How do you do your lesson plans/schedule?

[Koerarmoca]

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year?

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it?

 

If you do workboxes do you time independent activites? like you have 30 mins for box 1 if you are not done in 30 mins move to box 2 and then the rest is "homework"?

 

how do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids)

 

how long is your school day?

 

I am just trying to get a feel for what would work for us so geting a peek at what others do would be very helpful.

[Ruthie in MS]

I find it easier to separate plans for each child in each time frame. Yearly, quarterly and then bi-weekly or weekly. The yearly is a basic framework of what you want to accomplish for the year with each child in each subject. The quarterly becomes more detailed oriented. The bi-weekly or weekly (whichever you prefer) breaks it down into more manageable, bite-size pieces for the everyday. It's important to keep all lists because you can look back and see if you're reaching your homeschooling goals or if you've gotten off track. But sometimes getting off track or slowing down to concentrate on a particular area is just what your child needs. There are great homeschooling books that can help you make a game plan. Check them out at your local library.

 

We have been on a more rigorous schedule this year due to the fact we are expecting another baby in May but next year we are going to be more relaxed. I plan on having school 5 days a week. Math, language arts and Bible 4-5 days a week. Science and history 2 days a week each. With Friday being the make-up day/science experiment day/field trip/fun day. We are going to try 6 weeks on and 1 week off. If that doesn't work we'll try something else. But that's the beauty of homeschooling we try and see what works and if it doesn't-- scrub it and try something else.

[littlebug42]

I am currently planning by the semester. Math and religion are done every day. For LA, I alternate grammar and writing doing each 2 days per week. For dd9, she also has vocabulary/spelling three days a week. We work mostly on the book work 4 days per week and we are working at a more "Fun Friday" approach where we play educational games, do mind benders, watch videos to apply what we are learning in a fun way.

 

History we do 3 days a week and science I think we will do 2 days next year. We are not currently doing science at home as they do that elsewhere but I will be adding more in the fall. I am figuring out where to add Latin/Greek to our regular schedule as that gets done on a more spotty basis right now.

 

I do not currently operate on a set schedule but we are not getting as much done so I am tweaking it so we can get more done in the day. The girls and I both do better when we have that little chart keeping us on track. I need to do this also so that we can get a better handle on the fitting in the housework because right now, our house is a disaster of epic proportions.

[Jenny in Florida]

I plan the whole year in advance, usually, listing what I want to accomplish each week.

 

My son is 13 now, and I no longer micro-manage his schedule. So, at the beginning of each week, he looks at what he has to do, then makes up his own weekly plan of what he will do each day. He gives me a copy, so I can help keep him on track.

 

Usually, he does the core subjects every day: math, science, history, English. However, he's taking online classes for three of them, and some weeks a particular class might have only three of four assignments due. His other "academic" subjects for this year are art history/appreciation -- which he normally does just a couple of times a week -- and music history/appreciation (ditto). He's also getting "credit" for choir/vocal performance. To earn that, he sings with a rigorous boychoir and takes private voice lessons. He is expected to practice his music for 30 minutes a couple of times a week, and we've attended and discussed three mini-concerts.

 

He also has flexibility about when he begins working and when he takes a break for lunch. The only involvement I have in his daily schedule is making sure he doesn't sleep all morning. And we read some of his history assignments aloud together sometime during the afternoon. So, we have to cooperate to find a time that works for both of us.

 

Typically, he begins work at about 10:00 and is done by 3:00, sometimes earlier. When he can swing it, he tries to give himself one day a week off from schoolwork to do other things. Today, he's finishing some projects for a show he's in and helping me clean in preparation for having some friends over on Sunday evening.

[RahRah]

I think you're going to get different replies from each poster since no two schedules are the same - your schedule will ultimately be what works for you and your kids!

 

That said, I have a fairly relaxed approach in our day-to-day - but I do know where we need to be each month and for the year.

 

When I started last year around this time, I had no clue how to do it....read a lot here and played around a lot with how to do a schedule that would work for us.

