Day 17

We had a rather loose day today. Kieron had made quite good progress this week so we sort of winged it. I read to him (a few poems -- he is getting to quite enjoy these!) and a few stories. Paddy and Aidan were restless and I am afraid I hurt Paddy's feelings at one point. Then he did a few division problems, and read 4 chapters of Francis Xavier. I read more of Creed in Slow Motion (finished chapter 2) and we discussed it quite extensively. I wanted him to try to write something and he wanted to make up his own alphabet. Dear Reader, I counted it as writing! Oh well, it was Friday.

I told him there was going to be a Latin quiz on Tuesday.

I guess these daily logs will probably be mostly about Kieron and a bit about incidentals. I tend to unschool the littlies, and the others are so much on their own lives now.

I have been reading Meno to Brendan. This serves a few purposes. #1 it helps me study for the Plato reading group I have joined. #2 it gives a proximate occasion to converse with Brendan. We are both introverts and that Leaning on a Truck thing is true of both of us. #3 It is a Tradition. I started reading to Brendan every morning when he was about 12 and it was a very good thing in many ways. We've been through Icelandic sagas, Paul's epistles, The Iliad, the Aeneid, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the list goes on.

Clare overheard me reading and another literary discussion ensued. I never remember exactly what we talked about -- but it is always interesting. Clare is presently reading through the Bible (getting bogged down in Leviticus), reading War and Peace, studying German and studying to retake the SATs in early October.

Today, Sean is supposed to bring his grades for each class to the football coach... if he is failing more than one class he can't play in his first game tonight. It is so odd -- but then I dreamed all night about how he had F's and we found the teacher had mistaken him for someone else and we had to find the teacher and try to convince him he was mistaken before the game started. And Kevin dreamed we were trying to drive Sean to a game and he hadn't printed out a map so he was just driving. I am rambling now! it was funny that we both had nightmares about the area we personally felt a bit responsible for. I wonder what Sean dreamed!

The rest of the day will be quite full since we have our homeschool meeting and then Sean's football game.

Week 2 Learning Record

I'm going to wrap up the week's learning notes early. So this week was a short week, only 3 days. Next week will have an off day, too -- since it is Labor Day next Monday.

Monday:

• Appointments in town -- no school

Tuesday, Day 5:

Kieron

• Review Greek and Latin (basically, I asked him what he remembered)
• 2 more chapters of We Went with Magellan, independent reading
• Math Multiplication drill at Thatquiz.org.
• Latina Christiana Quia.
• Review of the Apostles Creed, then discussion about Ronald Knox and the purpose, audience etc. of Creed in Slow Motion. Then I read a bit of it to him and we discussed it briefly.
• Introductory Logic, first part of first chapter.
  
• Free Time: Designing comics.
  

Paddy

• I read several books to him, including Grasshopper on the Road, Frog and Toad All Day, and a couple of Little Critter books.
• He read a bit of a LIttle Angel Reader to me.
• Alphabet Quia
• Starfall

Aidan

• Starfall, Alphabet Quia.
• Walk to Post Office with Dad and Mom in wheelchair.
  

Both

• Both went on sort of an expedition with me. Paddy wanted me to pack him a little bag to put over his shoulder on a stick like a vagabond. Then he devised several "adventures" to different corners of our area, with different sub-objectives. Aidan and he "caught fish".

Wednesday, Day 6

Kieron

• Latin, Direct Objects and their case in first and second declension.
  
• Greek, pronunciation of vowels
• Math, review from Core Knowledge 5-- multiplying large factors, and decimal place value. Then he did Place Value Pirates.
• Bible History -- read introduction, about how we got the Bible, independently. He is supposed to tell me what it was about tomorrow (groans).
• More of Creed in Slow Motion -- about credulity vs skepticism. Interesting discussion resulted.
• Logic, the rest of chapter 1 and then Ex 1 (easy stuff -- like Liam, he loves the "nonsense" sentences!)

Paddy and Aidan

No real formal academics. I tried to do a little counting and adding with Aidan using beads. We all went to the library. I brought out a digital timer and Paddy is fascinated by it and using it in all sorts of contests. Aidan has lined his wooden beads in a Hot Wheel storage box and is pretending they are blood draw tubes.

Aidan found a picture in a toy catalog of a transportation puzzle he had when he was littler (someone gave it to him when he was in the hospital) and he became obsessed about it and wanted to order it, etc. This sounds like a small enough irritant but it gets to be like Chinese water torture, especially when he says things like, "Maybe it will be at the Post Office! Are we going to go there and pick it up?" again and again with a sort of fragile, almost hysterical enthusiasm! These things usually end in a major meltdown but this time it seems to have passed off OK.

Thursday Day 7

Kieron

• Math -- more review of decimals
• Greek -- pronunciation of vowel blends
• Logic -- review of first chapter
• Latin -- finding the right case for the direct object
• Narration of yesterday's reading of Bible History
• Literary discussion
• Reading: He Went with Magellan.

Paddy

• several stories read aloud.

Aidan

• a shortish reading lesson
• walk to Post Office with mom and dad

Goals for next week -- work up to a more complete schedule, and focus more on writing.

Day Two

I am typing quickly since this was a busy day and is going to keep being busy!

Today I introduced a couple more subjects to Kieron. My plan is to keep either adding or rotating into a couple more subjects every day until we basically have a method and some familiarity with all the new books -- most of them ARE new.

