We actually started a little form drawing — just curves — the last couple days of last week.  And it’s obvious how much he needs this.  A simple, regular, large curve from him is alternately too narrow, too pointy, too small…

There was also a nice confirmation on Friday of the effectiveness of including story in the work, as recommended (nay, as insisted upon) by Waldorf methods.  When I wanted to do one more form (consisting of a half-dozen curves in various locations) and he balked, I started relating the curves to dolphins, his greatest love.  This one is a dolphin leaping out of the water, this one is a dolphin diving, these ones are two dolphins kissing.  He grinned, lost his grumpiness, and eagerly drew the form himself, telling me the story of his dolphins as he went.

Great for form drawing, and for everything.  I need to remember this, it obviously works for Flipper.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the day goes.  We’ll probably be experimenting with the plan for a little while yet, but basically we’ll do form drawing for at least an hour, along with his math and french and spelling and call that a ‘main lesson.’  Then after lunch, we’ll do some art and some knitting and some pottery — he’s eager to try a kid’s pottery wheel we just picked up.  Music time and a walk in the morning as well… and a visit to nanny and grampy’s… Yikes!  I’m exhausted already!

One big change is that I stopped thinking in 6-week blocks a long time ago.  We will be going back into something like that, though, once we get our Waldorf on.  I’ve also been tracking what we’ve been doing with homeschoolskedtrack, which is fantastic, and lets me see at a glance exactly what we did, and when, and what we’re going to be doing, and (approximately) when!

Just for fun, I thought I’d check in and post an update, subject-for-subject in comparison with the March post.  So here we go, seven-and-a-half months later (or about 100 potential “school days”, accounting for occasional summer breaks…) this is how we’ve progressed:

Math

In March, we were at lesson 59 in RightStart level E.  Now we’ve finished lesson 108, and the end is in sight!  If we continue on schedule, we will be finished the level before Christmas and we’ll start Intermediate Geometry in January.  Recent lessons have focused on polygons, angles, and lots of drawing.

Over 100 school days, we’ve only worked on RightStart half the time, apparently.  But I should remember that we took a short break to focus on Life of Fred (which we didn’t have yet last March) and another break for some Math Mammoth extra fractions practice.

Our current math situation consists of RightStart every day, as well as additional practice time on ALEKS and/or Mathletics, both of which we’re trying out to see which one we will stick with.  We love ALEKS but Mathletics seems to be winning right now… Life of Fred is on hiatus just while we drive through the rest of RightStart level E, but he’s waiting patiently and we will have fun with him again soon!

Canadian Studies/Geography

The who the what now?  Oh that’s right, we used to be working on this.  But with so much on our plate, something had to go, and this was one of the somethings.  We will get back into it, probably with a multi-week block at some point.  It’s not gone forever, just not a current priority.

In fact, I’ve just downloaded a nifty learning-geography-through-art e-book (a really MASSIVE one) from currclick… looking forward to drawing from this resource (punny!) soon!

French

We’ve moved on from the oral-only approach we were using in the spring.  I think it did the trick, getting him over his last hurdles and fears about the language.  We had previously finished book 1 and started book 2 of L’art de lire, but took such a long break that he’d forgotten nearly everything.  I ordered fresh copies of books 1 and 2 (we still have all the CD’s and books 3-6) and we started anew!

Last week, we finished book 1 and are currently in the first unit of book 2.  I think he’s picking it up much better than before, and he certainly complains about it less!

While l’art de lire does have a CD, it is primarily a written language program.  So we’ve also added a primarily oral program, continuing the sort of thing I had started with him.  I’ve chosen Ecoutez, Parlez, and I have to say he loves it!  True to Charlotte Mason philosophies, the lessons are short and easy.  He simply repeats the same unit for 9 days, then goes on to the next unit.  He’s even started using some of the phrases he’s learned in everyday situations — a sure sign that it’s sticking!

Literature

This area was fascinating for me to review what we were doing in March, because it has reminded me of some things I should really bring back.  Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost his independent reading time.  He has been reading on his own, of course, but not overly much, and we’ve done virtually no literary narration at all for months.

So I will need to make sure I reincorporate reading time, with assigned books, into his daily rhythm.

On the plus side, though, we’ve maintained and even expanded read-aloud time, where I read to him.  Once we finished “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” we started “The Hobbit.”

This was met with… some resistance.  I think he remembered when I had tried reading The Hobbit to him years ago, when he was really too young and it was a disaster.  This time, he was literally yelling and crying at the thought.  I played the “mean mommy” card and started reading it to him anyway, yelling right over his wails.

Within the first page, he had stopped and was listening, then smiling.  Then begging for more.

In fact, when we finished “The Hobbit”, he begged that we continue straight into “Lord of the Rings”.  A challenging book for an 11-year-old, even if he doesn’t have to do the actual reading himself!

I’m so pleased to say that he’s been loving it.  It’s very slow going, we’ll go days where it’s just descriptions of landscapes, but he doesn’t mind.  He doesn’t mind my attempted renditions of elvish epic poetry.  And he has an astonishing recall of detail.