 

What worked for me in planning was to look at each subject and work backward from where I felt we should finish up the year....look at the topics within each subject and try to determine a reasonable amount of time to complete. Working backward made me tweak things as I realized some things needed more time and others less.

 

Our everyday subjects = math, reading and now writing practice (DS needs a lot more practice with writing)....in total we spend about an hour a day on these. I don't do an hour straight through - DS is 6 and it's a bit too long still to get through an hour, so we take a break about half-way, then come back to complete after he has some 'burn-off-energy' time.

 

Science tends to happen daily since DS is really interested in science stuff....I abandon my "schedule" months ago (three days a week) since his interest in various topics goes all over the place - one week he's really interested in dinosaurs, another the solar system, and yet another magnetism....rather than continue to hammer the square peg into the round hole of the schedule, I just go with the flow right now and we're actually now way ahead of anything I could have planned for the year for science! I've modifed my approach to be more creating a unit study of whatever DS is interested in and going as deep as we can with it - then move on when he wants to learn about something new or go back to something we've covered. I'd originially scheduled 30-minutes as our time for science, but some days now, with the approach we're taking, takes 15-minutes on some days, a couple of hours on others.....

 

We do history two or three times a week now - when I was getting ready to have the baby, we'd dropped most of the history stuff, but are back on track with that. DS loves listening to the SOTW CD's and then we do activities to reinforce his learning.

 

Social studies tends to happen as we go....as opportunity presents, I do stuff with DS - otherwise, we don't have a formal time built into the schedule since I tend to find it more interesting to be using opportunities as they present in this area instead of a structured approach - example, as the elections neared in October, we talked about government and how it is structured....local, state, federal....and why elections happen, how and their importance.

 

Art & Music happen without being scheduled - either within subjects or through lessons, programs and just for fun. Same with PE - DS is a ball of energy, so really, we don't have a formal PE schedule.

 

Right now, looking ahead to the end of the year - which formally ends June 30th.....we're ahead of schedule, with the exception of his phonics, and will have completed where I felt we should be when I started this year (July 1st) around May 15th - a month and a half earlier than I thought. We'll keep going and will need the full time planned to get through the phonics/reading where he is lagging at the moment.

 

On a day-to-day basis - I look at things week to week....know what we need to accomplish in a week and work daily to meet that with DS. If I plan for, say 30 minutes, for a math lesson and practice and he takes just 15-minutes, he's done with the math....I don't make him do more to do more time, he completed his lesson and work.....if he needs 45-minutes, we take 45-minutes.

 

Hope this helps!

[ayden]

Next year will be my first year home schooling and I have all these grand ideas about how it will work, but I don't know yet if I will pull it off according to plan.

 

I find it easier to separate plans for each child in each time frame. Yearly, quarterly and then bi-weekly or weekly. The yearly is a basic framework of what you want to accomplish for the year with each child in each subject. The quarterly becomes more detailed oriented. The bi-weekly or weekly (whichever you prefer) breaks it down into more manageable, bite-size pieces for the everyday.

I am planning to do this.

 

As far as subjects, I wanted to school 4 days/week and let my daughter have an off/catch up day, but I'm not sure her gymnastics schedule (two-a-days) will let it be possible. Ideally, she'd do English and math Mon-Thur, science two days and history two days. But she'll have practice every weekday morning from 7:30-11:30 and then again on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:30-4:30.

[2_girls_mommy]

lesson plans/schedule?

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year? Yearly, monthly during the summer I make an overview of each month.

 

Then I reasess each semester. I write each week's plan taking into account the plans for the week.

 

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc.

core subjects daily, history 2x a week, science at home 1x a week, music once a week, Latin 3x a week is the goal.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it? Yes and yes. I have a VERY timed out schedule. We use it loosely. It is good to have it to start the year or each semester to show that we can get it all in and I can refer back to it when we stray too far. In reality, day by day, we don't go by it verbatim.

