I’m still reeling from a stressful back to school period and the ridiculously early start of our days now that Teen Daughter catches the high school bus at 6:30 AM. Did I mention that I am NOT a morning person? Fortunately, going back to homeschool with my son was super easy.
We turned in the Individualized Home Instruction Plan for 5th Grade way back in early July, so we a had a game plan in place for the year. I didn’t have to rush out to purchase books or school supplies since I already have much of that on hand, socked away for the day when we would get around to using it. The only books that I needed to order were the next items on the Singapore Math sequence. My son is already signed up for a weekly Wilderness Class and a Johns Hopkins Writing Class, and we’ll probably add a few more classes as the year progress. Basically, all the organization for the year was well in hand.
Today, we started on a fun note by helping collect seeds of native plants at the Albany Pine Bush for future reseeding projects. Then, we picked up lunch from Starbucks to eat over a power meeting to discuss goals and daily tasks. We didn’t fully cover goals because we discussed my goals for my son, but not his personal goals. We’ll have to return to this discussion after we’ve had a chance to see how his current classes and workload pans out.
For now, the more critical item on our agenda was to come up with a daily tasks list. Our lives are so much easier when my son can start his assignments without waiting for me to generate a list. There are several items that he can cover with little input from me:
- CNN Student News – He watches a short video each morning and we discuss the items that he considers noteworthy.
- That Quiz – He does daily drills hoping to increase his speed and accuracy on basic arithmetic problems. His current goal is to do 100 mixed problems in 2 minutes at level 12.
- Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing – He completes a short lesson mostly focusing on active reading and discussing literary elements.
- Khan Academy Biology Videos – He is watching one per day, sequentially.
- Chores – Clearing the dishwasher.
This is enough to jumpstart his academic day, especially since these follow leisurely reading in bed time. For that, he has a stack of books at his bedside, some for fun and some for educational purposes.
Like the Staples button, “That was easy.”
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