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help me with a schedule!


Bloy
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I'd like to develop a weekly schedule as I will be homeschooling 2 in the next few months, and have a baby--well almost 2 year-old :eek: by then.

 

I'd like to have a schedule that is easy for us to stick to and has a bit of flex, like 4 days and then a 5th day that is more relaxed, open to catching up, etc.

 

My oldest is 7, then my 4.5 year-old will be starting kindergarten.

The seven year-old reads well and works independently (well, mostly) if I have a list and he can check stuff off.

 

We will have history together, and read alouds... but how do you juggle everybody? :confused:

 

I'd love to hear what works for other families. I'd like to do a work period in the morning for 1.5 hours maximum (including a 20 minute break) and then another hour in the afternoon... and school year-round, except we are moving now and taking a month off to travel a bit, so I'm not sure what to do when we get settled...

 

So, please share what works for you! :bigear: I'd love to hear what others do, and know what is out there.

 

Thank you for your help!

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This is what works for us...

 

We school Sept-May/June 4 days a week (Mon-Thurs). Fridays are for anything missed, extras the kids want to do like hobbies, field trips, etc...

 

Our days are a little strange because of music lessons and sports practices intermingled on certain days. My boys are older and fairly independent so I won't go into their school schedule except to day that they usually "do school" from 9am-noon/1 pm. My dd's schedule is very flexible as I follow her interests but she is a motivated kid and generally does schoolwork on a self-imposed schedule...

 

8:30-9am Computer time-Rosetta Stone Spanish/Music Ace

9-10:30am math/spelling/she reads to me and I do read aloud for her

10:30-11:30/12- violin practice

Lunch

Playtime until 1:30/2pm

2-3pm- fiddle practice

Playtime the rest of the day

 

This is just an idea of a day for her though the times vary. The only thing that stays the same or increases is the amount of time she practices her instrument. Some days she plays her violin all day long, other days she reads most of the day not doing any math or does math most of the day with little reading. Now she will join in on science or history with the boys when she wants but in Sept. she will do about a half hour of history/science on alternating days.

 

 

I forgot to add...in summers we school 3 days a week. We catch up on history or science if needed, or do unit studies on subjects of interest. Math continues to prevent loss of skills and the kids are required to read daily. We take week breaks here and there like around Christmas, during vacation (though we often take work with us depending on where we are going), or when we just need a break.

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here's how things work at our house.

 

I wake up before the kids for an hour of exercise. Breakfast is at 7. We follow that up with an hour and a half of free time (ie burning some energy). We live in the desert so during the hot months this is basically the only time to play outside.

School is from 9 to 1 with half an hour for lunch. We then have a break in the afternoon until evening sports kick in around 4 or 5. Depending on the time of year, that's 2-5 times a week.

We have light days on Fridays, spelling tests and tying up loose ends for the week. We have a 42 week school year with 6 being light unit studies and review. We take off a big chunk of time from Thanksgiving through New Year. This allows us to really enjoy the holidays and also that's when weather here is nicer! We also usually take birthday weeks off and 2 weeks in August. Then we start it all over again. :)

As for homeschooling with a little one. When I had a toddler in the house I used special bins of toys that only came out during school, lots of play dough, and I used nap time for the more intense subjects.

HTH

Good luck!

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I schedule a 4-day week, but it's not always the same 4, or 4 in a row. If we don't get that last one in by Friday, it might happen Saturday or next Monday. We average one chapter of SOTW a week, one page of Miquon a day, science (biology a la WTM) varies by topic but might be anywhere from one day to two weeks on the same topic, one chapter of Prima Latina over two weeks (LOTS of review), one chapter in our religion text per week, and 1-2 days of cursive/copywork per week with Writing Skills (English grammar) on the alternate days. We go year-round, so I just move up to the next level of any subject when they finish the current one.

 

The (ideal) way our schooltime goes:

-We start right after breakfast - once they escape the dining room, they might never make it back there (see above about next Monday), and my coffee is already right there on the table.

-I have a canvas tote box on the table with all of that day's books & worksheets, which I put together the day before and put on the table before I go to bed.

