Week in Review::The New Year

The holidays are over and our third daughter was married last weekend, so we were ready to get back in to some sort (any sort) of routine this week:

Our Schedule:

I have never been successful at a schedule that dictates exact times. I don't hold to it and then I get discouraged. For the start of the New Year, we are breaking our day in to "blocks". We have "chore block", "school block", and "free time block". This is to address the difficulty that I have keeping my boys on track- rather than have a set number of chores, we have a "chore block". That means that while we are in our chore block, they are not allowed to go off on any tangents. They cannot decide that they are done and start working on Legos or reading a book (not an usual occurrence for my distractable boys)- they need to report back to me anytime they complete a chore, I inspect the chore, and then they move on to the next chore. I definitely have that New Year's resolve to get back on track!

School:

All About Spelling: Getting back up to speed on this has been top priority. We are on Level 2, Step 8. It has been slow going, but I am hoping to pick up the pace. I am still amazed at how well this program works for all three of my boys.

Co op: We started back at our Geography this week after a long break! We are still using Beautiful Feet Geography (I did a post on this here) and are now on Minn of the Mississippi. If you have a chance to read Minn, the drawings in the side bars are just incredible. I would recommend it as a read even if you don't do the curriculum with it.



As mentioned already in a previous post, my two oldest boys started a six week (meet once a week) class in Lego Robotics on Mondays. They are both very pleased with the class- I don't think I have ever seen as much enthusiasm from either of them regarding an outside activity. I generally try to stay close to home, but I think this is going to be a worthwhile investment of our time.


PE: This was the first week back after the holidays to the PE program that two of my children run (with the help from a few very able assistants) for our homeschool group. This does double duty because Erin and Paul are getting experience planning and organizing an activity, and all my kids get a solid "PE" day twice a month (they do other things for PE as well). I like this program because it works with kids on basic skills like dribbling a ball (soccer), throwing a football and basic football rules, jump rope, and assorted relay race activities. They also work on good sportsmanship and team work. All in all, "Hands on Sports" has turned out to be a rewarding activity for our family.






You can join in other "wrap ups" over at Forever, For Always, No Matter What, and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Comments

  1. WendiJanuary 14, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    I am using All About Spelling with my dd6 {first grade}...I LOVE it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 15, 2011 at 3:20 AM

    Thanks for linking up this week! I always love to read about what you guys are doing. Hope your new schedule works out well, it sounds like a good plan. It can be a challenge to keep those boys on task! Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. EllenJanuary 15, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    Hi! I like the idea of "blocks" of time for different activities/pursuits. Looks like a great week!

    ReplyDelete

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