The Lesgaux School

It’s funny…I spent so much time trying to come up with a workable solution, only to trash it all and go back to what I used last year.

 

I have decided, as regards the recordkeeping, to just do what I did for Year 1. I made a chart with the weeks across the top and the books & subjects along the left side. There are check boxes for subjects that are self-paced or that have no assigned readings.

 

I asked dh to warn me if he saw me doing needless busy work. He said no, that I had to learn it for myself. He’s right, I know, but oh how much time I’ve wasted. I just hope I learn my lesson when it comes to scheduling D’s work.

 

The other thing I did was to really look at our schedule and prioritize the non-AO subjects. I dropped some subjects, like Spanish to fewer times per week. I also shifted some readings to Saturday.

 

We’ll see how it goes.

Two snags have come up in school. Thankfully, they have nothing to do with the progress of the boys or the curriculum. I’d like to post them here in case anyone has some helpful hints.

 

The first is that we seem to always be about two days behind. I’m on the verge of reinstating Saturday school. T has a limit, beyond which, no learning takes place. Once we reach that limit, school is effectively over for the day. What this means is that we sometimes get behind. This problem sort of feeds into the second problem.

 

This problem has to do mostly with recordkeeping. This is our 2nd year using the Ambleside Online curriculum. I have gone through countless methods of keeping track of both the AO readings, plus math, Greek, spelling, copywork and other, more infrequent subjects such as art appreciation, composer study, nature study, and Spanish. In the past, I have scheduled by the day. However, record keeping becomes a real drag if we don’t finish everything. I’m toying with the idea of not doing some of the “electives” so many times a week and just focusing on the basics, i.e. all of the AO readings, plus math, copywork, Greek, and spelling.

 

We do school year-round, and that does take some of the pressure off. But I was hoping to take a more substantial vacation during December. It looks like we’ll be schooling for at least a few days in December.

I guess it’s back to the drawing board, or MS WORD.

I’m back from a wonderful weekend. We went here . Not much school going on today. I’m just getting the house back into order and easing back into our regularly scheduled routine.

I’m going on a two day women’s retreat with our church this weekend and won’t return until Sunday afternoon. I’ve decided to take a break from blogging until I return. See you later!

We finished school and chores for today. I wish dinner and baths were done as well. I am tired.

 

School started late today because my bed just felt too delicious. We broke our fasts at about 9:30. I supervised/helped the big boys clean their rooms as part of the morning chores. It was sorely needed. We did chores until 11 and then did school (math, world history, natural history, music) until 1. We broke for lunch, T did some additional chores for 30 minutes, then we had “quiet time” for 1 hour. At about 3:30, T finished his school work (read 1/2 chapter from Understood Betsy and worked in his Greek workbook for 10 minutes). The kids are having free time now, and I’m about to start dinner. Yaaaawn!

 

One thing that helps us tremendously is our routine. When the schedule is off, as it was today, I just jump in regardless of the actual time, then do things in their regular order. It doesn’t matter whether we start school at 9, 10 or 11. (It does make for a shorter day, though.) What matters is that we eat breakfast first, then chores, then school, then chores, then dinner, then baths, then bed.

 

Now if I can just stay conscious until bed time!

 

UPDATE:

7:44 PM At 6:30, Daddy called and said he’d be late and he didn’t know exactly how late. On the up side, his office is buying Chinese food. As for me…dinner is done; dishes are done; one boy is bathing and two are almost ready for bed. I see the end coming.

To keep myself motivated, I thought I’d list 27 things we’ve accomplished so far (1:15 PM):

These are not necessarily in order.

1. showered and dressed
2. eaten eggs & toast with jam for breakfast
3. cleaned kitchen
4. changed 3 diapers
5. all boys are dressed
6. all boys brushed teeth
7. 1 load of laundry folded and put away
8. 1 load into the washer and dryer
9. 2 pages of math per boy
10. recited the Preamble and Pledge of Allegiance from memory
11. read and narrated from Our Island Story
12. played a grammar game on the computer
13. sang Cockles and Mussels
14. read Genesis Chapter 50
15. completed copywork
16. played with playdough
17. read a book on colors
18. vacuumed the kitchen
19. vacuumed the dining room
20. vacuumed the schoolroom
21. vacuumed the living room
22. sent one boy to time out
23. made chicken & rice soup
24. drank 2 cups of coffee
25. put bandaid onto ripped fingernail after shaving it off with the vegetable peeler
26. learned a new Spanish word, la lengua
27. checked e-mail

There.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

 

This is what we’ve been doing lately. T has started counseling once a week. He has had three visits so far. It seems like things will be getting worse before they get better. All his concentration/self-esteem/self-control, etc. has gone out the window. School has been going on, but the pace is slow.

 

Well, it seems slow, but in reality we are still on track. We’re in Week 6 of Year 2. We’ve completed all of the readings. We narrate most of the time. Most narrations are even getting written down. Also, T has been reading many of the books to himself. I read Pilgrim’s Progress, The Little Duke, The Bible, Parables from Nature, and Shakespeare aloud. He reads The Burgess Animal Book, Understood Betsy, Marco Polo, An Island Story, This Country of Ours, and A Child’s History of the World. In addition, he has been completing his Greek and copywork without much fuss. We read Science together, though we have completed only one activity out of three so far. It would help if I went to the store and bought several activities worth of supplies so I don’t have that excuse for not doing the activities. He seems to like the text, though. We’re using Real Science 4 Kids, Chemistry Pre-Level 1.

 

Math seems to do him in, though. He moans and groans. He knows how to do the work, as shown by his perfect scores. But it takes him an hour and a half or more to complete two pages. If I don’t stand right next to him and keep him on track, he’ll neglect to even start the page. For the last two days, I’ve only had him do the odds or the evens, and this has helped a little. At least he finshes and I can give him credit for the page. I guess we’ll try again tomorrow.

 

I want to be very careful about not turning this blog into a medium for complaining. However, things are not going as I had envisioned. The printer is futzing and my menu planning is non-existent, so there is stress about that. Tomorrow I tweak, tweak, tweak – and plan the menus and clean the fridge and go to the store.