What your K schedule like?

[amselby81]

I've been looking at all of this curriculum and I've been making BIG plans for next year, but I never really sat down to think about how much time everything that I plan to do would take. Thankfully I haven't bought anything yet, b/c I realized it's just too much. Or maybe I'm overestimating how long things will take. I feel like K shouldn't take longer than an hour and a half, but it seems like it might take the whole morning! Especially thinking about interruptions from my younger DD.

 

So anyway, this is what I've kind of come up with.

 

8:15 to 8:30 calendar time/weather etc.

8:30 to 9 Language Arts (OPGTR/ETC)

9 to 9:30 Math (mainly MUS but I'm thinking of supplementing with http://www.mathtacular.com/products/MathTacular%C2%AE-Educational-Kit-.html)

9:30 to 10 play-time

10 to 11 FIAR I have no idea how long FIAR takes, so this part of the day is iffy. I figure we can do other read alouds and any crafts/lapbooking/project during this time as well.

11 to 11:30 Handwriting (maybe I should do this in my LA slot? And I'm not sure we'd use a whole half an hour on it)

Then we'll have lunch and after lunch we can do our Classical Conversations Memory Work, which only takes 15 to 30 minutes a day.

 

Is it just me, or does this seem like a long day for K? Any suggestions or maybe some reassurance that some of these subjects won't take as long as I think they will?

[chepyl]

We did 30-45 minutes a day for Kindergarten. My son was already reading well when we started, so we had no formal reading instruction.

 

We did 10-15 minutes of math. I assigned 4-6 problems from his book or did 8-10 on the board...funny how he could do more on the whiteboard in the same amount of time :glare: I just used a workbook from Walmart that had basic addition and subtraction and time problems in it. It went up to two digit addition and subtraction. Sometimes I made up my own problems and sometimes we played with manipulatives.

 

I used What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know to cover the bases in Science, Geography/History, Lit, Art, and Music. We did subjects on rotating schedule. We did Lit daily (read a story, poetry memorization, one a week), History twice a week, and science twice a week. For each topic I picked up early readers at the library on the topic we were covering. He read the books aloud to me and we discussed them.

 

Many things I have read and people that I have talked to have said that you should have about 1 hour of seat work for each year of school, maxing out at 6 hours a day. So first grade would do one hour and second grade two, etc. I used that estimate to judge that we should be under an hour for K. We did read alouds at bedtime and outside theatre, dance, piano, and gymnastics.

 

You will likely burn yourself out doing half a day each day for K. Take it easy, it is most important that he can read and understand numbers and some basic addition/subtraction by the end of the year. Content subjects are just gravy. You can spend the first part of the year focusing on reading and math, when he is reading well, add the other things in.

[Nakia]

I'm probably not going to be all that helpful because I've chosen to be super relaxed and gentle with my K'ers. I've used MFW K for Emma and now Cora, and it is really gentle and sweet. It includes basic K math, handwriting, science, and phonics. On top of that, I try to get her to memorize some things now and then. It takes about 1.5 hours per day (and a lot of that is because she has ADHD and can't sit still very long).

 

My girls like to write, but I never had them do 30 minutes of just handwriting, and I think you will find 30 minutes is too much. But maybe not. Also, we are a "one math curriculum at a time family", so two in K would just be too much for us. Again, it might be great for your dd though!

 

Anyway, the rest of K at our house is arts & crafts, playing with toys, playing dress-up, coloring (except for Cora because she HATES to color), running outside, reading aloud, looking at books, cutting paper into tiny little slivers, etc. :D

 

Overall, I think your choices are great, but I think you might find you have to relax on the time restraints, and it sounds like you are open to that. I used FIAR with my oldest, and I don't think it took very long to do each day, but I also don't believe we did it to its full potential. :/

 

Remember to have fun! :001_smile:

Edited April 1, 2012 by Nakia

[momma2three]

I think you're really overestimating how much time you'll need.

