Wordy Wednesday... Midweek Update...

On Monday, I wrote about a new (to me anyway) scheduling plan. And in theory, it still looks really good.

But...

I chose possibly the worst week to try it out!

Monday

Monday actually worked out fairly well. I stayed home from work (thank you, Sunday's mild food poisoning), so we had plenty of time. We read a math story, did Life of Fred, and The Boy did a lesson from Zaccaro's Primary Challenge Math as well. We did a fun free write from Brave Writer, the one I posted about last week actually, and the kids loved it! I'll make sure to transcribe their work later in the week. The Girl read two pyramids from Reading Pathways to me as well.

Then we moved on to geography. They drew a map of the Nile for their cartography books, and we read about Strabo and Eratosthenes (Mapping the World With Art). We read about St. Peter's in Rome in The Complete Book of Marvels, and watched Anthony Bourdain eat his way through that same city before making pasta for dinner ourselves!

However, for our next geography "block", I want to offer a little more freedom. Do they want to play a geography game? Watch a documentary? Draw a map or make a salt dough one? Choose a place in the world to really learn about?

Tuesday

I totally forgot I had to take my dad to a doctor's appointment after work. And then I have a class myself at 5, so time was very short. We did math, and The Girl read to me.

Today

We have fencing at 5, and before that we need to finish getting our Halloween stuff together. We'll still have time for math, reading (The Girl), The Boy's paragraph assignment (Write With the Best), and for art, we're carving Jack O' Lanterns. Not quite what I envisioned for an art Wednesday!

Tomorrow

We're meeting friends for a few hours of afternoon fun before heading out with M for trick or treating. I've promised the kids that if they do the candy buy-back many dentists around here offer, I'll buy them a little Unreal Candy to try out instead. They actually just love the activity of trick or treating, and we always head to an amazing street in nearby Petaluma, where people go all out to decorate their houses and yards... it's not really about the (junky) candy that they get doing it. So it is a win-win situation -- they get the fun of Halloween night, a couple of dollars or so for candy, and some yummy treats!

But you'll notice, that does not leave time for anything remotely homeschool-y. Ooops.

Other Thoughts on the Blocks

The Girl asked me "when do we get to do a math block?" Since I own Family Math, and the second book, we could do some great hands-on learning. And I'd love to do a day with language arts games and activities. So now I'm thinking rotating blocks every two weeks?

Geography; language arts; math; history; art; music; science; and ??? Or maybe just listen to a chapter of Story of the World each day and then...

Monday: Geography
Tuesday: Alternating math and language arts focus
Wednesday: art and music
Thursdays: science

I don't know, but I think we'll figure it out!