Not enough time in the day

[Nestof3]

I am looking at my schedule and feeling discouraged. I am taking my boys to a once-a-week coop for two fun classes because they have essentially no friends and no outside interaction. We've never done anything like this before, and I feel it is important. I am a homebody perfectly happy to stay home, but I am giving up my comfort this upcoming semester for them. I'm not sure yet if we are taking any co-op classes in the spring semester.

 

I am also starting IEW for writing and Latin (which I am nervous about). I honestly don't feel like I am trying to cram too much in. I want an excellent education, I enjoy teaching, I enjoy learning with them, etc.

 

It's fitting it in with everything else. It's handling the paperwork, keeping the house clean, preparing meals, etc.

 

meals

I'm thinking I need to follow through with my meal plan idea (an index card box with index cards in it with various recipes from which I pull from each week to make a weekly meal plan). I probably need to spend some time this summer finalizing this. I feel like it would be so much easier to just know what the meal is for the day, and I would waste so much less food this way.

 

chores

I have the boys share dishwasher duty in the morning (Ben does bottom rack, Nathan does top.) They put their own clothes away and help with folding and putting away towels daily. They clean up their own toys, clean litter box daily and make their own beds. Aside from that, I have failed at implementing a real chore system where they do something special each day. I did it for a while. So, I need to get back on track with that.

 

cleaning up

Once I finish organizing the playroom and their bedroom, I think this will be much easier. We are purging, having a yard sale, and putting another bookshelf in their room so that stuff isn't stacked on top of each other. They will have more room in their playroom, so they won't be dragging quite as much out into the living area (the playroom is the smallest room in the house, and our house is small to begin with).

 

I guess I just feel frustrated, because I know the sort of academics I want to give my boys. I have the passion. I have the resources. I have a great library. But, it's still hard to make it happen.

 

There were so many science activities we never got to this year (that's my worst subject. We read a lot, but activities are just so time-consuming, and half the time, the boys know exactly what the outcome will be). So, planning astronomy and botany next year, I'm trying to be realistic. I am using the Exploring Creation, but I love supplementing with fun, real books too. I don't want any time-consuming activities that are not going to pack a punch in terms of what they teach.

 

Like, creating a solar system model is fun, and I have a styrofoam one I bought from a thrift store years ago that we could use, but does such a time-consuming activity really teach a concept they really need to know beyond just looking at a print-out of the relative size of each planet?

 

I'm attaching my schedule for any comments. Thanks to those who have hung in there! :001_smile:

[Embassy]

Great looking schedule. Looking over it the only things that came to my mind were:

 

- Caesar's English - It is my understanding that this is a semester long curriculum and can usually be done twice a week. I will use it this coming year, but I thought I remember reading that somewhere.

 

- Art / Composer studies - Can you alternate these? One week you study an artist and the next week a composer?

[Nestof3]

- Caesar's English - It is my understanding that this is a semester long curriculum and can usually be done twice a week. I will use it this coming year, but I thought I remember reading that somewhere.

 

I did not know this. So, I could just schedule this once or twice a week, then.

 

- Art / Composer studies - Can you alternate these? One week you study an artist and the next week a composer?

 

 

I would, but I really want to cover more of this. I really enjoy these studies with the boys. ugh

 

THANKS!!!!!

[LittleIzumi]

:grouphug::grouphug: I feel like there's not enough time in the day & I'm only HSing 1st & light K right now! (Hopefully it's the swim lessons that are making it crazy now. I don't know how people HS multiple kids at higher levels. Whoo-wee.)

 

:grouphug::grouphug:

[Karen in CO]

Looking at your schedule, what I noticed most was the amount of time you have for history and science. Have you considered blocking them? Use the whole time for history one day a week and for science the other two? Maybe move some of the history or science reading into a short time somewhere else. It would make time for science activities. As my dd gets older, she prefers to have longer blocks of time for content subjects.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Karen in CO

[FrogMom5]

:grouphug::grouphug: I feel like there's not enough time in the day & I'm only HSing 1st & light K right now! (Hopefully it's the swim lessons that are making it crazy now. I don't know how people HS multiple kids at higher levels. Whoo-wee.)

 

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

You don't clean as much and you eat a lot of peanut butter. :D I make crock pot meals that I can dump in and leave. If I have to keep coming back and adding stuff, I'm not making it. We have peanut butter sandwiches almost daily for lunch. I try to cook once and eat at least twice.

Cleaning is done on Friday afternoons-bathroooms, laundry & general pick-up; and Saturdays - vacuum, more laundry, sometimes dust, sometimes sweep.

Denise

[joannqn]

Cut Caesar's English down to three times a week. Read through the lesson on day 1, have them do any practice/review/activities on day 2, and test on day 3. It has 20 lessons in it.

 

We only do IEW three times a week, but we use the thematic lessons. I disliked the hour long DVD watching in SWI because it made writing take forever. Of course, we didn't finish the full curriculum in a year (partly because of moving).

