3 hours ago
Showing posts with label how. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how. Show all posts
Ever since my kids have reached school age, it seems spring is the time when my mind turns to homeschool planning for the next year. As I look at our schedule, I am thinking over how next year will be different as I add another kid into the mix.
Around this time three years ago, I had a first grader and a bunch of preschoolers running around, and I remember thinking ahead to the next year and wondering "How am I going to balance schoolwork with two kids instead of just one?" And of course, two years later, I was thinking "How am I going to do school with three kids instead of two?"
Now I'm looking ahead to this coming fall and contemplating homeschooling four kids in different grades, but I feel less stressed than the first time I had to add a new kid into our homeschool day. Because the truth of the matter is, you kind of just figure it out as you go. Our pattern for the year is typically a difficult season of getting into a routine in the fall, the most disorganized part of the year, but sometime around the holidays we hit our stride and the spring runs smoothly...just in time for a wrench to be thrown into our rhythms when another of my children reaches school age the next fall. But even though we have messy months or seasons, we always figure it out.
I want to share a typical homeschool day in our family, but I also wanted to preface it with saying that no family's homeschool day is a necessarily a blueprint for anyone else. You can perhaps glean ideas from seeing how other people do things, but you are going to have messy days (or weeks, or months), and every year (or term) you might have to re-figure out what will work in that season. But that's what homeschooling is, figuring out how your kids learn best, and tweaking your school to be the best system for your own family. Just experiment, allow yourself to try different things, and you will find your own way of doing things.
Morning
6:30-7:30 - I wake up, hopefully before the kids, and quietly do my morning routine before heading downstairs. Even if the kids are stirring at this point, they know they have to stay in their rooms until around 7:30, so I sit downstairs in the chair in the corner of the playroom. I have a bookshelf in the corner that was supposed to be for children's books, but since this has become my morning corner it's filled with all my devotional and Bible resources instead. This is when I read my Bible (I'm working through this reading plan), and usually a chapter of some other Christian or theology book. (Right now I'm reading this one and this one.)
7:30-8:00 - The kids come downstairs, after they are dressed with beds made and rooms clean. I make breakfast as they trickle down the stairs. Usually I make oatmeal with fruit, but occasionally we'll have cereal or muffins.
8:00-9:00 - This is the hour I have set aside for morning time. I probably could write another post about our morning time routine, but we usually start with singing a hymn, then reciting catechism questions and Bible memory verses, then a "funny poem". After that we will sing another memory song (U.S. Presidents right now), work on memorizing a Shakespeare passage, do a grammar activity (I added this in because I feel like we are weak on grammar terms right now). Then I'll usually read through a Bible lesson (Bible Survey For Kids) or one of our history read-aloud (usually a selection from Beautiful Feet Books). Ideally we will start at 8:00 sharp, but if we are late I cut morning time short so we can still finish by 9:00.
9:00:-9:30 - When we finish morning time I give Wyatt his stack of school books (history, science reading, language arts workbook, cursive, Bible study lessons) and he'll go upstairs to work. Derek works from home right now, so he and Wyatt work in the same room together. Working in the same room with Dad keeps Wyatt focused, and it's the quietest area of the house. I have Gwen and Clyde do their handwriting workbooks, and Gwen works on language arts (this is independent work for them). While they do that, I clean up and get organized for the rest of the school day. The little girls often run off to play in their rooms during this time, or if it's a particularly rambunctious morning, I'll send them outside to burn some energy off.
9:30-11:00 - When I am ready, I call Gwen and Clyde from whatever they are doing (if they've finished their workbooks, they usually are off playing in a different area of the house), and I get them started on math and reading. These are the two subjects that require me to sit with the kids individually. I've done this differently depending on the day, but I may get one of them started on math (go through the lesson, then give them their worksheet), and then start the other child on math, so they are working on math at the same time, and then do reading separately. Or if one of them is busy or playing nicely, I may completely finish math and reading instruction with one child, and then call the other child for their lessons. Usually I can finish both subjects for both kids by around 11:00.
11:00 - When Wyatt is done with his other subjects, I call him down and we do his math lesson together. He is older, so his math lesson is usually more involved. After I've explained the concept, he works on his worksheet, and I check it before lunch. If either Wyatt or Gwen have spelling lessons that day, I will usually give them their spelling phrases while I make lunch.
Afternoon
12:00-1:00 - Lunchtime! I have been trying to read our "fun book" over lunch, which is a nice break in our day for everyone. Right now we are reading Adventures With Waffles.
1:00 - I get Georgie down for a nap (we are hanging on to nap time for all we're worth, but it usually ends up being more of a "quiet time"). Clarice will sometimes have quiet time in my room while Derek works as well - she snuggles on our couch under a blanket with her books for a bit. The big kids may work on their independent reading, or play quietly. After lunch I record what we've done for school that day, and I'll look over the kids' independent work - if they need to correct or redo something, they'll do it in the afternoon. If we've had a smooth, non-exhausting morning, I may feel motivated enough to put some extra subjects in the afternoon, such as science or composer study or history. But often we will save those subjects for our "Friday fun-day", and we will either watch a history or science related video in the afternoon, or just call it quits for the day.
I don't know how a typical day will look next year, with four kids doing lessons instead of three. I may have to shift some things around, and it will likely take me a couple months to find out what works best, but I know we will figure it out! I've found that if I just start doing what needs to be done, eventually some sort of rhythm emerges and we find our stride.
If I left anything out, or you have any questions about specific things, please let me know and I'll try to write about it in another post!
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