 

If you do workboxes do you time independent activites? like you have 30 mins for box 1 if you are not done in 30 mins move to box 2 and then the rest is "homework"? No workboxes, but yes my 3rd grader has independent work. She starts her morning every day with it while I work w/1st grader. I am working on 1st grader by moving away for longer periods while she works in her workbooks after lesson time.. baby steps.

 

how do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids) I make the time intensive schedule as told above. It helps me to know where I can do each thing. For us, Odd works on her independent stuff 1st while I work w/little. Then when little is either done, or doing the writing part, I do a lesson w/older sis in math, then she does the bookwork on her own. I rotate between them during the day for the core subjects. We work together on content subjects. Little sis does have some time blocks where she gets to go play with toys for a little bit while I work w/odd.

 

how long is your school day? All day, broken up. We have lots of play time after lunch, then work some more. Then nap/silent reading time, then after afternoon outside time or playdates, we will spend an hour on history or science before dinner, or occasionally after even. We are not super early starters and we don't watch evening T.V. except for a couple of nights a week, so this works for us.

[momma aimee]

:lurk5:

[phathui5]

Right now, we have a list on the fridge that looks like this:

 

Mon/Wed/Fri

 

Bible

Math

Lang. Arts

Writing

History

Latin

(M) Art

(W) Gym

 

Tues/Thurs

 

Bible

Math

Lang. Arts

Science

Spanish

[iamrachelle]

I'm a bit of an over planner sometimes and have to remind myself that I create and rule our schedule, and the schedule doesn't rule me. Having said that I do plan everything out a year in advance. I like to see exactly where we are on any given day and how much we have left to accomplish before the end of the year.

 

We homeschool some years and private school others. Like you, our dc are in private school this year but will likely come home next year again. I do try to work in a couple of "light" weeks into our schedule to allow time for the kids to have some delight driven studies if we stumble across something super interesting in our curriculum. Plus, my dh is in the military so we enjoy the flexibility of not doing school when he is able to be home with us. For me, having a daily snapshot of where we are and where we need to go on any given day for our school year is extremely helpful.

[Mom in High Heels]

I put together the whole year (separating in a tabbed binder for 36w), but don't write out the lesson plans for the whole year. I do 8 weeks at a time (I keep 8 weeks in my smaller working binder), because things change, we get behind (or ahead) and it would make me crazy to try to do it all at once. I take one Sunday afternoon every 8 weeks to make the next 8 weeks plans. I found this works really well.

 

We don't do things at certain time (because who knows what's going on on a given day). As long as we get done, I don't care what order it's in. It also gives us flexibility. I also do my schedule in pencil (I do it by hand on this sheet by donnayoung.org) so I can change things if I need to (and I frequently need to).

 

We don't do every subject every day. We do spelling, Latin and math 4 days a week (with a spelling test every Friday), grammar and reading 3 days a week, history and science 2-3 days a week, geography 1 day a week, and use Friday's for spelling tests and catch up work (things we missed or want to spend more time on).

 

We don't do work boxes (I could never figure that out). I have found that I need to set a time on some things or he'll take forever. If he doesn't finish in the allotted time, he has to put it aside and finish it up "after" school while his friends are outside playing. This motivates him to get his work done in a timely manner. We usually do school work 3-6 hours a day depending on what else we have going and how much we have on our schedule. Some days are lighter than others.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year? I do a one year overview and then schedule work according to our yearly schedule. We do 6, six week sessions so I plan each six weeks the week prior. This keeps me from wasting time scheduling months and months of work in advance only to have to reschedule everything because of life circumstances getting us off track.

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc. Currently we are all over the place because we are finishing up our final 6 weeks of school and some subjects are completed and some are being doubled up in order to complete. This is next year's lineup : Dd8- Math\MTWThF, Grammar\TTh, WWE\MWF, Art&Music\F, Trail Guide(which includes history, geography, science and language arts)\MTWThF. Dd12 and dd13 will do all of their subjects daily except for vocab and spelling which will only be MTWTh. Now, that being said, this set-up may change as the year progresses. It just all depends on how well they move through the material. If, for example, they work through their grammar quickly then I may back it off to only 3 days a week.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it?With 5 dc we have to be pretty specific about when each subject is done so that I can guarantee one on one attention for specific subjects. I need dd8 to be working on something she can do independently while I work one on one with ds4 on math. My oldest is good about managing her time and needs minimal help from me right now so she is afforded the privilege of doing her subjects in whatever order she wants as long as they are all completed by the end of the day.

