Sep 11, 2012

Back to School

Silly me!  I thought I'd have lots of time to do things I wanted needed to do now that D & S are back to the books. 

I should have know that even though they are very independent learners, they would need at least a little help from me.  So I realized, about an hour into it today, that this first week is probably going to be pretty intense. 

I had assumed that as I typed up a syllabus and lesson schedule for each subject for this year, that's 13 for D and 11 for S with only 3 classes that are the same, I had assumed that they had been watching me and reading over my shoulder and assimilating everything and could hit the ground running.

I.  Was.  Wrong!

So this morning, after we started our day with a short Bible reading and discussion then prayer, I went over a couple of their classes with them. I showed them how the syllabus told them exactly what was expected and how they would be graded.  Then as they started a new subject I made sure they had read the syllabus and really understood how the class was to work. 

Much better.  Now we were thinking on the same page.  Still, high school is much harder than the previous years.  But their attitudes have been much better and since D was diagnosed with ADHD and put on a very mild medication he does so much better in school.

Looking back I wish we had put him on something mild years ago, but we were trying other approaches to help him focus.

My advice if you asked me now would be to try the 'natural' things first.  Things like diet, exercise etc.  BUT your child may need the help of prescription medication.  It's really nothing to be ashamed of.  I need certain medications to help  with my diabetes and migraine disease.  Maybe if I continue to exercise and loose weight I can reduce or even come off the diabetes meds.  Hopefully as D matures he can be taken off of his medication.  But I really believe that GOD has given us doctors and medication to help us at times.

So...since I write this mostly for family, here is a list of what the kids are doing for school this year:

D, 10th grade, age 16
Teaching Textbooks Algebra
A+, this is a computer certification he is working toward
Conversations with Character, this is a course to help them learn to converse well
Apologia Bible, Who is God? & Who Am I?
Science Olympiad, http://soinc.org/
Notgrass Exploring Government, http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/american-government-high-school-curriculum
Literature, he has a list of 16 books to read over the course of the year.
One Year Adventure Novel, http://www.oneyearnovel.com/
Music, composer study
Apologia Biology
Art, he's doing a cartooning course
Spanish, we're using an online course similar to Rosetta Stone but FREE!!
Cross country running
Speed Stacking, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyIGTT4IzY&feature=related  and Yes, they really do go that fast!

S, 9th grade, age 14
Art
Conversations with Character
Music
Science Olympiad
Apologia Bible, Who Is My Neighbor
Rod and Staff English
Saxon Algebra
Notgrass American History v1
Spanish
Rod and Staff Spelling
Apologia Physical Science
Speed Stacking
Cross country

As you can see, they have a full plate. 

We are still hosting "Crochet & Play", going into our 3rd year.  It's fun to watch the kids grow and develop whether it's in crocheting or just as people.  They'd like to meet more than once a month, but I'm not sure I can make that happen and still have D & S get all their book work done that day. 


The table toward the end of the school day.
One of D's storage cubby's, missing quite a few books right now.
D's assigned reading for this year.
 

Drafting table with some of D's books

 

 

 
One of S's cubby's with her schedule taped to the front.
 
Inside of the same cubby.

One Year Adventure Novel in its nice storage box, got the box for free when I ordered the curriculum!

 

#2 cubby for S.

#1 school bookcase, holds most of our fiction and S's 2 cubby's

Bookcase #2, holds the rest of our fiction, my teaching stuff and some sewing books, and reference books.

S

 D
 

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