Getting Down to Business

Unless we are wowed by a couple of schools in the next few months, we have committed to homeschooling.

As part of our quest for organization, we purchased a filing system, so at a quick glance we can easily see what subjects Sathya (and Anand too as appropriate!) will be learning for the year.  We also have brought back the index cards, so that Sathya can choose an activity each day that he would like to do.

Every morning we begin with a short news story, which Alex writes up on a piece of paper.  Then he lists a few discussion questions that we can talk about over breakfast.  This keeps the kids abreast of what's going on in the world, and more importantly-- aware that there is a whole other world out there to be knowledgeable about it.  This morning we talked about Typhoon Haiyan, which followed with a lesson in geography.

We also worked on some geometry, understanding shapes, and how other shapes can make new shapes.  I quizzed him on "bigger than" and "less than" and "same."  He seems to understand those concepts pretty well.  We concluded with a lesson on history.  What does history mean?  Why is it important?  How do we learn history when there is no one left in that time?  We talked about artifacts, and then we created our own artifact: Sathya's own history, based on tidbits taken from his baby book:

After our lessons are over, which includes plenty of time to play, free reading, having fun with Anand, and other things!, Sathya goes to quiet time and does his homework.  I give him a few problems, pretty easy, mostly which cover what we did for the day.  It takes him maybe 10 minutes, and then he is free to do what he wants for the remaining hour and 20 minutes.

The afternoons are generally whatever he has picked for what he wants to do. Of course our schedule changes depending on whether we are doing things with other families, or we are going somewhere.  Thursdays are our volunteer day, so we generally focus on moral-based learning or value-based education.

The main pockets include: Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Language (Spanish and Tamil), News, History, Homework, and Other (which can include geography, cooking, arts, computer, etc. -- anything that doesn't fit in the above that we will be doing too).

Sathya's getting much better at writing, which means he is more interested.  He is continuing to write his letters, but he has also completed his first book!  He has titled it, Abiyoyo Hungry:

 We are also adding on to our human body, rounding out a lesson in lungs:

And Sathya is getting more exposed to music by continuing to add to his music/emotions book:

This may seem like a lot of stuff, but generally in one day, we may spend one hour to two on lessons (and not all of these lessons above were done in one day).  The rest of the time is for free thinking and free learning.  You get so much done when you are not having to deal with classroom management and discipline. :-)

I am having fun, and I am excited what Sathya will be learning.  He has come up with several topics (a whole pageful!) of things he wants to learn next year, so we will be hitting those as well.  Some of them include "how to make a quiche, sewing, electricity, and Hanukkah."