Day 3: Even the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray

Before I blog about anything else, I believe we are finally in the last battle of this virus that has invaded Loganland and taken our king captive. The cough is still bad at night, but he isn't going into 30 minute coughing fits during the day. School tomorrow should be interesting, it's been 4 and a half days missed so he is going to have a lot to catch up on. I can't help but interject my new found homeschoolism here and say we wouldn't have the worry of a mountain of school work if he was at home...we'd just be able to pick back up.

I have taken the first step to really put forth a plan of action. I bought curriculum books! The first one decided upon was Saxon Math for 1st Grade Complete Home School Kit. I've heard a lot about this program both in and out of the homeschooling community about how good it is and I figure that we'll start there and see how it goes. The program wasn't too pricey, $54 plus free shipping from barnesandnoble.com and a 15% off coupon for one item from retailmenot.com. The language arts book I chose was First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind for $12 at barnes and noble too. I did decide this one without as much in depth decision as I did the math. I would like to keep language, literature, grammar and everything to do with the written or spoken word as classical as possible so we're going to try that route. The last book that I bought was a Vocabulary Vine a Spiral Study of Latin and Greek Roots for $8 through a barnes and noble authorized seller. This will be a supplement to the language arts portion of the program to help develop a deep understanding for language.

I still need to decide what we're going to do about history, geography, social studies and science. I plan to piggy back on the FWISD for information of what he 'ought to be doing', during his first grade year so I will be doing a little more research before I decide on books and things for those.

My plan for physical education is going to begin with tracking our daily exercises, yoga and beginning meditation. I also hope to get him involved in some different activities that will hopefully incorporate other areas of 'study' into a physical education. For example: We go on a hike to find different types of rocks, animal and plant life for science.

My plan for art is to have daily creative exercises where he will get to play with different mediums and an to also to begin exposure to theater arts by going to a children's performance at some point.

Music is going to hopefully start with piano lessons with a good friend who was classically trained. This was something that was already in the works before the whole homeschooling venture began.

I might start Spanish for his foreign language as well, but I'm not sure.

These are all the materials that I hope to use but as far as how we have our day structured for all the activities, I'm still working on that. My working idea is this:

Wake up, have breakfast and do our daily exercise.
Work on two core subjects for x amount of time.
Do a specials art, music or hands-on activity.
Lunch.
Work on one more core subject for x amount of time.
Journal the day.
Dinner.
Evening exercise, recreational reading and bed.

But even the best laid plans of mice and men often run astray so I plan to use this plank to help us develop what will work best. I'm basing this not on how school runs but how Logan's attention and focus runs. He's extremely work oriented in the morning and it winds down over the course of the day with one burst in the late afternoon/evening. I want to use those times that he's the most focus to work on the need to know things -how to do the three R's. Also, I didn't include 'free time' and time for socializing/extra curricular activities since we don't know what we're going to do yet or what times would be best. I hope to get him into a sport and/or karate during the summer so we can mold his schedule to work with the times he'll be doing those things. Also, I need to start looking for a boyscout troop that we can join since he'll be old enough this year.

The overall thing, since we're still learning what to do, is I will be using the FWISD as a marker for what our progress should be. And thankfully too, there are as many resources for homeschoolers out there as the day is long! I'd love to say this has been a chore, but really getting a chance to take command and herald Logan's education has been empowering and inspiring.

No loganisms for the day, little man is resting quietly so we can hopefully get better!