TheAttachedMama Posted May 22, 2016 Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) I am sort of planning "out loud" here. I am trying to come up with a time budget for next year. I will have a dyslexic 4th grader, a 3rd grader, and a very needy toddler. I feel like our school day could potentially take FOREVER with that mix. So instead of just making a list of all of the things I want to do, I am trying to come up with a realistic time budget so I can prioritize what I can actually fit in the time that we have. Can anyone look this over and tell me what you think? Also, if you have put together a time budget for next year, I would love it if you could share it. My concerns: Am I assigning too much independent work? (If so, what should I cut?) Is there a good mix of academics and free time? Is it a bad idea to loop our core subjects in the morning? I really would like to have those completed before lunch just in case something comes up. (Life is sort of complicated for us at the moment due to some medical issues with my mom.) ----------- 5:00AM- Mama wakes up before everyone and works out and drinks coffee (hahahaha! yeah right). On the off chance, that lofty goal doesn't happen, I will at least get up by 7am. My toddler-alarm clock doesn't let me sleep much later than that anyway. 6:00AM-8:00AM: Kids are typically early risers on their own. I tell them to try to have their Chores and Breakfast finished before 8AM. They can also start on Independent Work** if desired or save it for the afternoon. 8:00AM- Dad leaves for work. This gives us a natural starting point for our school day. 2 Hour Lesson Loop* with Mama with first older child, then switch (The older child not doing lessons is hanging out in the playroom with their 2-year-old brother. Sometime durring that 2 hour time period, they shold get a snack if they are hungry.) 12:00PM-Lunch and Cleanup, Play Outside if clean up is completed early and you are finished eating 1:00PM-Rest and Reading (Toddler Naps), on Wednesday I drop the "big" kids off at homeschool orchestra. The toddler will nap in the car while mama listens to her audiobook. :) 2:00PM- Latin (M, T, Th, F) (It never takes 30 minutes, but I am scheduling extra pad time in here because it is hard to get the kids to put down their books. They always want to read to the end of the chapter, etc.) Somedays leave the House for Educational Field Trip. (Shakespeare Club, Nature Study Club, Art Club, Zoo, etc.) -OR- Leave to take care of my mama (if needed) -OR- stay home and do the following 2:30PM- Content Subjects Block Scheduled (M, T, Th, F) (History, Science, Geography, Bible) (Toddler can watch a leap frog movie if he wakes up before we are finished. He tends to be really grumpy after his nap) 3:30PM-Snack and Cleanup 4:00PM-Preschool with Toddler (Older kids can work on Independent Work) 4:00PM (or later) -Free time for anyone who has their independent work completed 5:30PM: Kids are allowed to ask me for screen time now....or continue playing outside. Mama starts dinner. 6:00PM-Dad comes home, 6:30PMish (whenever dinner is finished) -Dinner, Clean Up, Spend time together as a family, Baths if needed 8:00PM-Bed *Lesson Loop: This is the time I work one-on-one with one of the big kids. These are their core subjects, so I want to make sure we get these done early in case something comes up. (Set 2-hour timer, do as much as possible before timer goes off, pick up where we left off the next day. We always start with math, and then loop the rest of the subjects) Singapore Math Lesson taught by mama, grade math from previous day together (15-30 minutes) Loop: English Lessons Through Literature (Typically 45 minutes) All About Spelling (DS) or Apples and Pears Spelling (DD) (Typically 15-30 minutes) Memory Work using ANKI (15 minutes) Oral Reading Practice (15-30 minutes) Rest and Reading: We all read a book on our own...or they can listen to their audiobook **Independent Work: Listen to Audiobook (classics from ELTL) (1 chapter) Read a chapter in Bible Singapore Math Workbook exercise Correct any missed problem in math from the day before Transcription (from ELTL) or make entry in Commonplace book Typing Practice (15 minutes) Shephard Software Map Drills (one continent per day) Violin Practice (20 minutes per day) Xtra Math Listen to Latin memory work/song for week (itunes playlist) -------------- Things I had to cut: I'm sort of sad because I wanted to start the day with a 30 minute math morning time with Beast Academy. (We love Math in our family, and I really feel like this program shows the beauty and goodness of mathematics. However, I am just not sure how I can fit that in. I tried to do both Singapore and Beast this year, and it was too much. I also wanted to start French with the kids this year. (I LOVE the French language). But I also couldn't find a spot to squeeze that in. Edited May 22, 2016 by TheAttachedMama Quote
Flowergirl159 Posted May 22, 2016 Posted May 22, 2016 Your day looks very similar to ours :) I would look at your Lesson Loop and cut some of that back. It looks like you are spending 2 hours per child to and working on both maths and language arts during that time, is that correct? I would keep math how it is (I actually have an hour in our day for math, that includes Singapore, drills and our supplement - Miquon) So I would not cut back your maths time. As far as LA go, I would probably limit that to between 45mins and 1 hr per child. Spelling - I use AAS with my three girls (all on separate levels), and I only work for 15 mins, then stop for the day. Reading - My younger two, grade 4 and grade 2, read aloud to me each day. I limit that to 5-10 minutes. (We use McGuffey so its actually one story) It is more difficult to read aloud than to read quietly, so I would definitely cut that back. I also have them do their own independent quiet reading each day - between 30 mins to 1 hr (some of this is before bed). Memory Work - my girls go over and practice their memory work during their independent work time, about 10- 15 mins. Then on Fridays they recite to me so I can see how they are going. This way I don't have to be present every day for this. Writing/Grammar - for you I assume that would be ELTL - I would set a time for about 15-30 mins and just work through what we can during that time. Cutting back on LA may just give you 15 mins in your morning slot 8-12 to spend on French :) Hope this helps :) 1 Quote
Chelli Posted May 22, 2016 Posted May 22, 2016 Let's see.... We don't have set wake up times which we probably need, but even I can't stick to them so it is what it is. I divide our school day into three large chunks of time. Those large chunks of time are what we loop. On a good day we will get to all three blocks. On a normal day we'll get to two of them, hence the loop. :thumbup1: Our loop looks like this: Power Hour (aka Morning Meeting, Morning Time) 1 hour Skill Subjects (math, language arts, foreign language, independent reading) 2 hours Content Subject (block schedule of either history (first semester) or science (second semester)) 30 minutes-1 hour Skill Subjects (see above) 2 hours My goal is to hit Skill Subjects every day and either Power Hour or Content Subjects depending on what we did the day before. If things are going well then we will do all three blocks in one day. On the days that we get all three in, I cut the content subject time to 30 minutes or one day of work. On the days when we only get to skill subject and content subject, I bump the content subject time to one hour and do two days of work. I hope that made sense. :tongue_smilie: 3 Quote
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