Today we start back to school after our oddly timed Semester Break! The boys are a bag of mixed emotions, some grateful for something to do, some wishing for more time just to play, but everyone at least understanding that we have to start up again and get back to work, so hopefully today goes well. We shall see!
I thought I'd start off our semester by posting everyone's new schedule. We are continuing with the on-line distance education program (TTUISD) for the oldest, partial enrollment in same for the middle schooler, and at-home school/remediation for the youngest.
The Writer, 9th Grade, 2nd Semester--
English
World Geography
Geometry
Biology
Foundations of Personal Fitness (replaces Health)
Art
The Artist, 6th Grade, 2nd Semester --
English
Science
Math (Teaching Textbooks 6)
Geography (Around the World in 180 Days, tweaked schedule)
Typing (via Typing Instructor Deluxe)
The Adventurer, Age 8 --
Handwriting Without Tears K
All About Spelling 1
Earobics Software
Edmark Reading Software
Spalding/Writing Road to Reading (maybe)
History -- continuing through "Child's History of the World"
Bible -- continuing through Egermeir's Bible Story Book
Science -- continuing through a National Geographic Society series of books we own
Assorted Therapy Games/Activities
I've revamped the schedule so that everyone mostly has Friday off, except for projects. We got very overwhelmed last semester with all the writing assignments, art projects, and other projects for each class and thus projects tended to get shoved aside as we plodded through the rest of the "regular" material, such that we had a back-log of projects at the end of the semester.
In an effort to avoid that this semester, I have scheduled the regular course work to be done only Monday through Thursday, with Friday's set aside for Cleaning Day (which we desperately need to return to), and Project Day. Hopefully being able to focus ONLY on those projects, whether art, English, or Other, will allow the boys to actually finish projects when scheduled. We'll institute a "must be submitted by Sunday night" policy to ensure we don't fall behind again.
While the on-line course allows us 6 months to complete each course, which means an expiration date of roughly October 1st, we are aiming to finish by early to mid August, as we've recently learned we'll be returning to the US sometime in September. We very much want to be done with the semester, including final exams taken, before we move home, which means we need to stay on our (self-imposed) schedule this semester. I really think the Monday to Thursday tweak will help a great deal with that. I hope.
Looking forward to a great 2nd semester, and wishing each of you a happy spring today!
The four heavy days with one project/cleaning day worked well for us. Also meant any finishing of projects was fairly simple Sat morning if necessary as it was still fairly fresh in their minds. Good luck :)
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