Our first week of homeschooling was a success. The girls are very interested in their lessons, and always asking to do a worksheet from their folders. As a pleasant addition, I’m finding that spending constructive time with them on lessons is making all of us more agreeable, and keeping track of their work and time spent learning has made me feel much more productive at home.
C is very focused and can work on the same task for half an hour at a time with no trouble (much more if it’s coloring or painting). She shocked me with her vocabulary of sight words on Tuesday, when we read Bob Books before bed.
S is a little more chaotic, though not at all abnormal for her age. She can focus for 10 to 15 minutes at a time on things that frustrate her, like math worksheets. She’s hit or miss as far as whether or not she wants to color for more than 15 minutes at a time, but if I’m verbally explaining something she’s interested in, she’ll listen for almost an hour. She even remembers what I say, in pieces. Her sight words vocabulary is only just beginning, but she can sound out everything with impressive accuracy.
This week, we covered some reading and writing and quite a bit of math. We did some form of art every day, and covered science topics such as how a compass works, how babies are born, and dinosaurs. If you read my previous post, you know we also watched some of President Clinton’s DNC speech and discussed government.
On Saturday, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and checked out the dinosaurs as a field trip. Sunday, we made “fossils” with clay.
All in all, though, we only averaged a little less than 3 hours of recordable education per day. Colorado requires that we average 4, once we start reporting our progress next year. Does this get easier?
It’s not that educating my kids is hard. I’m really enjoying that, actually. I’m just not sure where I’m going to pull more hours from. Maybe when they say “instructional contact hours”, they mean something less restrictive than I’m assuming. After all, public schools get to include lunch and recess.
i'm not sure what "recordable education" means - and i'm not familiar with colorado statutes. but can you use field trip hours and crafts (the fossils)?
ReplyDeleteglad your first week went well!
The state of Colorado DOE laws require that homeschoolers get at least 172 days, averaging 4 hours of "instructional contact" per day. Field trips and crafts count. It counts when I let them help me make brownies, too. I'm just not sure if unstructured play time counts (as long as I'm there with them and paying attention) or if I have to be actively instructing them.
ReplyDeleteThe district has a homeschool liaison. I need to talk to them and figure out what "instructional contact" means in plain terms.