Saturday, April 25, 2009

Updated Pikey daily flow

  • He will start on his own with Teaching Textbooks. He generally does at least a page of work; I shoot for 30-45 minutes of dedicated work. If he is not using the computer, but the workbook, remind him to check his answers.
  • He will journal (you need to remind him) nightly. This is a private journal.
  • He or I will read the daily Writer's Almanac. Pike then does dictation or copywork from WA. I use either the "I Have a Dream" speech or a piece of history from the WA or a poem he particularly enjoyed. After dictation discuss the punctuation and any new grammar you might have come across and introduce any new punctuation and/or grammar ideas which come about from the dictation.
  • I read a chapter from a living history book relevant to (right now, "The Cat of Bubastes") the period of history we are reading about.
  • Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we are using the Susan Bauer book as the history spine. As I read I frequently summarize and ask him questions to see if he is understanding and getting it. When something piques my interest (or his) we'll also discuss that too. After each 5 chapters of Bauer's book do a written timeline and character summary - who was in power where and when charted and who begat whom so the history is easier to follow.
  • For Spanish I speak Spanish all day MWF and we are doing as much from "So You REally Want To Learn Spanish" (SYRWTLS) as he is up for. I supplement SYRWTLS with Sr. Jordan. You need to prepare daily the day before.
  • He will read from a book he chooses daily that is usually relevant to either current world culture or history (right now "Golden Goblet").
  • Sunday he adds critical thinking to the mix. We are working through "The Art of Argument". He also does Art (choose a project from the Artistic Pursuits book) and world culture. We are currently working on China.
  • Monday he does no daily work but does an art project of his choosing.
  • Tuesdays he does Geography. Right now he is working on Asia. He picks an area of Asia and reads the information about each country and then plays the game to identify each country. Each couple weeks I have him go back a week and see if he still recognizes where that week's countries are. We also work on the "Geography Through Art" book. You should prepare for this the day before. We also work on a writing assignment this day (from Bravewriter) and history spine.
  • Wednesday we work on Chemistry (Real Science for Kids Chemistry 1) and he picks a science experiment (if he wants to, in addition to the experiment from the RS4K Chemistry 1) and we read and discuss Sociology. He picks from the World Religion book, the "Teens with a Courage to Give" book or the "Save the Children" book. Today is also a World culture day.
  • Thursday we do Sociology (see Wednesday), History Spine and world culture.
  • Friday he takes the day off daily subjects. He and Jesse watch a lecture from the "Ancient Cultures" DVD and do Friday Freewrite (Bravewriter)
  • Saturday he does critical thinking and History spine.

getting back into the swing

After Jamie leaving in February (to be with his dying mother), visit from my folks, sisters and their families, we're getting back into the swing. thankfully I have this blog to see what we're supposed to be doing. :) The last family left yesterday and Jesse and Pike (and maybe a girl, not sure) said they wanted to start back to school today. This morning Pike says it feels "good" to be back at his math, so I'm seeing that as a good sign. Jesse wants to start TT7 from the beginning and we'll see what he's going to do.