bit over the top with all the attention and interaction!) but it was a really nice day. Particularly because Kieron, the younger middle child, doesn't often get to be 'the oldest' and the main focus of attention.

I think he would like it if I sat down with him every day, or at least every week, and interviewed him about his observations and interests. It was interesting to see and hear his mind at work all day, and I think he could tell it was interesting to me -- that I wasn't critiquing or evaluating (two of my other kids would have/did find this kind of thing stressful and artificial, because of the type of private learners they are, but Kieron is like Liam in several ways and one of them is that he likes academic give and take)

Exams Year 6 Term 1

You can click on the gifs to make them more visible. These are the two days of exams for Kieron.

Day 53-- Exam/Review Week Day Two

Notes:

The exam questions for both days are in gif form here.
The transcript for his answers for the second day is over here.


In the morning, Kieron and Aidan had dental appointments in town, so we left home at 8 and didn't get home till after noon. I told Kieron that we were going to continue our exams today but that we had gotten the more difficult stuff out of the way yesterday (namely, Math!) and today would be more like an interview or a discussion.

So after making a fire we sat by the fireside and I gave him this sheet as a preview -- (right brained learners and introverts usually need a bit of time to process and retrieve) and basically reassured him. He didn't seem to need reassuring though -- he liked the questions and was looking forward to answering them. In fact, for some, he wanted to answer more questions.

I also told him that if he was drawing a blank on the question, he could make up one of his own and answer it instead. (This is one of the things Charlotte Mason said was an advanced form of narration -- formulating and answering your own questions, so I wasn't being "easy" on him -- I was curious to see what questions he might come up with, but in fact he liked my questions and stuck with those, though sometimes I would rephrase or fill them out a bit).

The whole thing took 45 minutes to an hour. I took down his answers on the Palm with the keyboard attachment. I am going to format them a bit and then upload them to google docs, but I think it would take a monster post here unless I divided them up by topics, so I don't think I'm going to just post them here. Rather, I'll link to them so that if you are interested you can see.

We skipped the "draw a picture" "find on the map" and "Greek letters" questions since we both figured that he could do these some other time.... probably tomorrow. And the narrating momentum was so good, I didn't want to waste it. We were both getting a bit restless by the Literature section so since the Science questions were answered so thoroughly, I telescoped Literature and asked him to describe a character -- he described a Bionicle from one of his stories.

In general, not too bad for a first effort.

It was really fun just celebrating what he remembered and I can see the helpfulness of periodic exam/reviews like this. I know a lot of people do the same sort of thing by means of lapbooks and end of unit projects, but this was quite simple -- just me and him and the keyboard. Maybe next time we'll try something more creative like an end of term lapbook or portfolio or notebook packet. We'll see.

Day 52 -- Review/Exam Week

I don't really like the term "examinations" because it implies interrogation and evaluation of answers, possibly though not necessarily hostile. I have my unschooler ideals about students owning their learning and the exam idea seems to play against that. But you also examine when you observe closely, and possibly that is a better way to think of it.

Anyway, we had our first day today. I had written out a plan but of course, as always! we flexed it. Here is what we did:

Math:

I had written out a series of review cards and we discussed these.

Topics:

• Place Value
• Exponents
• Powers of Ten
• Order of Operations
• Different Modes of Division with Remainders
• Multiplying Larger Numbers
• Improper and Mixed Fractions -- converting from one to the other
• Finding the greatest common factor in order to simplify fractions
• Finding the Least Common Multiple in order to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators.
• There was one more but I can't remember it!

Then I had him do one of the cumulative tests from his MCP math book. He got 87% -- not great, but satisfactory. I wrote down in my notes "execution difficulty" (which tends to be a problem in my homeschool in the earlier years -- I am not sure if my "wait and see" attitude helps or harms -- it worked fine for most of my older kids but you never know if another approach would have helped more).

He wanted to see the grade and was pretty content with it though I said an A is perfectly within his reach. But for his first more formal test that was not bad (I said that too).

Religion:

Tell about a saint you read about (I reminded him of which books he had read).

He described the 40 martyrs from Hunters of Souls (didn't have specific names or places at his fingertips). He did well with the conceptual thought processes about martyrdom and we got into a discussion about the ways to be a martyr and the likelihood of being tortured and killed for your faith in modern times.
Then, about doctrine from Faith and Life:

• Do you know what fasting is? What is the difference between abstinence and fasting? (he was vague on this, which surprised me -- but he was able to dialogue with me on it very intelligently -- he is sort of like Liam, more conceptual than detail-oriented)
• Name the first three of the Ten Commandments, which have to do with our duty to God. (no problem with those).
• What was the last Holy Day of Obligation we celebrated? (no problem)
• What are the names for the Mysteries of the Rosary (he got all the categories -- I didn't ask about the individual mysteries).

This took a long time, longer than it takes to tell. So I decided not to get into Literature today. Instead I had him complete some of the card quizzes.
Geography:

• Name the continents -- (he got them all except Africa for some reason)
• Place the labels in the correct places on the map (he transposed Africa and Asia -- yikes)
• Name the countries of North America (he did that fine-- whew)
• Place them on the map (plus the oceans, and Greenland) -- no problem.