 

You could block history and science like someone suggested to give you more time. TOPScience has astronomy sets that look like they actually teach rather than just observing something you already know. I tend to not like the experiments in Apologia as much.

[Lily_Grace]

Your schedule will shift as you get a feel of what they can accomplish during those times. And when in doubt, KISS. Get rid of one or two extras to make room for better teaching/learning of the subjects you have left. It's better to go deeper than to skim across the top, kwim?

 

Science is one area I struggle with, too. This year I stumbled on physics kits meant for the classroom and by golly, I'll pay the extra to have everything ready to go in one tub with the experiments on laminated cards he can write on. I'm like you, I don't want to waste my time on something he won't get much out of - we don't build a lot of paper projects or put together diagram models if he's not going to get more information out of it. When we touched on the solar system we grabbed a bunch of balls and fruit from the house and went out into the neighborhood. The sun sat in our front yard and we got up to two blocks away before putting Neptune down. THAT, he got something out of! And it was quick, we got exercise doing it, and it cemented the concept of planet size and distance in his head in a way that made sense to him.

[Chris in VA]

You are so organized, Dawn! I really admire that.

 

Given that you are doing two English programs, I would just cut out Daily Grams and Megawords, and even the diagramming sheets. I feel they all would be redundant. I would just plan on getting vocab from the reading your kids are doing. Rod and Staff has plenty of diagramming already, imo.

You could then use that hour just for maths.

 

As far as chores for the boys, I just scheduled the chores into my son's day (he was in high school, and considered chores the "price of homeschooling." lol). I'd also make one kid in charge of the whole dishwasher every other day--while the other kid scoops the cat box, or something like that. There's something to be said for taking time as a family to do work around the house, but sometimes little chores like the above can be done efficiently in the bits of time between other things.

 

For menu planning--if you already know by heart the meals and ingredients for those meals, then just shop by meal--

 

We made a list of everything we know how to make for dinner. Then each week, we pick 7 dinner meals--we look at the specials in the store flyer first to see what's on sale, and build around that. I write the meals on the bottom of an envelope (turned vertically), then list the ingredients I don't have on the left side of the envelope, and household/non-food items we need on the right. I fill in the list with snacks, fruits, milk/eggs/bread (daily stuff not really associated with a meal). We make sure we always have soup, pb&J, lunchmeat, etc for lunch, and fruits and veggies for snacks. We shop once a week (occasionally I'll pick up stuff during the week). When we come home from the grocery store, we put everything away, tear off the bottom of the envelope, and post it on the fridge. I can choose from any of the seven dinners any day (tho sometimes I use the more "fresh stuff" earlier in the week--like, if fajitas is on the list, I make sure the avocado is ripe enough but not too ripe, or, we have pasta salad earlier in the week so the tomatoes and veggies in it are still ok...) which gives me a choice and flexibility, but not too much so that it's hard to decide.

 

Oh, and we use an envelope because we tuck coupons in it while shopping so we don't have to sclepp the whole coupon container with us. Having a list like this cuts down on time, takes just a couple of minutes to make, and ensures I have everything I need to make the dinner. Breakfasts and lunch are easy and not planned, necessarily.

 

Anyway, hope these tips help--YMMV, of course!:D

[Nestof3]

Looking at your schedule, what I noticed most was the amount of time you have for history and science. Have you considered blocking them? Use the whole time for history one day a week and for science the other two? Maybe move some of the history or science reading into a short time somewhere else. It would make time for science activities. As my dd gets older, she prefers to have longer blocks of time for content subjects.

 

I feel horrible about just doing 30 minutes each three times a week and wondering how I will get through everything. I don't know how I could get a whole week's worth of history done in one hour. I would honestly prefer to have an hour for each five days a week. ugh

[Mommyfaithe]

Dawn, love the schedule.

I don't think you are giving yourself enough time to thoroughly cover maths. Maybe cut out the extra language arts...just use R&S and Caesars Engkish and ditch the extra diagramming and Megawords. Those seem redundant and will open up that extra few minutes to cover math.

 

Faithe

[Nestof3]

Cut Caesar's English down to three times a week. Read through the lesson on day 1, have them do any practice/review/activities on day 2, and test on day 3. It has 20 lessons in it.

 

Great. I will cut that down. I love word roots as do my boys, but this seems like a very light book. :)

 

We only do IEW three times a week, but we use the thematic lessons. I disliked the hour long DVD watching in SWI because it made writing take forever. Of course, we didn't finish the full curriculum in a year (partly because of moving).

 

I have SWI, but I also want to write using history, science and literature we use. I'm also not feeling pressed to finish the whole thing in one year. If we get through key word outlines and some dress-ups this year, I'll be happy. :)

 

I tend to not like the experiments in Apologia as much.

