It's hard to believe that our school year is starting! My original goal was to start on September 8th and stay right on schedule. Well, we decided to do nature learning first and go camping. When we started talking about camping, I had been looking at going the week before but then our local school district changed their start date so I needed to be around to still watch our little friends. That only left one week for camping. That's ok, the boys knew before hand that on Friday, the 11th, they would be doing school. We were able to wipe out two days worth of lessons on that Friday putting us only 2 days off schedule. We will be pushing through a few days lessons as Nate is scheduled for tonsil surgery on the 16th so we will miss some more school. So much for starting strong!
With all of that said, I do actually have a plan :-) We do not have our Friday Co-op this semester so I am trying to take advantage of that extra day. It also appears that both boys have their Live Lessons in the afternoon. One thing I took away from last year is that the Live Lessons are important not only for learning but for interaction with other kids. With that in mind, I knew that I wanted the boys to attend this year. So, we are going to work on getting the majority of their class work done in the morning (if not all of it) and leave seat work, as needed, for the afternoon along with their Live Lessons. I'm hoping this will motivate them to use their time in the morning to get work done.
Nate wants to be as independent as he can be; Josh wants as much help as he can get. With their different personalities, this makes sense and will hopefully free me up to help Josh at the same time Nate is working on his lessons. As with every year, what I put on paper doesn't always work out and we have to shift things but this is the current plan
9:00-10:00 - Nate - Independent on Math and Reading - he is free to do as many lessons as he can get done (and done well) during this hour which means he may finish Math and Reading for the week in a day or two. Josh - I will work with him on his lessons - starting first with Math as he struggles with that the most; moving on to Science and Social Studies. I have a goal of having him be independent in Reading!
10:00-11:00 - Nate - I will work with Nate on Science, Social Studies, Art and Ed. Tech as needed. There is A LOT of reading in all 4 of these subjects which is why Nate still wants help with these subjects. Josh - as stated above, I'm hoping I can get Josh working on reading on his own since this year he has to read a few novels. So, he will work on reading during this hour and also on his seat work.
11:00-12:00 - Nate - this will be Nate's seat work time as well as finishing up any lessons that we didn't get through. Josh - I will work with him more on lessons as needed and, if lessons are done, he can work on seat work as well.
12:00-1:00 - Lunch and break for all of us!
1:00-3:00 - If they have a live lesson in the afternoon they will need to attend. Any seatwork not done, will need to be done and, if by chance we have a lesson not done, we will work on that as well. Also, their piano teacher is taking this semester off so I plan on squeezing in a piano lesson for each of them at home.
This schedule stands true for Monday-Friday. The goal is to have Friday free but if we need to do lessons we will. Nate also has "private" Tae Kwon Do class on Friday afternoons. (they aren't meeting with as a class but rather with individual black belts this semester due to Covid).
I know this post doesn't mean much to anyone else but it always helps me be able to write out my basic plan. I do have my spreadsheet that I've attached a photo of that helps keep things straight. I also try to throw in my things each day too.