The party accompanying the ring has just set out from Rivendell and is quickly approaching Moria.  Flipper joked “300 pages in, and the story’s finally getting started!”

Anyway, I’ve also started reading aloud at snack time.  For this, it’s “Watership Down.”  Considering how much he has loved the feline “Warriors” series, I think he’ll enjoy the rabbits.

History

Back in March, I was free-styling my way through Ancient History.  Since then, we dove into History Odyssey – first with the level II free trial, and then (when that proved too much for him, being very new to the subject and a reluctant writer) the level I free trial.

Level I has been going much better — we supplement it a LOT with additional materials, but it’s a good core.  I’m still not sure, though, whether I’ll actually purchase the rest of the program once we’ve finished the free trial materials.  We may just continue on our own, now that I’ve got a better idea of how to go about it.

We have been moving very slowly through Ancient History.  Partly because we had stopped level II and then started over again in level I… but we’re still in ancient Mesopotamia.  That’s okay though, he’s enjoying it and just built a cool model ziggurat!

Science

In March, we were at week 22 of NOEO Biology II but had to backtrack a bit because he hadn’t been doing his summaries.  7 months later, we’ve just finished week 26…

Oy!  We’re taking our time with this.  Most weeks we only do 2 or 3 lessons, instead of the recommended 4.  I think that once we start working in blocks, I’m going to have a NOEO block, to really drive through and finish this thing.

It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy it.  In fact, right now we’re in a unit of building body models which he is having a great time with.  It’s just that it hasn’t been a priority.

We’ve added some other science-y stuff too, such as his Intellego unit study on Whales.  This is by far one of his favourite subjects.  We have a lapbook on Marine Habitats which we will do in the near future, as well.

Once we’re finished NOEO, we’re going to go through Ellen McHenry’s The Elements… then we’ll decide where to go from there.

I think that’s more than enough for one post… Look for part 2, where I’ll discuss what we’ve been doing in Music, Art, Grammar, Poetry, Handwriting, and Miscellaneous.

It’s been working well for us, Flipper loves having everything spelled out for him concretely and it’s helping me stay organized.  We’ve probably accomplished more “schooly” stuff in the past month since starting this system, than in the previous 6 months combined.

However, it is time-consuming.  Each night, I have to look over his materials, figure out what to do the next day, take into consideration things that were not completed, and create the sticker chart.

It’s been worth it, his behaviour and attitude and mood are just so much better when he’s on a fixed routine like this, it’s almost a miracle!  And we didn’t want a permanent system just yet, to settle into a fixed routine while we’re still working out the kinks and perfecting the system.

But we’re getting the hang of it now, and I’m trying to re-tweak his schedule with the new materials I’ve recently brought in (some lapbooks and unit studies) so that we’re not just piling on an overwhelming amount of work.  I’ve put some things off until later, turned other things into 3x/week instead of 4x/week… but it’s still a hassle to work all this out on paper.

Enter Homeschool Skedtrack!  I’d fiddled with this briefly a couple months ago and liked what I saw, but my planning was at that moment too much in flux to be worth putting in the necessary hours of input and organizing.

But now I think it’s just what I need.  After the initial time investment of getting all the courses entered, I can switch days-per-week and alloted times with just a click.  I can plan out the assignments in each course as far ahead as I like, and the scheduler will put it all together on the right days — that replaces my index cards.  Missed assignments can easily be shifted around.   I can schedule in advance the courses that I’m planning to start once we’re finished with something else — so I won’t forget about it when the time comes!  And it will keep a record of everything we’ve done.

We don’t live in a province or state where we need to keep detailed records of attendance or lesson hours, but it will track that too (and boy I bet that’s a handy tool for those living in places where they do have to track that information).  While I don’t need it, it’s very interesting to see.

And somehow, it’s actually free.  They have a sponsors page, where if you click through and patronize their sponsors, you’re supporting the site.  This is a full-on scheduling database with lots of depth — I haven’t even scratched the surface of what you can do with it (course credit, weighted courses in course groups, various grading systems, auto-generated report cards and transcripts, hobby log, etc etc etc).

My hubby saw me inputting some lesson plans and asked “wouldn’t it be faster to just do that in Excel?”  Uh, no.  I showed him the rest of the site and he realized the extent of it.  My hubby designs databases for a living he knows what kind of work goes into creating something like this.

I still plan on using some kind of sticker chart, Flipper really needs that physical involvement.  But I hope to use the printed out schedules as the base rather than having to make up index cards every night, though I’ll probably try to chop them up into a flip chart rather than a simple list.

So this is just the latest installment in the ongoing saga of “figuring out the best way of organizing Flipper’s schoolwork so that he actually does it.”  We’ve tried every iteration, from completely unschooling let-him-choose-his-own-path, to rigourous school-at-home complete with a bell and a separate desk “just for school” — I should say, that particular one didn’t last long, but it was worth a try, right?  Some kids thrive on more structure, rather than less.  Flipper does seem to be like that, but this was TOO much structure.