 

I also think with a 5yo just starting school, you need to be flexible with the time spent. I know people have all sorts of opinions about this, but so much of learning in kindergarten is all about the developmental spurts, and they come and go. Some lessons you'll whip through in literally 60 seconds, and others you'll spend a few days on.

 

Setting a schedule like this is, IMO, just setting yourself up to fail at having a schedule! So I wouldn't worry about schedules, and just do one lesson at a time per day.

 

I doubt you'll spend 15 minutes a day looking at the calendar and discussion the weather: 15 minutes is a LONG TIME for a 5yo. What you describe looks a lot like a schedule in a bricks and mortar school with 20 kids: and most of that time is spent wrangling kids around the room and making sure everyone has a turn.

 

We probably spend an hour to an hour and a half on schoolwork per day, not including arts and crafts projects and field trips/nature walks. And we get A LOT done in that time.

[ondreeuh]

I would set a minimum of what you want to get done - say, a lesson in math and 2 pages in ETC, and some days that may be all you get done. Other days you may have time for math games, Brain Pop Jr., copywork, etc. FIAR is great but if you miss a day ... that's OK. I'm sure plenty of people do it 2-3 days a week and call it good.

 

I would do math and LA while your younger is napping, because those are the hardest to do with distractions. Rather than follow a rigid schedule, jump at the chance to work during naptime. FIAR could be at a totally different time of day. If your younger dd takes 2 naps, then maybe save FIAR for the 2nd one :).

 

Oh, and I think 20 minutes of phonics/reading and 10 minutes of handwriting (maybe writing some spelling words?) would be plenty.

[LittleIzumi]

I agree with the subjects, and I also agree with the PPs that you'll end up spending more like 15 min on each instead of 30 min.

[amselby81]

Thanks, everyone! And I was just laying it out like this to try to see if this was too much. I have a tendency to get too much, and then some things don't get used at all. I wanted to avoid that. :) Once I come up with something that works, I'll lift the times and really do each lesson for however long they last. Trust me. I'm more of a go with the flow kind of chick anyway. LOL. I was just trying to get an idea before making purchases. I've also been thinking about getting Science and History curriculums...yeah...I realize that's wayyyyyy too much for K.

[LittleIzumi]

Thanks, everyone! And I was just laying it out like this to try to see if this was too much. I have a tendency to get too much, and then some things don't get used at all. I wanted to avoid that. :) Once I come up with something that works, I'll lift the times and really do each lesson for however long they last. Trust me. I'm more of a go with the flow kind of chick anyway. LOL. I was just trying to get an idea before making purchases. I've also been thinking about getting Science and History curriculums...yeah...I realize that's wayyyyyy too much for K.

 

Science & history are great for doing once or twice a week in K. :)

[momma2three]

Thanks, everyone! And I was just laying it out like this to try to see if this was too much. I have a tendency to get too much, and then some things don't get used at all. I wanted to avoid that. :) Once I come up with something that works, I'll lift the times and really do each lesson for however long they last. Trust me. I'm more of a go with the flow kind of chick anyway. LOL. I was just trying to get an idea before making purchases. I've also been thinking about getting Science and History curriculums...yeah...I realize that's wayyyyyy too much for K.

 

I don't think it's way too much at all! We do various things. It's a really relaxed year for us: I'll ramp up a bit more for 1st grade. It's just that nothing really takes that long, so you can fit a lot in! Have you looked at the Elemental History US history book? I think we're going to do that next year. It's designed for kindergarten. I'm also going to get started on Building the Foundations of Scientific Inquiry this summer, I think.

[lexi]

Ok we are finishing our K year here and it takes us a good part of the day. However, that includes all our breaks, our art time, our read alouds and any project we do.

As far as a schedule, I don't think you should try to set times. Just make a list of each thing you need to accomplish and then do it in that order. Some days we spent 5 min on math and others we spent 30. Each day is different but we have our routine of what comes 1st then 2nd then 3rd.

My dd asks to do school and enjoys what we do. Some days go long if we are really into a project. Other days our lessons are shorter and more of our day is free play.