 

Glad I'm not the only one. LOL I do have some teacher resource books that have nice labs with lab report sheets and such. I may coordinate some of them. I don't have time in my schedule for mere projects unless Ben wants to do one on his own.

[Nestof3]

Your schedule will shift as you get a feel of what they can accomplish during those times. And when in doubt, KISS. Get rid of one or two extras to make room for better teaching/learning of the subjects you have left. It's better to go deeper than to skim across the top, kwim?

 

Science is one area I struggle with, too. This year I stumbled on physics kits meant for the classroom and by golly, I'll pay the extra to have everything ready to go in one tub with the experiments on laminated cards he can write on. I'm like you, I don't want to waste my time on something he won't get much out of - we don't build a lot of paper projects or put together diagram models if he's not going to get more information out of it. When we touched on the solar system we grabbed a bunch of balls and fruit from the house and went out into the neighborhood. The sun sat in our front yard and we got up to two blocks away before putting Neptune down. THAT, he got something out of! And it was quick, we got exercise doing it, and it cemented the concept of planet size and distance in his head in a way that made sense to him.

 

Thanks! Sounds nice and easy.

[Nestof3]

You are so organized, Dawn! I really admire that.

Thanks!

 

Given that you are doing two English programs, I would just cut out Daily Grams and Megawords, and even the diagramming sheets. I feel they all would be redundant. I would just plan on getting vocab from the reading your kids are doing. Rod and Staff has plenty of diagramming already, imo.

You could then use that hour just for maths.

 

Daily Grams is a must which takes 5 minutes. They are able to do it in their independent slot. It really has been one of the best things I've ever used in our homeschooling. Megawords is their spelling program. The diagramming sheets are sentences from Rod and Staff grammar. They have this annoying feature of skipping several days of diagramming, so I type the sentences from the next few diagramming portions into groups of three so they have a little diagramming every day. My boys do better with a little review each day (Daily Grams, diagramming). We do the Rod and Staff grammar orally and together. I also feel that learning the roots is so important. We do a little each year, and the boys really take to it. The other day, my husband was reading the boys a little history story at night, and he used the word speculate (in context of gold mining). Ben piped up, "Mom, spec is the root word for 'to see.'"

 

I know I'm a pain.

 

Oh, and the boys do their entire Saxon lesson in their one hour independent time with the exception of the problems from the new lesson. This is what I teach later in the day. That has been working well for us. It breaks up the math lesson.

 

As far as chores for the boys, I just scheduled the chores into my son's day (he was in high school, and considered chores the "price of homeschooling." lol). I'd also make one kid in charge of the whole dishwasher every other day--while the other kid scoops the cat box, or something like that. There's something to be said for taking time as a family to do work around the house, but sometimes little chores like the above can be done efficiently in the bits of time between other things.

 

I know. I was so good about a chore chart with our eldest. I don't know when I got so slack. I think parenting two around the same age has sort of worn me out. I also feel like I've been on hyper parenting mode since I married Aaron's dad when A. was 8. I thought he was difficult (which he was). Now, I have two more and it seems more than twice as difficult. I really just need to pick myself off the floor and get into starting all over mode. Perhaps when my thyroid meds start working, I'll feel more energetic. ugh

 

CHORE CHART WILL be implemented again! Tomorrow in fact. It's still on the wall looking like I have it all together. :lol:

 

We made a list of everything we know how to make for dinner. Then each week, we pick 7 dinner meals--we look at the specials in the store flyer first to see what's on sale, and build around that. I write the meals on the bottom of an envelope (turned vertically), then list the ingredients I don't have on the left side of the envelope, and household/non-food items we need on the right. I fill in the list with snacks, fruits, milk/eggs/bread (daily stuff not really associated with a meal). We make sure we always have soup, pb&J, lunchmeat, etc for lunch, and fruits and veggies for snacks. We shop once a week (occasionally I'll pick up stuff during the week). When we come home from the grocery store, we put everything away, tear off the bottom of the envelope, and post it on the fridge. I can choose from any of the seven dinners any day (tho sometimes I use the more "fresh stuff" earlier in the week--like, if fajitas is on the list, I make sure the avocado is ripe enough but not too ripe, or, we have pasta salad earlier in the week so the tomatoes and veggies in it are still ok...) which gives me a choice and flexibility, but not too much so that it's hard to decide.

 

Oh, and we use an envelope because we tuck coupons in it while shopping so we don't have to sclepp the whole coupon container with us. Having a list like this cuts down on time, takes just a couple of minutes to make, and ensures I have everything I need to make the dinner. Breakfasts and lunch are easy and not planned, necessarily.

 

 

That is one of the coolest ways of shopping/planning I've ever heard. I love it. Thanks so much!

[Nestof3]

Dawn, love the schedule.

