School taking all day long.

[desiree77]

*amended schedule shows what I took out in red and what I added in bold. (How come we don't have strike through?)

 

 

I feel like a slave to my children's education. If I am doing what I think I should be doing, I am working all day with no breaks. What I think I should be doing and what I want to be doing, are not jiving. I never thought homeschooling would be an 8 hour day for me.

 

Here's the schedule I've been working on:

 

MORNING- Work with younger kids

 

 

• Up, dress, chores, breakfast
   
  
• Assign oldest two Independent work and get them started. 10 min
   
  
• Bible with youngest three (Et, Em, Jo) - 15 min
  
• 
  
• Et works with mommy - AAR prelevel 1 and Math - 30 min
   
  
• Em works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min
   
  
• Mommy reads aloud to youngest three - 1 hour - 30 minutes
   
  
• Jo works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min
   
  
• History/Geography work for youngest three if time permits - up to 1 hour
  

 

 

AFTERNOON- Work with older kids

 

 

• Lunch and clean up - 45 min
   
  
• Go over oldest two (L and J) independent work - 30 min with each
   
  
• Bible with L and J - review reading and bible study - 20 min
   
  
• Sonlight Core E History, Maps and Timeline with L and J - 45 min
   
  
• Enrichment Activity with all: M-Science, T-Hymns, W-Poetry, Th-Science, F-Art - 1 hour move to Fridays
  
• 
  
• Read-Aloud to L and J - 30 min
  

 

 

If you add up all those minutes, it's 7 hour and 45 minutes! That's not including transition time and unexpected interruptions.

 

If I start at 8:30 AM (and I haven't gotten up before 8:00 in months!), then I can finish all this by 5:00. Twice a week I have to be out the door by 4:00 to take kids to gymnastics. I can do the less time consuming enrichment stuff on those days.

 

I've spent the last three weeks on vacation, and I'm trying to plan for January. I have no idea how I am going to sustain this amount of work. I'm not a go-getter. I don't have endless energy or run great on 4 hours of sleep.

 

I don't feel that it's reasonable for *me* to routinely accomplish this kind of day, and yet I can't see where anything can give. :confused:

Edited December 1, 2011 by desiree77

[Bang!Zoom!]

You are doing subject by time schedule everyday.

 

Have you thought about block scheduling?

[CalicoKat]

I feel like a slave to my children's education. If I am doing what I think I should be doing, I am working all day with no breaks. What I think I should be doing and what I want to be doing, are not jiving. I never thought homeschooling would be an 8 hour day for me.

 

Here's the schedule I've been working on:

 

MORNING- Work with younger kids

 

• Up, dress, chores, breakfast
   
  
• Assign oldest two Independent work and get them started. 10 min
   
  
• Bible with youngest three (Et, Em, Jo) - 15 min
  
• 
  
• Et works with mommy - AAR prelevel 1 and Math - 30 min
   
  
• Em works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min
   
  
• Mommy reads aloud to youngest three - 1 hour
   
  
• Jo works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min
   
  
• History/Geography work for youngest three if time permits - up to 1 hour
  

 

AFTERNOON- Work with older kids

 

• Lunch and clean up - 45 min
   
  
• Go over oldest two (L and J) independent work - 30 min with each
   
  
• Bible with L and J - review reading and bible study - 20 min
   
  
• Sonlight Core E History, Maps and Timeline with L and J - 45 min
   
  
• Enrichment Activity with all: M-Science, T-Hymns, W-Poetry, Th-Science, F-Art - 1 hour
  
• 
  
• Read-Aloud to L and J - 30 min
  

 

If you add up all those minutes, it's 7 hour and 45 minutes! That's not including transition time and unexpected interruptions.

 

If I start at 8:30 AM (and I haven't gotten up before 8:00 in months!), then I can finish all this by 5:00. Twice a week I have to be out the door by 4:00 to take kids to gymnastics. I can do the less time consuming enrichment stuff on those days.

 

I've spent the last three weeks on vacation, and I'm trying to plan for January. I have no idea how I am going to sustain this amount of work. I'm not a go-getter. I don't have endless energy or run great on 4 hours of sleep.

 

I don't feel that it's reasonable for *me* to routinely accomplish this kind of day, and yet I can't see where anything can give. :confused:

 

I get to do my teaching first thing. Then they get to work on their work at their own pace. :D I do Bible, history, science, art, and read alouds all before breakfast. The afternoon is for independent work and individual coaching. This has freed me up hugely. Reading is always scheduled right after lunch so they can do their reading during the quiet nap time.

