Day 5

Monday Morning.

The reality of the school year stretching before us - all 180 days of it - moves towards the acceptance phase in my mind.

We began this morning with a grammar review, spelling pre-test, and a history lesson. We read an overview of pre-history and I learned more than I would really care to admit. We worked together in his history notebook writing a summary of what we'd studied and making some lists of early people and their inventions.

Next, some more multiplication, large number, place value reviewing. Boring. (says the son)
"You said we were going to do rock studies and interesting stuff."

My line: the standard response about not doing the interesting things all the time.

We have our first Field Trip Day towards the end of September. We have three or four such days planned before Christmas. The girls will go elsewhere for the entire day and Gray and I will go for a full day of exploration. Possibilities for this month? The Huntington Library  and Botanic Gardens or our standard, an art study (they have some great lesson plans on the site) at The Getty  (the Getty Villa is closed on our planned day), or perhaps MOCA . We do enough working with different art mediums at home, so integrating some writing, history, art study and investigation into our trips will be up on the list. Also, getting a Getty guided tour  device all to himself to wander around and his choice of lunch in the cafe will be quite the thrill. (The beauty of having to share all the time with the sister.)

Day 4

Still considering Monday our official Day 1, but we have already dipped our brains into the pool of some basics. This is where we've started:


1. As a nod to the California obsession with rapid acquisition of advanced math skills, we have math as our priority these days. I have done countless hours of research into different math curricula and have yet to decide. I liked the review, learn, drill, review style of the Kumon Grade 4 Math series. They are nothing for a fancy night out in the world of learning new concepts, but they do methodic drilling well. That's good enough for us this week.
We have been reviewing multiplication, using large numbers (billion, trillion, 987 trillion), geometric shapes and their manipulation, and measurements of various kinds. I have him ripping his hair out tolerating patiently times table flashcards. We are about to move into more advanced long division and, although I try to explain what counting on his hands will be like while trying to get through the division of four and five digit numbers, he knows more than me and is fully convinced I need the instruction.


2. Spelling. All of his spelling lessons for the year are on the textbook website. Even the different levels of challenge words are there. Today was a spelling test. I can barely stomach the memory of all the hours we spent using spelling words in different ways for homework assignments. Oh, the torture! This is one area where I am breathing a deep sigh of relief over the reduced workload.


3. Grammar. We are using First Language Lessons (for the Well-Trained Mind) It is old-school and rote and involves sentence diagramming; but he is learning grammar now and he was not before. We had to start in the 3rd grade book because his understanding of the parts of speech and their use simply was not at a 4th grade level. It is not exciting, but memorizing lists of pronouns, helping verbs, state of being verbs, linking verbs, and prepositions is helping him grow as a student of the English language.


4. Logic. We spend time everyday (usually a warm-up) working a logic puzzle simultaneously. We work separately and share our answers. He is smarter than me. This is no surprise. He cries more still, barely.


5. Reading. He is a voracious reader. (I thank God for this blessing every single day.) I bought him Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain 9 days ago. He is already deep into the fourth of five books. The only thing that I have added into his reading universe is some diversity, (ie. He had to read a chapter of Where the Red Fern Grows for every chapter of his current fantasy read.) and a written book journal. I have also been known to give pop quizzes on books that seem to be going by more quickly than expected.


6. History. This year we're going to study California. From the beginnings and early people, missions, agriculture etc. I am also reading aloud to him from E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World and he is writing summaries. As a well-written, broad overview of world (read: European) history, I love it. Gombrich is instructing about history, understanding history and piecing it together as a story. I read it for fun and enjoy it thoroughly.


7. Music. Violin practice happens everyday. Today, for reasons I don't know, he picked up the violin and sight-read his next piece. I dropped dead of shock cooly ignored it hoping not to disturb it, the same way one might regard a hawk that has happened on the backyard birdbath. "Can it really be? Where is the camera? Will it stay if I move a single muscle?" I was secretly hoping that taking initiative in his learning would be a result of this independent education venture. Maybe this is a sign in the right direction?


And, my favorite opportunity afforded by a more flexible bedtime? This December he is going to perform in two local productions of the Messiah. He has already begun the task of learning the soprano part for all the Christmas portion choruses. He sits, score flopped open on his lap, ipod buds on, singing along and listening. This week: And the Glory of the Lord and And He Shall Purify. He is able to make the evening trips to two different locations for rehearsals because he does not have to be at his desk by 8 AM anymore.


Now, a weekend off.

Homeschooling Week One

Well, Day 3.

I have considered it for years. Bored every single person who knows me to death talking about it.

Planned for it the last 3 summers as August approached.

This week, in a step of bravery that was more terrifying and exhilarating than I could have ever imagined:

I cut the cord and did not send my son to the 4th grade.

Last year I went at night, up to the class list postings hanging outside of the school office.

The class had only 18 kids, many of them the brightest in the grade.

The teacher was considered a favorite.

I knew I should send him, it seemed the right thing to do.

This past Sunday evening (OK, creepily late at night) I parked in front of the school and left the car running.

I used the light from my cellphone screen to see the class lists.

Alice was securely settled in a nice kindergarten class with a very sweet and competent teacher.
(And I already tortured her having her at home last year with me  - and a brand new screaming bundle of spitting up sour milk love)

All I needed to see was that there were 34 students in his class this year.

My son prioritizes his life in the following manner: if you asked him what five things he would need to survive on a desert island, food and water would not be involved.

Without someone to talk to, life is not worth living.

And so, for this reason as well as myriad others, I kept him home.

I think he will learn more in half the time. And nothing like a little proverbial desert island to grow some character. (read: washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, babysitting)

I kept him home on Tuesday, The First Day of School. It was a hard day.

I was not quite ready to launch into our full daily schedule - and the day was hot.

Grayson was bored and spent quite a bit of time carrying the baby around and

washing dishes and doing math drills.

I had a walk to the brink of meltdown. I don't know what my expectations were for what this would be like, but I was not prepared in any way for how scared and vulnerable and insecure I felt.

At the end of Day 1 I figured I could send him off to school in the morning and forget it had ever happened.

Day 2. Violin practicing, working through the Messiah portions for choir rehearsal, handwriting, math practice and review, two books reviews written gave me confidence that I could, at minimum, survive the week.
Whether or not I will be knocking at the school office door by next Monday begging them to take him back remains to be seen.