Today:

Math -- we reviewed Properties of Addition (and Multiplication) and I showed him the idea of variables and how you could substitute numbers for the letters to solve the problem -- also, related equations).

Latin & Greek -- for these subjects, we have gone back to two of our oldest resources -- Latin is Fun for Latin, and Basic New Testament Greek in 30 Minutes a Day, both originally acquired because Kolbe Academy used them. I do plan to get to Latina Christiana II (or Henle, we'll see how it goes) but I want to try something a bit different for a little while. Latin is Fun used to be difficult for me because it is hard to teach with little knowledge of Latin, but I am a bit more confident about that now.

So we did a bit of vocabulary from the book, and then the grammar.

Thus concluded the Year 7 school day.

The binder is my recordkeeping solution for him this year. I will put his work inside it -- the dividers are for the months, so I can keep his daily logs, and possibly his work as well, loosely organized. Details to follow -- I'm not sure if it's very interesting, but it does help me to remember it and actually do it if I write it out : ).

On the left side in the above picture is a weekly reading checklist. The details of this will probably change as I get a better idea of what method works best for us!



The little ones:

Paddy had a reading lesson.
They are playing with felts now.

They have been playing more creatively recently and even hanging out in the same space, as you see.

I have been spending the day bringing things upstairs that I brought downstairs last year. It is more spacious up here and easier to find a place to store the learning materials.

Off to make dinner now!

Day One

I had this (gif) written out for Monday, but I knew that this week it was very likely to take two days to do one day. Anyway, what Kieron actually did was to write out his name, address, birthdate etc in his best printing (to provide a baseline for this year) and then he did a math test on addition online, and a Latin Quia.

He just finished Journey to the Center of the Earth, and before that read The Lost World.

The little ones worked on phonics a bit.

We discussed how we are going to do our chore rotation this year. The two little ones (with my help) can stand in for Sean, who won't be around to do regular chores. They both are pretty positive about this -- the older kids were fortunate in that they were helping around the house when they were quite little -- my little ones haven't had that chance, and they have been (mostly) eagerly stepping up to the plate, feeling proud that they get to unload silverware from the dishwasher and that kind of thing.

It feels weird around here with just Kieron and the little ones to teach. Paddy is too young to have much attention for formal academics, and Aidan is too focused on the concrete. I think I shall memorize a list of goals for various subjects and then try to work them into a more floor-time approach. I know that sounds like "using" play -- it IS in a way but on the other hand it is more demanding and interactive for ME, and less deadening for THEM, than sitting down with a workbook (though we will do a bit of that, too).

As for Kieron, I am looking forward to a more interactive approach with him, and also looking forward to giving him more ownership of the process by letting him choose, give input, etc. He already is pretty good about making things his own, but I hope to keep on the upward curve. I plan to introduce a couple of courses a day during the week, and put them into his notebook, so that they are there for reference.

I know I said I was going to log in a weekly format, and I still intend to try that,.....but not for the first week. I'll probably have too much processing to do in the first week. Once things settle into a pattern I want my learning notes to look like this, and this. (I'll have to figure out how to fit 3 students into a compact weekly format though)

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone past -- it hardly seemed like we got in stride.

Starting Plans for Year 7

Time to start planning, and this is my planning notebook, so I thought I'd write out a few half-thoughts on Year 7.

My main planning resources are usually Mater Amabilis and Ambleside Online.

I go there to see which is closest to the history/literature focus I am planning for the child. With Kieron, I am planning to continue our world history tour. Hopefully, we will get up to the early Renaissance in these last few days of Year 6, and then be prepared to start with world exploration and Renaissance next year, and move to a focus on the New World and US History.

It is nice not to plan things strictly by year, because when we get to Year 8 I can decide if I want to focus more intensely on modern history, or do something else (in the past it's often worked that I did a world history survey in Year 8, but this time through Kieron seems to have gotten a pretty solid background in history already and he is one who seems to remember a LOT, so a survey might be redundant).

So Mater Amabilis is going to be the main resource for "humanities" (history/lit) this year because AO covers classical and modern history in Year 6 and middle ages in Year 7. And I do not think he is ready for Ambleside Year 8, though we may pick a few of the books for challenging read-alouds.

I usually go to the Real Learning booklist for ideas for some possible "themes" or focus areas, and then to MacBeth's Opinion (High School Science) for ideas for "living" science, nature, geography and seasonal type things.

So that covers what Sonlight calls our "Core Curriculum" -- I still have to write out an actual booklist, though.

For math, I am seriously hoping to use Ray's Higher Arithmetic along with books from Living Math, and online resources for drill.

For Grammar and Composition, Classical Writing (assuming I get time to actually plan composition this summer) plus KISS Grammar and Daily Grammar.

For Latin, probably Henle Latin 1. We got through Unit One this year so will start from there.

For Logic, I have a collection of resources. Still have to think this through, because I don't know what approach would be best for him. I am thinking Traditional Logic ought to wait till he is older. I have Canon Press Introductory Logic which I have used in the past (not too time consuming, and builds discussion skills). I also have a couple of books from Critical Thinking Press and am wondering whether to try a bit of informal logic since he is definitely at what Dorothy Sayers calls the "Pert" (Argumentative) stage.

PRogress Term III

We are starting Week 26. That means that we have completed 125 days of school. Progress!

Here are the updated progress charts for the basic subjects.

YEar 6

























Year 9