School days have changed dramatically for us over the years, and starting this fall our homeschool consists of just two 'students.' Gone are the days when I sat in the living room, probably nursing a baby and simultaneously building a railroad with a toddler, while I supervised a math class that ran the gamut from learning to tell time and count money, to quadratic equations and geometry proofs. The kids worked through their individual books and came to me for explanations when they were confused. Sometimes there was a line. Now, Kris and I can go for a walk and leave Fionn and Liam to get themselves started on their math. And they do. The math books that were once passed from child to child are gone. For a long time they sat neglected on our shelves, but they went away completely in the great purge last Spring. Math class is now completely an online endeavor. They use Khan academy and a stack of scratch paper. I monitor progress every week, and still help with the occasional problem when someone is really stuck, but mostly they can both work through it pretty independently.
Today went like this: It's Monday, so that automatically means a late start for us, not only because we were still roasting marshmallows in the backyard at 10 pm last night, but also because Liam's zero hour seminary class doesn't actually start until 8:40 on Mondays. Liam attends seminary ( a scripture based religion class) with the kids at a local charter school, it isn't the closest place he could go to, since there are seminary buildings paired with every single high school in town, but nothing is really all that far away in our small-ish town, and this was where he chose to go. Seminary is three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on Monday, class starts at 8:40. So this morning I sincerely did not get up until 8:00. We gathered the three little kids (who aren't at all little) and did prayers and a quick bible video since we were running much too late for anything longer (and because we love those videos). When I say 'gather,' I mean I woke up Fionn and Ronan, but Liam was already up, he is up early and usually outside first thing in the morning, it is a rare sunrise that he misses. After prayers, we drove Liam to seminary, then home for breakfast, then Ronan to work and Liam home from seminary. THEN Kris and I took a morning walk, and we really did leave Fionn and Liam to get started on school.
When we got home an hour later, they really were both doing math, even if Fionn was messaging via hangouts to friends back in Colorado between each problem. I knew she was refocusing her efforts though when I could hear the Lord of the Rings soundtrack begin to blast from the dining room classroom as I began yoga in the living room yoga studio, and her exclamation of "Oh curses!" a few minutes later definitely confirmed that she was working on her math again. Liam and Fionn work pretty independently, but side by side throughout the morning. Liam typically puts in about two hours of algebra and Fionn about an hour of seventh grade math. He is 96% through the Algebra I curriculum, and she about 60% through hers, so clearly we do not adhere very well to an August to June school year. Both of them are working on writing too. Liam is writing a report on the genus Panthera. His last handful of papers have all been on animals, and he pauses frequently in his research to comment on extinct or nearly extinct breeds and to declare that "humans are jerks!" Fionnula has negotiated the right to work on stories sometimes instead of research papers and she has recently shared her first one with me (they share their papers with me on google docs rather than 'turning in' a physical paper.) Fionn usually does German on rosetta stone, Liam usually does Biology on Khan again, and Liam always puts in some time indexing, transposing the information on old public records to make them more accessible to genealogists, his ability to read cursive, despite my never having taught them to write it, has increased dramatically since he started. I do yoga, I sew, I cook, I waste time on Facebook, read my own book, or research new insurance plans (blah) and the kids continue school asking for mine or Kris's, or one another's, input or help occasionally.
After lunch, which was leftovers for the kids, and an apple and peanut butter for me, we read history. I love history, so even though it isn't one of my essential requirements for them, like math and writing are, I still like to study it with them. Right now we are reading Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World. That is all we are doing, just reading the book together. They don't take notes, they don't write papers, or take tests, or produce projects. I have a vague notion in mind that I may ask them at some point to choose something from our history book as their writing assignment or maybe to do a history fair sort of project, but for right now we are comfortable with this story time version of history class. After reading, we have quiet time. It has been years since we had a regular quiet time in our house, so it is funny that Liam and Fionn requested this fall that we reinstate one. For an hour (ish) everyone retired to different corners of the house (or front porch) to read (or not). I peeked in on Fionn and she was sorting through some old toys, that had been in storage, lining them up on her bedroom floor.
Sometimes after quiet time we get back to school, more often, while the weather is so nice, we end up outside either to work or play. Liam played briefly with the stray kittens they are trying to lure to our house and then headed out to help Kris clear the weeds from the driveway, no easy task considering our very long driveway, but he got to use a huge weed eater for the first time ever. Fionn picked raspberries and proceeded to try a new recipe she had found for a berry cobbler. (The blatant sex-role stereotypes evident in their afternoon activities make me want to point out that my boys do indeed cook and my girls also do yard work!) I got dinner going and then went to get Ronan from work, on our way up the driveway he expressed incredulity at the sight of Liam working in jeans and tennis shoes as Liam is usually clad in shorts and a t shirt and maybe sandals, but usually barefoot. We ate dinner. The college kids who leave every morning by about 6:40 am returned and much sharing of days commenced over the second round of dinner. We read a book together (Reckless by Cornelia Funke). We read scriptures, said prayers and then sent everyone to bed.
Not a terribly exciting day. Not even a dentist appointment. Maybe it was even boring, particularly if you consider that 6 months ago we were exploring London and Paris. but boring is okay right now. Especially considering there are kittens.