I don't think you are giving yourself enough time to thoroughly cover maths. Maybe cut out the extra language arts...just use R&S and Caesars Engkish and ditch the extra diagramming and Megawords. Those seem redundant and will open up that extra few minutes to cover math.

 

Faithe

 

The diagramming sheets are sentences from Rod and Staff grammar. They have this annoying feature of skipping several days of diagramming, so I type the sentences from the next few diagramming portions into groups of three so they have a little diagramming every day. My boys do better with a little review each day (Daily Grams, diagramming). We do the Rod and Staff grammar orally and together.

 

Oh, and the boys do their entire Saxon lesson in their one hour independent time with the exception of the problems from the new lesson. This is what I teach later in the day. That has been working well for us. It breaks up the math lesson.

 

I hand-pick Saxon problems so they do not do the entire lesson (they always do the word problems in the first half, but I choose the computation based on what they struggle with and try not to repeat a problem unless it is something they need extra practice on. Nathan finishes his Saxon (except the new problems and lesson I teach) in 15-20 min. Ben takes a little longer because he dilly-dallies. They know if they do not finish their non-new problems during their independent time (that hour), they have to finish it once we finish for school (like homework).

 

So, math is broken up into two times. A new lesson takes us about 10-15 minutes for each child (teaching the lesson and doing a couple practice and lesson problems).

[Nestof3]

Maybe this would work for you too, but we do 2 weeks of history alternated with 2 weeks of science. (That would be for a total of 8 days each because we do a 4 day school week.)

 

I plan to do Caesar's English 2 x per week.

 

That might work well for us. I hadn't thought of that. My aim for history is to finish SOTW 3 this year (chapters 22-42) and then end the year with the Beautiful Feet geography.

 

For science, I want to get through astronomy and botany in that order.

[Coffeemama]

:grouphug: I'm struggling with similar issues...thank you so much for sharing your schedule. Just wanted to share that others (ME!) learn so much from listening in on threads like this.:001_smile:

 

We are also participating in a co-op one day a week. I'm planning to schedule an hour or so of evening work on this day, since I'm having trouble fitting everything into a four day week.

[Nestof3]

We are also about halfway through SOTW 3. That always seems to happen! We take our time with it though.

 

An idea for meals is to prepare some ahead on the weekend. I think I'll be doing that this year because there are many days and nights I won't have a lot of time.

 

We take our time as well, and we read all sorts of other books (my boys like that part the best).

 

I need to use my crockpot for something, but I don't really have any great recipes.

 

I also make meals which I completely forget about. Like tacos. We all love them when I make them, and then I forget about it. Same with tuna casserole, veggie quiche, etc. Can you tell cooking is not my favorite thing?

 

I like healthy food, but I could eat very simply. Food prep just seems like such a waste of time when you could just graze on simple foods all day long. LOL

[Nestof3]

:grouphug: I'm struggling with similar issues...thank you so much for sharing your schedule. Just wanted to share that others (ME!) learn so much from listening in on threads like this.:001_smile:

 

We are also participating in a co-op one day a week. I'm planning to schedule an hour or so of evening work on this day, since I'm having trouble fitting everything into a four day week.

 

I'm glad it's helping.

 

I know what I want. I want to take my kids to a cozy wonderful school with room for just us. I will have a janitor service and food service there.

 

We will then come home to our perfectly clean home where dinner and my husband will be awaiting us. :lol:

[Nestof3]

I love cooking, but not so much when I don't have time. I hate being rushed through it.

 

Maybe that's what it is. Before I got married, I would peruse healthy living magazines, try new recipes, just sort of enjoy it all.

 

Now it's just another thing to mark off the list. Oh, and I also have three people to please (I can eat just about anything though I prefer to eat healthy things). Nathan is my carbs and carnivore kid who agrees to eat raw carrots and cucumbers nightly for his vegetables. My husband can be nit-picky about vegetables since his mother cooked hers for hours or fried them.

 

So, I eat the way I want for breakfast and lunch, and I work around it at dinner time.

 

Oh, and did I mention I also want to work out daily? Well, I have a heel injury, so I had to stop (and I'm not happy about that), but I hope after some resting I can get back into things.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Well, first...I know just how you feel. I never feel like there's enough time for school and then the rest of life (cooking/cleaning).

 

I will say, I'd ditch the RS. If you're using all the easy independent materials (spelling, diagramming, DG) and doing intensive writing (SWI), I'd incorporate grammar right in there.

 

I'd also prefer to do a 1-hour block of science/history in one day. 30min would no t be enough to accomplish a task over here. I'd be crazy.

