Scheduling subjects

[LAmom]

Here is a list of subjects I'd like to do:

 

Math

Grammar

Writing

Spelling

Handwriting

Phonics/ETC (for youngers)

 

History

Science

Literature

Bible

Health (required in CA)

PE

Art

Music

Logic

Latin

And someday... Spanish

 

Now how do you all schedule these?! I know WTM has a section. I have the old version. But it just seems like so much!

 

I am just looking for a way to schedule. History 3x, grammar daily, etc. Maybe a blog that has a nice schedule already?

[briansmama]

Well, I have a similar list and for us it looks like this:

 

Daily:

Language Arts (grammar, spelling, Copywork, Poetry memorization) or for my K'er this is Copywork and phonics

Character/Bible

Math

Latin

Piano practice

History (2xs per week for 90min)

Science (2xs per week for 90 min)

 

Weekly:

Art (1 hour)

Music appreciation (30min)

 

PE is whatever sport they are playing at the time, usually after school hours.

I don't schedule Health but my boys get LOTS of it through cooking/meal planning/market and farmer's market discussions and label reading, etc.

Literature is bedtime reading for my oldest unless it ties in with history and/or science, then it is assigned during those weekly periods.

Literature for my youngest is cultural/Fairytales and part of his language arts/history curriculum.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

We school at home 4 days a week, and one day at co-op. At co-op my 5th grader and 3rd grader each had her own latin class where the lesson for the week was presented. Then the 5th grader did the workbook work at home over the week. Then she also had her main science class this year presented and homework sent home. She had a 1 hr art class and her P.E. taken care of there. So that took care of some things for us. She did Latin at home on Mon and Tues and had some homework over the weekends. She did Spanish at home on Wed. and Thurs. We opted for one of WTM's schedules that was Latin full speed, one program a year, and Spanish at half speed, aiming for a full year program over 2 years. There were weeks when Spanish was dropped, I won't lie, because we were getting behind in latin or studying for the ELE, but we have videos, board games, and picture books that she plays around with too. My 3rd grader only has latin for now and did some at home work with it in her morning work For the rest of the week for my 5th grader the goal was this:

 

Daily or at least 3x a week if we had a field trip:

 

Foreign language, math, English, spelling, literature, music practice. I read one lit book chapter aloud at lunch, or a chapter from our Bible curric, or a chapter from SOTW, depending on the day. All of her assigned lit reading is done at bedtime and over the weekends. It takes up no time during the school day. The goal is to get the other daily subjects done before lunch. Then my reading aloud, rest or outside time, than an afternoon subject or two.

 

1st day of week:

She has extra curriculars in the afternoon. So we aim for the morning subjects only this day, plus hopefully some history reading or outlining. But truly it usually waits. The goal for latin is 2 wkshts. First Form generally has 5-6 a week. Science chapter reading homework.

 

2nd day of week:

Morning work. Again, 2 latin worksheets. In the afternoon she is to read a spread in history encyclopedia, outline it, and do a page in her geography coloring book and timeline book. Science reading homework or begin any written work. We also try to fit Bible work in here. We generally just read the story and I might assign a bit of written work like definitions or notes as we go.

 

3rd day of week:

Morning work. Spanish: watch video, practice vocab, and read new lesson. Afternoon: Read extra book for history and finish anything not completed the day before, Science homework.

 

4th day of week:

Morning work. Spanish: practice vocab and do grammar worksheet. Write a summary of history for the week. Sometimes there was a summary due for lit. reading. Finish any homework for co-op classes.

 

We slipped her English in whenever she had some free time. I just had her read through it and do some diagramming and all composition assignments and poetry assignments. But grammar is easy for her and reading through it works fine. She aces all tests and works grammar in latin and spanish daily. You can see how latin had to be homework sometimes. That is only 4 wksheets. So 1- 2 were homework regularly. The schedule never went perfectly. There were many weeks where spelling got done in 1 or 2 days instead of a bit each day, because she was too busy to get to it on a given day. Science was often done all at once on Thurs to get ready for Friday's class. We often spend one evening at the library finishing up some of the research and writing and choosing books for the next week too. We don't get it all done by dinner. But one evening at the library after dinner and some wksheets over some weekends did the trick. I am not against homework. It has served us well. My kids have done well this year in all outside classes and testing so far.

 

The 3rd grader had handwriting, spelling, latin, and a test prep book for her daily morning work. I do dictation w/both once a week. The 3rd grader has copywork and pen pal letters, and I do R&S English with her as many days as I can get it in. She does math daily. And she does history w/me twice a week, Bible together w/her sis, and her Science class was often enough once a week for the year, but at other times we did more at home when there was time. We did a lot of reading in history and science at read aloud time and for her assigned reading as well.

 

In the morning, the 5th grader can pretty much handle her workload herself. There were chapters that I needed to work w/her on math, but often she can read and go to the next lesson herself. Most of her work is a bit of discussion for us, then she goes off to work on her own. The 3rd grader starts the day w/what she can do alone, and I work one on one w/the preschooler for at least 30 min. each morning. Then I set her up w/ a learning toy or activity. She still naps, so I read her preschool books and get her to sleep after lunch and readaloud and outside time. When she is asleep the others do afternoon work. When she wakes she gets a school video like leapfrog or Bible movies. She does all memory work with us (we do it together for history and Bible) as best as she can.