Lately I’ve been intrigued by the whole Workbox craze.  There are things about it that I didn’t like, just because it wouldn’t fit with some of our philosophies or would be cumbersome or whatever.  I wanted to keep using what was already working for us — don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.  But I liked the visual aspect of the workbox system, and the velcro chart used to visually track what you’ve done.

We don’t have the space for a big rack of boxes, and several months ago I’d started using a system with index cards for each subject that he seemed to like.  I decided to take the elements about workboxes that I liked, and apply it to our index cards system.

This is the index card itself:

You’ll see what the sticker is for in a minute.

Basically, each subject gets a card.  On the upper right I write what days of the week I hope to do this subject.  This is a guideline more than a rule, but it helps keep me on track.  “Core” subjects like math get done every day, history might be two times a week, art two different days each week, etc.  Then I write the date and the assignment on one line.  Once it’s done, I cross it out.  This helps me keep track of where we are in each subject — and if something didn’t get finished, I know next time, and if it’s been awhile since we’ve done this subject, I can see it right away.  This way I don’t lose track.  I can think of many times when I’ve realized “holy moly, we haven’t done French in at least 3 months!”  Not anymore!

Spelling is “core”, to be done every day — it’s a very quick lesson, too.  You’ll notice that we didn’t do all that much in July.  It’s summer, after all, and he was at Camp and visiting friends and playing outside… But now I’m not left wondering, “gee, how long has it been since we’ve done spelling?”  It’s right there for me.

Once I’ve settled on which assignments are to be done, I make up a schedule which includes breaks, snacks, outside time, lunch, etc.  There are 16 blocks for the schedule — or just 12 if it’s a busy day (if we’ll be out for several hours, for instance).  I assign a sticker to each activity — the Spelling lesson above has a bird sticker — and paperclip it to the index card and place it in the pocket at the front of our schedule book.  Or if it’s a non-carded activity like lunch, I paperclip it to the pocket itself.  This can be seen in the picture at the top of this post.  (Ignore where it says “heavy”, that’s left over from a previous use for this notebook lol…)

A key feature of this system for us, is that several activities will have the same sticker.  This gives us a little more flexibility than the ‘pure’ workbox system does.  If it’s time to do a “smiley face” card and there are three “smiley face” cards, he can choose which one to do.  This gives him some degree of control and choice, and keeps him engaged.  I also have full control, because I decide which activities are grouped together and where they will go in the schedule.

So, for instance, if there’s an activity that has been neglected or unfinished and I want to be sure it’s done today, I’ll give it its own sticker and schedule it relatively early.  Then I might group “work with mom” activities with the same sticker type, so I’ll know where in the schedule he’ll be needing me, though he still chooses which one happens when.  Often I’ll group more difficult, time-intensive activities together, and light, easy, or fun activities together.  This way, I can alternate light activities with harder ones, yet he still chooses from among each group.

There is an index card for “chores”, and one for “morning routine”.  I recently read a blog that called it “family service” instead of chores… I might steal that…

Once the schedule is planned and the stickers are paperclipped, I make a little chart in the notebook, with tiny sketched sticker-shape cues.  Things without index cards are described in the box.  As he completes each activity, he puts that sticker in the chart.  Once the chart is filled in, he has free time for the rest of the day.

Here’s the chart ready for tomorrow.  Er, I guess that’s today already, isn’t it?  Silly midnight blogging.  He has gym training all morning, and since it’s Tuesday, we’ll do Tuesday Teatime.

He should be finished all this by suppertime.  Considering he’s out all morning for gym, I think that’s an acceptable time for “school” — especially since this also includes “non-school” things like chores, playing outside, and snacks.

Here’s his finished chart from today (er, yesterday):

It was just a 12-box day, since in addition to gym all morning we also went to the local pool for a couple hours this afternoon.  He still finished everything by suppertime.

I’d like to say this has been a resounding success with Flipper.  So I’ll say it: this has been a resounding success with Flipper.  We’ve been doing this for just a week so far.  There have been a couple days that he didn’t finish everything, but he didn’t freak out that he didn’t have “free time”, he just accepted it calmly.  Whoa!

And the days that he did finish, he was focused and on-task nearly all day.  He has never whined or complained about the amount of work — rather, he’ll say things like “whoa, I just realized I’m half-finished my work already!  Woohoo!”

In fact, he has said to me “I really like this new sticker thing mom.  Thanks!”

That just says it all right there, doesn’t it?

If we stick with this long-term, I may try to come up with a more permanent kind of chart, maybe with the velcro number things like with workboxes, rather than having to write this all up from scratch every night.  But we’ll probably still tweak it a bit here and there so I don’t want to do anything permanent just yet.

Oh, I’ll also mention that while he was away at Camp in July, I re-organized his bedroom, including finally finding a way to keep his schoolbook wall shelf tidy.  (Bookends didn’t keep everything from falling over, but a series of magazine racks does the trick!)  Since getting that done, and implementing this system, he has actually been putting his books away when done with them. Every time.  Honestly, I wonder where “my” Flipper is these days…