So far, we are very happy with the progress of Samy's education. When Samy finished the initial batch of classes around the end of April, we decided to just keep up the momentum and moved her right into 8th grade classes. She finished her initial batch of classes at slightly different times, so as she finished a class, she devoted more time to the remaining subjects. In this way, we were able to finish all of the classes fairly close together. We intend to do the same with this batch.
Being it's summer, the daily goal will be lower. Her goal will be just one lesson per day per subject. Previously, she was doing two or three lessons per day. Even at this easy pace, my spreadsheet indicates she'll finish her eighth grade Powerhome School (PHS) classes around December. Math and science will be ongoing.
We get asked a lot how much time we spend on home education. Compared to the amount of time she would spend in institutional school, it's surprisingly little. We start every day with a morning meeting, including all of us. During that time, Leah and Samy both go over the main points of what they learned the previous day. I review their test results for the previous day (which takes me about 15 minutes for the two of them) and note any problems. It's not uncommon that Jana or I will ask questions about what they learned and they won't know the answer. We'll write those questions on the whiteboard for them to research during the course of the day and discuss the answer at the next day's morning meeting. They are also expected to bring "one extra fact" - something that relates to the topics they learned about, but which wasn't covered in the video lesson. The idea behind our questions and the one extra fact is to encourage them to dig deeper on their own. Morning meeting generally takes us all about 45 minutes. We are hoping the girls will learn to dig deeper into a subject on their own and be inspired to learn more about things that interest them. We want to instill in them a love for learning.
Getting back to the time question, Samy should be able to easily complete her PHS classes in about an hour, but she usually spreads it out throughout the whole day. I spend about 30 minutes prepping for her math lesson, then we spend about 45 minutes going over the day's lesson. I spend about 15 minutes getting ready for her science lesson, then we spend about 30-45 minutes watching the videos. She also spends about 15-30 minutes reading the days lessons, and spends longer at the end of each chapter answering a pretty extensive set of questions. Samy also has a daily independent reading goal. So all together, Samy spends about three hours per day on formal education.
English
We used PHS's Grade 8 Language Arts/Reading. We anticipate the course will last until mid-December. It covers a good mix of grammar, reading comprehension and writing fundamentals. These are the major components:
- Reading Strategies
- Narrative Writing
- Point of View and Figurative Language
- Wonderful Words
- Expository Essay
- Power of Poetry
- Drama
- Speaking Your Words
- Informational Texts
- Writing
- Research
- Analyzing Text
Beginning in September, Samy will be taking the Middle School Writing class from Open Tent Academy. This is a class that has a live teacher and focuses specifically on writing, to fill the gap we previously identified.
In addition, she will have specific reading assignments, chosen from some quality books.
History
We used PHS's US History A, which is a high school-level course. We anticipate Samy will finish this course at the beginning of December, then continue on with US History B after a bit of a break. This course covers these areas:
- Ideas Behind a New Nation
- Federal versus State Authority
- The Death of Lincoln Thru Reconstruction
- The End of the Western Frontier
- A New Industrial Age
- The Immigration Boom
- The Progressive Era
- America Turns Imperialistic (Spanish American War)
- The First World War
- The Roaring Life of the 1920s
- The Great Depression
- The New Deal
As you can see, the course starts with a brief summary of US history starting with colonial times, but progressed fairly quickly to new ground. The instructor for this course has one of the best reputations at PHS and I believe it's well earned. As seems to be pretty typical for these courses, the video instruction is well done, but the quizzes are fairly easy.
Once Samy has completed both History courses, I anticipate taking a little break from history, but I have my eye on a course called Wild World of History to go a little more in depth.
Geography
We used PHS's World Geography, which is also a high school-level course and is taught by the same instructor as US History. We anticipate Samy will finish this course at the beginning of November. This course covers these areas:
- Planet Earth
- US and Canada
- Latin America
- Europe
- Russia
- North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia
- Africa
- South Asia
- East Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica
- The Regional Atlas
Each region is covered using pretty much the same set of aspects - the land, climate and vegetation, people and culture, etc. It's not super in-depth, but it's a good survey course.
Science
We decided to move away from Power Homeschool for science and instead chose Conceptual Academy. We are currently working on the Physical Science (Explorations) track. The course is geared for grades 7-9 covering physics, chemistry, Earth Science, and astronomy over a two year sequence. According to Conceptual Academy:
This comprehensive self-study course collates all 34 chapters of the Conceptual Physical Science Explorations textbook into 5 units and a total of 34 modules (one module per chapter). Recommended for grade levels 7 – 9. This is ample material for one or two years of study. Along with a library of video lessons and reading assignments, included are worksheets, interactive simulations, study advice from the authors, automated quizzes with grade book, our encouragement-based homework system, embedded labs using household materials, unit exams and more. This course provides a strong and enjoyable introduction to physical science for the young and energetic adolescent. It also serves well as a precursor to our high school level Conceptual Physics or Conceptual Chemistry courses.
The notable part of this course is the word Conceptual. I find the course material concentrates on scientific concepts and not so much on formulas. From what we've seen so far, there are only a few, like less than five, formulas per chapter - very manageable. The system we are using is I read Samy's reading assignment the night before. Generally, it's only 4-5 pages. She reads these sections the next day. We discuss the sections briefly, then watch the associated videos together. Generally, the videos cover the reading assignment. They are either drawn animations or the instructor presenting the material to a college class. Either way, they are to the point and nicely illustrate the concepts.
At this point, I plan to follow their system through High School Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy. The textbook is a massive college-sized book, priced accordingly, but it will last two years. This course is billed as science for students who do not intend to major in science in college. That fits Samy to a tee right now. I'm not as sure it will be what we're looking for for Leah, though.
