Help! Coronavirus means we are home-schooling for the first time!

I bet many of you have kids home and quarantined.  Now, you are frantic.  What should I teach?  Let me make some suggestions.  I am home-schooling a teen and a fourth grader.  I lead a Co-op Chemistry class, too.  During my career I taught extensively at private schools.  However I have spent nine years teaching in public schools.  I taught a Co-op science class after school when I was teaching in public school.  Recently, I have the Co-op Chemistry and a Brit Lit class.  Our Co-op usually meets twice a week.  Right now, like you, we are quarantined.  Take a look here at my blog to see how Co-op is coping.

The teen I home-school is enrolled in an online school, Kolbe Academy.  Lacie and I will continue to work on her Kolbe syllabus.  The fourth-grader, Paul, is enrolled in the local public school and quarantined.  When the Coronavirus first hit, I took precautions and ordered history for kids books on eBay.  I already had Saxon Math 5/4, Grade 3 Easy Grammar, and  Zoology 1 and journal.  We have cartooning books, BB-ate cookbook, several kid friendly novels, multiplication and 50 states flash cards on hand.  Paul does some class work during breaks and over the summer.

What is our schedule?  Paul does a math lesson each day.  Yesterday, he completed Lesson 1 in Zoology.  He made paper airplanes, tested three types indoors and outdoors, and wrote up the lab report.  Paul also completed work in the Zoology Journal.  He did a grammar lesson yesterday, too.  In all, he spent three hours working on his lessons.  After a cooking lesson (French toast) he started on Math.  Today, he will do Grammar, History, Zoology, and Lit—Mudshark with questions.  (I read the book yesterday.).

Paul reads voraciously.  However, he likes graphic novels.  I want to expand his scope.  Our local library has bimonthly sales. We have several novels on hand.  Paul does one page of grammar each day.  Today we are introducing diagramming sentences using the Easy Grammar Lesson.  I want him to complete two science and history lessons each week, at a minimum.  Cooking, cartooning, free play, and  guitar practice are daily lessons.  Paul works for about three hours each day.



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