 

If you do workboxes do you time independent activites? like you have 30 mins for box 1 if you are not done in 30 mins move to box 2 and then the rest is "homework"?

 

how do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids)

 

how long is your school day? It's a balancing act trying to schedule one on one. I'm actively teaching for 6 hours and even when I'm working with one dc I will sometimes have to stop to give a quick explanation to someone. If someone just isn't getting something that they normally are able to work on their own I will sit down with them at the end of the day. I don't put it on the schedule but I also spend about 20-30 minutes at the beginning of the day going over dd13's work to make sure she knows what she is supposed to do and discussing anything that she needs to work on from the previous day. I use a 4 column form to plug in everyone's subjects and to organize one on one time. The form I use is here. You choose however many columns you need. I have my schedule for next year written out but it's to big to attach here. If you'd like to see how I scheduled my 4 just pm me your e-mail and I can send the attachment that way.

 

I am just trying to get a feel for what would work for us so geting a peek at what others do would be very helpful.

 

Hope some of that helps. :D

[Jean in CA]

I have 4 ds almost identical in age to yours. I'm going to share how I balance one-on-one time on a daily basis.

 

Here's our daily schedule. We do have set times for switching things, but there is flexibility in the order the kids do their work (both independently and with me.)

 

8:00 breakfast together. Recitations, Bible, Bible memory

8:30 chores

8:45 Mom time with 2ds cuddle time, and read-aloud

9:00 Mom time with 5ds. 20-30 mins includes phonics, math (workbook or game) handwriting, and read-aloud

9:30 Mom time with 10ds. Grammar (oral), writing instruction, Latin help (if necessary), math lesson (He completes rest of Latin/math/writing on his own.

10:00 Mom time with 13dd 45-60 mins. (10ds will frequently play with 2ds during this time.) Latin(oral), grammar (oral), writing instruction, math (if necessary).

 

11:00 P.E. We go outside if possible.

11:30 Everyone cleans up and helps prepare lunch. Read-aloud during lunch (history usually)

12:15 free time

1:00 5ds and 2ds plays games with mom

1:30 5ds rests with book on tape, 2ds takes nap, mom helps older two with any remaining work, independent science experiments, reading comprehension, history discussions, art lessons (varies)

2:30 mom free time! 10ds and 12dd play after doing assigned reading for day

 

4:00 library time or group board games, cooking lessons, sports practice, etc.

 

 

In our family, each child (who can read) gets his own weekly schedule (it is modelled after Sonlight's weekly schedules). Work to be completed with mom is highlighted in yellow. Independent work is left unhighlighted.

 

I spend up to 30 mins/child (above 4th grade) including page numbers for assigned reading) on Friday or over the weekend to print out these schedules for them. It helps the week go so much smoother. The Kindergarten schedule is more for fun (only takes 5 minutes) and I include a personal note for me and stickers.

 

I also think the key to maintaining my own sanity is using a "flex schedule" so that if we don't start at 8:00, we shift everything later by 1/2 hour. That way, I'm not stressing out about "being behind"! Nap time, however is always at 1:30!

 

I have the original schedule and the "flex" schedules (starting at 8:30 or even 9:00) printed on the wall so the kids know what to expect. This also eliminates the need for everyone to ask me questions at the same time. The kids *know* when their scheduled time with me is, and save their questions until then.

 

Of course, all kinds of things come up every 10 mins due to having a 2 year-old in the family!! But he has set "school" toys that I rotate through and I match up the 2 year old and an older "buddy" so I can more easily concentrate during mom-time with another student. Plus he gets mommy-time first, which is very nice for both of us.

