Some Cold School Thoughts

As I sit here, hacking up lungs, but not tired enough to nap, I decided a good use of mine time would be to listen to Coldplay and make lists of what kinds of things we have planned for schooling this next season of learning.

“YELLOW”

Math- Gavin and Connor are doing www.aleks.com. Brian is less ‘unschool’ than I. Though I do agree the boys should be doing something for math, Brian decided they should be doing www.aleks.com. It just didn’t work for Ki. He tried. I tried to help make it work, it just didn’t. But the older 2 do well with it. They also know they need to keep up on their math and asked us to make sure they get the math. They both want to be Robotic Engineers and are in highschool.

Ki is going through a book series for math. The series is called “ Life of Fred.” http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html

Cue “TALK”

Ki seems to need information is storytelling format. “The Life of Fred” presents math in a storytelling format. But the review chapters are not in story format. So I rewrite the reviews for Ki and put them into story format.

They will all 3 continue in the math they have been doing.

Not sure if I will give the older boys a date for when their current math course needs to be finished or how to do that. But they want to have 4 years of math on their high school transcript and they are easily distracted and they know it won’t happen with out me giving them deadlines. I’ll ask them how they want to go about making sure they get enough math in for their goals.

Ki- we just read 1 chapter a day. He likes the together time and sometimes even asks to red a 2^nd chapter.

Cue “Viva La Vida”

Social Studies. We are still reading Story of the World. Yep. For 9 yrs of homeschooling. Yep, we are still on book 2. We get side tracked an awful lot. But they like the book so I try to remember to read it. Maybe I should just sit and read it all day to them and get it finished.

Then there is the main Social Studies of just researching current events that interest them or researching past events they ask about; their independent research of wars or weapons or natural disasters that lead to “social studies” learning.

I think I need to finally finish the Jesus Freaks book we started a few years ago, too. Ki likes when I read that book, but it also makes him sad. And it makes me sad, too.

Cue “Clocks”

Reading. They all read on their own for pleasure and have to read for whatever they decide to research. Sometimes I assign Bible Reading. It's a good habit I want to build in them.

Sometime we memorize Bible Verses together, too.

Science:

Connor is finishing a course in General Science. Not sure what he’ll choose next, maybe chemistry. That is what Gavin has chosen. So they could do it together. That’d make labs more fun. Gavin can do his favorite thing while he waits for C to be ready for Chemistry… Independent research.

Gavin finished up Physics over the summer and decided to do Chemistry this year. Both Gavin and Connor chose Apologia CD Roms. They are self-led and on the computer. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Ki has been reading up on Land Animals. Not sure where he’ll go next. He hasn’t expressed any interest in what he wants to do next. I’ll just have to wait until he’s done with this.

Cue “Square One”

OTHERS:

Gavin is taking an art class at the local Community College.

Connor and Ki asked to take theater, so I found a place around here that teaches Theater classed to homeschool kids.

I think I need to write checks for that still.

I want to do a Latin Roots program with the boys. So, is it really Unschool is I have them do this? Maybe not. But if it works for us and we school how we want, then maybe it is. Does it matter? No. If I did everything the ‘correct unschool way’ just because some Unschool authority says to do it that way, then it’s not really unschooling anyway.

Cue “Speed of Sound”

So, I guess that’s it for the ‘schooly looking’ stuff.

We also have AMTGARD. Ki wants to design a quest. I’m encouraging him in this endeavor.

I know I want to make the most of the beaches over the next 9 months or so. We’ll probably be out of here in April or May.

I also want to hit as many Missions as we can. I think I want to plan a Mini-Road trip for this. Maybe drive a few days north- camping between Missions. Come home- them do the same South bound after a small break.

That’s it for now.