School Year 2008-2009

My apologies for not updating my blog more often. I won't bother to come up with any excuses. =P

Here's an update on what we are doing for school this year. I hope that you find it interesting.

Random:


Random is attending a public charter school this year. He's a part of an independent study/homeschool charter school community. So, yes - we're still homeschooling BUT this year we are using public school tax dollars for our materials and classes. In exchange, Random will be asked to do some standardized testing. The testing doesn't change how we homeschool. It's just one of those things that we find mostly unpleasant about our government and we treat it accordingly.

We still treat the learning process like it is organic. It is much easier for us to learn together when Random is interested in the subject that we are studying. Not all subjects are like that but we manage the best that we can.

Random is studying the history and geography of California, standard 4th grade mathematics, standard 4th grade language arts, Latin, chess, animation, basic concepts of art through drawing, and the scientific process. Random is currently reading a series of books called The Titans. Random prefers to type rather than write but his handwriting is getting much better. We also go on a field trip once a week. I'm including a movie that Random made about our most recent field trip. We lived the day in the life of the Chumash Indians. It was an awesome day filled with the great outdoors and fun activities.



Perrin:

Perrin goes to daycare two days a week. These are the two days that Random and I use for attending classes, running errands, and do anything that we can't do without Perrin around. We can do most everything with Perrin around, however, math is much easier for us when he's not here. Perrin goes with us on field trips, to the library, and to meet our other homeschool friends at the park anywhere from 1 to 3 times a week. Perrin can count to 20 and is working on learning his colors and shapes. He loves to make noise on his harmonica and his drums. Perrin spends alot of time building with blocks and legos.