– Math: Christopher’s struggling with how many math problems each lesson has and we’re refining that. He’s in Saxon 54 and close to done (116 of 140 lessons.) I know he is grasping the concepts because we’re working through the lessons and practice problems together but in addition to that there’s another 30 problems per lesson. I decided once a week we’ll do about 10 of the problems together orally (though writing out work he needs to compute, of course) and the other two days he can do a few problems written out on his own and I let him pick how many. I know that sounds funny (what if he doesn’t want to do any?) but knowing Christopher’s personality I know he’ll do some. Usually he picks 5 to 10, sometimes he’ll do 15 if I’m there talking it through with him. Then once a month we’ll do a test and he’ll do the entire set of 30 problem written out without my help and probably timed. I’m confident that he understands the concepts so I’m not going to push him to do so much written work. He knows as he gets older that he will have to do more of this in writing so we can see how he’s working through them but he’s barely nine years old – we’ve got time.

– Language: We’re doing two grammar lessons a week with the older two kids and again, I’m not making them write out much if they can do it orally for me. I do have them write in cursive when we do our new spelling words or their dictation but the point of the grammar is to ensure they understand the concepts of the language and they can do that without a ton of handwriting. There are plenty of other ways in which they can practice their cursive with writing letters, making the menu, etc.

– History: Once a month we’ll be doing a designated library re-stocking trip during which I’ll get the history books we need for the next month and so they can explore that section and pick some out on their own. I did that already for December and left a few books strategically laying out and as I anticipated, the kids were looking through them on their own and asking questions and making lists of projects they want to do! Success. Kit’s also copying the reproducible pages in the activity guide so the big kids will do their map work and various projects and the little ones will do the coloring pages to keep them busy while I read the chapter aloud for the week.

– Science: We’ll start following the science layout I did and we’re helping C earn a lot of his science related scouting belt loops/pins. We’re also signing up for the science activities at the library and C’s going to visit the science buildings on one of the university campuses to talk with a scientist (a scout requirement.) We hope to attend the science museum at least once a month (ideally!) but it may be every other month. Mostly I’m hoping to get more outside time for the kids because I don’t think any formal science stuff right now is going to stick for the little ones and I want them to love science because it’s hands on interaction with the world, not because of something they read in a book. Oh, and when it’s too cold for outside exploration we do love the Bill Nye science DVDs and the Magic School Bus books & shows. 🙂

– Music: I’m holding off on piano lessons for the kids until they express interest and willingness to commit to practice. C says he does want to continue our once a week “lessons” and he seems to be enjoying it but I’m not going to push the formal lessons until they are a bit older (maybe 10 or so?) and are ready to do so on their own initiative. I want them to do lessons and I think most of them will want to do so and once they commit I will expect follow through and practice but I’m wondering if this is like potty training? I can push and push and make us all crazy but until they are ready and willing then it’s pointless. I don’t want to risk having them hate music/piano/lessons because they weren’t ready for it. We’ll see how this works out. I plan to teach them piano until they need a teacher that really can play (I have minimal piano skills) and they’ve also expressed an interest in getting some basic trumpet lessons from Kit and some guitar lessons. We may need to find a kid size guitar, I think some of them would love that.

More to come, cleaning up mess…