-I stack the different subjects in piles on the table while dc eat breakfast, so I can see how much we have for each. I might start to review Latin vocab while they eat too, or occasionally start reading to them.

-I just grab one stack to start, and try to alternate between my reading to them and their working on worksheets. I read to them together (even though K is reading fluently, she doesn't like to read aloud because it slows her down); if K has a workbook (like Miquon) or copywork, I pull out something similar for R from her folder (which I have stocked with Kumon pages, mazes, matching, etc. the night before).

-I try to save whatever subject has an experiment/project/craft for last, because it's hard to get them back to paperwork after that.

-As we finish each subject, our books go back into my tote box or onto the coffee table, library books go into the library box, completed papers go in a pile to be filed, and workbooks go back into the tote box.

-When the table is empty, we're done. It's rarely more than an hour, and sometimes I can get another "day" of school done in the afternoon (if it's been or is going to be a really busy week with other stuff).

 

More than you really wanted to know, eh? :D

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My situation is a bit different than yours--I've been homeschooling 3 children for the past 3 years. I was sitting here thinking about your situation and thought I'd offer some encouragement. It seems overwhelming at first, but I think you have a good plan for a schedule. I've found that, when my dc were that age, they were spending about 1.5 to 2 hours a day learning. Some days is was significantly less, depending on what we were doing and how motivated they were. One thing that sometimes didn't work for me with the little ones was trying to get them back to school work after breaks--even just 10 minutes could wreak havoc on my plans. They'd get involved in something else and it was hard to get back on track. Those days I just went with it and, in the end, everything got done. Somehow...

 

My dd (7) just finished doing 2nd grade level work and this is how it would go with our 4 day week, with Fridays for whatever we didn't finish, field trips, or sometimes nothing at all:

math 15-20 minutes every day

cursive 5 minutes every day

spelling 5 minutes every day

grammar 15 minutes three days a week

history and science was combined with other 2 dc--we did history Mon & Wed, science Tue & Thu, for about 30-45 minutes a day

reading is done daily around here and not scheduled, usually adds up to an hour a day

 

When my middle ds was doing 1st grade, my youngest was running around. I did not plan kindergarten work for her, but she insisted on "doing school, too!" so she ended up learning a lot without me planning it. At that age, it's great that they can do some learning if they want to and then run off and play when the urge strikes. With a toddler running around it's different, but having some special toys that only come out during school can help, I've heard. With the age of your children, you can snuggle on the couch while you read or do grammar lessons. You can use manipulatives to make math fun, sitting on the floor all together--my kids loved using dominoes or card games. We also did some timed runs doing math facts--I'd yell out a fact and they had to have the answer by the time they reached me. This worked great for my ds that doesn't like to sit still for very long!

 

Well, I hope this helps. Try to relax and enjoy the early years of learning. You've been teaching them all along, really, if you think about it!:001_smile: Good luck!

Nancy in NH

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Thank you for your replies! It is helpful to see what others are doing... and there are some great ideas here!

 

We're in the process of moving from California to Oregon... and it is overwhelming! Overwhelming! At leas it will be for another month.

 

But I am really enjoying thinking and planning this out--

 

I think we will do our minquon/math game first, then spelling...

 

That should be about 20 minutes/30 minutes, depending on how many pages of math we will do...

 

I am thinking of setting up a Montessori work space for the 4 year-old and the 2 year-old, so the older child will be able to 'teach' his baby sister... while I work with oldest son on math/spelling.

 

Then we will do history together while the babe takes a nap/we make lunch/eat...

 

And then I don't know... my oldest is a night owl and wants to do stuff before bed... so perhaps we'll do another page of math then... and reads all. day. long by himself (he will read for 5 hours at a time, if we let him!)...

 

And then do Latin/Greek/German in the afternoon--we are yet undecided on language. We've finished minimus 1, and ds wants to do Greek and German... but we shall see.

 

Please let me know what type of schedule works for your child/ren...

 

thank you for those who have shared so far... :bigear:

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