Monday, October 14, 2013

Two Week Check-In

Well, two weeks down, seven more to go until we move back to the US. Wow. Well, seven more school weeks; we have a vacation in there too.

The new schedule is working really well. Really, really well.

We're rather unconventional in that we stay up late, the kids go to bed at the same time as the grown-ups, and we let them sleep until they wake up. As such, the oldest boy gets started with his classes around 11 every day, and works until whenever he's done, often six-ish or so. He likes this plan.

I didn't think he would. I thought he'd balk at not having any free time between the end of school and his dad getting home from work. I was wrong. He much prefers this to starting school the minute he wakes up. Fine by me; he works hard, gets his stuff done, and is succeeding in his classes thus far. One of the biggest reasons we homeschool, and why we chose this online program over others, is for the flexibility, so I consider this a win-win.

He starts off with Algebra II, which is going remarkably well thus far. There's a bit of review of Algebra I, which he's doing pretty good with, and so far the new curriculum is fantastic. I'll do a review on that once we're a bit farther in; as he's only finished one week of Algebra II thus far, I feel it's still to early to give the glowing report I'd like to at this point.

After Algebra II, the most revolutionary thing --- Chemistry via Skype. My husband The Chemist calls The Writer and they video-chat over the reading for that day. The Chemist answers any questions and uses an online, interactive white board app on his iPad to write examples and things. Then they go through the homework assignments together; The Writer gives his answers and if he's wrong, The Chemist helps him find the right answer. If he's correct the first time, great! The Writer takes all quizzes on his own, and they do labs in the evenings & on weekends. I am so so so grateful I'm married to a scientist; I cannot imagine trying to do Chemistry completely and utterly alone at home.  The Chemist uses his lunch hour at work to do this, so it's on "his time" not work's, and he enjoys it so much he's thinking of teaching all the boys science in this manner.

After Chemistry and lunch, everyone else gets started and the day goes along relatively smoothly, much like any other homeschool around the world. I work with The Adventurer immediately after lunch, and then he has quite a bit of free time between when he finishes and when his brother's finish. As such I'm introducing a new tweak today --- scheduled breaks for both The Adventurer & The Artist, where they will stop and play a quick board game, stop and walk the dogs, stop and do art, etc. The Writer can break with them if he wants to, though it will slow his day down considerably if he does. I think and hope that the breaks will help The Adventurer to feel like he's not just left alone all afternoon to wallow in boredom. We shall see.

If you have a younger child who relies on older siblings to be his playmate, how do you help him fill the hours that the siblings are otherwise occupied? I'm open to any & all ideas!