A Typical Day
Thought I might chronicle a typical day for you all to see what we do and how we do (or don't!) do it....
After a desultory stab at cleaning the kitchen after breakfast, Gabriel announces that he going to read. I grumble at him about the fact that he is still wearing his bathrobe and pyjamas, but he insists it helps him read better. I make a rude comment on this but let it go.
An hour later from my office I see him staring into the refrigerator. "There's no food" he says sadly and then wanders in to sit near me. I sigh, trying not to think about how much I paid at the co-op yesterday for that "no food." I turn to him, "So, what are you doing next?" We discuss the pro's and con's of him working on his research paper on Egypt, working on vocabulary or doing some math. He sets up a time to work with his father on math - Gabriel is on Key to Algebra Book 6 (multiplying and dividing rational expressions). They choose together which problems Gabriel is to do and then they go over it together when he finishes. They do about 1/2 an hour's work three times a week. Gabriel ,who says he hates math (but secretly rather enjoys it), is whizzing through the Key To books with a pretty good attitude about it all.... so we're satisfied with his progress.
Gabriel goes for a short walk and then returns and settles down to work on his Egyptian research. He has completed a time line of Ancient Egyptian history - this was mainly an exercise for him to get his head around the sequence of events. He and I also spent a pleasant half an hour a few days ago making pyramids and sphinxes out of clay. He has given me the outlines for his two papers - he chose the topics. The first is a biography of Ramesses II (whose name is now apparently spelt differently from what I am used to!) and the second is about the changes in Egyptian religion during the time of Akhenaten. Gabriel is aware that his first draft of both papers is due next week. He is not an "outline" person. I honor this (I am not an outline person either) and instead of my hammering away that one must do outlines for research papers, I help him figure out a way to effectively organize his material. So far he has stuck to an "it's all in my head" method and I have yet to come up with a project which will show him that this isn't always th best way to do things! (after all, last year he wrote a 17 page paper on Napoleon without notes or an outline...maybe he can effectively organize all his material in his head!).
Before Gabriel disappears to his room to read, I remind him that he also needs to find a piece of Egyptian art work to do a charcoal drawing of. He nods and he's gone.
That was most of our morning. In the afternoon he scans through Cannery Row in preparation for a creative writing assignment. I challenged his class to take a particular scene in Cannery Row and to extend it. It must be believable - the characters must act and speak exactly as they do in the book and the words, phrasing and tone must match Steinbeck's writing.
Thus ends another high school homeschool day!
