Science, Day 1: look for pictures in the book you think are interesting
Day 2: discuss the pictures and diagrams in Chapter 1, Part 1
Day 3: discuss the definitions of the highlighted vocabulary words in Chapter 1...
Enthusiasm effectively cured. Can't wait for Day 4.
DS's 8th grade math teacher spent the whole first week of school on administrivia: reading the rules, discussing the rules, penalties for breaking the rules, filling out forms that said you understood the rules, and taking forms home so that parents could read rules and sign off on same. Then they talked about "math myths" like "there's no such thing as a mathy mind." Believe it or not, things actually went downhill from there. The math instruction that year was risible.
