School, a work in progress

So I spent the weekend re-thinking school for Rayne. It helped a lot to talk to Melanie who has done the online school as well as teach kindergarten in traditional school. Sunday night I moved some things around to set up more of a classroom atmosphere in the kitchen rather than a corner around the computer. I read through all of the weeks' lessons and wrote down the basic things we would be covering. We've done a few weeks now and I can see the basic structure of the lessons so I took control of them.
I felt like things went a lot better yesterday. We got through each subject without really realizing that we were doing it. It felt more like school should be as far as a teacher and activities etc. Instead of sitting at or near the computer and going down the list, I planned some activities to cover the lessons in a more active way. For example, instead of throwing in practice writing letters at some point during the lesson, I decided each day would start with a letter wall, a paper taped to the wall where she can write standing up and without lines. I showed her how the letters should be written but then I also had her listen to a word to figure out which letter it was. Instead of reading the book as part of the lesson, after lunch I met my students on the couch for story time. We read the school book as well as a couple that they chose.

Today everyone was tired and not feeling well this morning. I decided to run out to the store and start school later in the day. I even told Rayne (probably shouldn't have) that we'd just do what had to be done and skip what we could until tomorrow. So, we went rather quickly through the lessons, mostly just covering the basics, and yet I felt like she was on task much better than usual or even yesterday. When I asked if she felt better about school today she said yes because it was short.

So my new thought this week is maybe she needs to just be shown what needs to be done, let her do it, and get it done for the day. Then perhaps I can supplement throughout the rest of the day and make sure all the concepts are covered.

Hm...