Cycle 3:
Because our three eldest go to Chinese school at opposite
times of the day, I had to completely rearrange our home school day.
Currently we are on break for Chinese New Year and I have
LOVED having everyone home at the same time, easing into our home school day,
relaxing more, and truly enjoying the non-rushed time. We have check lists, we
get things done, we do more projects, and we play, or they go play with friends
for hours, or the friends come in and play for hours.
But the normal CC week looked like this: (my goal is about
30 minutes of ‘CC New and Review’ a day, every new piece of memory work I try
to let the kids listen to at this time at least 5x)
Monday:
·
Introduce History
sentence (with supplemental reading at that time in short form and later during
read-aloud time), play song/dance x5,
·
Introduce
Latin, listen to song x5 or 6 after
saying clearly first and having them repeat.
·
introduce Geography
(skittle maps, their fave). This year is the first year I am trying to get them
to know where it goes on the map even after that week! (and for the States and
capitals I ventured off the CC wheel and went with Larry and Kathy Troxel’sGeography songs:
On Mondays when these subjects are introduced I also review those same subjects from cycle 3,
maybe 3-5 weeks of them or if real short (like Latin) more weeks. This total
time is about 30 minutes, including the review of previous weeks.
Tuesday: CC
time on Tues is review of the current week (what was just intro’d the day
before) and then cycle 1 and 2 review based on my card review system. This is
15-30 minutes, or less depending on how they are feeling/attitudes. I don’t
really do review games right now, usually we just sing the songs, etc. every
once in a while we keep points and get a reward (nerds, marshmallows). After
this cycle I want to do a big game spread over a few days and see what they
really know.
Wednesday (usually
30+ minutes because of the timeline):
·
For each subject listed below, review the
previous weeks of that subject, plus review all subjects of current week’s
stuff (from Monday that was new) (10 minutes or so)
·
Introduce
Math: this is just review from previous cycles I spend less than five
minutes on this, some weeks I omit all together (like the squares/cubes)
·
Introduce
English: explain what may need explaining, then just sing songs many times.
I don’t expect them to ‘get’ this but to memorize it. The conjugated verbs I
don’t love, we do them weekly but I don’t review them much. Sing song 5x.
·
Introduce
Science: This involves usually
opening up a science book for explanation and/or later in the week a sci
project. First half of this cycle was the body project, which they loved, we
did this on Fridays. I also had a mini 3D body that was fun to take apart.
Listen to song 5x+ (with made- up
actions for some songs, like ‘the excretory system’).
·
Introduce
Timeline: Since this is the same
every cycle we, this cycle, worked on the motions (for the 7 yo) and just
memorization in general. I don’t spend a lot of time on each individual card
unless it has to do with what we are studying in any other part of HS. I
introduce each card and the motions that go with it. We practice those a few
times then put it in sequence. I spend about 8-10 minutes on this and then at
other times in the week we add on to this review.
I have loved how this has worked for us instead of
introducing everything on the same day. I am sure it will change again once we
get into essentials, etc.
With the kids at home together I do this first in our HS
day around 8:30 every morning. During Chinese school, I do this mid-day at
around 1:00 p.m. right after our read aloud time.
