Lesson Plans and Laundry

Lesson Plans and Laundry do not seem to have much to do with each other -- but somehow I end up every week doing them together. The laundry is almost finished; all but a couple of odds and ends loads to do. Most is folded and put up. It's amazing how much accomplishment I can feel from this one task.

Lesson Planning is going well; building a full curriculum for the children is taking time. I am having to tailor it to each child and then select a few things they can do together. For Mathematics, I have selected "Teaching Textbooks" for Chaos. She has the textbook, workbooks and other materials from Glencoe as well -- and of course she has me! Entropy is still in pre-Algebra: I have selected materials from Glencoe for her as well and am thinking about Saxon math.

Civics/Social studies -- both are going to watch a series from "The Teaching Company" on World Civilizations and continue their Powerpoints on the American Presidents. In addition, each has a textbook on World Geography. This is more holistic and less linear than Math (as it should be).

Both are studying Biology or Life Science this year; I've also ordered a DVD series from The Teaching Company to go with their respective textbooks. I have lots of goodies for them - a microscope with a digital camera (that doesn't work -- yet), petri dishes, stains, microscope slide things. Should be fun.

I have them working every week to put something into a Writing portfolio. Oddly enough, I thought this would be the easiest for them, but it's the thing they are resisting the most. They should have 4 pieces of writing finished, but they only have one finished and two drafts each. I am going to push this harder.

We are all watching together a very interesting DVD series about the Louvre. I'm thinking about getting some Sister Wendy when we are finished. They don't know how to look at art. In addition, they don't know how to listen to music. I am going to make sure they do either Art Appreciation or Music Appreciation every single day.

So, that's about it for that. It's not as I expected; but I expected that.