Our schedule is Bible reading and memory work during breakfast

Language arts and handwriting and copy work or dictation

Bible

Art time while I read our read alouds

Science

Violin practice

Play

Math

History

Projects or more art or more reading

Lunch happens sometime in the middle and I usually read during it

All throughout the day I'm entertaining the little people with art and sensory tubs and colorin books and busy bags. Sometimes we take a break and my dd participates in preschool too. So, technically we school all day because we have so many breaks like catching butterflies or playing in a tub of beans- we count that as school :)

[2_girls_mommy]

I had one that was already reading well before K too. She had a formal math curriculum, a workbook for practicing her letters, and I had her read to me at some point during the day.

 

We might have done a big formal lesson with the math some days, and others might have found us so busy with out of the house activities (zoo, playdates, museums, park, library storytimes and classes) that she did the math lesson at 5:3o p.m. while I was cooking dinner.

 

We did some unit studies for fun to learn about animals and holidays and typical K things. We had a Bible reader with questions and activities that we used once a week or so. We did crafts to go with what we were studying. I made sure she did some copywork or writing or a handwriting page each day at least. We learned songs, calendar, pretend play, etc. throughout the day as part of K. No schedule in K (and I am a very schedule type person. We listened to stories on C.D. and different music C.Ds on long car rides. It just wasn't necessary for us to be super scheduled before 2nd or 3rd grade when I was schooling 2 at a time.) K work was so short and sweet that I just fit some in around life whenever we were home.

[momtoamiracle]

Science & history are great for doing once or twice a week in K. :)

 

 

I agree, it's what we do and it's not too much. It's mostly reading.

 

 

 

our biggest struggles is with writing. If my son had to do no writing and never sit down it would be a breeze! I don't make him do much writing, even 10min would be excrutiating for him. I also let him play a LOT while we're doing lessons.

 

 

you'll figure out what works best as you go. Whatever you do, relax, have fun, let your child have fun, and don't stress!!

[Julie Kirkwood]

We are super relaxed with kindergarten here. I used this year to get to know my daughter's learning style, so if she was really resisting something, I backed off and just took note that maybe she wasn't ready for that or maybe that wasn't the best way for her to learn it.

 

Much of her day is spent playing. She participates in history and science, once a week for each, with her older brother. We read a few minutes in the morning and again at bedtime. We don't do calendar every day. Sometimes she is super focused on it, other times not, but it has worked fine. She knows months, days of the week in order and can fill in a blank calendar when I give it to her.

 

We do a lot of different things for handwriting. Sometimes it's a workbook, but mostly it is making birthday cards for family members, writing to her pen pal, making a grocery list, that type of thing.

 

If she is super engaged in a craft or some elaborate pretend play, then I don't worry about the schedule for the day, because I know she is learning a lot from what she is doing.

 

But that is just us and what works in our family. Everyone is different. I say, try the schedule you've set up, you know your child best, but be very flexible and willing to adjust to her learning style, and even her mood for the day. This is the time to make learning fun for your child.

 

One more comment: Five in a Row is so fun! It may take different times each day. And you may want to adjust the rest of your schedule, like when you are doing math with your FIAR book, skip your other math stuff that day. Go down the rabbit trails that you find with FIAR. For example, with Madeline, my daughter became fascinated with all things French so we got more books out of the library, some French language cd's, made some more French food, etc., etc.

[Runningmom80]

We kind of unschooled this year for k. I required math and handwriting everyday, (he was already reading) but other than that, mostly read alouds, and whatever he was interested in. (we did a lap book of the lorax for instance and then saw the movie.)

 

 

I'd say we do an hour, at most.

[Mommy_of_4]

My plan is to do:

 

Phonics - 10 min

Math- 15 min.

Spelling - 10 min

Geography - 10 min (2-3x/wk)

Science - 10 min (2-3x/wk)

Handwriting - 5 min

 

But he usually ends up doing this because he wants to.