 

Do you have to explain/assign the independent work daily or do you give them a weekly assignment sheet? My older three have a weekly assignment sheet. It's adjustable so don't plan too far ahead. I do one week at a time. :001_smile: I do have a year plan for each kiddo that helps me to see where we need to focus more energy if we're getting behind.

 

:grouphug::grouphug: But then there are long days no matter what. On those days at 3:30 p.m. I call it quitting time. Schools out and its time for us to do something different. Tomorrow we'll get back on the pony.

[desiree77]

You are doing subject by time schedule everyday.

 

Have you thought about block scheduling?

 

I'm not a rigid enough homeschooler for a block schedule to work.

[desiree77]

I get to do my teaching first thing. Then they get to work on their work at their own pace. :D I do Bible, history, science, art, and read alouds all before breakfast. The afternoon is for independent work and individual coaching. This has freed me up hugely. Reading is always scheduled right after lunch so they can do their reading during the quiet nap time.

 

Do you have to explain/assign the independent work daily or do you give them a weekly assignment sheet?.

 

Yes, they have a sheet. But sometimes I need to teach their grammar lesson or explain their writing assignment. It's not a daily thing.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I have four children, ages 7 to 15. Homeschooling is at least a full-time job for me. I've been putting in 8-10 hour days for several years now.

 

I'm happier than I've been in awhile because we switched the whole family to TOG. We're having more fun with everyone on the same page, but it is no less work for me. Actually, it's more work, because some of them used to use SL which was open-and-go. TOG is not.

 

I'm not a go-getter and I need lots of sleep, so this isn't really the ideal way for me to spend my days. However, I want each of my boys to have an excellent, classical education (including music, art, Latin, and Greek), and I can't afford to outsource anything. It's all on my shoulders, and it takes me 8-10 hours every day. (I don't count my evening and weekend hours spent on research and planning because I don't want to know.)

 

We all share the household chores. I have no outside activities of my own, but I am involved with church and one not-for-profit organization with my family. The kids have two outside activities: Civil Air Patrol and Taekwondo. I take them to those events most of the time; DH does what he can. Other than that, I teach, cook, and clean.

 

This is just my life right now. Lady Catherine was right, mothers are slaves to the education of many children.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Sorry, I posted mid-thought because I had to go fix something for ds...

 

I posted that to say that I think there are trade-offs and choices. Maybe this is a struggle for you right now because you haven't totally hammered out your philosophy and opinions on homeschooling?

 

My sister tried traditional homeschooling with a classical twist and burned herself out entirely. It just wasn't their style. They are now blissfully happy (and learning!) unschoolers.

 

A SIL moved from a more relaxed approach to a more rigorous style, but she'll never do the full-bore WTM method.

 

And another homeschool family of my acquaintance has almost a dozen children and travels all over the world. They only sit down to study English and Math, and learn everything else all together through their travels and library books. They are having the time of their lives.

 

Each family has to figure this out. My way wears me down to a nub by the end of the day, but I'd like to see somebody try to take it away from me! LOL

 

We're happy to kill ourselves doing things we really, really, really believe in.

 

I think maybe your beliefs and methods are not matching up right now. If that's the case, I hope you find the right approach for your family soon.

[jenniferlee]

I have 5 kids about the same ages as yours. My youngest is 5 and my oldest is almost 14.

I work all day long. We start at 8:30 and I am actively schooling/teaching/directing until 3:30-4:00. Then, I am going over things with my oldest that she needs help on. We do read alouds and art/coloring in the evening.

 

I, too, never thought this would be a full time job. I imagined everything being so easy-peasy. It's not. It's a huge amount of work to do a quality job for this many children. I don't see any way around it. So I'm just giving myself to it.

 

I cheer myself up by getting some alone/fun time when I can. Reading lots of good books. Taking breaks for all of us to do something fun or different once in a while. Remembering why I am doing this. Looking forward to the results of a job well done someday.

 

Hang in there

 

jen

[desiree77]

 

I think maybe your beliefs and methods are not matching up right now. If that's the case, I hope you find the right approach for your family soon.

 

I think my beliefs line up with my methods. BUT my energy and motivation levels are inadequate for what I want to do! I'm trying to remedy that, but for now, it is what it is.

