Wakato Academy

Kids and Schedules

As promised I am updating the blog this week.  Not much is going on in the school this week becuase we are still in the planning stages. 

I got my last box yesterday and we picked up Big Brothers Cello at the music store, his lessons will start next week.  Music lessons are something I have been putting off because of finances but I really feel they are a neccessity in any well rounded education so this year I got creative to find some money so that he can have lessons.  The good news is that by the time the little kids get old enough for lessons they are all so close in age that they will be able to have group lessons which are significantly cheaper than private lessons so at least the cost won't be much higher than what I have to pay for my oldest private lessons :-).

I am also getting everything organized.  This year I made up a totally custom student organizer cross portfolio for big brother to keep track of his assignments and keep records of work completed.  I will detail that in another post and show a picture of our completed project.  It will be a nice record of his work for the year that will be great for an end-of-year celebration where he can show off all he has done throughout the year.  I of course also have my own teacher planner that I will use to make the initial plans and then sit down with him on Sunday evening to discuss and fill out his weekly schedule with him.  My hope is that this will give him ownership in what he is expected to do so that he will be able to work independently.  A goal we have been slowly working towards for the past 3 yrs with slow progress but progress non-the-less.  Last year he completed a very elaborate science/research project all on his own, a huge success in this arena.  So I have hope that this year he is finally ready to really take ownership of his own learning.  I will report back after a month on the success and challenges of the student planner.

Thats all for this week.  After I have a chance to break into all the books and lay out the curriculum this weekend I will be able to put up some reviews and notes on what we are doing this year.