I think we will take advantage of the homeschooling schedule and try a later schedule for him. If it doesn't work well for any of us, we can always change it. I am thinking Nick and I will do breakfast, morning cards, and outside play before Xander gets up. Nick can have snack while Xander eats breakfast at 8:30. While Xander gets ready with his morning cards, I can do Core Knowledge books and activities with Nick. Then I hope to have time for both to participate in Morning Meeting before Nick goes to independent playtime. This will be the start of workboxes for Xander.
I will try an 8:00 bedtime for both boys, while letting Xander write in his journal with a small light on until 8:30. I'm hoping 8:00 for Nick will mean he sleeps in until at least 7:00 in the morning. This will all be on a trial and error basis and subject to change.
After Xander got up very late this morning, we "hung out" doing our own things, reading, and playing Angry Birds (Xander) until a cranky Nick went down for nap. (Nick has been extremely emotional and tired-looking this week. I am stumped as to what is going on, other than a runny nose.)
1. Then Xander did a classification card game, putting animal cards into the classes of Invertebrate, Mammal, Bird, Fish, Amphibian, or Reptile. He learned enough from his recent trip to the aquarium to know more than me about which class dolphins belong to! As I've said before, he remembers facts that he hears aloud. Plus, who wouldn't remember a lot about a bottlenose dolphin show with three dolphins? :) Another thing I loved to see was that he could easily read the description below each class. When words are in context, he has a higher reading level than when he is reading word lists. I imagine that is typical.
For lunch, he helped me design this Lunch Ahoy! that he had picked out from one of our Family Fun cookbooks.
And this is pretty amazing: He ate the cheese slice sail, carrot stick mast, tuna salad, Goldfish, and a bite out of the green pepper boat. This is after telling me (repeatedly, on several occasions) he doesn't like green peppers.
2. We read most of the rest of Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton and explored our globe at the same time.
3. Xander was resistant to copying sentences for social studies. I moved on to free drawing and cutting with tons of copy paper, some construction paper, fine point markers, and scissors. He cut and decorated and "floated" a snowflake.
4. Then I read him many pages of Learn Chess Fast and was impressed by his ability to understand the moves, strategy, and terminology. Yes, he has played several games of chess already, but he showed me he could also read the charts that showed what square was called what on the board and then was able to read the diagonals as, for example, "a2 to g8."
5. Xander played Star Wars Jedi Math on his Leapster for a while.
6. I think I can count watching Wild Kratts as an educational activity. Xander and Nick watch it, mesmerized, and really learn a lot of facts about animals from it. Today's is about Great White sharks. I'll try not to mention it too often, though; they like to watch it every day.
7. Late in the day, we got around to doing the United States and Texas pledges to the flags.
On to my own progress. Two weeks ago, I got into a steady rhythm of running every other evening. Last week, for several different reasons, I did not go running. Last night I went out on a 25-minute outing that was mostly jogging, though I did stop every once in a while for about a minute at a time. It was a terrible-feeling run. I had no reserves to draw on. I think the culprits were being out half the day at the pool party and also neglecting to drink much water during the day. I felt pretty shaky, heavy, and plodding. However, it counts as jogging and I will let myself count it as two miles.
Nick ended up sleeping three hours for his nap. He needed it.
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