Schedule

Ok, I said, in an earlier post, that we are not following a strict schedule for multiple reasons.  But I do have to tell you that we are now following a loose schedule. 

Since no subject has been any easier, or harder, for Mark based on the time it's done I now try to get us through most of our subjects before noon.  On swim days this changes because swim is from 10am to 12pm.  And it will change on field trip days as well.  But for most days, we get up and do one subject immediately.  Then Mark gets a break, typically a long shower and breakfast.  Then we do another subject.  And then Mark gets another break, typically a half hour to just play around.  And then a third subject.  After that he can run free.  Those are his three major subjects: reading, math, and science.  And each session is a minimum of a half hour.  Handwriting is an afternoon "fun" activity.  And then there is another reading session just before bed, which is just reading a book not all the added activities.  And on good weather days, there is a long walk to work on safety behaviors.  On bad days we work inside on hygiene stuff.  And the three heavy subjects are not done in any particular order.

In addition, when we are out and about, I bring up things more often.  For example, counting 1, 2, or 3 of an item.  Or reading words that are on the current site words list.  Or field trips that go along with our science.  Or just home activities that go along with science - like planting.

Now the reason for the change was because sometimes we were doing so many other things that we ran behind in getting our school work done.  And I found us spending late afternoons/evening trying to catch up.  Some days that wasn't a problem.  But on days we had spent running errands we were both very tired.  And my patience was typically running a little low.  So if we get things done before we do anything else then there's nothing to worry about if we are running behind or tired later on.

And of amusement, Mark is still giving "tantrums" but they are not anywhere near the level that we had been seeing all year.  Typically now a "tantrum" consists of Mark pushing his chair away and laying on the floor while grumping at me.  And he promptly gets back up and in the chair when told to.  As far as I can tell he just feels that this is the only way he can express how much he doesn't want to do an activity.  But he understands that he does have to do it.  And since I have no problem with him expressing his feelings, and he's not being violent about it, I'm leaving it alone.  As he learns to use the XOOM more I will work on getting him to express his feelings with it.  But it is amusing to see how carefully he "throws a tantrum" now.  And the expression on his face when he throws it.

And on a positive note, very positive note, Mark has not gotten sick since we stopped going to school.  And his headaches only occur now when we are in a store for too long.  I'm still working on figuring out the timing there but it may also be linked to how many stores we've been in or the size of the store.  So there are variables that I have to look at.  But lately only WalMart & Publix have triggered headaches.  And Publix was a short visit, but after multiple other errands hence the need to examine the variables.  But those headaches seem to fade within half an hour to an hour.  All in all that's a much better situation then the headaches that kept building and getting worse throughout the week.