Thursday, February 14, 2008

Homeschooling Only One

Yesterday, three of my four school-aged children were sick. Ginger, the oldest, was in day three of the flu, having missed getting it when the rest of us did, the week before. Tullius and Zamakee, in 2nd grade and kindergarten respectively, both had fevers. Not sure if it was a relapse, a repeat or something new... So my 5th grader Momo got to be an only student.

MATH Math-U-See Zeta, Lesson 21, Practice B Long division with decimals, rounding patterns, remainders as fractions, etc. Boring. Easy. 100% A+.

LATIN Lively Latin, Lesson 11.3 Forming the Future Tense I love Latin, so we did this together. Interesting. Easy. 100% A+.

LOGIC Building Thinking Skills 2, Chapter 10 Verbal Analogies A page of such things as marble:stone :: diamond:jewel. Not sure if it was easy or not, but she got them all right, as usual.

GRAMMAR Straight Forward English Series Verbs, p 13, Spelling Rules for Tense. Adding -s or -es to some verbs and then making sentences with them. Here are some of her sentences:
The eyrie tosses the yooyu ball to the jubjub.
The hissi drinks the morphing potion and changes into a cybunny.

Ah, good old Neopia! Easy. All correct...

CHEMISTRY The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe, Chapter 3 Activity #5 & #6 This involved finding the number of protons in 25 or so different elements and looking at a cool website called Dave's Wizzy Periodic Table This takes awhile to load, but is worth it for looking at how many electrons are in which S & P orbitals. I have a slightly difficult time understanding about the orbitals, but she doesn't. Chemistry really is fascinating! Maybe Momo will be a chemist.

HISTORY Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Week 24 Sigh. We could be doing SO MUCH...but we're not. Her reading is a 2 page spread in The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Called "Battles and Battle Formations," it looks really unmemorable so I suggest we read it together. Everyone else is either sleeping or quietly playing.

We read the second page on formations first. Several times she mentions having "read about that" and goes back to find the page. Tomorrow, if everyone is well enough to go outside, we'll model the battle positions. We certainly have enough shields and sticks! Then we look at the list of battles on the first page. We decide to try to find them on our fold-out National Geographic Map of "The Historic Mediterranean 800 BC to AD 1500" that is on the kitchen table under the plastic table cloth.

The descriptions are short and not very specific, such as:
CHAERONEA A town in Central Greece, the site of Philip II of Macedon's decisive victory over the Greek cities in 338 BC. We struggle with the vagueness, but have fun trying to locate them. Not all are on the map.


And that was the school day. Not perfect, but peaceful and productive. I wish I could spend such time with her everyday. I wish I could spend such time with each of my children everyday.

12 comments:

Lisa~ said...

Hi Lee... what a treat for momo! To bad for the others though....

It does get better Lee... as they get older and become a bit more independant....honest... Its hard when they are all younger because you feel like you are sitting at the table all day long... ( when I say you its in general)

It was a good day! *Ü*

Lisa~

Wee Pip said...

Sometimes its nice to have a one-on-one homeschooling day:) I imagine if you did that with every kid, the day would never end! Hopefully the others are feeling better soon.

Daisy said...

I tend to just skip school altogether when one of mine is sick, but I only have 2. I should probably still do school with the one who is well since they'd enjoy the one-on-one attention. Sounds like a nice day even if everyone was sick. Hope everyone is feeling better.

Jennefer said...

Lee,

I hope your crew is all feeling better soon! I was just thinking the same thing today - how I wish I could have more individual time with each of my boys. I only have 3...I can only imagine how much more I might feel that way if I had 5! You are one amazing mamma, Lee!!!!!

Jennefer

Daisy said...

Yes, it is R&S spelling. We LOVE it. I tried so many other things without success. DD is a great speller but bored to death by other programs.

And I finally made up assignment sheets even for my kinder because it keeps ME accountable and those stickers motivate my wiggle worm.

Angela said...

I hope everyone is doing better- I have these same feelings of wishing I could have more one on one. My younger kids don't get half the attention of my older two. - I think you have inspired me today!


Angela
www.luxetveritasacademy.org

Anonymous said...

This one is for you, Lee!

http://oneroomhomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/02/q.html

Anonymous said...

Sorry you had so much sickness this week! It's hard for me to get anything done even when only one of my three are sick. Hope they are all better soon. (It sounds like you had a great week with the well one.)
~Have a good week-end.
~Rhonda

Karen said...

Sorry you guys have had the flu going around. It is bad to see the little ones sick. I hope they are all better soon. It is very different to have one-on-one schooling. Strange, but good.

Alane @RaH said...

A nice treat for your daughter! Hope everyone else is back up to spead!

Lori C., Texas said...

I hope every one is feeling better. We have been really disappointed with the K12 virtual school. I was assured when we signed up that we would not be teaching just to take the state test. But that was wrong. Even with the K12 program and being at home that is all the school is focused on. Oh well, we have got some good out of it.

Sherri in GA said...

I've had the same experience over the last two weeks. Schooling one at a time is sooo different...Hopoe everyone is on the mend now.

Latin Motto

Non scholae sed vitae discimus ~ Seneca. We learn not for school, but for life.