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.

Link for the Greeks documentary

The Greeks : Crucible of Civilization

I got this on my Roku, which is a player that makes movies available on Netflix play on our regular tv.  So, it was free.  :-)

We are getting into our first session of the year.  Each session running six weeks.  I guess you could call them blocks, but for some reason session just feels better.  :-)  Anyway, we will run this session until August 21st and then we will go on a break for one full week.  Im thinking of something like this...

Session I   July 13 - Aug 21 (six weeks)

Session II  September 1 - October 9 (six weeks)

Session III October 19 - November 25 (five and a half weeks)

Winter Break  (five weeks)  not including out-of-home lessons

Session IV  January 4 - February 12 (six weeks)

Session V February 22 - April 2 (six weeks)

Spring Break (eight weeks) This is a VERY busy season for out-of-home lessons and classes, including major projects and exams.

June - mid July Summer programs outside the home

That is 150 days of home lessons.  Adding into that we would have summer classes and the ongoing classes that are outside the home.

Anyway, we started our first Session yesterday.  I knew it would be a bit of a struggle to get back into the flow so we started out lightly.  Each of the boys chose a chapter book to read from.  Gavin is reading Harry Potter The Prisoner of Azkaban, and Greyson chose to read The Tale of Desperaux.  They each read for about an hour, well Gavin chose to read for much longer, but that was out of choice.  Greyson then did some review work on his Algebra, going back a couple lessons and completing a few problems from each.  Then both boys watched the first of a three part series on Ancient Greece.  It was a light day, but a good start.

Today, we dug in a little deeper.

Maggie:  Today Maggie and I watched a Peep episode on Discovery Education and did a water experiment where we tried to build a dam that held wter in one half of a container.  It was fun, but she was pretty grumpy through most of it.  She liked the show part.  :-)  Then she did an activity working with the short vowel sound of "u".  

Gavin:  Gavin got REALLY into his book and I had to stop him to eat lunch and work on some other things.  He can go back to the book once he has done some other work.  He then is watching the second part of the Ancient Greece documentary and doing a writing activity about the life of Vincent Van Gogh.  He then has Jazz this afternoon.

Greyson:  Grey read six chapters of Tale of Desperaux, did two lessons of Algebra, wrote, and edited three paragraphs on the life of Vincent Van Gogh and watched the second part of the Ancient Greece documentary with Gavin.  He then practiced his drums.  That is a good second day.

Cultural Geography

I knew that I didnt want to do a basic memorization program for geography.  While Im sure the kids can do it and have a general lay out in their minds, they wouldnt have any connections to these places.  They would be 2 dimensional and because of that they would be quickly forgotten.  So I have been trying to think of ways to bring the map to life.

Enter Cultural Geography...

Our teacher store has these wonderful huge blank spiral notebooks that measure about 18x24.  They are such a fantastic size and shape for a homemade atlas.  I have been holding onto a couple of them for years knowing that one day I would come up with the right project to fill its big blank white spaces.  I think this is just the thing.

So, Im thinking about an eight month long unit,  each continent spanning one month, with the exception of Africa, due to its size and vast number of countries, it will require two.  Obviously Antarctica can be a slightly lighter month, or I can add in a lot about the oceans and such when we do that continent.

Each continent will first be viewed as a land mass with a study of its biomes.  I dont believe it is possible to understand the cultural style of a region without understanding its ecosystems.  They are inseparable and a good understanding of a region's biomes will lead to better understanding of things such as trade routes, national exports and how the economy of a region is successful, or in some cases, unsuccessful.  The environment also plays a large role in religion and traditional myths, folklore and social organization.  Obviously the environment also dictates things like traditional housing, clothing and food as well.  So, for me, it makes no sense to learn about a region without understanding it's biomes and major geological features.  

So we will create an outline map for the continent and a key for the biomes, coloring them in so that we have a nice overview of the region.  From there we will move to political boundries and learning the names of the various countries.  The whole capital thing annoys me.  Please, someone explain it to me.  Of course if you know some of them, it is good, but I dont get the point of watching eight year olds on tv reciting the capital cities of each state.  blah, blah, blah... We will learn cities of influence for each country.  If that happens to be the capital, fantastic.  

Once we have identified the countries and their cities of influence, we will begin to learn about the people and animals that live there.  We will explore things like population, traditional housing styles, traditional clothing styles and of course, traditional foods.  We will learn about the myths and legends of the region as well as touch on the prevailing religion.  We will learn about art and music of the area as well.  