 

Phonics - 20 min

Math - 1 hr

Spelling - 30 min

Geography - 20 min everyday

Science - 10 min everyday

Handwriting - 5 min everyday

[Embassy]

I've been looking at all of this curriculum and I've been making BIG plans for next year, but I never really sat down to think about how much time everything that I plan to do would take. Thankfully I haven't bought anything yet, b/c I realized it's just too much. Or maybe I'm overestimating how long things will take. I feel like K shouldn't take longer than an hour and a half, but it seems like it might take the whole morning! Especially thinking about interruptions from my younger DD.

 

So anyway, this is what I've kind of come up with.

 

8:15 to 8:30 calendar time/weather etc.

8:30 to 9 Language Arts (OPGTR/ETC)

9 to 9:30 Math (mainly MUS but I'm thinking of supplementing with http://www.mathtacular.com/products/MathTacular%C2%AE-Educational-Kit-.html)

9:30 to 10 play-time

10 to 11 FIAR I have no idea how long FIAR takes, so this part of the day is iffy. I figure we can do other read alouds and any crafts/lapbooking/project during this time as well.

11 to 11:30 Handwriting (maybe I should do this in my LA slot? And I'm not sure we'd use a whole half an hour on it)

Then we'll have lunch and after lunch we can do our Classical Conversations Memory Work, which only takes 15 to 30 minutes a day.

 

Is it just me, or does this seem like a long day for K? Any suggestions or maybe some reassurance that some of these subjects won't take as long as I think they will?

 

It looks fine to me. It depends on your kid. We did long days in Kindergarten (3-5 hours, I think), but we did a lot of hands-on learning that takes more time. I can't imagine handwriting taking 30 minutes unless you are including activities to build fine-motor skills in that time period.

[Soror]

Dd is officially starting K next year. Math will be informal, no curriculum, exercises from the Kitchen Table Math book, games (like Candy Land) and just throughout the day ( I did the same w/ ds and just started him on a 1st grade program after that). I have reading and writing from MP ordered but haven't seen it yet, so no clue on those. Dd loves writing so I picked MP knowing that it is heavy on it, she generally finds writing to be fun and does it in all her spare time, so hopefully it is a good fit.

 

Lit will be in family read aloud time along w/ big brother and little sister, fairy tales, mother goose, fables, picture books and good chapter books. Bible is reading Bible stories, lives of Saints and catechism lessons over breakfast(everyone together). Science is in life, walks, gardening and playing outside, tending animals etc. History will be in read alouds, reading mythology and stories of great heroes and such from the past, loosely following some LCC suggestions for the older and anything else that strikes our fancy.

 

Tons and tons of play. I don't expect the sit down portion to be more than 30 minutes, although often she chooses to write longer, everything else is just in life.

 

So actual schedule will be like- Bible at the kitchen table, after that I will start ds on Math and then work with her on writing. Readalouds for everyone. Break and lunch. Phonics with her while ds does copywork. Finish LA work with ds and then games and such when we want along with everything else all during the day.

Edited April 1, 2012 by soror

[MrsBanjoClown]

I plan on starting the day with some outside play time to get the wiggles out of my two boys. If this doesn't work (they won't come in to do school) I'll move it, but in Texas it's going to be hot later in the day so I want them to play outside before it gets too hot.

Math (Singapore 1a/1b) - 30 min. (This is his favorite subject)

Reading (Abeka Phonics) - 15-30 min. (depending on when he wants to stop)

Writing (A Reason for Handwriting) - 10-20 min.

History and Science will be tagging along with my 2nd grader. We will be doint SOTW 1 for History and I am trying to decide what to do for science.

Foreign Language - Song School Latin and maybe Spanish as well (I am waiting on a curriculum someone is supposed to be sending to me).

[kristinannie]

I think your schedule looks fine to me!

 

This is our schedule:

 

9-9:30 (sometimes this takes more than a half an hour): Circle Time. We do calendar, weather, memorziation, devotions and read at least one story (usually two or three), conversational German, calisthenics, and/or some math activities from MEP.

 

9:30-10:15: Math, phonics, reading lesson, religion, handwriting

 

10:15-12:00: Playtime (usually outside)

 

12:00-1:00: Lunch with read aloud, science and/or history/geography.

