Life at the Zoo
Dateline: Friday, April 11, 2008
My dc are all officially homeschooled as of today.

The big ones will still go to school in the mornings, when their classroom teachers have them full-time.  But there were some problems with the cafeteria staff (if it's called bullying if it's kids on kids, isn't that abuse if adults on kids?)  I asked for alternate supervision, since the principal admitted the cafeteria staff have bad judgement, and the principal told me they could eat in the room for dc with behavior problems because she wasn't going to hire someone to supervise her supervisors. 

Both dc are a bit disappointed, but W also seems to be very relieved to be removed from the situation.  T really does do better in a traditional school setting so we're looking at Catholic school for her next year.  There's a decent one in a parish we've been considering moving to anyway, but it's a bit of a drive and the price!!  

The dc and I had a good meeting today to go over what curriculum materials we have and which ones they'd like to use, what might be a good pace, etc.

Here's what we've settled on:

Math (they'll be getting math in school too, but it's Everyday (Chicago) Math, and to say I'm unimpressed would be an understatement).  W:  Life of Fred -- 5 chapters and a Bridge test per week  T: 2 pages/day of DK Math Made Easy 4th Grade  A:  2 pages/day of CIMT MEP level 3 (on the computer) ... he finally burned out on the Miquon after doing Orange through Green this school year.

Science:  A chapter a week of RS4K Chemistry I until done, then move to Biology ... they're halfway through Chemistry.

History:  W: A History of US with the Hewitt Syllabus.  I was thinking I had until July, so I just ordered this.  We'll decide on a pace once it arrives.  T:  Listen to AHOUS audio books A & T: One chapter of How Our Nation Began per week, with T answering all of the end of chapter questions and A doing the ones I select.

Geography:  Trail Guide to US Geography.  They all really liked the look of this one.  A will do the Beginner track, T Intermediate and W advanced, and we'll do oral reports at the end of the week.

Reading:  As long as the big ones seem to be choosing appropriate material, this will be a free category for them for now.  I do have Your Reading Power available for them ... A is assigned 2 cards/day for now.  I'm expecting that pace to slow in a couple of weeks.

Art:  Art With A Purpose 3 for W & T, level 1 for A

Games:  I want them to play an educational game together every day (for those of you who haven't seen our house, we have between 200-300 games, so there's a lot to choose from).  Monday is Math day, Tuesday Geography, Wednesday Language Arts, Thursday History, Friday is a free pick day as long as there's no fighting, in which case, it's Mom's pick. 

This should keep them busy for a couple of hours in the afternoons.  We'll probably also hit more park days and I'm going to see if our playgroup can temporarily switch to afternoons.


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