Tempus Fugit

We have three weeks before school starts again. It seems we just stopped. A lot has been happening, things I will announce in upcoming posts. One is that I moved the classroom around. I'll post new photos once I tidy up a bit.

This summer has been about blooming and replanting and weathering the storms. The picture is flowers that are just off my front porch. They're not so pretty now, but they've bloomed.

School is planned for the fall. We've implemented a few new administrative type things (so precise a word, I know). I even broke down and bought an e-reader, only because it was on clearance for 20.00. I've used it a bit, but I'm still not sold on ereading. I like to flip pages too much. I like real books.

Since I rearranged the classroom and bedroom I now have several wall mounted book shelves in my bedroom. In the midst of insomnia the other night, I counted the books in my bedroom. Including the stack on the nightstand, there were 198. I found that thought comforting. Some are dear and treasured books, so are waiting to be discussed. There is even a row of Classic Club Great Books.

On the admin side for school, I've done a few things:

We do school 6 weeks on, 1 week off. I'd added a nice form for modifications and assessments of where we are at each break. We tend to tweak something every year, so I'm leaving room for the modifications.

We're also going to study an artist or composer each term, nothing formal just exposure, appreciation, and some facts.

Fall Term will be Beethoven
Winter term will be Hokusai
Spring Term will be Van Gogh

I'm looking forward to this year. Z is growing up so quickly. He fixed the lawnmower yesterday. He should learn to drive this year, although he's in no rush. Okay, not sure I want to think about that yet.

Tis the season for school. I can't wait.

And Now for Something Completely Different: Actual Plans for 2013-2014

What in the world are you doing now? 

On some days, I'm not sure. Since March our lives have changed a little. Stress levels have been high, and we've had to modify some of our plans for next year. Now that we've actually decided, I feel pretty good about the choices. I've purchased most of the material and am in the planning phase.

Our new lineup includes the following subjects: 

• English 10 - with a focus on grammar, argumentation, and "Language and Literature"
• Geometry - with Holt Geometry
• Algebra II - with Lial's Intermediate Algebra
• Japanese II - continuing with a combination of Irasshai and Beginning Japanese
• Astronomy/Astrophysics - using a mix of classes and books for a custom-designed course
• History of Time and Language - a custom designed course
• Ethics - a half credit class using Aristotle's Ethics and an open course class
• Philosophy & Science of Modern Science Fiction - This was going to be our Star Trek class, but we recently got hooked on Doctor Who, so we're modifying to include it. This is by far my favored class for next year. 

I'll explain each class in subsequent posts. Our school year officially ended last Friday. We have two classes we'll be finishing up over the summer, but we're mostly done. I have so many thoughts on this year. I'm proud of Z and the growth he has shown, I'm excited to see where this summer and beyond takes us. He's also grown in other areas, he almost has a beard. It's not a full one, but it's there. It's strange to see this man-child sitting across from me to study, more a man than child in many ways. I'd write more, but I'm starting to get sappy, and it's the middle of the night. I'll leave you with this Doctor Who quote instead. 

"The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and ...bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant." - The Doctor ("Vincent and the Doctor")

More Tentative Planning for 2013-2014: History

Best laid plans sometimes end up getting eaten by the dog. I knew as soon as I posted our plans, something would change. It did, not drastically, but changes on path for the remaining years. This time it's history. We're going to spend three semesters on U.S. history. It will end up more like U.S. through a world history view.

Why three semesters? 

Z has been interested in studying the WWII era for a long time. He used to watch the military channel for hours. We have a lot of books on WWII, a lot of areas he wants to study. A lot of movies I remember studying in high school.

So we're going to spend our time in this fashion:

• semester 1: Civil War up to WWI
• semester 2: WWI through WWII
• semester 3: post WWII to modern day

I'm actually looking forward to this course and I have a loose outline of how it's going to work. I started pulling resources off my shelf, and realized I have most of what I need already. Amazing how plans fall into place like that. 

But what about the Romans? 

Because Z wants to study about "wars with guns", we are going to modify a few of our history plans for this year and add a study on the Romans and Middle Ages into the last few months. Again, I have enough resources on my shelf to make it work. While we'll do a quick tour of history, we will touch on more topics from the era down the road. Some of the Romans will come up in our  ethics class next year. We'll spend time pondering the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. We'll also touch on the Middle Ages in a later philosophy class. I'm pondering how to frame it all, but I have a lecture series on philosophy of the Middle Ages. Z also wants to read Dante's entire commedia, which we won't attempt without a nice study guide. I also have this fascinating book called The History of Hell, those three resources would make a nice class. I can already imagine the discussions. 

On the Education of the Non-Morning Person

These propositions do hereby contain the lamentations and corrections of educating a person not conceived with a morning nature. 

Proposition 1: 

When thou dost rise later than thy peers assembled in publicly funded education, thou shalt be concluding thy studies of the daily rotation later than thy peers.

Proposition 2: 

Should thy not consume nutrients prior to the commencement of the current educational rotation, do you expect thy teacher to transfer her duties back to the mistress of the kitchen to accommodate thy inability to eat within the proper hour.