 

My kids love that long playtime and I use the time to get some work done around the house. I have found that some things are easier to do while they are eating, especially read aloud and science (not the experiments though). I don't care that we aren't done by lunchtime, but I think that would be really important for some people!

[Dustybug]

My oldest is doing K this year. She could read before we started this school year as well. We are using HOD's LHFHG with a little extra and we are usually done with school within 2 hours.

[ScoutTN]

For formal schooling we only did Bible, phonics/reading, math and handwriting.

An hour a day, max. Not all at one time.

 

Read alouds too, about 20-30 minutes a day.

[Sctigermom]

My son is kindergarten doing accerlerated work. We spend around 3 hours a day on "school". When he was late 4/early 5 we spent 1-2 hours.

[amselby81]

Thank you for all of this wonderful input! I think my fear is that if we're already taking up half of our day in K, what will our schedule be like with each continual year? :eek: I think I'm going to start with the basics and if it feels like we have more time, we'll add the extras from FIAR or any other Unit Study. I just had a lightbulb moment in the last couple days that I can find a Unit Study on just about any children's book through online resources. :) I'm willing to play with my scedule and tweek it as we go along.

[momma2three]

Thank you for all of this wonderful input! I think my fear is that if we're already taking up half of our day in K, what will our schedule be like with each continual year? :eek: I think I'm going to start with the basics and if it feels like we have more time, we'll add the extras from FIAR or any other Unit Study. I just had a lightbulb moment in the last couple days that I can find a Unit Study on just about any children's book through online resources. :) I'm willing to play with my scedule and tweek it as we go along.

 

The nice thing about unit studies is that it's pretty easy to pull one together, using library books and ideas from the internet. So I would maybe plan the first unit study based on something you know she'll like, and then follow her lead and spend a few weeks at a time on something that really interests her.

 

If the Scholastic $1 sale is still going on, check out some of their unit studies books too. They have some really nice ones for preschool and kindergarten age.

 

I think you're really not going to need as much time as you have in your schedule. My DD LOVES handwriting and begs for handwriting, but she can't really do more than 5-7 minutes before she gets tired and her work starts getting sloppy.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I also am not going to be very much help but because I'm much more structured than most responding to you (btw, this is my second rodeo...We were basically unschoolers for elementary the first time around.). My curriculum plan (minus WWE) is on my blog (April 1st post) if you'd like to see. I know my Kindy can do most of what my 1st grader will be doing.

 

Even still, I think you are WAY over-estimating the time it takes to do things UNLESS you plan to do X amount of time rather than one lesson per day. Additionally, *I* have found it very helpful, to have extremely short lessons a couple times per day rather than longer lessons once per day. In that case, you might take all day (finishing at 4pm, maybe) but you still did only an hour or two for the whole day.

[Tanikit]

My 4.5 year old is doing advanced work but we still spend very little time on the actual work - today I downloaded some songs from youtube to have some singing time but the connection was very slow so it took a while to get the actual songs to play - so I could say that took us half and hour, when actual listening time was about 10 minutes.

 

She spends about 10-15 minutes doing MEP1 and this is the longest we do in seatwork all day. I do two sessions of math and the second is much shorter - just a few problems - and since she decided to make the people I drew on the board for subtraction have eyes, noses and mouths and different clothes on each yes it did take long, but the actual learning/work time was short. Handwriting is never more than 5 minutes as she would not be able to write much more than that.

 

Reading is done two sessions a day reading a page aloud - it seldom takes 5 minutes but if she wanders off to go to the loo in the middle it will seem to take longer.

 

Read alouds are done whenever we feel like it - mostly bed time. She does SOTW and then we do any activities the next morning (we are not using the activity book, so we usually make a hands on activity up that is short enough to keep her attention. Same for science which is mostly learnt out in the garden.