 

Finally, I'd cut out one more thing from the Piano day so you can enjoy lunch at home. Eating in the car never seems to go well in our family. We're either rushed or end up eating poorly. Food matters :)

 

Best wishes on a successful year.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Are you using Apologia for the Astronomy and Botany? If so I don't think that 1.5 hours a week will be enough time. We tried to do both last year and we were so rushed that we might as well not have done it at all. There was no time for extra enrichment and rushing through the experiments took all the fun out of them. Your dc are old enough though that you might be able to have them do the reading earlier in the day or maybe in the evening and then your 30 minutes, 3x a week could be spent on discussion and experiments. If your not using Apologia then disregard the above.:D

[kalanamak]

Now it's just another thing to mark off the list. Oh, and I also have three people to please (I can eat just about anything though I prefer to eat healthy things). Nathan is my carbs and carnivore kid who agrees to eat raw carrots and cucumbers nightly for his vegetables. My husband can be nit-picky about vegetables since his mother cooked hers for hours or fried them.

 

 

I often make a big bot of sauce on the weekend: part of the incredients go to ratatoille, some for stew, some for pasta sauce, and by the end of the week the pasta sauce leftovers go into ministrone. That is, can you cook ahead on weekends?

Can your child scrub carrots and peep cucks?

Can you do just a little of school on the weekends, like the art or just grammar, to free up a little time during the week?

[8filltheheart]

I have 2 routines that I have to follow in order to stay sane while homeschooling.

 

First, the very first thing I do when I climb out of bed is throw in a load of laundry. Laundry is a huge battle to maintain control of in our household. By doing this, I have something productive started immediately.

 

Second is crock pot cooking. I use my crock pot a lot. I have been trying new recipes this summer. I try to double up my recipes so we can have leftovers for lunch.......feeding my crew is another huge time-consumer.

 

FWIW, I cannot function in chaos or disorder. I have to have a very clean house and everything under control or I start to shut down mentally.

 

HTH

[EKS]

My suggestion would be to start at 8 instead of 9.

[onaclairadeluna]

Your schedule looks fun and I understand why you want to keep everything.

 

I think working in blocks is a great suggestion.

 

Another idea that works for me is teaching the "fun" things at night. I have done this with both of my kids at times (13 and 6). When I work with my 13 year old I do it after I put my young one to bed and when I work with my 6 year old I do it as a bedtime "story". Poetry, art, music, history, science and literature have all worked for me at this time. I am not a scheduled type, we get inspired to do something and if we don't have time during the day we move it to the evenings.

[Nestof3]

 

I'd also prefer to do a 1-hour block of science/history in one day. 30min would no t be enough to accomplish a task over here. I'd be crazy.

 

Finally, I'd cut out one more thing from the Piano day so you can enjoy lunch at home. Eating in the car never seems to go well in our family. We're either rushed or end up eating poorly. Food matters :)

 

Best wishes on a successful year.

 

I'm still considering the block schedule. Last year, we did science and history daily, but we didn't do many science activities and we never do history projects.

 

I was thinking of preparing lunch in a divided storage container that I use a lot to serve their lunch at home. Their lunch is usually a sandwich, cheese stick, carrot sticks and fruit. I figured I could whip these up quickly. We don't eat fast food unless my husband is home and takes the boys somewhere.

 

I really hate that neither piano nor co-op is very close to my house (20-25 min).

[Nestof3]

Are you using Apologia for the Astronomy and Botany? If so I don't think that 1.5 hours a week will be enough time. We tried to do both last year and we were so rushed that we might as well not have done it at all. There was no time for extra enrichment and rushing through the experiments took all the fun out of them. Your dc are old enough though that you might be able to have them do the reading earlier in the day or maybe in the evening and then your 30 minutes, 3x a week could be spent on discussion and experiments. If your not using Apologia then disregard the above.:D

 

So, perhaps only schedule one textbook this year? I already have supplemental reading chosen for astronomy, and I have some lab stuff from when I was planning to use God's Design (which bored me to tears).

 

Perhaps this will be a better choice. We could hold off on botany until the following year. My boys have already grown plants from seeds, we garden and such, so some of the hands-on have already been done.

[Nestof3]

I often make a big bot of sauce on the weekend: part of the incredients go to ratatoille, some for stew, some for pasta sauce, and by the end of the week the pasta sauce leftovers go into ministrone. That is, can you cook ahead on weekends?

Can your child scrub carrots and peep cucks?

Can you do just a little of school on the weekends, like the art or just grammar, to free up a little time during the week?

 

Yes, all of these are feasible. Sometimes artist, composer and poetry will be done in the van while on the way to co-op and piano since it's about 25 minutes both ways.

[Nestof3]

I have 2 routines that I have to follow in order to stay sane while homeschooling.

 

First, the very first thing I do when I climb out of bed is throw in a load of laundry. Laundry is a huge battle to maintain control of in our household. By doing this, I have something productive started immediately.

 

Second is crock pot cooking. I use my crock pot a lot. I have been trying new recipes this summer. I try to double up my recipes so we can have leftovers for lunch.......feeding my crew is another huge time-consumer.

 

FWIW, I cannot function in chaos or disorder. I have to have a very clean house and everything under control or I start to shut down mentally.

