> What surprised me was that she now tells me that not
 > only do I have to keep
 > the journal, I also have to keep a time sheet... and
(sighing) I was afraid of that....
 > time... but in the meantime, how do I honestly satisfy
 > a requirement for 4.5
 > hours a week of spelling and writing?  Any
 > suggestions??
It sounds to me like he *really* enjoys the creativeness. Let's see....have 
him help you make pudding, then have him run his fingers in it. He can "draw" 
anything, including letters, in it. You can do the same thing with 
fingerpaints, sand, or sugar. You can make letters from sandpaper (or buy 
them at the teacher's store) and have him color over them - it makes 
interesting pictures! See if he can spell words on signs...STOP, KMART, 
SAFEWAY, etc. That counts, because it's letter recognition you're worried 
about, right? You might "trick" him into this by pointing at a store and say, 
"what's that store over there? (he responds) It's KMart? How do you know? Oh, 
that's right, there's a big K in it!"
 >  1.5             Art/Music
 >  2               P.E.
 > really wants to do science... and it seems that every
 > spare minute is spent in
 > art projects, so we're going way over the mere 1.5
But if you can count the "art" as something else,like spelling or reading, 
you are in luck. Considering how the schools integrate stuff these days, you 
should have NO problem.
As for PE...here are some ideas....see if he can make letter shapes with his 
body. Teach him to jumprope. Enroll him in a non-competitive community sports 
team. See if your community has a scheduled supervised play period - ours 
calls it AfterSchool at the
Park or something like that, and they *usually* are seen showing them ball or 
parachute skills or something like that (and ours is free, or very very 
nominal charge). Make a daily habit of a 15 minute walk before or after you 
start "school". And, btw, *few* elementary schools in this area (CA) have 2 
hours of PE per week! They must count recess in that time frame, which at 15 
minutes per day is 1 1/4 hour right there. See if your city rec dept or Y has 
reasonably priced lessons in some activity - around here, the least expensive 
lessons are swimming during the school year, and that's 2 hours right there 
every week for as long as you enroll. Take him to the community pool once a 
week during the warm weather - 2 hours on a Saturday would satisfy their 
requirement easily, and be fun for all of you!
                                 -donna
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