 

The only things she does which are considered seatwork are math worksheets (I try to get her to stand at the whiteboard for any teaching that must occur as then she can move around) and writing as she must have good posture.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Tanikit

[Mommie_Jen]

I have a just turned 5 yr old. He is still finishing up preschool at a church, but non preschool days are kindergarten days here. It takes us roughly an hour to do our Bible story, phonics lesson, handwriting, and math paper. Then we try to accomplish a coloring paper sometime throughout the day and read library books. That's it for now. I am going to be incorporating a science activity once a week, some art amd music, and some FIAR once preschool is done.

[momma2three]

Even still, I think you are WAY over-estimating the time it takes to do things UNLESS you plan to do X amount of time rather than one lesson per day. Additionally, *I* have found it very helpful, to have extremely short lessons a couple times per day rather than longer lessons once per day. In that case, you might take all day (finishing at 4pm, maybe) but you still did only an hour or two for the whole day.

 

We do this, too. DD did handwriting and some math while I was making breakfast. After breakfast, I ran to the supermarket while DH was still home with the kids, and she played outside a bit. Then DH went to work, and I put away the groceries while she did a bit more handwriting. We'll usually finish math while I'm cooking dinner: I actually find that math while I cook is the easiest. We do the little lesson, and then she does the problems on her own while I'm right there to answer any questions, but not hovering. And we always do reading right before bedtime, snuggled up in my bed.

 

Today, we have to run some errands (Target and Michael's), and pick up DS at preschool, and then is snack time, and they usually watch a Discovery Learning video about something during that, and then we talk about it a bit and all do a project together based on it when there's an easy project that my 3yo can handle (today we're going to make some paper birds and decorate them). This afternoon, if the weather improves, we'll go for a nature walk after nap time, and then DD will write a journal entry about it. And the rest of the day will be a variety of playing, with lessons swooping in whenever I feel like she's getting antsy for something to do, or when there's a quiet time.

 

So that's pretty much our schedule :) And some parts change daily (DS goes to preschool 3 days a week, different errands, the weather changes, we try to take a walk every day but sometimes it's a walk around the block after dinner and sometimes it's a full on drive-to-a-state-park kind of walk), and some parts work well into the rhythm of daily life (a few worksheets first thing in the morning to keep her busy and not fighting with her brother, an educational film during snack to keep her from fighting with her brother... see a theme here?... reading after the younger two are asleep and she stays up a bit later and so we curl up in bed and she reads to me and I read to her. It all sort of falls into place.

 

Sorry for the long post... I just wanted to write down what our schedule is really like. It's easy to think that school "should" follow a certain schedule, and I know the WTM book offers some very specific schedules. But real life has a tendency to get in the way (especially when there are younger kids to entertain), and I really think that you'll fall into a schedule once you get rolling.

 

If you're really impatient, try starting now! See how it goes. There's no reason school has to start in September.

[pitterpatter]

Our current schedule looks like this, but it varies some. Also, it's taken us seven months to get to the routine. We originally started with only HWT, HOP and SM. Actually, at the very, very beginning, we started with letters/sounds instead of HOP. After a couple of months, I slowly started adding subjects.

 

Monday/Friday:

 

Calendar Time (Recently dropped.)

Half a booklet of The Best Sight Words Book Ever!

Handwriting

Reading - Either HOP or ETC (or DD simply reads on Friday)

Math

Electives - I usually pick two, but it depends...history/social studies, art, Bible stories, Comprehension Plus (will soon be swapping out for logic) or literature study.

 

 

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday:

 

Calendar Time (Recently dropped.)

Half a booklet of The Best Sight Words Book Ever!

Handwriting

Reading - Either HOP or ETC

Math

Science

 

Times vary, but all of this each day typically take 2-3 hours total, usually 2-2.5 hours, but sometimes as little as 1.5 hours. We don't break.

[Walking-Iris]

I usually do one thing at a time with a Kinder. So right now my 4 year old is working through the ETC Ready, Set, Go books. He knows the sounds each letter makes but he's using these to practice forming lowercase letters. He also has HWT K book, which he has worked some pages ---I keep these workbooks in his drawer and I usually let him choose which one he'd like to do.

