Thoughts on the six week sessions

I must say that so far we have found the six week sessions to be pretty good. We can accomplish a lot and still feel like we have a nice little exhale coming around the corner. The kids seem to understand that if we need to use that time to get caught up, that we will and that seems to motivate them to really try to get their work finished.

The only bummer is that the whole world doesnt stop just because we do. LOL So, that means any and all outside classes continue through our week off, and homework still needs to be finished. I believe however that when we have our long break this holiday season, that most of our other stuff is also taking a break. That will be a really wonderful little vacation!!!

The week off has been nice for me to be able to gather materials, make copies and go over what we will be doing in the next session. I like having that planning time. It seems like when I have that time to really get everything together, the lessons run more smoothly. Im not scrambling to find a supply or trying to figure something out on the spot. I can see how in the past my lack of planning and organizing would throw us off track and leave us having to skip things that we rarely ever made our way back to.

I will say the last week is a bit tough. Sort of like the few days before summer vacation. We all get a little tired and anxious for the break to begin. Although, I think we will get used to it and make better use of those final days before a break. Hopefully the pressure of wanting a full break will motivate us to get everything done.

This coming session is our last one before we are off for six weeks!!! Believe me, we are all really looking forward to that!!!

Alexander the Great

The boys have been working there way through viewing a four part series on the life of Alexander the Great. It is free on Netflix, well if you are a member, and viewable on your computer or the Roku. It is called "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" and it follows an Archaeologist (I believe) as he literally retraces the journey of Alexander and his army throughout the Mediterranean. It is really interesting and a nice combination of history and curiosity. If Alexander camped, then they camp, if he stops at certain markets or places, so do they. It is holding their interest for the most part. The entire series is four parts, each one lasting about one hour.

Before watching this program they had read a short little article and some background on Alexander, but both boys said they had no idea he had done so much, at such a young age and now they find his story to be fascinating, where as before they just read about him, answered the questions, and were ready to move on. I like it when a program or a resource can bring something from just a bunch of info and facts and make it interesting and even "fascinating".

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you!

Midway Through Session II

We are closing out our third week of our second session. This is the half way point before our one week break. It is also the half way point for our three session plan for the fall. So far Im pretty happy with where we are and with how its going. Of course we are a little behind on some things, but Im actually impressed that we are as close to on target as we are. We had company for a week in our second week, so while that was a lot of fun, it did throw us a bit off schedule with our lessons.

The focus for this session is...

Individual Math levels:

Grey is finishing his Algebra I (saxon) while participating in a Geometry class using Jacob's Geometry. We will both be happy when this overlap ends, it is quite the challenge, but he'll make it through it.

Gavin is finishing up his Saxon Math 3. We had some developmental issues with grasping number theory early on, so we are a little behind. Although we seem to have broken through that barrier and will be hitting Math 4 in October!

Maggie is starting Saxon Math 2, but I need to track down a copy of the first workbook pages. In the meantime she is enjoying working with Destination Math on the computer. They have correlated their lessons to match up with Saxon, so she is moving through the concepts of the Math 2 program.

Oscar, well he likes numbers, and sings songs about them. He also likes to say, 1, 2, 3, GO!! :-)

Exploratory Latin

Ancient Greek History

Norse Mythology, following up on Greek Mythology and the Labors of Hercules

Cultural Geography

Art History

Reading

Performing Arts & Music

So, overall it is a pretty cohesive session. We will wrap up our focus on Ancient Greece at the end of this session and start Roman history for the final session of this calendar year.