...it seems 5 weeks is not long enough for me to get my act together and write to let the High School know that JA would not be coming! I awoke with visions of his tutor calling out his name this morning (which they would have done!) so I promptly hauled myself out of bed and sent JI over to the school with a letter. Feeling badly because there will be other kids vieing for that place - hope one of them gets it - it IS a good school, as any school can be.
The day has passed uneventfully with nothing from Jake about the fact that he wasn't going.
Most of our books have arrived now and we are set to go on Monday. I decided not to start this week as I was just not ready - no schedules, or tidy drawers, no new pencils etc... Still need to do the stationery shop at the weekend, but all else is sorted now.I've made an individual 'timetable' for each child, with some overlap here and there for joint activities. JA has to work a bit on Fridays too, which I don't think he is going to be too impressed about, but otherwise he will simply not be able to cover all the required level of work. I am very curious about how people actually 'free-school' at this level and still ensure that a child reaches a level that will mean they are able to go to college or Uni should they choose to. I think if JA was really not at all academic I could think about going down a more 'practical' path with a view to some kind of apprenticeship later on, but I can't see him doing a dirty-hands job! Hopefully what I have will be practical and stimulating enough for him to enjoy it as best as it is possible for him to enjoy studying! It's the art side of things - which he really wants to pursue atm, that I might find myself a little challenged on, but I am hoping his natural ability will carry him and he will excede my 'teaching' level and fly on his own with that.
Some folks have been asking what I have settled on for Curriculum, so here's my list - all fully linked!;
JA - Yr7
JI - Yr5
AR - Yr3
PG - Yr2
EN - YrR
I don't have anything much for CT other than chalk-books, colourings, drawing boards, peg-boards: those kind of things that make him 'feel' like he is busy with us. I think I might try to up his mornings at playgroup though, now that he is free, for my sanity & his good. He really does get bored at home some days and I cannot give as much to him as I would like, so he may as well have fun at playgroup & be properly busy doing age-appropriate stuff and playing with his buddies there. I can do C stuff after-school time, but at least he will only have to amuse himself for half the day that way.
I need to add in things like Cookery (I have numerous kids cookbooks - I wish they would use them!) and possibly Needlework (not my forte) for them all, but these tend to happen more spontaneously on a weekend and are so not really part of our formal school timetable.
So, there you have the shape of the FrogAcademy this year. Have fun reading all the links :)
The boys have spent the a lot of the summer finding things to bicker & fight about - this afternoon it was because JI has put a whole in one of the mesh drum-heads and JA was hoping to get them in his room when JI gets his flats at Christmas. Looks like we will have to get a replacement mesh-head too, but JA does not talk to us first, he just laid into JI. I am hoping that with their noses stuck in books they might leave each other alone. It is horrid tbh! If they can't work together they will be spending a lot of time in separate rooms for the sake of everyone. At least it's not me JA fights with so much these days though!
That'll do for today - it's taken me all day do write this (on and off) and add in all the links. I now need to go wash up and do 'other stuff' :)
The day has passed uneventfully with nothing from Jake about the fact that he wasn't going.
Most of our books have arrived now and we are set to go on Monday. I decided not to start this week as I was just not ready - no schedules, or tidy drawers, no new pencils etc... Still need to do the stationery shop at the weekend, but all else is sorted now.I've made an individual 'timetable' for each child, with some overlap here and there for joint activities. JA has to work a bit on Fridays too, which I don't think he is going to be too impressed about, but otherwise he will simply not be able to cover all the required level of work. I am very curious about how people actually 'free-school' at this level and still ensure that a child reaches a level that will mean they are able to go to college or Uni should they choose to. I think if JA was really not at all academic I could think about going down a more 'practical' path with a view to some kind of apprenticeship later on, but I can't see him doing a dirty-hands job! Hopefully what I have will be practical and stimulating enough for him to enjoy it as best as it is possible for him to enjoy studying! It's the art side of things - which he really wants to pursue atm, that I might find myself a little challenged on, but I am hoping his natural ability will carry him and he will excede my 'teaching' level and fly on his own with that.
Some folks have been asking what I have settled on for Curriculum, so here's my list - all fully linked!;
JA - Yr7
- Galore Park English
- Understanding Spelling.
- Galore Park History, which he will do aswell as or instead of joining in with what the rest of us are doing, which is currently finishing a project on Greece.
- Galore Park Maths coupled with Conquer Maths.
- A Child's Geography with us, but he will eventually also have Galore ParkGeography when they publish book one in October.