[HiddenJewel]

Homeschooling is a full-time job. It is easy to get the mindset that we should be able to do our job of mom or wife at the same time and it rarely works, at least in our house. When it is school time, that is my main focus. If other things get done that is great. But it is gravy.

[Embassy]

Homeschooling is a full-time job. It is easy to get the mindset that we should be able to do our job of mom or wife at the same time and it rarely works, at least in our house. When it is school time, that is my main focus. If other things get done that is great. But it is gravy.

 

:iagree:

[Woodhaven]

Yes, school is an all-day thing for us. I'm teaching four.

 

My eldest is a little more independent, but still needs to work with me. I've just excepted that this is how it is for now. Each year things change a bit, but are mostly the same as far as time requirements.

 

I want to give this time and education to my children, and have taught them from the start. Since pre-K. So, it's just what we do. We learn together. And I learn to give and learn patience.

[alpidarkomama]

My kids are 8, 6, 5, and 4 and I definitely find that it is easily a full day to get through everything. Here are some things that have helped us:

 

I have everyone working on the same subject at the same time. For example, my oldest three get their math books out and after getting oldest DD started I just bounce around between them all as they do their math.

 

They all do torah stories, memorization, davening (praying) etc. together.

 

I save chores until learning is done, other than just picking up after ourselves and our meals.

 

All of them do history at the same time, with followup narrations and worksheets at their own level.

 

Readaloud times are also done all together after dinner and before bed.

 

Is there any way to increase the amount of time you have all of them together, or half of them??

 

No matter how you slice it, it just IS a full-time job, and even more than full time once you add in the planning and thinking time! But the rewards make it very worth it...

[Once Again]

We start school at 7:30am and usually work till 4 or 4:30, with an hour off for lunch and recess. If the children are on the ball we can get done as early as 2:00. I get up early so I have some time for myself before school starts. I think I need that time in the morning to prepare mentally for the school day. I've found I have to follow a fairly rigid schedule to get things done, but it is working. Homeschooling is a full time job, no question about it.

[Haiku]

Were it me, I would cut out the hour of reading aloud to the little ones in the morning. That's a huge chunk of time. Shift it to later in the day, after "school" is over, or have your older kids read to the younger ones. I am only homeschooling two, but I have had to cut out "read-alouds" as part of our school day. We loved it when dd9 was in 1st and 2nd grade, but now that the kids are in 3rd and 4th grades, we just don't have the time for it. Our read-alouds now come in the form of books on cd when we are in the car.

 

You could also have your older two take turns reading aloud to each other. Cutting out read-alouds would save you 90 minutes a day and reduce your school time to 6 hours, 15 minutes.

 

Aside from that, well, you have five kids. It's going to take a long time to homeschool them all. The little kids are going to reach a point where 30 minutes for math/reading/writing won't cut it. In fact, my 8 year old does 40 minutes a day just of math. Perhaps it would work better for you to have everyone working on the same thing at the same time (e.g., everyone doing math together) and you are there to help out where needed. Then everyone works on writing at the same time, and you help out as needed, etc.

 

Tara

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Aside from that, well, you have five kids. It's going to take a long time to homeschool them all. The little kids are going to reach a point where 30 minutes for math/reading/writing won't cut it. In fact, my 8 year old does 40 minutes a day just of math. Perhaps it would work better for you to have everyone working on the same thing at the same time (e.g., everyone doing math together) and you are there to help out where needed. Then everyone works on writing at the same time, and you help out as needed, etc.

 

Tara

 

This is what I was thinking. I only have 2, very close in age, so they pretty much do the same things. This takes 3-4 hours every day. If I had to add a set of older kids on to this, it would definitely take the whole day.

[desiree77]

The 3rd grader works on math and reading independently while I work with the other two, so she's doing more than 30 minutes.

 

I believe that reading aloud is an important part of language development. It's not optional for my younger kids. My 3rd grader is a struggling reader and she needs it toi. We do listen to audiobooks in the car, but we are not in rhe car enough for that to be our main source.

 

I am trying to find ways to cut down my time spent at reading aloud. But that is my favorite part of homeschooling!

[regentrude]

I believe that reading aloud is an important part of language development. It's not optional for my younger kids. My 3rd grader is a struggling reader and she needs it toi. We do listen to audiobooks in the car, but we are not in rhe car enough for that to be our main source.

 

I am trying to find ways to cut down my time spent at reading aloud. But that is my favorite part of homeschooling!

