Lacie and her classes

Lacie and I are settling into more of a routine.  She comes for Co-op Chemistry Tuesdays from 10:00 am -11:15.  After class, we dive into school work until lunch. (My husband, Rob, has Physics until 12:30.  We eat around 12:45.)  Simultaneously, there are two girls doing British Literature with me. I give Lacie an assignment and then plunge into British Literature—with Stobaugh.  On Thursday, Lacie arrived at noon, instead of 10 am.  (I have a Human Biology class wrapping up and an anatomy class beginning soon.  We meet weekly for two hours.).   Lacie arrived right after the kids finished their lab this week.  We ate and plunged into class.  Friday is a repeat of Tuesday.

Now, on Tuesday, we worked from 10-4 with a break for lunch.  On Thursday, we worked for 12:30-7pm.  Friday was 10-4.  Rob says it’s like trying to drink from a fire hose.  We spent a long day Tuesday working through Humani Generis and Algebra 1.  Thursday was memorizing elements for Friday’s test, the Robinson  Crusoe paper, and Guitar.  Friday was more Guitar, more elements, loads of History, and a little more grammar.

Normally, Theology and History do not consume huge blocks of time.  Humani Generis is tough!  I also wanted Lacie to catch up on History and take a quiz.  I’m trying to squeeze in more quizzes in Algebra, History, and Chemistry.  Literature and Theology have more short answers, Study Guide Questions, and essays.  We are in the middle of learning how to write an annotated paper for Robinson Crusoe.  Things are taking forever because Lacie is young.  Critical thinking and literary analysis are not learned in a week.

My goal is to have 18-20 contact hours per week.  Lacie is practicing her guitar, reading novels, and studying at home.  When I taught in public school, we met for seven hours a day with seven classes.  If you deduct 1 1/2 hour for lunch, announcements twice a day, and passing time, classes were 5 1/2 hours.  I spent very little time on administrivia such as attendance.  But there were always disruptions: misbehavior, class interruptions, drills, class meetings, assembly’s, etc.  At best five hours per day were spent on academics.  For some reason each year, my best Chemistry class was right before lunch, fourth period, which was cut to 35 minutes every day.  Really.  Yet, we covered everything the other two chemistry classes had in 42 minutes because I didn’t have to discipline them or repeat instructions.

Yes, at best we had 25 academic hours per week.  I know if I have 20 hours one on one with Lacie, we should be fine.  We’re meeting three hours per week in Chemistry Co-op class twice a week for 35 weeks and do cover every topic.  My husband manages to cover all of the Physics topics in the same time period each year, too.

We are keeping a close eye on Kolbe Academy’s syllabus, the topics, and our schedule.  So far, so good.  But, we may be doing grammar next summer.