Monday has Never Looked So Good

*Irony: As soon as I hit submit I found the local schools have closed due to the snow. We used to have a rule that if public school had snow days, we took a snow day. Now since we lived in the south for the last few years that has only been a issue once, especially since it hadn't snowed that much in over a decade or two. Well, now...I'm inclined to do school anyway. Yes, I am a meanie today.

Maybe that's overstating a little since I just woke up. Maybe I'm not sure I like the more than one inch accumulation (that would be snow) outside the door. But it's Monday and I have hope.

Last week we were back to a full schedule. We made it through all but the completion of two subjects. It was good because we don't even have all of our stuff. We have most of the school stuff but I'm missing my books and bookcases. Yes, I've actually needed to reference something several times and realized, with some angst, that they are not here.

But we completed a full week, with my desk in the corner of the new classroom, with a "new" desk for Z in the middle of the room and three plastic crates holding our needed books. Oh and two office chairs. Z asked when he was getting back his exercise ball he normally uses. Um, when we go get the rest of our stuff, babe.

This was our first full complete, solid week of school since the first week of November. I hesitate to admit that, we had a few weeks in between that resembled school, but barely. So now I feel like we're on pace to learn again. We're back to bed times and waking up earlier. We're back to "Can I have a break now" to "Did you brush your teeth?" to wonderful discussions delving into the mind of a thirteen year old.

We're testing a new schedule too. A weekly schedule instead of a daily schedule. It looks something like this:

Weekly Plan

Daily	MOnday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Memory
Read-aloud
Quiet RT
WWE (4x)
Weather Journal

After completion of daily assignments you should work 4-5 hours per day towards weekly assignements.

*working time does not include breaks or dawdling

Weekly	Input	Output	Notes
Latin	1 chapter	exercises, chapter review	4 hours
Math	5 lessons	written work	4-5 hours
English	Megawords, 5 pages	written work	2 hours
Literature	Follow syllabus*	discussion, written work	3 hours
Asian	Follow syllabus*	outlining, written questions, other	3 hours
Science	Archaeology, 6 pages	outling 3 separate	2 hours
	Other * variable	activities and experiments	2-3 hours
Logic	follow syllabus	discussion	1 hour
Philosophy	Aristotle for Everybody 1 chapter	read and discuss	1-2 hours
	Philosophy for Kids 1 chapter	read and discuss	1 hour
Japanese	1 lesson	workbook, video, oral practice	2-3 hours
Art	1 project from syllabus*		1-1.5 hours
PE	2-3x per week		1- 1.5 hours
	*syllabi are in binder	* will vary	Approx 27 hours

Z is required to complete the daily tasks daily and then we pick and choose from the weekly schedule. I give him some guidance. Okay, by Thursday of last week I told him what subjects we needed to get done to have a full week. It was a great last Monday though. We spent an hour in a philosophical discussion that rambled from topic to topic. I learned more about Z in the discussion that I think he learned from the book, but that's kind of the point. On Monday we bonded. Then Tuesday we started with the harder stuff, like algebra and Latin. It was a good Monday and I rarely have uttered those words.

So we're trying the weekly schedule again this week. There might come a day when I can give him a schedule like this and he'll manage his subjects well. ...*pause* Insert dream sequence where student lovingly, gracefully completes his studies. I hear Apollo in the background playing on the harp. I see smiles when it's math time...*scratch*end dream* back to reality. Okay, someday.