 

Would it work if you moved the read-aloud time out of the main schooling time and read to them before bedtime? This way, the main school day will be more compact, and you have your favorite activity as a way to wind down at the end of the day.

Just a thought.

[Princess Peach]

I only have three kids, but I was really struggling a few weeks ago. My schedule was the same as yours in terms of the time it was taking.

 

What I did was to get my children working more independently, especially my DD (my older DS was already mostly independent). I sat her down and told her I needed her to do this. She has stepped up to the plate and it has been good for her, too.

 

The other thing I did was to set a stopping time for school. If we are not done by that time, we pick it up the next day. I was shocked that 9 times out of 10, we are done by that time.

 

I hope you find something that works for you!

[Nakia]

I have 3 kids, and school is pretty much an all day thing here. We do our together stuff first thing, which is bible, history, and Spanish. Then I take turns working individually with each girl. I'm done with my K'er and 3rd grader by lunch, and then Anna works on her individual stuff in the afternoon. A couple of days a week, we do science together in the afternoon as well (simplified for my littles). My husband has Emma read to him in the evenings, and I read aloud to all of them at bedtime. We usually end up with a shorter day on Friday (if we've worked hard all week and not had any real disturbances) so we save that day for poetry, music, and art.

 

I imagine it's going to get more complicated as they get older. But this is what works right now. :001_smile:

[stm4him]

I agree with many of these ladies in that I've just accepted that it is a full time job. I have 6 children ages 9 (almost 10) down to 6 months. We start at 8:30 and get done at 5:30 (including music practice). I read to the older ones at night for about half an hour. I read about 20 minutes to the younger ones towards the end of our school day and again at night before bed I read them a Bible story. We also do no chores until 5:30 except making and cleaning up simple meals and they are supposed to make their beds. At 5:30 we do basic chores (laundry, quick straighten, wipe down table and counters, etc.) I wait until after CC breaks to do organizing chores. I take the week of Thanksgiving off and the week after it to do all those organizing things I didn't get to and prepare for holidays, etc. Then we will school right up until the week of Christmas and hit it hard again after Christmas until Easter. We do a deep cleaning of our house once a week on Tuesday mornings and do lessons in the afternoon. Other than that we scrape by and sometimes I feel like my house is such a mess but if I can see that we are getting our schoolwork done and my relationships are solid and we are working on the house as we can then I am happy with that and my husband is good about that too. I go to Bible study twice a month on Monday evenings and other than that my life completely revolves around homeschooling and my relationships. Other moms who work full time jobs also probably have little time for themselves, but if they are really committed to their job they will accept that. But I love homeschooling and I can't see doing anything else with my days so it is just a full time job.

 

On the other hand.....if you look at the way many CC moms homeschool it is not a full time job. Leigh Bortins does an hour of math time, an hour and a half of language arts (I think this includes Latin), and a half hour of drawing maps and memorizing a timeline. They do the rest of their memorizing in the car with a cd and flashcards and they do their history and Science and anything else through audio books or reading as the kids choose. She reads aloud to them each night and they do Bible time in the morning for about half an hour. That's her day, leaving most of the afternoon free and 3 1/2 hours in the morning including Bible, Lang. Arts, Math, and Memory Work. One could choose to do this but you would have to let go of being involved in enrichment subjects like History and Science.

 

Stm4him

[2_girls_mommy]

I haven't read all, but that 1 hr read aloud sticks out to me too. For us, I read at lunch. It usually equals about 15-20 a min a day. I eat more quickly than the kids. So then I read a chapter or two of my read aloud while they finish. Then they get their outside time for 15-10 min. while I clean up the dishes, then back to schoolwork. We read more at bedtime and I have dh do it the nights he is home. We can more easily relax and attack stacks of picture books at that time.

[delaney]

I can see science being an hour but not really sure how hymns and poems would warrant an hour. Seems a bit overkill. Could hymns be part of Bible? I use Mark Kistler for art so that I am sure it gets done. Do that or a simple picture study some weeks. Perhaps shift messy art to the weekend and free up that hour as well?

[delaney]

I haven't read all, but that 1 hr read aloud sticks out to me too. For us, I read at lunch. It usually equals about 15-20 a min a day. I eat more quickly than the kids. So then I read a chapter or two of my read aloud while they finish. Then they get their outside time for 15-10 min. while I clean up the dishes, then back to schoolwork. We read more at bedtime and I have dh do it the nights he is home. We can more easily relax and attack stacks of picture books at that time.