 

We did drop music practice this year. My goal is to somehow add at least music appreciation back in next year, and my heart's desire would be to get piano practice back on the schedule. But I had to drop something. Besides my 2 kids I also lead scouts and babysit and homeschool a preschooler and teach some co-op classes. My plate is full, but my cup runneth over :)

[Alte Veste Academy]

We have a big block for group content work each morning, beginning with Morning Meeting (aka Circle Time). Not everything must be done every day and/or you can balance (ex. one day do 60/30 history/science, the next do 30/60). Then I work with each child one-on-one in the afternoon. As they get older, you can assign some independent work to complete in the hour before you work with them (while you are one-on-one with another) or after you work with them (to be reviewed by you later or during their slot the next day). The kids work independently, read, practice instruments, play quietly, etc. while I am working with one. You could buddy up your kids since you have littles, although hopefully they still nap. :D

 

In your shoes, I would do this.

 

Morning Subjects

 

Morning Meeting: including Bible, Health (a short reading/lesson however often you are required to teach it; or fold into science if possible), Art Appreciation, and Other Fun Stuff You Might Enjoy Doing Together (:D We include all kinds of things during MM. You can look for old threads if you are interested. :lol: In case you want to add even more to the schedule! :tongue_smilie:) BTW, we do Music Appreciation during the morning and into breakfast. I play music and they appreciate it...or not. LOL Easy though!

 

Spanish: If you want to start this now, you could start easily, by labeling the house and picking up vocab. Your kids would probably find it fun. We do this after Morning Meeting, just a few minutes of conversational Spanish on a daily basis adds up!

 

Writing: We do a writing workshop here, at which time everyone writes at their own level. We write about content (history, science, current events, art, etc.).

 

History

 

Science

 

Art: I always end the morning school block with a project of some kind, most often art. I get them started, then make lunch (and eat mine) while they finish. Eating ahead makes me able to read while they eat.

 

Lunch & Lit

 

One-on-One Subjects

 

Math

 

Grammar

 

Spelling: I make sure DD and DS10 are one-on-one back-to-back because I do this with both of them simultaneously, as they are at the same level.

 

Handwriting: This is combined with copywork, which is combined with content work, so they do this in the morning, usually during science or history. I do consider initial print/cursive instruction one-on-one skills.

 

Logic

 

Latin: We have not yet begun. Personally, I am really starting to appreciate the idea of waiting until a child can be more independent/self-directed.

 

These subjects I left off, with reasons stated:

 

Phonics/ETC (for youngers): I taught my kids to read mostly at bedtime. Could your DH help with this? I took an unusual approach, but reading was actually never part of school here, more of a life skill that they learned off and on throughout the day, with longer lessons as they desired them. Otherwise, I would do this during one-on-one time in the afternoon.

 

Literature: I read lit aloud at lunchtime and bedtime. With littles, lunchtime might be tricky. You could include picture books at morning meeting, making seasonal choices when appropriate. Also, they read on their own.

 

PE: We are active outside of school. They are on swim team.

 

Music: They take instrument lessons, which include theory. Appreciation becomes part of history, along with art.

 

ETA: I just saw that you also have a wee baby! Congratulations! But this schedule will probably be killer for your ages. My hat's off to you!

[Spetzi]

First of all, many things can be cross over subjects. Once dc learn how to form letters, use handwriting for writing and/or spelling. Literature can be a way of studying history or science.

 

Another thing that has worked for us is to do art for half a year and music for half or count a sport as PE. We also don't do grammar all of the time. They learn it and practice it while writing.

 

Just don't try to do too much or you'll feel like this :banghead:

[Coco_Clark]

Morning meeting with Bible and literature (I'm assuming this is read aloud?). Maybe an hour?

 

Then I would do a 20 min of daily individual math instruction with 9, 7, and 5. Followed by 20 minutes of daily individual language arts (grammar, writing, spelling, phonics) for 9, 7, and 5. While you work with kid A, kids B and C could be doing independent work pertaining to the lesson or playing with your 3 year old. You can get a lot done in 20 minutes of one on one focused teaching! This will take two hours for you but only 40 minutes each for them.

 

Everyone together can do an hour of History three x a week, science one x, and rotate art and music on Fridays. Remember that a lot of writing/ handwriting practice can fit into these subjects, that's why you only need 20 minutes of instruction! Listen to music as you do other things like cook or drive, keep art supplies available and they will do it in their own.

 

Personally I'd just record all the playing they do outdoors, any family walks, or any sports as "PE". Plan a fun park day once a week if you aren't an active enough family to get away with that.

 

I can't help you with logic or Latin. Don't teach those myself. But my "plan" takes you 4 hours, and each of your kids 2 1/2 + maybe a weekly park day for PE.

[LAmom]

Wow! Such helpful responses. I guess I have some different options that I should try to implement and figure out if they will work. I'm having a hard time picking my history curriculum for next year because by the time our morning work is done (the basics) we have lunch and then it is hard to regroup and get the kids to focus for history, reading, science, whatever else we need to do.

 

Thank you for the help!