Week Plan — May 12-15, 2026

This is the four-day curriculum. Each day adds to the previous one — by Friday Adam is expected to handle the full set fluently.

Math thread

Every fraction problem expects the answer in lowest terms.

Science / Periodic table thread

Three rows of the periodic table, learned cumulatively. For every element on the active list, Adam needs to give:

• P = number of protons
• N = number of neutrons (most common isotope)
• e = number of electrons (in the neutral atom)

Lesson: lessons/periodic-table-rows-1-3.md.

History thread — 15 wars

Adam learns 15 wars and the year they started. The list is the same every day; we just split which ones are graded each day.

Tolerance is ±1 year.

The 15 wars (canonical order):

1. American Revolutionary War — 1775
2. War of 1812 — 1812
3. Mexican-American War — 1846
4. American Civil War — 1861
5. Franco-Prussian War — 1870
6. Spanish-American War — 1898
7. Russo-Japanese War — 1904
8. World War I — 1914
9. Russian Civil War — 1917
10. Spanish Civil War — 1936
11. World War II — 1939
12. Korean War — 1950
13. Vietnam War — 1955
14. Gulf War — 1990
15. Iraq War — 2003

Lesson: lessons/history-wars.md.

Biology thread — evolution timeline

Major events in life on Earth, measured in millions of years ago (mya). Tolerance is generous (±10% or noted in the lesson) because the science itself uses ranges.

Lesson: lessons/evolution-timeline.md.

Exam shape

Each day's exam has approximately:

• 8 math questions (mix of new + cumulative review)
• 4 periodic-table questions
• 3 history questions
• 3 evolution questions

Total: 18 questions. Versions A and B share the same shape and skill mix — only the specific numbers / elements / wars differ.

Week 2 Plan — May 18-21, 2026

Same content as week 1. Different shape.

Last week was the introduction. This week is where the skills get real. We learned a few things together:

• What worked. Wednesday — the drill day — moved Adam from 0 / 4 on fraction addition to 4 / 6, and his GCF was clean. When the day owns one idea and gives him real practice, he gets it.
• What didn't work. Friday's exam threw four brand-new operations at him at once (subtraction, multiplication, division, inverse) on a day that hadn't taught any of them. He cracked. The notes say it: "i shouldnt even try", "please get me a paper tomorrow teaching me about inverse". That exam was unfair to him; that's on us, not him.

So this week is same topics, different scaffolding.

One new operation per day. Plus practice. Plus review of what's solid. Each day starts with something he already has cold (wars, periodic-table review) so the exam never opens with a panic.

The day is 30 minutes shorter (9:00 – 12:30 with two 15-minute breaks → 3 hours of work). We expect more focus from Yerachmiel in return. The exams stay at 22 questions — last week's tighter size is the new normal.

Math thread

Every fraction problem expects the answer in lowest terms.

Science / Periodic table thread

Same active list as week 1. We don't add row 3 until Adam is fluent on rows 1 and 2 — last week's data shows he is, so row 3 arrives Wednesday.

History thread — same 15 wars

Tolerance is ±1 year.

Biology thread — same evolution timeline

Exam shape

Each day's exam has approximately:

• 11-12 math questions (heavy on the day's new operation + practice)
• 4 periodic-table questions
• 3-4 history questions
• 3 evolution questions

Total: 22 questions per version. Single-attempt per version, but either A or B can be taken — and after one is done, you can take the other.

What changes about the brief

Each morning's brief leads with one or two of Adam's good notes from the prior day. The point is to make visible what's working — not just to call out what's broken. The "here's the rule" sections stay, but the framing is forward, not punitive.

The post-exam summary email keeps the per-question step-by-step explanation we added last week, plus an explicit set of "if-then-this" recommendations the parents can read but not act on (per the deal).

Week 3 — May 26-29, 2026

Memorial Day pushed the start to Tuesday. Four days: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri (Sat is Shabbat).

The deal is different this week

• 9:30 to 12:30, with two 20-minute breaks. That's three hours wall-clock, about two hours of real work — an hour less than weeks 1 and 2.
• Why shorter? Because we want focus, not endurance. Schools burn eight hours covering what a focused hour does because the kids are scattered. Less time only works if the time is used well. Don't waste it.
• What we want to see: that he remembers more and needs notes less. The goal is internalization, not lookup.

What's new this week

Math — multiplication, with a tool

• Memorize times tables up to 15 × 15.
• Learn one mental trick that turns big problems into small ones: (a + b) × (c + d).
  • 17 × 25 = (10 + 7)(20 + 5) = 200 + 50 + 140 + 35 = 425.
  • 12 × 6 = (10 + 2) × 6 = 60 + 12 = 72.
• The arithmetic from week 2 (GCF / LCM / fractions) stays alive through 1-2 review questions per day.

Science — valence and bonding

• Same 18 elements (rows 1-3, H through Ar).
• New angle: valence electrons — the electrons in the outer shell. They're what determines who bonds with whom.
• Pattern: H = 1, He = 2, then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 across rows 2 and 3. Group number gives you valence (groups 1-2 are simple; groups 13-18 = valence 3-8).
• Why we care: this is the bridge from "memorize protons/neutrons" to actual chemistry. Sodium (1 valence) gives an electron to chlorine (7 valence) → table salt. That's the whole game.

History — peace, not war

We covered fifteen wars. Now we cover twelve peace accords. Some held for centuries (Westphalia). Some held to this day (Good Friday). Some made the next war worse (Versailles → WWII). Some sidelined the people whose lives were at stake and made an honest peace harder (Oslo, Abraham Accords).

The lesson is not "war bad, peace good". The lesson is signing paper is not the same as making peace. Who's at the table matters as much as what's on it.

A note on framing: this is a family that left Israel, was raised observant, and is openly pro-Palestinian. The peace material doesn't pretend to be neutral about Oslo or about the Abraham Accords. We don't think Palestinians being absent from rooms that decide their future has ever made things better. The brief says so.

Biology

Mostly review — the full evolution timeline is still active.

Daily exam shape

Each day: 20 questions.

• 10 math — heavy times-table + distributive + 1-2 review.
• 3 science — valence-flavored.
• 4 history — peace accords.
• 3 evolution — review.

Versions A and B, same shape. Either, or both. As before.