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")

A Tale of Two Japanese Programs

A few years ago when Z decided he wanted to learn Japanese, I had a mini-breakdown, sort of. I made sure he understood that it would not be me teaching him Japanese, it would be us learning together.

I searched to find the right program, one that would be audio and visual and teach grammar and writing. Irasshai was that program. Because of life and other pressing academic matters we started and stopped a few times. We poked at it with a stick. This year we started full-time effort. The Irasshai program reminds me of how you would learn foreign language in high school. The videos on GPB feature Tim-sensei breaking it down into palatable chunks for us. We're using the textbook and workbook to make it a full and rich program.

However, here comes the cons, it does move slowly. Not OMG! Would you move already slowly, but incrementally to make sure all students are progressing.

Because I like to make things difficult and because ds's interest allows us to move at a faster pace, I added a second Japanese program, Beginning Japanese by Tuttle. It includes a text, workbook, and website, timeforjapanese.com. I like it as well, but it moves at a faster pace. It introduces kanji in chapter 1, it assumes you will know hiragana and katakana early on. It is probably best used when there is a trained Japanese teacher available, or a motivated student. In my case I have the second.

The pros of this program are you feel like you're reading and using Japanese, even after the first chapter. They also have a website with access to teacher material. I e-mailed for access and received approval right away. The website also features the dialogues in the book. These are great because they speak at a natural speed. Irasshai is mostly classroom speaking, s.l.o.w.e.r. so you catch pronunciation. They have some video dialogues as well, but the audio isn't as crisp as the recordings from Beginning Japanese.

Right now we are merging the two programs, switching around each week. Irasshai has two volumes that break down into three years of study. Beginning Japanese is followed up by Intermediate Japanese with Advanced Japanese not yet available.

Which is better? Neither. They both serve a function. It really does depend on how motivated your student is and if you, as the teacher, will be learning alongside them.

Three Weeks Done, Obviously Time for a Schedule Modification

It wouldn't be Wakefield Academy if we didn't tweak the schedule. So, we are doing just that, as an experiment for this week. Z is a great kid and we've worked best with a daily schedule. This year we started with a modified block schedule. History and Philosophy are done before lunch, then it's block A on Monday and Wednesday, block B on Tuesday and Thursday, then block C on Friday. A few of the subjects were taking much longer than anticipated, okay not really longer than anticipated, but longer (said with the word longer stretched out loooooonnnnggeer).

Writing and math are those two subjects, no surprise there. When you take 90 minutes to two hours to finish one subject, it can be brain draining. The simple answer would be to limit the class time to one hour each, right? What about when we're in the groove and that extra 30 to 60 minutes will get it completed? I prefer to focus through, as long as he is focusing, and just get it done.

This week our schedule is modified in this manner. History/Great Books will be our first subject. It's an enjoyable way to start the day. Then the other subjects are scheduled individually. There are 2-4 days of assignments for each subject. He will be able to pick how they are finished. One subject must be done before lunch and all assignments must be completed by Friday afternoon.

I know many homeschoolers are able to hand assignments to their high schoolers and then check in once a day. Our school operates a little differently by choice and chance. Z does better when there is someone in the room, hence the classroom and not him working in his room. Besides he has too many distractions in his room. Many of our subjects are completed together or with me available for questions. We use a lot of discussion and dialogue, it gives our school the feel I think is important for his education.

In the case of a few classes, I am doing the work alongside him. We are learning Russian and Japanese together. For Japanese, we have an outlined program designed for high school students. There are videos, a text, and a workbook. I've also added some literature (in English for cultural studies), and a few supplemental books. The Russian is an harder book, one which I am breaking down into bite-sized pieces and adding pronunciation work from a few different websites.

I am ready to start my Monday, off we go.

Week Two: A Wild Week

Be careful or this may happen to your head too! All right, this was an intentional enlarging of the hair to see how fluffy it could be.

We made it through week two. I'll be honest, I'm tired. Z is not. I miss my afternoon naps, Z is actually getting up before noon.

It's no longer lingering near 100 degrees every day and that is good too.

I didn't have to tweak anything else this week. We did have one slow day, caused by insomnia in both of us the evening before. Overall the schedule is working well. Z is able to focus for longer this year (yea!). He's also been working on computer stuff (stuff being the technical term for the subject I am leaving to an unaided discovery method) this week. This weekend he's watching C++ tutorials on his own.

We spent time with the Mesopotamians in history, practiced our hiragana, and Russian alphabet. Z starting writing about Shakespeare (he'll finish that this upcoming week), and spent some time reading Bradbury's R is for Rocket. I started reading Bleach manga that Z read this summer.

I also ordered a Moleskine planner for Z. This will be his commonplace book for the year, which I will discuss next week. I also ordered another book for Z, which I'm taking him up on a big reading challenge. We'll see if he takes the bait. More on that later.

High School and Other Life Forms

News for the week: Curiosity lands on Mars, Mt. Tongariro, better known from the Lord of the Rings movies as Mt. Doom, erupts for the first time in 100 years, and we finished our first week of high school.

It went surprisingly well. We finished all assignments, and I only need to tweak two subjects, both of them victims of my over zealous planning nature. Vocabulary is a minor subject this year, Z has a good vocabulary naturally, so the lessons can't overwhelm the English credit. I think we'll cut the number of words in half for each week. It will work better for learning the skill I have in place, how to write on index cards and refer to them. He's actually writing without a fuss and his handwriting has improved despite our lack of written work over the summer.

Russian is another subject to tweak. We'll probably spend more time with the alphabet and taking more time with reading smaller words. I'm not sure how that will affect our speed, but this was always planned as a work-at-your-best-pace class. Plus, Z may end up helping me as much as I'm helping him. I won't say whether that was part of my diabolical plan all along. We spent 90 minutes on Russian yesterday and it wasn't as hard as I thought. We worked on the alphabet and writing out  little works and translating them.

The schedule is actually working out. Z has been up and ready to work on all days but one. Then we only started ten minutes late because he's had a hard time going to sleep the night before.

An interesting addition to the week has been his work on his programming, computer programming that is, and computer exploration. This is all done without mom, I'd just mess it up. It's his hobby and this week involved putting a Linux system on his laptop and troubleshooting the wireless on the HP laptop, apparently HP wireless doesn't like Linux. Thankfully it's his laptop. He was so excited he figured it all out last night and was probably up half the night dealing with the software. We don't have set bedtimes on Friday or Saturday. He's learning a lot of skills on his own and bringing that ability to troubleshoot to the classroom.

I will make a note about math. It was hard for him this week, but he worked without fussing (joy!), he did it mostly on his own, and he even wrote the dates on his assignments and showed his work. We've discussed the math required if he would want to major in computers in college. It's a ways off yet, but we discussed the importance of focusing now, so that he can be prepared. We'll see if he's up for the challenge.

It was a good week and that is a good thing.