And that as well. I eat before the kids so that as they eat I can read. I send them out for 15 minutes of play to unwind before lunch as I eat. It is only 36 out there but they are out there riding their bikes to get some wiggles out!

[Mommee & Baba]

WOW that's a long WEEK for you all!! I do believe that homeschooling is a FULL time thing. However I have a totboy that changes our "schedule" daily but we accomplish almost all that is on the agenda.

 

We start school about 9am, as we did 7:30am at the beginning of the year but I am NOT a morning person and had to face the reality of that.

 

DD6 & DD8 get 2 breaks about 15-30 minutes & 45 minutes for lunch during our school time..we finish around 2:30pm most days. Other days we'll finish before lunch, but those are days that totboy is wanting to play with his cars or watch t.v.

 

Friday's are mellow "makeup" days and if we have nothing to make up then it's a day off. However we do art on Friday's but that's so fun the kids spend hours doing it that it's too fun to call "school"...:lol:

[Jennifer in MI]

I haven't read all the responses, but what about scheduling days like this on M - Th. Then, Friday is for make-up. It's for grading anything you didn't get to during the week. It's for doing science experiments or field trips. It's for the kids to catch up on their reading? Etc, etc, etc.

 

Works for us!! And, yes. I am usually doing something to do with schoolwork with the kids for 8 hours a day.

[ezrabean2005]

:grouphug:

 

We only have four kids, but DH and I do work full-time and time is precious. Here is what I would do:

- Move reading time to before bed.

- Move Bible time to the morning or the evening and do one lesson / reading with all of them.

- History / Geography seems to be taking a long time (but this is likely because you use Sonlight). Is it possible to find materials that each child can work through without as much work from you? Something like SOTW or a History textbook. You can still have the read alouds, etc. in the evening.

- Each morning have one meeting with each child (30 minutes, as needed): go over new math concepts, new english, and spelling words. Ensure they understand what they need to get done (a math practice page, an english page) and then they do that.

- After lunch, you correct the children's work and they know to come back to do corrections. If a child is stuck, then they know you will go over it in your meeting the next morning.

- Maybe move that enrichment day to one day per week where you do only those subjects (instead of fitting into each day).

- Science could potentially become child-specific too if they had a textbook or book to work through. You'd still be able to do all the experiments on the enrichment day if you wanted to.

 

:grouphug: I understand the reality of what you want to get done not being sustainable. I think with a few tweaks, you will be in great shape. You are doing well - don't give up!!:grouphug:

[Guest]

Homeschooling is definitely a full time job. I have three dc and we take a long time. I have made it a little easier over the years. We work on the same subjects at the same time. First off is math. I like to get it over with. First, I teach the youngest and get him started. Next up is one of our older children, then the other one. While I am teaching the youngest, the older two know to get started on some of their independent work so no time is wasted.

 

After the first round, we start the next round with English. By this time, youngest is finished and has had a short break, so he is ready to work on phonics and reading. The oldest have independent reading and spelling (except for Monday when I have them read the new spelling words to me). This year, I made it so we only do spelling four days a week (same amount of work). I like having a lighter Friday.

 

Anyway, I'm going to make a long story short. Just do rounds. See if some lighter subjects can be done three or four times per week. I would also save the read aloud time for bedtime.

 

This year, I decided to go back to school full time. So now, after homeschooling all day, I have to clean the house and then do MY school work!!! I usually get started on mine around 8 or 9 and work for hours. Then I need a little time with dh, so we watch a little tv. I don't usually get to bed until 2am! Now I would love to JUST have all day homeschooling but I need to finish school. Be happy with what you have... trust me!

[Guest]

:grouphug:

 

We only have four kids, but DH and I do work full-time and time is precious. Here is what I would do:

- Move reading time to before bed.

- Move Bible time to the morning or the evening and do one lesson / reading with all of them.

- History / Geography seems to be taking a long time (but this is likely because you use Sonlight). Is it possible to find materials that each child can work through without as much work from you? Something like SOTW or a History textbook. You can still have the read alouds, etc. in the evening.

- Each morning have one meeting with each child (30 minutes, as needed): go over new math concepts, new english, and spelling words. Ensure they understand what they need to get done (a math practice page, an english page) and then they do that.

- After lunch, you correct the children's work and they know to come back to do corrections. If a child is stuck, then they know you will go over it in your meeting the next morning.

- Maybe move that enrichment day to one day per week where you do only those subjects (instead of fitting into each day).