Edited March 23, 2011 by Jean in CA

[Narrow Gate Academy]

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year?

Most subjects have a plan for the whole year. I ran out of planning time so history and science are week by week for the rest of the year.

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc.

Most subjects are everyday here. The 6th grader only has writing and logic 4 days. The 4th grader alternates spelling and critical thinking. Are earth science is only 4 days a week.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it?

how do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids)

 

With 3 kids to teach, we use a MOTH schedule. Basically I switch from one kid to the next for one on ones every half an hour most of the morning. The rest of the kids take turns playing with the toddler or working on independent work while waiting their turns.

[Hedgehog]

First off.. Microsoft Excel is my best friend. Well, nearly. It certainly makes my scheduling a lot easier!

 

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year?

If any, per semester. But it isn't really like that. I overhaul my schedule once in a while, when things change (like extra-curriculars), and that's once per semester on average.

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc.

I try to keep it simple, and break down the subjects according to the curricula that I use. Now we might be a little unusual, but rather than doing most core subjects every day like a lot of people do, my older DDs do each thing once - or at most, twice - a week, with the exception of Handwriting and Math. For example, we do Spelling and Grammar on Tuesdays, Writing and Critical Thinking on Thursdays, etc. I do this because I find it easier to teach and my DDs don't seem to have any difficulty remembering things from week to week. Now for DS5, it's different; he does Language Arts and Math every day.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it?

The schedule is written out quite specifically, but I typically don't stick with it 100%. It's a guide, and I know that if we do most of the things on it, we are doing okay.

 

How do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids)?

Well - that's more a question of how to schedule, period. When I started doing this, I had a huge piece of paper all divided into squares which equated to half hours for every day of of the week, and I cut out the appropriate sized squared on colored paper to show what each child needed to do. Then it was like a puzzle of working out who could have my attention when, and also what time we had to do chores, extra-curriculas, etc. Finally, I got it onto Excel. I don't use the paper any more - that was just to start me off; now, when I need to change something, it's more a question of tweaking what's already there, as most of it works long term.

 

How long is your school day?

It varies. Mondays is our chore day, so we only have a couple hours; the other days are 4-6hrs depending on the child.

[kwickimom]

This was my first year. I tried to plan out the whole year with specific dates/weeks and that didnt work. I tried to do week by week, that didnt work. For next year I am: planning out the year, but generically, not by dates or even weeks.

 

I am going to go subject by subject and see how many lessons are in each, then I am going to divide that by how many days a week we will try and do them. I am going off a 36 week schedule (we are going to school over the summer, finishing up whatever we didnt get done and doing practice sheets and reading to keep up the skills we learned this year)

 

Daily: Math (45 min), Reading (60 min), Writing (20), Spelling (10), grammar (15) vocab (10)

 

twice a week: History (30-45) Science (30-45)

 

once a week: Art (20) geography (20) French (20)

 

 

So Math we need to do about 3 pgs a day. We use SWO and she does a pretest, a page a day, and then fridays are tests. R&S grammar we do a lesson a day, WWE 4 times a week and Killgallon on Fridays. Vocab cartoons everyday and a quiz on fridays. Assigned reading everyday, some books with comp guides. I made my own Am History and so I just listed out 72 topics to cover to get 2 a week for 36 weeks.We are doing Apologia Astronomy and Zoo 2, 14 wks a piece. So we need to cover about a chapter a week, projects are on Fridays/Saturdays. Geography we are doing an Evan Moor mapbook and a US mapskills Unit Study and I split it up into 36 sections. Art is "I can do All Things" and we just do the next thing. French is nothing serious and is a program from my library.

 

I am going to photocopy the TOC's of the subjects that dont need planning and for things like Apologia and Am. history I just made up a few sheets with blank boxes on them and I am going to write out 72 "lessons" and list books and supplies needed for each lesson. Then I will just check them off as I do them. This way if we get behind in one subject...no biggie, it doesnt mess up a whole "week plan" or "6 week plan" Everything will be done by individual subject and checked off as they are done. I will reevaluate every 4 weeks to see where we are and step up any subjects as needed by working longer or on a Saturday OR we just go into the next summer on that subject.

