Today was the first actual day of school for my homeschooler. I must admit I really enjoyed the process, though I know the "honeymoon" period will wear off soon. Add to the first that today is also my HSers birthday. My baby, my firstborn is 13-years-old. So how could I be too hard on the first day of school AND his birthday??
I began our routine with morning meeting. We discussed the rough schedule and our expectations for the day. I made it clear that we are in a discovery process and what we do today may not be what our days look like on other days. He seemed to go with the flow.
Our morning meeting ended at 7:45 and we spent the next hour taking care of housekeeping. I had J clean off his desk, make his bed (which he's always been responsible for when he went to traditional school), feed the livestock, unload the dishwasher and sort the laundry. We'll call that portion of the program Home Economics.
We, and by we I mean me, have decided to use an online curriculum for the core subjects. I'm not comfortable saying *which* program yet because how can you have a full appreciate after only one day? I will say that the learning curve is short. I'm cautiously impressed. I promise I will write a full review of the program once I've sat with it awhile. I owe us and you that much.
It took J about 2.5 hours to complete a lesson in each subject, plus an extension lesson in his least favorite subject, Language Arts. I hold a B.A. in Communication so I'm baffled why neither of my children are at all interested in writing. I made my living writing for several years before they were born. How could not one iota of my prose rubbed off on them?
So with Math, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts out of the way for the day we went for a birthday lunch. The Austin Pizza Garden is a local restaurant in a Texas landmark building that used to be a brewery. Awesome a little Texas History include with the meal.
After lunch the Birthday Boy and I went to get his new smartphone. We told him that if he could keep up with his low-tech messaging phone for the duration of the contract that we would get him a smartphone for his 13th birthday. Who knew time would pass so quickly? So we made good on our promise and got him the same phone I have, which I love. Her name is Betty.
One of the reasons we wanted to take J out of traditional school is because even though he is on a "high tech" campus the expectations regarding use of technology are practically prehistoric. We want him to use a digital calendar (both my husband and I are on Google mail, calendar and docs) and the school wouldn't allow him to use a smartphone. They wanted him to use a written agenda, which had heretofore been a brilliant failure given that J had not written one word in that spiral notebook. Not. One. Word. As Dr. Phil would say, "how's that working for you?" Not so much.
My younger, public school kid went back to his routine, but I think he's still undecided about his school future. We've totally upended Z's matriculation plans so I'll give him props for going with the flow, especially since this boy does not dig change. He's observing his brother's progress. I know he wants to finish the last year of elementary and I'm okay with that since I do love his teachers. I just don't know how ready I am to give him over to the belly of the beast from whom I just plucked his brother. We'll see.
Tomorrow we have more online curriculum and a documentary on World War II ships. He's also going to the grocery store with me. He gets to hold the coupon binder and average prices to help locate the best deal for the money. I feel just like Dr. Seuss letting him know, "oh the places we'll go".
Proximo tiempo.
Mama P.
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