grace began her routine today. we are going to carefully document our own version of school this time around. i mean, in Mexico we certainly followed a curriculum of sorts, a deliberate method of opening our senses and learning new things, even in traditional school settings at times, and grace became fluent in Spanish because of it, but this time we will have a printable version of "the 5th grade school year" by way of computer. i think the schedule is well-rounded, leaving room for flexibility and interpretation, but still bounded by a set of disciplining principles... okay, so that's questionable, but with grace it can't just be a free-for-all. she has no self-discipline in the sense that she will sit down to a project, goddess-help-us ALONE, and work on it for more than about 5 minutes before exhibiting her 'kinesthetic' ways and jumping up to twirl or chew on her tank top hem. even a canvas with the perfect 'tooth' and expensive acrylics, she will stand in front of the easel with her pallet for 10 minutes before abandoning it for a good prance about the house. yes, i jest a bit, but focusing 'American style' is just no good for grace. so here's the preliminary schedule, and because she began today, we will patiently observe...
8-11: wake up (that's a pretty natural hour for her these days, so we went with natural. she used to wake up loads earlier, but now i have a couple of hours alone in the morning) eat breakfast, relax, help with animals or outside with farm, reading time, maybe a "learning" creative computer game, but i really limit these, interaction with something stimulating, something intentional, carefully guided, so it's "her" time, but she's being constructive with it.
11 am: "school" subject - we often critique this notion of Westernized schooling, and i'm still not completely on board with "un-schooling" and it's baggage, so we use this hour to sit and focus on something of an "academic" nature. by the end of the hour i peeked in to where david was giving an artful lesson on WWI (it's relevant to grace's questioning of late) and she was rolling on the carpet with her pencil between her teeth. yeah. positively (and conversely), grace has a really high level of respect for david, and because he's such a great teacher, it's a good fit.
12-1: healthy lunch hour, time to relax, today they played battleship during lunch as an extension of WWI lesson and something about King Ferdinand and a torpedo?
1-2: Quiet time, room time (meaning her bedroom to organize, put things away, clean up if she chooses this to break up the day), art time, reading time, helping time (to help out with a project on the farm-stead) or reflection time, where she blogs what she reflected on/learned that day
2-3: "school subject" - we like to tie everything together and david's forte, aside from medical stuff and anatomy, is literature and art, so "lessons" will revolve around a person, an era, an historical event, etc. but this hour they are beginning the periodic chart, one element at a time. science is grace's self-proclaimed "favorite" and as i peek in she is sitting at a desk, asking questions, drawing hydrogen and really focusing. hmmm?
3-4: art time, reading time, project time, helping time, outside time, exercise, etc.
then she's off the hook as far as my watching over and guiding her time by the clock. if we can add in a musical instrument i'll be thrilled, but she's a "designer" so much more inclined to put outfits together, fashion show, cut out and glue collages, draw and sketch. this will be new and exciting for us and grace is much more anxiety-free not having to face the dreaded public school classroom. finally, i am open to suggestions.