 

I also pull activities from Peak With Books---usually that's one afternoon a week and we don't do other things that day. I use ScienceWorks once a week with him as well. He has been working in Singapore Essential K as well. If he sits down to work on handwriting or math then we're done in about 30-40 minutes. I also keep a lot of math manipulatives and games and puzzles around...little kids have a way of wanting to learn at the time sit suits them...all i have to do is be ready to join their fun or let them alone.

 

I don't require a child to do "school" everyday at this age and I won't with him next year either, since he's young. At this age lots of play, exploring, reading and conversation is enough imo. I didn't even bother with science books when my oldest was this age, but my younger ds loves all things science related and joins my older ds all the time.

 

I have OPGTTR and I tried a few first lessons with him---but he's not quite ready for that. He is is happier doing a science activity or doing pages in his math book---so I think I'll have to approach reading from different angles with him.

 

History/Social studies/geography---whatever we happen to read, and whatever he joins big brother on...I do plan on getting him knowing the states soon though. I like kids to know that early.

 

There's also time for lots of art and crafts and playing with scissors and crayons etc.

 

I honestly don't schedule anything for K---more like yearly goals---not daily.

[SkateLeft]

I don't use schedules. I use routines. :D

 

My kindergartener has phonics, math, history, language arts (literature) and handwriting.

 

His school day looks like this:

 

Math (20 minutes)

Phonics (20 minutes)

Handwriting (5 minutes)

Language arts (mostly reading a book together and talking about it) (10 minutes).

 

We only do history (about 10-15 minutes worth of stories) on Wednesday and Fridays.

 

He gets bedtime stories at night, and lots of gross motor fun every day (OT, ice skating, park days, outside play).

 

That's it. We don't bother with calendar, weather, circle time or any of that. Those things are all "caught" informally through daily life, rather than "taught" as part of schoolwork.

[Susan in TN]

I think you have a really nice selection of subjects/materials. But probably they won't take as much time as you're expecting.

 

For my K'ers, we generally have about 10-15 minutes on subjects - math, handwriting, phonics, piano. We don't do "formal" history/science/geography except what they want to do with older siblings. Read aloud/Poetry memorization is done all together for about 45 minutes after lunch.

 

That being said, when my oldest was in K, I think I had much more planned out/scheduled because it just felt like we should be doing more :D.

[pitterpatter]

As previously mentioned, school takes us 2-3 hours per day. From what I've read here, that's pretty typical for K-2, if not longer. I think the trick is creative scheduling and rotation. We will be using the same number of hours for first grade.

 

Thank you for all of this wonderful input! I think my fear is that if we're already taking up half of our day in K, what will our schedule be like with each continual year? :eek: I think I'm going to start with the basics and if it feels like we have more time, we'll add the extras from FIAR or any other Unit Study. I just had a lightbulb moment in the last couple days that I can find a Unit Study on just about any children's book through online resources. :) I'm willing to play with my scedule and tweek it as we go along.

[alisoncooks]

I usually do one thing at a time with a Kinder. \

 

We are kind of like this, too. We spent some time doing R&S workbooks and nothing else. Now we're working our way through OPGTR. So we do about 30 min. of "school" a day. We also include lots of read-alouds, but I don't include them in my total school time.

[sagira]

In K, I only do about 10 minutes of direct instruction each time, and I vary the lessons so that dc don't get bored. This fall, I'm starting K with dd. She's bright, and required much mental activity. She also enjoys writing. These are the resources I'm using with her:

 

Peak with Books

Tanglewood's Really Reading Program (using phonics - it's free)

ETC Book 1

Miquon Math Orange Book

Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting Book A

Poetry for the Very Young

Andrew Lang's Fairy Tales (both ds 9 and dd 5)

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2 (slowly)

Tanglewood Health and Safety (also free)

My World and Globe

The Preschoolers' Busy Book (for children 3-6)

Piano, singing

 

Living books for science and a myriad of other interesting subjects

Edited April 2, 2012 by sagira

[ALB]

We do about:

15 min. Bible

15 -20 min. phonics

10 min. workbook (handwriting, ETC, DEL)

15 min. math games/ manipulative play

 

+ TONS of read alouds, and he listens along with dd for history and science

[lea_lpz]

We're using MFWK, HWT, and Singapore Math B and La Clase Divertida Level I

I do mine in blocks:

 

Math: Calander, 100 Jar, math sheet (15 minutes)

Language Arts: 15 minutes (includes HWT & MFW K)

 

Prayer / Bible/ Awana: 10 minutes

Read Alouds: 20 min.