Latin

• Decline terra verbally. Fine.
• Decline bellum and servus on the boards (bellum went fine, servus took a little help).
• Match the case names with their signification. He transposed Nominative and Genitive for some reason.

Handwriting:

• Finally -- a handwriting sample. I will take these at the end of every term... or in future, just pick a nice sample from his regular copywork.

So there you go. He didn't seem stressed at all. It definitely was a workout for both of us though.

By the way, Lindafaye at Higher Up and Further In has an exam for her 6th grader which I didn't find earlier.

Here is a form which I made for the review notes. I didn't actually USE it but thinking about it helped me order the notes I took while we were doing this.

Review Schedule

Day One:

• Math
• Religion
• Literature
  

Day Two:

• Language Arts
• History
• Geography

Day Three:

• Logic
• Science
• Nature Study
• Art
  

(These "days" will look different for different kids. I will try to do Kieron's review on M/T/W. Sean won't be here during those days. He will be here next week, but we will have various things going on, so his review is partly taking place this week (hopefully ---) and then I'll try to tie things up on Tuesday of next week. But I don't have high hopes; we may have to extend his till Monday after Thanksgiving, or just carry over altogether.)

For the structure of these days, I am thinking:

• Something to Love
• Something to Do
• Something to Think About

(or Hands Head Heart)

I am trying to plan up some sort of checklist for this. Of course!

Since it is his first time at this, I'm envisioning it as more of a "recollecting" time.... a time to sit together and reinforce old connections, and make some new ones. "Here's the story of the Great Fire ..... do you remember that? What do you remember?" -- like an interactive interview.

We've done exams before a la CM, with my older set, though never entirely to my satisfaction. I think that is part of the reason we didn't keep up with them consistently..... like an examination of conscience, an examination is revelatory, and that is uncomfortable. It works better for both if you think of them as an entrance, a step into a new place. I am trying to acknowledge ahead of time that I won't be satisfied, that I will find gaps in expression and understanding, and that this is valuable knowledge in itself, worthwhile for the future.

Charlotte Mason emphasized that her exams weren't meant to find out what the students DON'T know, but what they DO know. Exams were also a key element in the Ignatian classical system. With them, as I understand it, the emphasis was less on affirmation and more on accountability. But please realize that these are not dichotomies -- one does not exclude the other. Charlotte Mason did emphasize accountability, on a continuum that looked different at a higher level than it did at an elementary level. The Ignatian schools were secondary/tertiary institutions. There are always going to be, very appropriately, more exterior expectations for a young adult than for a child.

A few more things to consider (I'm adding them on as I think of them):

• Collect and organize all the photos of his projects. See if he wants to caption them or discuss/narrate them.
• Take photos of key pages of his various workbooks.
• Devise a checklist that shows what he has mastered, what is emerging, and what is still not there. (this is special-educationalese, but I've found it useful -- if you want to wade through this bulky pdf Kindergarten Readiness Initiative, there is an example there).
• Use some of these portfolio checklists.
• Ask him to list or describe his informal learning or favorite times from the past couple of months.
• Music Game? (play first few notes and ask him to ID the song or piece -- probably not this term, but maybe next time)
• Make index cards or notebook pages that will serve as "fact sheets" -- summaries of various processes, or facts, or whatever. An alternative would be posters.
  

Pen-Ultimate Week

There are only two weeks left until the term ends. So I have to think about how to wrap things up for the term -- what will change in our routine, if anything.

• There are a couple of changes I am planning. One is to have a given number of "unschool free pass" days where we get to just live life and count it as a day. Especially if there is travel or something enriching going on, like last week with Halloween and All Saints Day.
• Another is to have a given number of sick or medical appointment days. ... where we go to a minimum plus reading type schedule.

Yes, we already have some of these in effect -- but acknowledging them might be helpful.

------------------------------

I also wanted to try to have an Ignatian review/exam/Charlotte Mason exam week for the 12th week.

I looked for exam week information online and found:

• Sample Exam Questions at Ambleside Online
• A PUS article on exams

Also:

• An end of term retrospective at CM, Children, and Lots of Grace
• A Second Grade Exam at Our Golden Apples
• Exams for a 13 year old at Higher UP and Further In
• Plus, general information on narration at SalmonMe's and at Dominion Family

This will all be helpful if I can assimilate it all! I will let you know what ends up happening!

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Now, as for temporal plans, two of my older kids are going to be visiting friends next week. I am going to count these days as school days for two reasons (1) because travelling and visiting are excellent education in themselves, and (2) because I'm having them bring some easy review type material with them. The family they are visiting is also a homeschooling family, so the schoolwork they bring will be things they can do while their friends are doing their academics.
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That means that week 11, for at least one of my boys, will be an away week. I think, THINK, that I will do review for the one at home as well. Plus a writing intensive. Then by week 12 I will be prepared to do some sort of informal exam/retrospective type week. That will be a shortish week anyway because Thanksgiving is coming up.
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Looking ahead even further:

Once Thanksgiving is over, we are heading into Advent. Since I am just SO organized this year :D I would really like to have the rhythm be a bit different during Advent. But the details remain to be worked out. I know I DON'T want to have a burnt out, frustrated feeling all during Advent like I did last year. I want it to be a time of peace, anticipation and preparation.

Help me, St Francis de Sales and St Brendan the Navigator! (my two patron saints for this year's homeschooling)