i am so lost, i dont even know how to explain this without feeling dumb... i have no idea what i am doing. am i supposed to be teaaching history altogether? do i introduce and read from teachers notes everyday? am i supposed to have a seperate 8th grade grammar curr? i am sorry but i just feel like we got nothing accomplished in 2 weeks. sorry for rambling, i dont want to give up i just feel lost every morning.
any advice would be appreciated.
never used classical app before

Ok, take a deep breath. Since you have an 8th grader I will take you through the dialectic stage for week 2. This is what we do:

On Friday afternoons (many people do this Monday morning) I read the General information for all grades to everyone. I give them copies of the yellow sheets which have the resources (actually I have typed out mine on a separate piece of paper). You might have her highlight which resources she needs to read on the chart. I have a mixture of dialectic and upper grammar books and primary resources (on the left page) and extra (on the right) as well as other things I just own. Anyway, highlight what she needs to read that week. Then go over the overview yellow pages. Show her that she has 3 people she needs to do and several dates. What, if any activities will she be required to do? When does it need to be completed? For example, if they are making a paper mache mummy then they need to just get it made this week and paint it the next. I Then hand them each their individual questions and/or activity sheets. For dialectic those are pages 17 and 18 for week 2. Then we take the planner and plan out the week. I tell them that our history discussion will be Friday morning or Thursday morning or whenever. We schedule the literature, history and bible discussions time which is basically going over the questions on their activity sheets. I have an upper grammar boy as well and sometimes I read the dialectic literature selection aloud and we discuss as we go and then I will give them the upper grammar selection with the corresponding activity sheet. My 5th grader needs me to take him by the hand and you might need to do that with your 8th grader as well if they are not used to planning themselves. So she looks at the resource chart and decides to read all of Ancient Egypt on Monday. I tell mine to have out the questions as they read so they can go ahead and answer them if possible. She decides to read Science in Ancient Egypt on Tuesday. She reads the Ancient Egyptians and their neighbors on Wednesday and finished her history accountiblilty and thinking questions. For Bible, she might read all of it: Exodus 1-5 on Monday and then spend Tuesday and Wednesday answering the questions. Thursday morning you could have your history and Bible discussion. She then plans out how much she wants to read from the Golden Goblet each day and you schedule the literature discussion for Friday. For geography she decides to do her map work on Wednesday since their is less to read. Now, what you need to be doing is reading the threads and the teacher's notes so that you understand what the topic is. If you can, try to read what she is reading. Then look over her questions and see if you know the answers. I've noticed that especially in the first few weeks a lot of the dialectic answers are not just listed in one spot, you will have to highlight your teacher's notes and some of them are in the rhetoric section. Then I sit down with my highlighted pages of TOG for our discussion. They are supposed to have found all of the answers in their readings that week, So you listen to their answers and if they got stuck or didn't think through something, then you talk about it. Keep asking them questions. Sometimes I ask questions that are not listed but just come to my head. Does that make sense???

Christine

ok, what if you dont have or found all the books that they have listed to read, (thats one of my problems) when my D daughter was looking over some of the questions she said i didnt learn this, its because i didnt have a particular book>> so then what do i do? I told her she has to go thru the pile of books i did get and find the answer. is that rt? then how do you fit in all the other subjects? What time does you school begin and end? But that did help christine, thanks. i will actually print it out and use it as a guide.

For me, I don't know that I would make my students plow through a pile of books to find one small answer. That would be tedious and might kill the love of learning. Instead, have the questions in front of her as she reads the books you do have. Let her skip the ones you cannot find. Look at the threads at the beginning of the week to know what the most important things are you need to stress. Then on your discussion days have her answer the questions she can and you give her the answers for the others. Try asking her questions and seeing if she can figure it out. The boys did an awful job of doing the Sumerian chart and so today I took the book and then we did the chart together and I showed them how I came up with it. That said, I couldn't find all the answers either and that is ok. If she was really lost on the questions then ask her general questions: Tell me about mummification. Ask her why they do the things they do? Why do they care so much about an intact body??? Oh...they put games in there? WHY?? Get the idea?

Here is our daily schedule:
After breakfast and chores, I read part of the Bible we are studying like Exodus 11 this week.

8-9:30 Math, Piano practice and either AWANA or personal devotion depending on age

9:30-10 Recess/ play with dogs, ride bikes, etc.

10-12 We start by having a snack and I read something aloud like Gilgamesh today. Then they work on their TOG assignments, writing and language arts (vocab, dictation, grammar sheets, handwriting alternate)

12-1 Lunch and a break. We often watch a documentary during this time while we eat. We are starting Abraham by TNT today.

1-3 Science, Rosetta Stone, any TOG reading they didn't finish or often on Thursday afternoon they are frantically finishing their questions for discussion on Friday morning, literature reading, hands-on projects if chosen. Next week they will be building the Royal Game of Ur during this time period as there isn't much reading.

3:00-3:30 30 minute house clean-up


Now on Fridays we do the first block. Then the 2nd block we discuss and look over their people, timeline stuff, etc. After that they need to make sure they have finished all grammar, vocab, handwriting worksheets (they normally have a couple left to do). After lunch they do Rosetta Stone and science but the rest of the time we file papers or throw away papers like the question sheets and information for all ages, etc. (They all have copies. Not the originals!!!) I have their notebooks divided into schedule sheet, question/activity sheets, maps, people sheets, writing, language arts. The language arts sheets are graded and filed. Most of the time so far the writing section is saved in their for the next week. My 5th grader has two rough draft paragraphs and two graphic organizers in that section right now. Anyway, if they need it for future weeks we keep it in there, if we don't we file. Then I give them everything for the next week and they plan like I detailed above. It has worked well for us.

Christine