>The boy begins his year of studies today. This will be his “7th grade” year, though that is a loose description having more to do with his age and the number of years in formal study than topics and levels worked on.
One of the biggest differences between homeschooling and traditional schooling is the ability to avoid “wasted time”. As a 7th grader of course he would be involved in changing classes all day. The mere process of going from one class to another necessitates lost time. Here, no such loss, probably saves 45 min to an hour a day right there. No lost time at the beginning and end of class as the teacher greets students, takes care of daily “housecleaning”, gains control of the unruly mob. Of course there are many small time savings as each topic is studied here, no disruptions, no unruly classmates stealing learning time, and no waiting for others to finish a task before moving on. Over the course of a day that probably saves another 45 min to an hour. Yet another savings is the simple act of getting to and home from school. That of course varies wildly depending on how a student travels and how far the student lives from school – but I imagine with all the morning prep and other time eaters involved he saves at least another hour per day over other students. So the least savings of time on an average day would be between 2 1//2 and 3 hours.
Then there are the days like today. As the first day of school, if he attended traditional school, nothing of actual education would happen. But for him it is jump in with both feet.
Here is his home school schedule for today:
* 1 hour reading book of his choice, after my approval, INKDEATH for now. He read maybe ten books this summer.
* read Kids Discover magazine on Shakespeare
* 1 hour creative writing (he is writing a dragon book)written on the computer so his keyboarding skills are practiced, as well as the ability to use word processing. Later we’ll be going over his story and he will sharpen his editing skills
* 1 chapter in Charlemagne read, notes taken (writing project when the book is completed in about a week and a half)
* 1 chapter in The History Of US – chapter is on Western Expansion and Exploration, pre Civil War, Jacksonian presidency. Questions at the end, explain to me what was in the chapter, answer my questions orally
* Review Algebra 1 up to where we left off last year – heavy stuff starts tomorrow
* 30 min practice on guitar
* 2 hours work at barn – There is so much important stuff learned in this activity it probably deserves a post of its own.
* Discussion of the importance of efficiency (repeated theme throughout school year 🙂
* Listen to Rush (yup, I raise Rush babies) and discuss at least one theme from the program.
Today, being Monday is his longest school day of the week. We hit the barn by 8am, get home and do the book work, then guitar, then back to the barn to finish for the day. While at the barn he will likely ride as well as help me with the heavy stuff – no lack of fresh air and exercise. Probably will not stop for him to do whatever he wants until around 6:30 or 7pm. He prepares his own breakfast and lunch everyday. Sometimes his own dinner too, sometimes he even prepares dinner for his parents. Today he made himself tortellini for lunch. He also helps with the dogs, walks them, feeds them, cleans up after them. Why yesterday I even had him help me vacuum.
Earlier today he came down and told me it sort of felt Christmasy. Maybe sometime soon I’ll write a post to explain that comment to you.
goodgoogledymooglies 