 

Activities: art, science, more Bible, hands on math, etc....(30 min)

 

Preschool activities: 15 min (my daughter may or may not participate)

Spanish: 15 min

 

 

My schedule varies. If we have a morning with no where to go, might do a half hour of school starting at 8:30 followed by a half hour break and finish by noon.

 

Or we might do half in the morning and half in the afternoon, working an hour strait through at a time.

 

Or we might work for 2 hours strait through and be free for the day by midmorning.

 

Or we get lazy and don't start until 10 or 11 and work straight until lunch or do an hour before lunch and an hour after nap.

 

Or we get busy or frustrated and spread 1 day over 2 days. It's ok. In summer we only do 3 days a week scheduled and 4 days a week during traditional school year :).

 

Sometimes my dd will sit in on preschool and sometimes she'll take a break then. Sometimes I do preschool 5-10 minute increments while dd is working independently. For preschool, we do MFW Preschool, R&S About Three, WHT Get Ready for School and BFIAR. I spend about 10 minutes on BFIAR and about 5 on each of the others, but only do one a day plus BFIAR. Or maybe no BFIAR and all 3. All if we have the time, because some days we might speed through K in an hour, so spend like 30 minutes on preschool and 30 minutes on Spanish.

 

It usually takes us about 2 hours to finish, sometimes as little as 1 1/2 hrs., sometimes up to 3 but it really depends on what we're doing.

 

We're new to homeschooling. We're winging it:lol:

Edited August 3, 2012 by lea_lpz

[Gentlemommy]

I haven't read all of the replies, but one thing I might change is the order of things...you have math followed immediately by LA. Those two will be the "harder" subjects, kwim? I'd maybe do math, then FIAR, then snack, then LA. And I agree, most things won't take 1/2 hour. I've started K with my dd4.5 this summer, and she does MEP year 1 for about fifteen minutes, reading for about ten, and handwriting for five. We review phonograms all together, which takes five minutes, and she does C-rod activities which can be anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, simply because she likes playing with them. It's not all in a row either, I work with her on one subject while dd7 plays with dd1, and then I send dd4 to play with dd1 so I can work with dd7 for half hour. Then I work with dd4 again for another ten to fifteen minutes, ect.

[Mommy_of_4]

Ds is K age and doing 1st grade work.

Math: 1-2 lessons daily

Phonics: 1-2 lessons daily

Reading: one story a day

Journal: 2xs/wk

Science: 3xs/wk

History: 2xs/wk

Spelling: 4xs/wk

Art : 1-2xs/wk

 

We usually spend no more than an hr on seatwork.

[MusicMama]

We start our morning with an hour at the park. Then our morning circle time takes an hour. This is with 4-5 read alouds, including a chapter from our chapter book, a coloring activity or two, interruptions from the ds's, LOTS of singing etc. I finish up by (trying!) to dismiss the younger ones to play, but they don't want to miss anything! I have Babs read me a Bob book and we review AAS cards together. They watch their Spanish lesson during lunch. After Bink goes down for a nap, we do AAS, FLL, Handwriting, Phonics Pathways, and Miquon. This takes about an hour, again, time includes "working" with Bean. (Giving him mommy attention, playing War, etc.) We do three days of this schedule. Then once a week, we do science and/or History activity instead of the reading/math routine listed above. Though I incorporate science and history memory songs and activities into circle time already, I just try to set aside time to make a "telescope" or a Mud Pies to Magnets experiment. One day is off totally.