Before I forget, I'm trying to note what we did last week -- our first week of our 2008-2009 homeschooling year. We started our homeschooling year on Monday, August 18... and then took a goof-off day on Wednesday, the first day of the public school year!

The kids are so much happier -- in better moods -- cheerful -- with a daily routine than they were all summer. I'm not sure what lesson to take from that, since our summer was so busy, but maybe there's something I can try next summer.

On our first day, I introduced them to some new responsibilities. We will each do one thing daily to contribute to the house upkeep beyond the regular chores (so we can make headway around here!). Each boy will do one load of their combined laundry each week (Son1 -- brights & darks, Son2 -- lights & whites). The boys will also learn to cook and bake some things, so we brainstormed a bunch of meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that they would like to make and to eat.

Daily

Handwriting practice. Continuing where they left off in their workbooks; on Monday, they also shared writing down all of their meal ideas (two pages!). Piano refresher. Reviewed all of the short pieces learned in the current book.

Throughout the week

Math. Math facts refresher with dice (6- and 12-sided) and skip counting. They looked through their not-quite-finished math books. After that, they began reading and thinking through the problems in Primary Challenge Math (Son2) and Challenge Math (Son1), to "get their math brains working again".

Latin. Son1 and I reviewed all of the vocabulary flash cards (nouns, then verbs, then adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, etc.). Son2 browsed through his Minimus book and listened to the Minimus audio files on the computer.

Composition. Son1 is Scribe for his Boy Scout patrol, so he created an agenda template document on the computer for his upcoming patrol meeting, and printed it for his meeting notes. He typed up his minutes from the previous patrol meeting and emailed them to the patrol leader and the scribe mentor. After the patrol meeting, he typed up those minutes and, likewise, emailed them as needed.

History. Son2 read a chapter in The Story of the World v.2: Middle Ages, but I delayed Son1's more challenging history and composition curriculum for the second week of school.

History & literature reading. Son1 read a chapter in Our Island Story (British history); This Country of Ours (USA history); and Monks & Mystics (church history). He also began reading The Lord of the Rings (literature). Son2 read a chapter in Our Island Story (British history); This Country of Ours (USA history); and Kings & Queens for God (church history/biographies). He also read a chapter in O. Coolidge's Greek Myths.

The boys also watched some science and history TV shows, and finally watched most of the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.

Both boys did lessons and games at FreeTypingGame.net on several days, and Son1 did a lot of typing for his patrol minutes.

By the way, our Wednesday goof off day was breakfast at Panera Bread with my friends whose kids started school that day. Bowling at a local alley. Library visit. Home to read and play video games. Fun day!

Posted by Anonymous

I'm confused. Didn't you do Middle Ages last year? How did your LCC-inspired weekly structure work-out for you last year? We just finished our first week of school but still have to add Latin and Logic. DD loves Monks & Mystics.
Blessings,
Donna in Tx