Yesterday was our first day. It went pretty well. This week is “start whenever you get up” and that means that he gets up, makes his lunch and starts his day. Yesterday he went for a walk between lunch and school, but Fay is making it pretty wet here so no walk.
Yesterday he looked over the Kingfisher book and read the 4 introduction pages. He also worked on the poem writing assignment. He needed help with coming up with quality adjectives and I worked hard not to help him, but I could sympathize with him, I struggle with that myself (which means I wasn’t good help even when I made suggestions). He also did his Bible reading and surprised Anthony with some of his insights over dinner.
Today he will finish the grammar pre-test and start Algebra. I had been wavering between scheduling everything and being flexible and last night ‘schedule everything’ won. I entered the grammar and math assignments in the Homeschool Tracker, now I just need to get science and logic in there. It is nice to be able to print out his assignments, see what I need to copy for him to take to Mom’s next week, and also see what I should expect to have handed in for me to grade.
The other area I expected struggles with is that he has to read more than he plays his computer games. Walking or playing outside is good, schoolwork is great, time with friends is very good. But those are all separate. For any time he plays a video game that day, he has to do extra reading for longer. Yesterday he read at least 1/2 of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (his choice) and he got to play his PS2. Anthony found a good novel about Pompeii, which fits in with the visit next Saturday (9/6) to the Pompeii exhibit at Discovery Place and the Roman Army Festival down the street that weekend. We’re trying to convince him that it is fun to read (and that Naruto comic books aren’t bad but don’t count as reading).
Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement. I’ll post back progress and we’ll see how things go as we progress. This week should get us introduced to the schedule, then next week he spends with my mom. I have copied and organized all his assignments for next week so no textbooks will go and possible get left behind.