- Science could potentially become child-specific too if they had a textbook or book to work through. You'd still be able to do all the experiments on the enrichment day if you wanted to.

 

:grouphug: I understand the reality of what you want to get done not being sustainable. I think with a few tweaks, you will be in great shape. You are doing well - don't give up!!:grouphug:

 

:iagree:

[desiree77]

Thanks everyone for the replies!!! :grouphug: I want to clarify that this is my proposed schedule for January. I haven't actually done it yet, so no doubt it will need tweaking. I've never been much of a schedule follower. We usually do the things on my schedule in a random fashion, with some things getting neglected for weeks and others happening more regularly. I estimated time based on what we've done in the past when we've done those subjects.

 

Also to clarify:

 

History is only 4 days a week.

 

Science is technically independent work for my oldest, but this isn't working out too well. for the others, it just hasn't been getting done this fall.

 

The enrichment activities have never been done consistently. I'm trying to get more structured and actually do them!

 

 

Would it work if you moved the read-aloud time out of the main schooling time and read to them before bedtime? This way, the main school day will be more compact, and you have your favorite activity as a way to wind down at the end of the day.

Just a thought.

 

Mostly I don't do this because I usually need time to myself at the end of the day. It's about all I have in me to read one Bible story and lead them in a prayer.

 

I can see science being an hour but not really sure how hymns and poems would warrant an hour. Seems a bit overkill. Could hymns be part of Bible? I use Mark Kistler for art so that I am sure it gets done. Do that or a simple picture study some weeks. Perhaps shift messy art to the weekend and free up that hour as well?

 

Yes, I am trying to figure out how to rework this. Since Sept, Fridays have been our enrichment days and we don't do our regular work unless we got behind in something. I think we may keep that.

 

I haven't read all, but that 1 hr read aloud sticks out to me too. For us, I read at lunch. It usually equals about 15-20 a min a day. I eat more quickly than the kids. So then I read a chapter or two of my read aloud while they finish. Then they get their outside time for 15-10 min. while I clean up the dishes, then back to schoolwork. We read more at bedtime and I have dh do it the nights he is home. We can more easily relax and attack stacks of picture books at that time.

 

Well, I do a read-aloud so that might work to do at lunch, but I am also intending to drop the younger kids history and science curriculum in favor of reading from history and science picture books. They would probably rather sit with me and look at the pictures for this, so I need to have at least 30 minutes to do this reading. It doesn't have to be an hour though.

 

I haven't read all the responses, but what about scheduling days like this on M - Th. Then, Friday is for make-up. It's for grading anything you didn't get to during the week. It's for doing science experiments or field trips. It's for the kids to catch up on their reading? Etc, etc, etc.

 

Works for us!! And, yes. I am usually doing something to do with schoolwork with the kids for 8 hours a day.

 

This is what we've been doing, but since about mid-Oct we've had other obligations on Fridays (just random stuff), but I think we will go back to our M-Th schedule and use Fridays for catch-up and enrichment. Thanks for the reminder.

 

:grouphug:

 

- Move Bible time to the morning or the evening and do one lesson / reading with all of them.

 

- History / Geography seems to be taking a long time (but this is likely because you use Sonlight). Is it possible to find materials that each child can work through without as much work from you? Something like SOTW or a History textbook. You can still have the read alouds, etc. in the evening.

 

- Maybe move that enrichment day to one day per week where you do only those subjects (instead of fitting into each day).

- Science could potentially become child-specific too if they had a textbook or book to work through. You'd still be able to do all the experiments on the enrichment day if you wanted to.

 

Bible: I have tried so many times to do Bible with everyone. It doesn't work. My younger two and my older two are just light years from each other. It's always awkward when I try to do them all together.

 

Yes, I am rethinking Sonlight for next year. We are in the middle of the American history cycle though, and I don't want to just drop it. I am dropping Sonlight for my youngers for now. I have to figure out something else that will work for all of us or at least let the older ones be more independent.

 

Science is so hard! I feel like it needs teacher attention to impart any truly useful knowledge, and yet when to find the time!

[desiree77]

I did a trial run of part of the morning schedule today. I did:

 

Et works with mommy - AAR prelevel 1 and Math - 30 min

Em works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min

Mommy reads aloud to youngest three - 1 hour - 30 minutes

Jo works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min

 

This took me from 9am to 11am. Yay! My time estimates were pretty accurate. I had to cut some thing short and Em and Jo worked on their own on a few things.