Work Box Hiatus and Soap box on what learning really is

Ok, not really a hiatus but if anyone is reading this blog hoping for a view of what school actually ends up looking like, I should tell you the change of plan we had last week. Wednesday night long after he was in bed, Prince asked if we could go to a specific museum tomorrow. I told him if the weather was nice, we could. Shockingly, it was, so we did.

The place was MOBBED with school groups so we weren't the only ones leaving school for other educational pursuits. Thursday was also the last day of the classes for homeschoolers this museum teaches. We ran across the homeschoolers a couple times but I could tell the difference between their activities and the public school's version of "quick look, learn, let's move on, we have a schedule to keep". I believe classes like this, taught by others are very beneficial. My kids were in one earlier this year. However, my kids learned a LOT more by exploring on their own, at their own pace, than the kids who were shuffled through by hurried adults.

In the afternoon we had both soccer practice and a tball game so that was it for our day.

On Friday we spent the morning at tennis. I read a book today by a homeschooler who admitted her physical education program is severely lacking and it made me chuckle. My kids are currently doing 3 sports (all w/in 12 hrs this week!) and I cannot possibly imagine a life where PE was neglected!

In the afternoon we had our Story of the World history coop which I promise to blog about next. And THEN we went to a science class provided by a local nature center through a grant at the library. Busy couple of days huh? Friday we covered PE, history, science, and even math if you include trying to figure out how to squeeze more hours into a day.

CM Weekly Timetable

Weekly Allotments spread across 6 school days

Year 1-3 (10-20 minute periods)
English ~ 6 hrs 20 min
Arithmetic ~ 1 hr 50 min
Science ~ 1 hr 10 min
French ~ 40 min
Handicrafts ~ 2 hrs
Drill ~ 3 hrs
Total ~ 15 hrs

Year 4-6 (20-30 minute periods)
English (4th) ~ 7 hrs 20 min
English (5/6th) ~ 8 hrs 50 min
Mathematics ~ 2hrs 30 min
Science ~ 2 hrs 10 min
Languages (4th) ~ 1 hr 30 min
Languages (5/6th) ~ 3 hrs
Drill ~ 3 hrs
Total (4th) ~ 17 hrs
Total (5/6th) ~ 18 hrs 30 min

Year 7-9 (20-45 min periods)
English ~ 8 hrs 25 min
Mathematics ~ 3 hrs
Science ~ 3 hrs 20 min
Languages ~ 3 hrs 45 min
Drill ~ 3 hrs
Total ~ 21 hrs 30 min

Year 10-12 (30-40 minute periods)
English (including History, Grammar, Literature, Economics, etc) ~ 8 hrs 10 min
Mathematics ~ 3 hrs
Science ~ 4 hrs 10 min
Languages ~ 6 hrs 10 min
Drill ~ 2 hrs 30 min
Total ~ 24 hrs

Source: A Charlotte Mason Education; A Home Schooling How To Manual by Catherine Levison