Jyhwkmama Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/296029-what-small-changes-have-you-made-as-a-momhomeschooler-that-have-paid-big-dividends/ This is a very old thread, but one of my favorite. I have read it several times. I am reposting to ask if anyone has anything new to add. So much knowledge in the hive. What small changes have you made to your daily life that have paid off bigtime? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Finishing the academic year by May 1. DD13's older siblings start arriving home from college in early May and it really disrupts schooling. so now we push to have all the academics finished by May 1 and spend the rest of May doing field trips, fun reading and art projects. All of DD13's friends are in public school and are envious that she is done for the year. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Our new schedule has worked wonders! Kids wake up and do their responsibilities (7 B's: bathroom, bedroom, blessing chore, body clean and clothed, breakfast and vitamin, brush teeth and hair, buddy care) When I wake up I read aloud to them (one chapter or picture book each) and my 6 year old reads to me for 1/2 hour. If they are done with chores they have free time until we start school together. I put the toddler down at 12 and we have devotion and memory work for one hour. They must be FULL when we start. Then they do math, writing, spelling, drawing, and music theory. I sit at the table and help the non-readers and check the work of the olders when they are done so they know what to redo. I am done at 4:00. Some of them are done before that and sometimes the older two have a little more to do. When they finish they have free time until dark (assuming chores were also completed in the morning). At dark they read for 1 or 2 hours before bed, evenly divided between Bible, nonfiction (I give them a topic of the day), and fiction. Our only outside activities are choir for the boys on Tuesday nights, choir for the oldest on Thursday nights (during which I run errands and bring one child with me for special time), and Sunday morning church. We have a lot of doctor appointments for my son and I, though. I have recently started attending a Bible study on Wednesday nights and sometimes bring my oldest. Choir activities will be done soon and we will have more time for other fun things after 4:00 during the week (like the beach). Also, we are expecting a baby in the next 3-6 weeks so I'm sure we will slow things down. Compared to our first semester schedule of outside activities and the school schedules that we attempted for about three months this semester, the last two months are going MUCH better. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I was listening to Quiddity's "On Starting The School Year Well" this morning and both Cindy Rollins and Dr Chris Perrin refer to Jamie Smith's book "Desiring the Kingdom" and bringing small bits of liturgy into the school day. So I'm off to go explore this rabbit trail. Thank you! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplecat Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 My kindergartener and third grader each had their own assignment notebook this year. They both enjoyed checking off lessons completed and counting down to special events. The third grader really benefitted from seeing the list rather than having me constantly remind him about what needs to get done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I'm trying a few tweaks. It may be too early to tell, I'm hopeful though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Protein for breakfast, no matter what. Quiet time every afternoon, no matter what. Read aloud before quiet time, no matter what. 4 day school week. Spiral notebooks for assignments. I'm sure there are more, but these are constants that make a huge difference for us. or at least for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILiveInFlipFlops Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 :lurk5: Our habits are in desperate need of some refreshing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Hot lunch. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Great thread! I feel like our 2 changes were big changes but they made a big difference: *drop out of co-op (with permission and grace from the leaders/friends) so I could concentrate on foundational learning I needed to shore up with my younger two. They're doing great! *put the math text aside for youngest dd and play with math. Her math fluency really increased and she was for the first time thinking numerically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 More sleep. I'm getting about 30 mins to an hour extra sleep every night. So less prep time for lessons, virtually no tv, less time on this forum......:) But I feel good. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyhwkmama Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Love all of these! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Not scheduling 35 (36) weeks of school work; I make a schedule for 32 weeks of lessons, and have the 35 weeks to complete it. Every few weeks I put in a review/ catch up day for one subject into the schedule. I rotate this day through all the subjects for each child. This has made a HUGE difference in everyone's stress level and general all purpose feelings of accomplishment. Why did it take me so many years of slashing schedules to realize this? :001_tt2: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 *I've been working through some audio lectures to bring some new insight to our school day. I'm attempting to "Teach from a state of rest" after reading the book and listening to the lecture. *I've been educating myself via Great Courses, just half hour or so of listening per day. *We start the day with audio books during breakfast. No one is ready to talk early in the morning, and we get a solid half hour of listening in. *Giving each kid one on one time with me. The other two a free to play during their sisters time. It takes me a bit longer, but they work more efficiently with just me in the room. *Memory work. For whatever reason, my kids all love it. We've done everything from a timeline to skip counting to poems to helping verbs lol. They ask for this, and it's something all three (4, 7, and 10) can participate in together. *Lots of outside school. 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 What a great thread! (Both this one and the linked one.) Dedicating blocks of time to each child, and rotating which child goes first. Everyone has to wait sometimes, but everyone gets to be first other times. And they know they will get their chance with me, so they don't bug me (much) for the next thing. And I don't skip my early learners (my non portfolio children). Putting everything into OneNote. Checklist for me, checklist for DD, easily printed for my son who prefers a paper list. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Also, setting my iPad so it dings when I get iMessages from DH or emails to my primary gmail boxes (and the dings are different from gmail and iMessage), so that I'm not checking my email very often during the day and thus getting distracted, but I can still attend to things quickly if need be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arliemaria Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 My kindergartener and third grader each had their own assignment notebook this year. They both enjoyed checking off lessons completed and counting down to special events. The third grader really benefitted from seeing the list rather than having me constantly remind him about what needs to get done. Is your kindergartener a reader? I am trying to see how this would work with a nonreader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micron4 Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Great thread! My biggest change is having an hour of outdoor time from 11-12. In the morning the kids are responsible for getting ready, morning chores, and independent work. If they run late on those and it cuts into "recess" time. We do our other work in the afternoon while littles nap. There were a few days when things were running late and I decided to cut out recess time, but the kids were so restless and unmotivated that afternoon that it wasn't worth it. So now we go out no matter what, even if it's only 20 minutes. Bonus: I get a little vitamin D and light exercise in (chasing kids, pushing tricycle, etc.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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