 

So, in my planner I will have one or two sheets for each subject that will have the subject broken down into an entire years plans, but are all flexible within their own schedule. Then I can just "check" away as we go. Oh that will make me SO happy!

 

 

And I just wrote a saga, because I am a total nerd and I love to plan, plus I am a little OCD. I enjoyed writing this, even if no one reads it :D

 

 

oh and ETA: Having specific times drove me batty so we start when we start, take whatever time we need to, and end when we end. I shoot for 8 or 9 am to start and dont care when we finish. I will have DD8 do her work with me while the boys play and then group her independant work together so she can do it while I work with my boys on Kindy stuff. This will give me about 2 hours total...one to work with them and one to workout and shower :D

Edited March 23, 2011 by kwickimom

[papillon]

:iagree:

 

This is exactly what we do. It's easy to implement and easy to stick to.

[Classically Minded]

I have a schedule but we don't always follow it, we normally school 3 days a week for about 3 hours. She (dd7) reads everyday Mon-Fri in the morning and evening. Sometimes she reads on the weekends too.

 

Mon-Wed

 

In Bed

Prayer

Bible - 10m

 

1st Hour

Reading - 30m

Grammar - 15m

Memorization - 5m

Writing - 10m

 

40m

Math - 20m

Spelling - 20m

 

2nd Hour

History or Science - full hour

 

Friday

Prayer

Bible - 10m

Reading -30m

 

Leftover History and/or Science work

Projects

Art and Home Economics

 

Evening Work

30-60m evening reading Mon-Fri

 

Hubby does the parent read-a-louds, music and P.E. in the evenings and on weekends.

[Koerarmoca]

lots of info to disect TY everyone. You excel mama's should make up some homeschool google docs.:D

 

And I just wrote a saga, because I am a total nerd and I love to plan, plus I am a little OCD. I enjoyed writing this, even if no one reads it :D

 

 

 

:lol:that just totally cracked me up.

[In2why]

At the beginning of the year, per se, because we school year round. I break it down by semester and which subjects I want to do and how many times a day. After that I plan Math, Reading, and Writing everyday. Science and Grammar are Tuesday and Thursdays, Spelling and History are Mondays and Wednesdays. But we might watch a video, read aloud, or complete a project for History or Science at any time. Fridays we do Art, field trips, read great books, or do nothing at all depending on the week.

 

Over the summer we do unit studies and practice math facts and read for pleasure.

[abacus2]

I still trying to figure things out. All of our curriculum allows me to open up and do the next lesson so I don't feel the need to plan way in advance. I'm trying to work out a daily routine. Tuesdays we always have a moms group in the morning so I'm planning to make Tuesday afternoon our science day. Our other days will go approximately like this:

 

9:30am ETC online

10am Bible story, poetry, weekly song and Bible verse

10:20am Math

10:45am Snack time and Read alouds

11:00am Language Arts - FLL, WWE, AAS, HWOT, alternating handwriting and copywork days

11:45am Alternate Developing the Early Learner workbooks and Social Studies/History books

12:30pm Lunch

Baby's naptime - Reading

Edited March 24, 2011 by abacus2

[Holly]

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year?

We use HOD and most of my subjects are planned out for the year.

 

How do you break down your subjects?

We do most subjects daily, (science is 2x/week, geography 1x/week) electives are as we can fit them in.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it?

We are pretty relaxed. We generally school from 9-12, then 1-3. This isn't set in stone and we often school in the evenings or weekends when we get behind. We may start earlier if we have activities in the afternoon. We have a general order of subjects--history, Bible, rotating subject (science, art, geography, history/timeline activity), poetry, storytime, 3Rs. Sometimes we can finish these in the morning leaving the afternoon for extras (extra art, videos, tea time, cooking, etc.). Often we finish 3Rs in the afternoon.

 

how do you schedule 1 on 1 time with each child (I will be schooling 3 kids)?