Proposition 3: 

Should thy proper, God-given, and blessed name and the correct date in this rotation of the heavenly bodies not appear on every assignment required, the assignment shall be sternly returned and rectified.

Proposition 4: 

Should thy hand be illegible on any assignment, said document will be sternly returned and written again in a legible hand post haste.

Proposition 5: 

Thy eyes, heart, and mind should be focused always upon they work. Idle hands should not be cajoling with the canine or feline residents of thy domicile.

Proposition 6: 

The requirement of output for each and every subject is not a device of Satan. Thou shalt place trust into the facilitator of your education, and understand the requirements to consider you an educated member of said household, community, and society in general.

Proposition 7: 

Thou shalt not argue with the facilitator of your education unless you are in the midst of an argumentation lesson.

Tentative Course of Study for 2013-2014

Z and I had a few great discussions this week, those kind that make you proud to have such a neat human being in your life. Among those discussions, we came to a tentative agreement about classes for next year, year 10. Year 10, a decade of learning. Whoa.

Anyway, here's the list. Even if the subjects don't change, I know that I'll modify contents a bit before we start, if previous planning years are any indication.

• English II (literature & composition)
• World History II (Roman - Middle Ages)
• Modern Physics (Physics in the 21st Century)
• Geometry 
• Algebra II - he wants to double up on math this year so he can do calculus his senior year.*
• Japanese II
• Star Trek and Its Influence**
• Ethics (.5 credit)

* I'll cautiously schedule two credits of math. If it becomes too much we have a few options: 1. Rotate the maths each week and take two years to complete them both. 2. Scale back to Geometry only, saving Algebra II for later. 

**This class is one I am most excited about creating. Since we school in six week segments, we will study a different aspect of Star Trek for each six weeks. My current options include philosophy, technology & science, cultures & religions, film/tv study, and a section on Star Fleet Academy. We may also delve into the Ethics of Star Trek in our Ethics class. 

My current plan is to approach some of these subjects through the lens of philosophy and linguistics, two of Z's major interests.  

Looking Ahead: 2013-2014

Since the world didn't end in December, now we can get to the fun stuff, planning next year. As you see by the above, some people (or dogs) are already bored with this year's material. I love this photo, Miss Grace (who has about 14 different names) chillaxin' in the classroom. Last semester her entire curriculum was based around learning to not bark at the mailman. She passed so far.

Some people ask why are you planning next school, which doesn't start until August, now? It's like January. Exactly! Homeschooling is not an exact science, *I* don't have infinite power to plan in a few short weeks, I need planning time, purchasing time, lesson planning time, reading time, and tweaking time. Time to print the planner for next school year, time to print study guides, plan grading, and explore the subject myself enough to facilitate the class.

I always end up in the plan-my-own-material camp, most of the time. Some people do buy more pre-planned curriculum, I don't for several reasons. First, I've never found one that covers what need the way I want to cover it, doesn't use the books I want to use, and doesn't fit - it's like Goldilocks. Secondly, some of those pre-planned packages are expensive. Even if you buy the books used, some companies charge 50-100 for lesson plans. Worth it in some cases, but again, I've always had more time than money. I'm frugal and have a hard time forking out that amount of money for something I can create or pull resources together myself. I do invest in the study material, guides, teacher's notes when necessary. I just have a harder time paying for someone to break down and coordinate the reading of books for me.

Also, Z wants to cover some unusual subjects next year. It was my idea and I'm excited, and it's going to be an out of this world elective, but it's going to take a lot of reading and planning to make it work. I hope to order the first book this month.

I also start planning now because, well, it's January. I hate winter with a passion. I hate snow and I hate cold. Who wants to go outside now? Not me. I like flowers blooming and sunshine and walking on ground that isn't crunchy from layers of salt. So, I want MY summer vacation too. I don't mind working a bit each day on planning, but by the end of May I want the bulk of it done. Of course, last year it was so blasted hot I didn't want to go out in it either. *sigh* I also try to work part-time in the summer. Last year I worked from home, which was great.

Another reason to start planning now is burnout season is just around the corner. February is notoriously known as burn out time for many homeschoolers. It's crunch time, you're seeing progress or frustration with your material. If you live in the colder areas, it's getting a little claustrophobic (at least for me), kids are ready for a break. I've thwarted those blues by planning one of our week long breaks in February, this is when I do a lot of the subject planning, prioritizing purchases, and getting a better handle of what I'll need for the fall.

Planning is also earlier because we start school in early August. We do a six week on/one week off schedule. It's perfect for us. But to time it right with holidays we have to start usually in the first week of August. Generally it's about a week earlier than our local public school. This also give us the chance to get a full 18 weeks in before Christmas. We still can get 36-37 weeks in by the end of May and have enough real breaks to stay chilled.

Z and I have informally discussed our subjects for next year. Today we'll go over his options and I'll give him some time to decide. He's pretty much made up his mind, but I have some options now that I hadn't considered earlier. Of course, we'll cover the core classes, but I have some fun options of how to cover a few of those and he needs to pick at least 1 to 1.5 credits of electives.

Once he decides, I'll post that list. I'm looking forward digging into a lot of the material for next year.