 

HTH

 

You sound very much like me. :)

[Nestof3]

My suggestion would be to start at 8 instead of 9.

 

That would put me getting up at 6 am. I'm not sure if I can commit to that. ugh

[Nestof3]

Your schedule looks fun and I understand why you want to keep everything.

 

I think working in blocks is a great suggestion.

 

Another idea that works for me is teaching the "fun" things at night. I have done this with both of my kids at times (13 and 6). When I work with my 13 year old I do it after I put my young one to bed and when I work with my 6 year old I do it as a bedtime "story". Poetry, art, music, history, science and literature have all worked for me at this time. I am not a scheduled type, we get inspired to do something and if we don't have time during the day we move it to the evenings.

 

The truth is, once I'm done spending all day with the boys, making dinner, etc., I'm tried of being around people.

[Julie Smith]

Finally, I'd cut out one more thing from the Piano day so you can enjoy lunch at home. Eating in the car never seems to go well in our family. We're either rushed or end up eating poorly. Food matters :)

 

Best wishes on a successful year.

 

We don't use the car much. Living in a nicely designed town is nice. My typical longest trip in the car on a weekly basis is less then 10 minutes one way.

 

But since we don't spend much time in the car, and I don't like to be in the car. When we are going on a long trip. Longer then 20 minutes I try to schedule it around lunch and make the kids a lunch bucket to eat out of. Seems like less of a waste of time in the car. Also gives me and the kids a change from lunch at home, or a picnic lunch out when having a bike adventure.

 

So if eating in the car works for you, then do it that way. Other then that I can't comment on your schedule. My kids are much younger, and at this stage we are basically unschoolers. :$

Edited July 17, 2011 by Julie Smith

[8filltheheart]

We don't use the car much. Living in a nicely designed town is nice. My typical longest trip in the car on a weekly basis is less then 10 minutes one way.

 

But since we don't spend much time in the car, and I don't like to be in the car. When we are going on a long trip. Longer then 20 minutes I try to schedule it around lunch and make the kids a lunch bucket to eat out of. Seems like less of a waste of time in the car.

 

 

LOL.....that would be disastrous here! And we live in a town where in order to go anywhere to do anything more than likely it is at least 30 min away. The city sprawls and sprawls and sprawls.:tongue_smilie:

 

My car would be full of crumbs and dishes, the kids would still be hungry, the little ones would be messy. Way more work than to simply stay home for 10 extra minutes. Now if I only had neat teenage girls, then maybe that would be a good plan. But my kids tend to be more like Pig-Pen. :lol:

[Julie Smith]

LOL.....that would be disastrous here! And we live in a town where in order to go anywhere to do anything more than likely it is at least 30 min away. The city sprawls and sprawls and sprawls.:tongue_smilie:

 

My car would be full of crumbs and dishes, the kids would still be hungry, the little ones would be messy. Way more work than to simply stay home for 10 extra minutes. Now if I only had neat teenage girls, then maybe that would be a good plan. But my kids tend to be more like Pig-Pen. :lol:

 

Well my kids are use to two lunches a day. So one lunch could just be raw vegetables and raw soya dogs. No to crumby.

 

But I admit my bike can start looking like a pig-pen if I dont' clean it out regularly. I think my kids average about 60K a week just getting around to parks, pools, library, grocery shopping... and between my knapsack, two saddle bags, front basket, bags and baskets on the kids bikes. :p

 

(We wouldn't discuss the state of my car. I admit the only reason it stays as clean as it does - which isn't very clean at all, is because i don't use it much. Even then it gets bad enough to have my dear dear hubby complaining about it)

[5LittleMonkeys]

So, perhaps only schedule one textbook this year? I already have supplemental reading chosen for astronomy, and I have some lab stuff from when I was planning to use God's Design (which bored me to tears).

 

Perhaps this will be a better choice. We could hold off on botany until the following year. My boys have already grown plants from seeds, we garden and such, so some of the hands-on have already been done.

 

Yes, I wish we had only done the Astronomy last year. It was a subject dd didn't have any previous knowledge in and it would have been so nice to really explore it, go down rabbit trails, and add in lots of enrichment. 1.5 hours a week will work much better for one book in my opinion.

[Nestof3]

My husband and I are both neat freaks about our van. The boys know nothing is allowed to be left in the van when we get home including any trash. We always pack snacks, lunches, drinks and stuff when we go on trips, and I always bring a snack for the boys and waters when we go to piano (they call them snack plates). They also each have a canvas bag in which they put things they want to bring with them when we go somewhere more than ten min. away (books, MP3 player, hand-held video device, etc).

 

They're pretty neat boys, surprisingly. I also have little ziplock bags in the glove box -- one for wipes, one for napkins, one for trash bags, etc.