Each month we will have a list of potential research projects that will help us to create a personal connection to the region.  Maybe when studying Australia we will do a project about the Aboriginal arts or the life of a Koala Bear.  I want there to be some projects that bring in influential citizens as well.  Maybe when studying Egypt we will do a project that highlights the influence of Hatshepsut. 

As we move across the globe we will be filling in our Cultural Geography Atlases so that when the program is complete we have a wonderful reference book to keep for future use and just for fun.  

I really do think this is a better way for my kids to learn about geography.  I have tried to find a way to bring the continents to life and to help the kids develop connections to the various regions through experience and a deeper understanding about what life can be like if you lived there.  

Im still putting together the particulars but I have some brainstorm notes to share...

• Use Google Earth to view points of interest and major geological features.
• When presenting about a continent, have the kids research the weather and dress appropriately.  It might just be a rain hat, or if we are doing Australia in January it might be a swimsuit.
• While I wont be able to hit every detail for every continent, I do want the overall lesson to be about how where you live influences your culture and your lifestyle.  I am hoping that when the kids understand that, that they will be able to build more details on this foundation in coming years.  
• I want to combine research skills with art and creativity.  
• Bring in some historical figures of influence.  Great Artists, Explorers, Leaders or Scientists.
• I want it to be fun and to help the kids see more than just the political borders when they think of geography and the lives of people around the world.

Sparking a flame...

When given some direction, I can be one of the most supportive and encouraging parents out there.  You want to swim, I will be at the pool every day at 5am while researching how to get a pool installed in our backyard.  You want to know more about science and I will bend over backwards to get you to the greatest museums and into the best classes I can find.  I can really smother a flame of interest with over-enthusiasm if given the chance.  

What I struggle with is how to spark a flame of passion or interest.  How do you help support and encourage someone when they dont seem to really have anything that they are focussed on.  Nothing that really gets them excited or makes them smile through their eyes.  It is really hard.  

My ten year old son is like this.  He lives in a very dream-like world that really does not seem to enter our reality very often.  He is detached from the rest of us in that he walks around with his head in the clouds.  He has a wonderful imagination and wants to be an author one day, but if I try to encourage that at all, he shys away from it.  He almost pulls away from the interest if it seems to require any focus or work at all.  Sometimes I panic that he is just plain lazy, but then I know in my heart that he isnt, that he just hasnt found his spark.  

The other day he was asking to watch some movie previews on my computer and once I said yes, he was thrilled.  He watched preview after preview and was so excited and happy about them all.  He was shining with joy.  I know that he has always loved movies, but is it really his "thing"?  Can watching movies really be it?  Im trying to stear him in the direction of writing screen plays or working in the movie industry one day.  He seems interested, but I worry about whether or not that is a reasonable path for anyone to go down.  Arent I supposed to give him as many tools as I can possibly fit in his belt so he can be armed and ready for whatever his heart leads him to in the future?  He doesnt want my tools!!  He says their too heavy and cumbersome; he would rather just use some stick he found out in the yard.  :-)

I did plan a fun summer of things that might spark an interest in him.  He is getting to sample a lot of fun things and hopefully by the end of it all, he will have a little something that nourishes him and makes him feel motivated in even the smallest of ways.  We'll see...

Y'know, I think I just hit on my issue.  I dont feel that he is being nourished by anything.  Nothing seems to really sink in and energize him.  It's like everything just sits outside on a shallow surface level and the slightest breeze can come along and blow it off into the wind.  

He does enjoy reading, mythology, movies, games and tv.  That is his list.  All of it.  OK, well maybe you can add storytelling in various forms as well.  He dances Flamenco, but if I said he needs to stop he would be unfazed.  He plays drums, but he never wants to practice and has no real desire to improve or move up in ability.  He is perfectly happy playing in the beginner level, that is fun, without effort.  He likes to go rockclimbing, but he doesnt want to join the team, that is too much work and he isnt competetive.

I feel terrible writing all this, as if Im not holding him in a positive light.  But I truly an amazed by his creativity and talents.  He has a giant pool of potential and ability.  I just cant figure out how to get him to dip his toe into it. 

Maybe more time...

Maybe this summer...

Maybe I just need to leave the poor kid alone...

I cant help but feel that once his fire is lit that he will just take off and set the world on fire.  I just know it!!!!