It’s that time of year – back to school for many all over the United States. This year, though, the start of school is looking very different for a lot of kids, in a multitude of ways.
Different places have always started classes at
different times, some in August and some in September. Home schooling has also become
much more popular over the past twenty years for a variety of reasons. My own
daughter will be starting fifth grade this year in a sort of hybrid format.
Last year, with the advent of Covid-19, we spent the
second half of the school year working from home together. Her classes were
largely online, with a packet of papers, and some meetings with her whole class
in Zoom.
This year, we are starting the year that way, though I
am working from home only part of the time. Her school IS offering classes in
person, so her teacher is not going to do any face to face meetings online. Instead
there were will be instructional videos that are pre-corded. She will have a
packet we are required to pick up weekly, and assignments online, daily.
I’m waiting to see what the packet contains, but my
husband was told there would be no music, art, or gym guidance. Those areas
will be entirely up to us. That means it’s time for me to start planning how to
fill those parts of her education.
We have a lovely old piano in the house and I bought a
recorder kit form US Borne Books when a friend was having a party. I may look
for some actual assignments having to do with music as well. I seem to recall
learning to read music at her age. She’s already started a bit with the
recorder and the piano both.
When it comes to art, I figure coloring is okay some
of the time, but I’ll be looking to Pinterest for some projects I can do with
her and some home schooling assignments online having to do with art at the
fifth grade level. I figure I should not try to reinvent the wheel in a subject
that is not my forte.
Dad will take her for some hikes and we have an
exercise bike, but I will also look for some assignments there as well. I want
her to move more, but I’d also like her to learn about some different sports. I
really don’t remember what we were doing when I was in fifth grade other than
running laps around the field, and playing dodge ball.
Honestly, I’m anticipating the biggest challenge will
be her lack of interest. I intend to plan with her, hoping to build some buy-in
for this type of education. I’d like to have her develop some self-direction.
I’d also like to have a similar schedule to last year, with free-reading time
and a chore or two in the afternoon.
I figure the best thing to do is to start with asking
her what she would like to learn about in these three key areas – art, music,
and physical education. Knowing my child, I’m betting she won’t have a clue and
I’ll have to offer her options. That’s when I move to three options for each
area. Hopefully as she goes along, she will develop some ideas about what she
would like to learn about.
Then I will look at what interests her. She likes
anime, so I’m hoping we can get her interested in learning the Japanese
language this year with our library’s Mango languages database, or for free
through Duolingo.
I figure when all else fails, I’ll resort to bribery,
but I’m not sure what with.
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