 

I'll let you know how weird I am. When we bought our van, I bought two bath towels and two hand towels that match out interior from Target. I put the hand towels under their booster seats, and the bath towels are in the back of the van in case I need to put them down due to muddy conditions somewhere (like if I need to take the boys shoes off) or to put down when we buy plants and such from Home Depot. :auto: I'm sure I'm clinical. ;)

 

Now, things were a little more difficult when they were younger. :D

 

We don't use the car much. Living in a nicely designed town is nice. My typical longest trip in the car on a weekly basis is less then 10 minutes one way.

 

But since we don't spend much time in the car, and I don't like to be in the car. When we are going on a long trip. Longer then 20 minutes I try to schedule it around lunch and make the kids a lunch bucket to eat out of. Seems like less of a waste of time in the car. Also gives me and the kids a change from lunch at home, or a picnic lunch out when having a bike adventure.

 

So if eating in the car works for you, then do it that way. Other then that I can't comment on your schedule. My kids are much younger, and at this stage we are basically unschoolers. :$

 

LOL.....that would be disastrous here! And we live in a town where in order to go anywhere to do anything more than likely it is at least 30 min away. The city sprawls and sprawls and sprawls.:tongue_smilie:

 

My car would be full of crumbs and dishes, the kids would still be hungry, the little ones would be messy. Way more work than to simply stay home for 10 extra minutes. Now if I only had neat teenage girls, then maybe that would be a good plan. But my kids tend to be more like Pig-Pen. :lol:

[Nestof3]

But I admit my bike can start looking like a pig-pen if I dont' clean it out regularly. I think my kids average about 60K a week just getting around to parks, pools, library, grocery shopping... and between my knapsack, two saddle bags, front basket, bags and baskets on the kids bikes. :p

 

 

 

I really want to use our bikes more in the fall for the library when the weather is nice, and I've been looking for baskets. Do you have any you recommend?

[5LittleMonkeys]

The truth is, once I'm done spending all day with the boys, making dinner, etc., I'm tried of being around people.

 

:iagree:

[8filltheheart]

My husband and I are both neat freaks about our van. The boys know nothing is allowed to be left in the van when we get home including any trash. We always pack snacks, lunches, drinks and stuff when we go on trips, and I always bring a snack for the boys and waters when we go to piano (they call them snack plates). They also each have a canvas bag in which they put things they want to bring with them when we go somewhere more than ten min. away (books, MP3 player, hand-held video device, etc).

 

They're pretty neat boys, surprisingly. I also have little ziplock bags in the glove box -- one for wipes, one for napkins, one for trash bags, etc.

 

I'll let you know how weird I am. When we bought our van, I bought two bath towels and two hand towels that match out interior from Target. I put the hand towels under their booster seats, and the bath towels are in the back of the van in case I need to put them down due to muddy conditions somewhere (like if I need to take the boys shoes off) or to put down when we buy plants and such from Home Depot. :auto: I'm sure I'm clinical. ;)

 

Now, things were a little more difficult when they were younger. :D

 

Not to derail your thread.....but I'm sure I am too. We keep cans of lysol in the car so that when they go in public restrooms, we can spray the bottoms of their shoes!! (Our van only has 1 side door, so they are always climbing all over each other. Yuck!)

[Nestof3]

:iagree:

 

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if I had quiet kids who just listened to me read. I get through a few sentences, and I'm immediately asked a question, or one of the boys knows something else about what I just read, or whatever.

 

Ben has a problem (one of many with whatever is going on with him that has not been diagnosed) with remembering something he wants to say. He forgets it very quickly, and he becomes highly agitated if he forgets (he has some OCD and other issues), so I usually allow him to interrupt me.

 

I realize it is not ideal, but I try to remind myself that the boys learn a lot by the dialogue and they really love adding in their information. I remember being the kid who always had my hand up to answer questions and hated the fact that the teacher did all the talking. :lol:

 

But, both of them are kids that wear you down quickly. :svengo:

[Nestof3]

Not to derail your thread.....but I'm sure I am too. We keep cans of lysol in the car so that when they go in public restrooms, we can spray the bottoms of their shoes!! (Our van only has 1 side door, so they are always climbing all over each other. Yuck!)

 

Now you just gave me something else to obsess over. :lol:

 

Well, I'm off to finish organizing the play room. We're going through every labeled drawer and getting rid of things so they have more room to play. Shoot -- more room to just turn around.

 

Now, I have to go disassemble one plastic drawer unit in order to get rid of one tower by making the other five taller by one drawer.

[woolybear]

One thing I've been considering about my scheduling is the idea that we can have it all, just not all at once. So, I may stagger some of our language arts programs, lighten up on some things in the fall when we are busier and then add in more in the winter.

 

I also have too much, and I know we don't have to do it all, but I want to. I think I will regret it if we try to do everything I have planned, so I think what I posted above may help that.

 

It is so helpful reading everyone else's suggestions.

