No Days Off
We’re back, baby!
Back to school
I think I finally realized that the regular school system is wrong. I think a lot of us as parents realize this - whether it’s the routine of the school day, not enough breaks, teachers who aren’t passionate about what they’re teaching, large class sizes, and whoa, this list could go on and on and on, but the thing I realized after working with Henley is that there should never be a break from school (or blogging. . . ). Maybe that sounds a little too crazy, so here’s my story. . .
Henley and I started back on our school (aka work) routine about one week ago, just as the other schools on Maui were starting back. Prior to this, we hadn’t done a full week of work since, probably, Thanksgiving. We had to get back in the habit of being able to sit and focus on one topic without taking a snack or stretching break every 5 minutes, and that’s not an exaggeration. We learned about excuses and stalling, too, and while none of these breaks were ill-intentioned, they weren’t leading to a positive learning experience. Doesn’t sound too bad yet, right?
Well, before that, from about late August through Thanksgiving, we started and finished a new chapter book (Amelia Bedelia, which we highly recommend as an easy chapter book, or a getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things book), Henley learned to skip count from her 2s to her 9s with the help of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a few dance moves. She started multiplying and diving, measuring, and more and more math. We moved on in Chemistry to ions, which Henley thinks is awesome because she LOVES cations. Seriously, anything with a cat in it is cool, so for now chemistry is the shining star in Henley’s book because she gets to talk about cations. We were covering material faster and more thoroughly than I ever dreamed.
And then came the Holidays. We were traveling, we got a puppy, we had friends off of school, friends visiting, and when you’re homeschooled, you want to take advantage of everything not-school as much as possible, partly just because you can. In the end, we were just inconsistent with doing any work once the holidays came around, and then we took the same two week winter break that the schools take.
And then came the misery. It wasn’t just having to re-teach multiplying by 6’s, or reading a chapter, let alone a page, let along a sentence without stopping (which, obviously was miserable), it was the attitude! There were days I would be reading her one sentence and ask her the name of the character, and she’d stare at me. She’d be making faces at herself in the mirror, playing with a bracelet, and being totally indignant (a new vocabulary word for Henley, by the way!). I felt like I couldn’t get any point across to her, and she didn’t care no matter how hard I tried. (She did still want to do school, and still want to do school at home, and she made that very clear everyday, and that’s probably the only reason I didn’t give up.)
How did we fix the problem? We offered rewards, we threw out threats, we did extra work, we did less work, and in the end the only thing that made a difference was TIME. I have vowed to never take a break again!!!
OK, seriously, i understand taking a few days here and there, of course, but I also understand the necessity of continuous schooling - that is, if you and your child don’t want to to lose your minds.
Here’s our schedule now - and Henley and I LOVE a good schedule!
Mondays:
Piano and flute
Math
Break
Books (reading and comprehension of a long chapter book)
Break
French
Break
Henley’s choice
Break
Science
Tuesday:
Flute
Math
Break
Books
Break
Henley’s choice
Piano lesson
Gymnastics class
Wednesday
Piano and flute
Gymnastics class
Day off of work and with grandparents
Thursday
Piano and Flute
Math
Break
Books
Break
Henley’s choice
French lesson
Friday
Piano and flute
Math
Break
Books
Break
Art
Break
Henley’s choice
Swim lesson
Ballet lesson
Saturday and Sunday
Henley gets to pick anything she wants to cover
We cover 11 full subjects and 1-3 partial subjects. As you can see, we think that math and reading are fundamental, and we cover them almost daily. The 11 subjects are:
Math
Books
Reading (short excerpts and stories with questions)
Language arts
Chemistry
Physics
Science (currently black holes)
Art
French
Writing (story writing and handwriting)
Geography
The 3 partial subjects are:
Science (currently a choice of space, oceans, animals, human body)
Music (appreciation and practice without an instrument)
Spelling (we still don’t like to focus on spelling, but e every once in a while there’s a reason)
As you can see, we cover A LOT of material. The main subjects are about 40 minutes long when we teach them, the partial ones are about 30, and breaks are 20 minutes. On an average day we’re working anywhere from 2 to 4 hours per day. My mom always thinks we’re doing school ALLLLLLL day long and she thinks we’re cooped up in the office, but when she checks her watch, she is ALWAYS surprised to find that it’s not even lunch time yet.
For as crazy as this schedule is, it has created peace in the family. Henley is back on track, I’m happy to be teaching her new (and old) material, and John is back to writing physics lessons for us! We hope to take school with us wherever we may go!