We generally work on combined subjects first (history, Bible, science, art, read alouds, etc.) then move onto 3R's that are more individualized. I try to make sure the others have independent projects to work on while I work with them individually. This includes getting out something for my little ones...a video, craft, or toys.

 

how long is your school day? This varies. Our HOD curriculum should take 2.5 hours for the older two and 30 minutes for the preschooler. With interruptions, it takes much longer. I try to spend 5-6 hours including time for independent reading or projects (painting, coloring, computer time, etc.).

Edited March 24, 2011 by Holly

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I have too much trouble with daily planning so my master plan has weekly goals.

 

I make a big table in MSWord (landscape orientation) with subjects across the top in one set of cells and dates down the left in one column. Then I fill in the info in each cell that I need for each subject. For example page numbers, TOG week, lesson numbers, etc. If I need to adjust it is easy to cut and paste. I try to plan at least half a year at a time.

[elise1mds]

Do you plan weekly, Monthly, per semester, of for the entire year? I set up a rough outline of what I want to accomplish each year and then create rough weekly outlines to accomplish those goals. Sometimes we exceed them, but my goal is to be realistic and flexible in case things come up.

 

How do you break down your subjects? do you do everything everyday? or do you have say math & bible 5 days, grammar/writing 4 days, science & history 3 days, electives 2 days etc. I follow more of a block schedule. We do math and writing daily, spelling and grammar 2-3 times a week, history and science 2-3 times a week (though honestly we do science more often if we have time), and one different elective each day.

 

Do you have a very specific we do math at 9, history at 10, grammar at 11, lunch at noon type schedule? or are you loose about it? I follow my loose weekly schedule and let him select in what order we do things. Usually math happens first, then writing, then it's all up for grabs, but it's not set in stone. There are days we start right at 8 and days we don't start till 11:30. There are days we get done by 9:30 and days we're not done till 4 or 5 p.m. It's all variable.

 

[deleted workbox and 1-on-1 questions as they are n/a to my situation]

 

how long is your school day? See above. Usually they take 2-3 hours.

 

Hope this is helpful :)

[NanceXToo]

I tend to do for the entire year. We use Oak Meadow and it's broken down into weekly lessons, but I feel better having a daily guideline (even if sometimes I only follow it loosely lol). So gradually, over the summer, as I have the time and the inclination, I start a wordpad file breaking it down into daily schedules.

 

This is time consuming.

 

But it's GREAT when the school year comes and all I have to do is open the document, find that lesson, highlight and print selection, and there I have a weekly checklist broken down by day.

 

We do not do everything every day. Here's an example of what our 5th grade schedule looks like:

 

http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/126296.html

 

(that's an example of what a typical week would be like, broken down by day). Then, on the sidebar to the left, you can also find similar for 4th grade, Kindergarten and now 6th grade.

 

I definitely do NOT have a very specific schedule based on what times we do things- that would be a recipe for failure for us lol. I'm a more relaxed homeschooler to begin with, and I like to sort of do school around life rather than living life around school- so we get our stuff done but on a more relaxed schedule. We start when we're ready, we end when we're ready, if we have a field trip or outside class or activity (which we often do), we go do it and time our school day around that.

 

Somehow, it just works for us. I'm happy with the way we do things.

 

We don't use workboxes or time activities. We get done what we can get done and then move on to the next thing. Usually we can get done what we need to in a given day and if we have a particularly busy day and can't do that, I may get back to something the next day or whatever.

 

I am only formally schooling one kid right now- I did give a try earlier in the year to doing two but turned out my son wasn't really ready for K. But when I tried doing 5th and K (and next year it will be 6th and K), I would do the work I wanted to do with my daughter, then leave her doing something I knew she could do independently while I went and worked with my son (and I'd tell her "if you finish that, go have silent reading time" or something). Again, no strict schedule, just however it worked out on a given day.

 

Our school day with my 5th grader can be anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours depending on what we're doing, if we're doing a hands on project, if she's working on a longer writing assignment, if we do extra reading, etc.