Math
We are moving along with Singapore Math. We started with Dimensions Math 6A, which we anticipated would take us to the end of August. We actually finished the last lesson on 9/2, and received our shipment of Dimensions Math 7A on 9/4. Because of the coronavirus, Singapore Math is taking about a month to pack and ship orders. We will start 7A when we return from a short trip, on 9/15.
This is not an online course - it's a physical book and I do the instruction one-on-one with her. I am finding Samy is becoming a bit more confident as we move through the material. She is still not a huge fan of math in general, but we are getting there.
The topics covered in Dimensions 6A include:
- Algebraic Expressions
- Equations and Inequalities
- Coordinates and Graphs
- Area of Plane Figures
- Volume and Surface Area of Solids
- Displaying and Comparing Data (i.e. statistics)
The set of books consists of a student textbook, an instructor manual (which explains the topic and goes over the examples in the textbook), a workbook and a solution guide for the workbook. Throughout, there are tons of problems to work through in various formats. In particular, there are quite challenging word problems. Overall, I'm very happy with the quality of this material. It seemed we progressed a bit more smoothly through 6B than 6A. I would say overall the material we covered in the second half of the course was appropriate and not super-challenging. The statistics chapter at the end was fairly easy.
Art History
This is a fun course we are taking as a family. It's offered through the University of California and costs only $29 for the semester. It's video based and on-demand, so you can go through the material for as long as you like. There is another level to these courses where UC provides a teacher (for $399), but we didn't think that was necessary. We find this course very easy to consume, interesting and informative. The topics covered in this course include:
- Introduction to Art
- Elements of Design
- Principles of Design
- Art Making
- Art History Early Civilizations
- Early Christian to Gothic
- Renaissance to Rococo
- Early Modernism
- Modernism
- Exploring World Art
- Careers in Art
In addition to this course, the UC Scout program offers many other courses across the full range of high school studies, including many AP courses. Definitely worth checking out!
Music
I have to say, we are not a very artistic family, in the sense of creating art. We do enjoy art, though. Like Art History, we are taking the PHS Music Appreciation course as a family. The course topics include:
- Renaissance Music
- Baroque Music
- Classical Music
- Pre-Romantic Music
- Early Romantic Music
- Mid-Romantic Music
- Late Romantic Music
- Twentieth Century Music
The format consists of the instructor introducing the period, then briefly discussing the particular works. Each piece of music is presented as a video with live musicians performing it. I would consider this an "okay" course. It seems a bit superficial on one hand, but on the other hand each piece is usually presented two or three times, which I find a bit excessive.
For me, the sine qua non of music appreciation is Greenberg's How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. I haven't watched the video course yet, but I have the audio version from Audible and I've listened to it a few times. At over 36 hours, it's quite a bit of listening, though, especially for Leah. We'll have to wait on that...
Girl Scouts
Samy has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten. Jana runs both Leah's Brownie troop and Samy's Cadette troop. Ever since the quarantine in April, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of activity, unfortunately. The girls are working on their Silver Award, but even that is difficult because they are not able to coordinate with community organizations as they need to do. The girls were able to keep in contact through Zoom meetings. They took turns walking each other through preparing a fun recipe, for example.
We hope to be able to update you more on activities and service projects and the Silver Award later on.
4H
This is another of Samy's extracurricular activities, which we added in the spring of 2019. Samy was elected President of the club at the beginning of the year. The theme of the group is "hobby farm" and is held at the leader's farm in Oxford. The hobby farm consists of a ton of chickens, two goats, a pig, two ponies, ducks and geese. The kids had a great time with this and learned a ton. As with Girl Scouts, all of these activities came to a stop with the quarantine, though. The only activity they were able to do consisted of learning resources provided by Rutgers, where they were able to complete activities relating to different types of animals. Our understanding is next year's 4H will also be virtual, so we are waiting to see how this will turn out.
Horseback Riding
This is Samy's sport. She's been taking lessons since kindergarten and currently rides at Casey's Equestrian Center here in Washington, NJ. Horses are Samy's one true love and have been forever. She takes amazing care of any horse that she's riding. She is able to instantly memorize a complicated course, though she seems to have trouble with sequences like "brush your teeth and get ready for bed."
Luckily for Samy, her lessons were little effected by the quarantine. Horseback riding seems to be one of the few sports that requires little to no close human contact. Samy had to adhere to some safety protocols and sanitize the barn equipment she used, but was otherwise able to continue with her lessons. There have been no shows recently or scheduled, except for two virtual shows, which is a bummer, but shows are kind of an option for us anyway.
Entrepreneurism
Samy has been running her own pet care business for years now. She has loyal customers in our neighborhood and makes enough money that she is able to pay for a lease on a horse throughout the year, which lets her ride the horse whenever we are able to get to the barn. Things were quiet in the pet care business for the first couple of months when the quarantine started, but actually picked up to a near-normal level as the summer is progressing. Definitely not historic levels, but manageable.
Conclusion
We seem to be getting comfortable with our new routine and we've found a sustainable pace. We're still waiting for this amazing explosion in interest in learning that we hear about, but we are getting the job done. As our way of burning the boats and committing to this, we have converted our dining room to a "learning center." We've lived in this house for over 13 years and I can only think of twice that we've actually eaten in the dining room. We took apart the table to clear out the space and gave the room a new coat of paint. We added two Ikea desks, a 30-gallon fish tank, some shelves and a whole bunch of houseplants (earning the room the nickname "The Jungle"). We're getting much more use out of this room now!
We are starting to travel again too, which is a huge advantage to us when deciding to educate at home. We love to travel and if we can do this whenever we want, that is amazing. We are hoping to write some blog posts on our adventures on the road.
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