- IScience 6 (Singapore)
- Exploring Creation with Astronomy - which we are ALL doing this year.
- Galore Park Spanish (his choice of language and as I have done it to GCSE I can help him a bit).
- Artistic Pursuits - not sure which book he will use yet, we don't have them all, but one of those that we have will be fine.
- ?Music - we have 'Tune In' from Singapore (SG Box) that I bought ages back, but I think it will be a bit below him. I think I might just have to get him into learning guitar again - which I can teach him to decent level. I can't provide a link as they don't sell it anymore.
- IT - I have some books that I can't find a link for just now, but they are excellent, albeit a little out-of-date, and they get the job done!
- DT - I have some CGP books, but it will down to him if he wishes to do it or not. They are beyond me I am afraid. Might have to be a Dad thing on a Friday maybe...
- Education City for all subjects
- For Bible Study we use a combination of private study notes, family study, and Postal Bible School.
There is a time for personal reading built into each day (but obviously
they can spend out-of-school time reading too!). I do not prescribe
what they read - it's their own choice.
JI - Yr5
- Galore Park English as a core text, but he has numerous other resources that he uses to; Sentances to Paragraphs 2/3, Word Study 4, Next Stop 2 (might not use that this year as it is similar in style to GP, only GP is better & British!), Schofield & Sims Understanding English texts (these are excellent), Springboard 5 & 6 (also S&S).
- My Pals are Here 4A/4B Maths (continuing on)
- Mental Maths (book 3)
- IScience 4. When is finished level 4, I may order the new S&S Understanding Science series / GP Junior Science 3 books for him as I think he may enjoy them more.
- Same curriculum as above for all other subjects.
- My Primary children do handwriting each day. For this I print out copy-work sheets and they do those for 15 minutes. With JoeI I alternate the work between Bible texts (memory verses) and passages from various literature.
AR - Yr3
- GP English + Springboard, Key Spellings, Letts, and then 8-9, Just Write 2, Word Study 1 & Grammar Practice.
- MPH Maths 1B/2A & Miquon Red (nearly finished)
- Mental Maths Intro & 1
- as above for all else!
PG - Yr2
- Jolly Grammar 1, Basic Skills, Early Comprehension, Early Spellings & Letts + 'Free writing'
- MPH Maths 1B (just starting)
- Miquon Orange (almost finshed) and then red.
- Mental Maths
- as above for all else!
EN - YrR
- Lots of Foundation stage S&S books; Nursery Activities, Nursery land, All about..., Pre-reading skills, Nursery sounds, Nursery Writing. With those she should get pretty much all she needs/wants/is able to do atm.
- Headsprout if she can cope with it. I've paid for it already for her, but it has no expiry and I don't her to get stroppy or stressed with it, so she can do it for as long as it stays fun and she stays keen :)
- Lots of Ed'City
- other puzzle-type books & colourings.
- Games for Writing - Peggy Kaye. The others like to join in with these sometimes :)
- I would really like to go down the whole FIAR route with Els as I think she would thrive on it, so if money becomes available to me later in the year I may well invest in it for her.
I don't have anything much for CT other than chalk-books, colourings, drawing boards, peg-boards: those kind of things that make him 'feel' like he is busy with us. I think I might try to up his mornings at playgroup though, now that he is free, for my sanity & his good. He really does get bored at home some days and I cannot give as much to him as I would like, so he may as well have fun at playgroup & be properly busy doing age-appropriate stuff and playing with his buddies there. I can do C stuff after-school time, but at least he will only have to amuse himself for half the day that way.
I need to add in things like Cookery (I have numerous kids cookbooks - I wish they would use them!) and possibly Needlework (not my forte) for them all, but these tend to happen more spontaneously on a weekend and are so not really part of our formal school timetable.
So, there you have the shape of the FrogAcademy this year. Have fun reading all the links :)
The boys have spent the a lot of the summer finding things to bicker & fight about - this afternoon it was because JI has put a whole in one of the mesh drum-heads and JA was hoping to get them in his room when JI gets his flats at Christmas. Looks like we will have to get a replacement mesh-head too, but JA does not talk to us first, he just laid into JI. I am hoping that with their noses stuck in books they might leave each other alone. It is horrid tbh! If they can't work together they will be spending a lot of time in separate rooms for the sake of everyone. At least it's not me JA fights with so much these days though!
That'll do for today - it's taken me all day do write this (on and off) and add in all the links. I now need to go wash up and do 'other stuff' :)
1 comment:
Gosh. Wow and all that. A lot of thought has gone into your planning. Am impressed.
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