Friday, September 09, 2005

Another schedule bites the dust

As I suspected, the timed schedule has bit the dust. But thats OK. REALLY OK!
Superboy and I have been trying out an idea from Barb Wright (link on sidebar) about dedicating a day per subject and I think it is going to work out well for us.
The way we are doing it is in the morning Superboy does some math practice and a bit of history and geography. Then he has independant study until lunch-whatever he happens to be working on. Afternoons are for projects according to our theme day-Monday math, tuesday tea (poetry and other and lang arts), Wednesday history, Thursday science, and Friday all we do is a morning freewrite and then go to homeschool group.
I have seen some of Superboy's very best work ever this week and I think it is due to being able to spend the whole afternoon following whatever trail we are on without worry of having to stick to a schedule. This week he has gotten more pages on his Dragonology notebook completed, started work on his timeline, made a clay model of a ziggurat, written a full page narration of the Epic of Gilgamesh, used the microscope to study parts and types of feathers and made a page for his science journal about them, read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and let's not mention the rattlesnake episode...and this was a three day school week!
Modgirl is going to try a similar tactic with her more traditional subjects (read-drudgery) in the morning and projects in the afternoon. However, instead of switching project topics daily, she will work on a single subject's project through several weeks before switching to another subject. This will work better for her as hers are more involved, long-term pieces.
JBug is just happy to do some seatwork in the morning, some art after that, and puzzles, etc after naptime. She has some neat new puzzles and games that are for "school-time" only, so they stay special and she thinks of school as a treat!
With this new schedule, maybe we all will!

1 comment:

barbara said...

Theresa,

Schedules are the bane of my existence I think lol. I never can keep to them no matter what. Now routine, that's something entirely different. I have to have routine or things feel so chaotic and disconnected. I am so glad things are going well for Superboy. He has been one busy scholar hasn't he! I loved hearing all the things he has been working on. He sounds like Josh and I both. We get into a topic and just immerse ourselves and don't like the distraction of moving on to other things. I have loved the pics of his dragonology notebook too!