 

Also, I used to cook for a living, but generally I don't enjoy cooking around here. I think the lack of time, money (I worked in *nice* restaurants where we had wonderful, sometimes expensive ingredients), but most especially all the picky, quirky eaters makes it way less fun. Particularly as they are rarely appreciative of extra work put into cooking. I'll definitely be firing up the crock pot more this year.

 

:bigear: to all the other wise women here.

[Paula in MS]

My schedule is going to be pretty hectic next year as well, so I can the pressure of trying to fit everything in. We started SWI A over the summer with a 9 year old reluctant writer. If you want to take it slowly through the year, I believe you have over scheduled writing. The DVD lessons are fairly long, but there are practice lessons afterwards that do not require the DVD. (Andrew Pudewa can be really long winded.). I think you could do an outline one day and then the writing the next day. You could do 2 lessons a week for 4 days. This would free up an hour a week. You would probably have time in those 4 hours for editing as well. You could do IEW as written for the first half of the year, then apply it to your studies the second half of the year.

 

I also think you could do Latin for children in 4 days. The schedule for LFC suggests combining day 1 and day 5 for a 4 week schedule. This would give you another 30 minutes. You could listen to the chant cd in the car for extra practice between lessons.

 

You could listen to SOTW on audio book for a little help as well. You could choose a certain number of chapters to cover well and then just simply listen to the rest. This takes off some pressure with history. It is just a lot of information to cover in-depth. I know yours are a little older than mine, and you are probably feeling that pressure to ramp everything up a notch. But, it is something to consider.

 

We are doing some co-op classes this year as well as adding classical conversations to the mix. She also has 3 ballet classes per week. I am trying to focus on IEW, art and grammar for the summer to make the rest of the year go more smoothly. I have also considered doing some school on Saturday as well. I am also in the process of putting playlists on the iPod, iPad and sansa to take advantage of the drive time (cc memory work, Latin, addition songs, SOTW, classics for kids podcasts). This is going to be difficult because driving time is when she usually wants to have the deep discussions about life. :lol:

 

You might be able to pare lunch down to 30 minutes as well. I am not a morning person, but I am going to have to start school at 8 every morning next year to be able to pull off my schedule.

 

I hope my rambling helps a bit. I had a lot of plans 3 months ago that I have determined to be unrealistic, like doing outlining for every chapter of SOTW 4 as well as IEW. It is just not going to happen. You may have to adjust your expectations to make the outside classes work.

 

Paula

[5LittleMonkeys]

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if I had quiet kids

 

WHAT! You mean there is such a thing...where can I exchange mine for some of those?

[katilac]

I have no advice; I just wanted to stop by and admire the loveliness of your color-coded schedule :D

[T'smom]

It might be something to consider to do science on Mon/Tues and history on Thurs/Fri (co-op was on Wed....right?) One of the nice things about the block scheduling like that is it eliminates the transition time of putting one away and getting out the other so you spend more "time on task". BUT- the personalities in my family seem to be suited to spend a lot of time at once instead of several little times. It's not be for everyone. You may be able to utilize the car time to listen to audio books, quiz spelling/vocab words, mental math, discuss the latest history chapter, etc. It doesn't really help eliminate something on the schedule, but it might help you feel more productive and less like you're wasting that time.

 

HTH!

[Julie Smith]

I have no advice; I just wanted to stop by and admire the loveliness of your color-coded schedule :D

 

I always pictured having one like that. But, it just doesn't fit for us right now. All we do is piano, read something, and listen to books. Listen to a science audio recording of Mr. Q during a meal, (breakfast or lunch).

 

So it would be impossible to make a nice schedule. :( So I'm envious of yours.

[Miss Tick]

Sigh, I love your schedule. I also like some of the regular chores you listed - it can be overwhelming to try to do EVERYTHING yourself.

 

Perhaps you could treat the 2 weeks or month as a trial period and then sit down and see what is working. This may be more of a mental trick, relieving you of pressure that if this schedule makes you crazy you are committed to it for the entire year.

 

Can you start doing some lessons now? Maybe math? Then you are a few lessons "ahead" if you need to cut back a day once in a while? Maybe math isn't a good choice - art/music or poetry, something that doesn't need so much regular repetition.

 

I make a menu for 2 weeks at a time. Then I do a big shopping trip and on the "middle" weekend I pick up fruit, milk, etc. from closer grocery stores. This method would work even better if I incorporated one or two of the ideas I've read on this post. If I had a "suggestion" list of meals we like, it would take some of the chore out of writing the menu and accompanying grocery list.

 

Good luck!

[Nestof3]

One thing I've been considering about my scheduling is the idea that we can have it all, just not all at once. So, I may stagger some of our language arts programs, lighten up on some things in the fall when we are busier and then add in more in the winter.

 

 

 

Yes, if we don't do co-op in the spring, our spring semester will be much lighter. I tried to reschedule piano on Tuesday as well, but she doesn't think she can work that out.