I'm not real good at doing this weekly, but it looks like I'll get 'er done for this week!
Government schools are back in session where I live. All the local schools are up and running. However, our home school marches to its own beat. In one way or another we have continued our home schooling most of the summer.
But my daughter is getting married this weekend, and this week's school was relegated to a lower priority than will be true in the future. Things that JD could do mostly on his own were fine, but things that required my assistance mostly didn't happen. So, here's the run-down:
BIBLE:
For this week I suspect this week contained no Bible. My son is not self-moving on personal quiet times at this point, family life just didn't include group reading times. Just being real. Didn't happen.
MATH:
Absolutely blessed, I am, to have the opportunity to review Videotext Online's "Algebra: The Complete Program" in exchange for a review. We have had the program just over one week now, and it is not one that I will be able to just hand to JD to have him do on his own. Between that fact and the fact that he does not accept or adjust to change well, it has taken us six school days to: 1) watch Lesson 1, Video 1; 2) review and study to lesson notes that correspond to the first video; 3) get JD to do problems that correspond to Video 1; 4) re-review and study the lesson notes to convince him that, yes, I am serious that he is going to do this program and needs to take it seriously; 5) get him to take a new shot at different problems from the Lesson 1 Worksheet; and 6) take the quiz to the first lesson. Since he is in 8th grade and can do the "slow track", this can be considered two days worth of work. But it had to be done more slowly because if he doesn't "get" it, I need to wait a day and try again. He did not need to watch the video again, because that wasn't really the issue. He just didn't want to cooperate because he didn't want to change math programs (even though he wasn't understanding Horizon's Pre-Algebra at the end of last year).
He knows I'm serious now, and I think we're off to a strong, albiet slow start.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
This week did not include any Grammar. We did not do any read-alouds this week. JD has previously not been doing any independent reading, and desperate to get him to engage in this activity we pretty much said, pick a book and read or you don't get computer. Any book.
He has older siblings, so sometimes he has access to materials that other homes with a 13-year-old might not have to think about his picking, so don't judge me please. His book of choice was Hunger Games. I've seen the movie, haven't read the book yet, so on many levels I am not comfortable with this choice, but I need to get him going on reading and it seems to be doing the trick. (His sister, similar situation, had been a lover of the Harry Potter books, and is now a very strong Christian. Ideally I would have loved it if his choice had been Lord of the Rings or something, but it wasn't. I'm moving forward.)
He has also been working his way through a handwriting program that we were blessed to receive to review, from the "Logic of English" people, so you'll hear about that one soon. I've been pleased with the way he has been able to take that one on and work independently.
SCIENCE:
The only science he got this week was watching some YouTube videos that interested him. If you think that's odd, go back to the beginning of this blog entry. ::sigh::HISTORY:
Like Science, we set History aside for a few weeks to prepare for the wedding.
ART:
Yeah... no.
MUSIC:
Zip, zilch, nada
PHYS ED:
Nah...
HEALTH: Are you kidding me? No, seriously, there were some unfruitful conversations about choices he is making in his eating. Still working on it. Can't force him to be healthy; need to help him make that lifetime choice on his own.
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The good news is that I can really and truly start school next week. The bad news is that... In my little house... I had to stash all the school work to have the house clean for company. It will take me a while to get school functional again. I'm in transition trying to get my daughter's room empty to rearrange my house. But she owns more stuff than she can fit in their new apartment. She needs to go through her stuff and make decisions on stuff to part with, but she just hasn't had time, so I'm in limbo. I can't make those decisions for her. So it's really hard every time we "clean up" to get back to normal. Right now, "normal" does not include every item having its own place where it belongs. We're in transition, and it's really a difficult time. But a good thing.
So that's my summary. How was your week? This post is linked up with "So you call yourself a home schooler?" Visit her blog and read more folks' entries!
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