Scheduling the day - fitting it “all” in

[Bay Lake Mom]

I have been homeschooling my girls for 5 years now. I can not seem to find a routine that works for us that also allows us to get it all done. I know we’ll never get it “all” done, so I’m not expecting miracles. Are there any books or resources out there that have helped you nail down a workable schedule/routine?

My 10 yo is fairly independent, but she still wants me to spend time working with her, and I think there’s value in that. My 8 yo has LD’s. She is working at a 1st/2nd grade level.  I’m looking for a new read anyway, so I would love to find a book to give me some guidance and encouragement. 

[PeterPan]

A book? Hmm, a few years ago it was really popular to work in cycles, circles, I forget what they called them. I never have the discipline to do it personally, but if a book was exploring those it might be discussing other things that would interest you.

What I had to do finally to get it under control was assign a time value to each thing, a total time value to our day, and get brutally honest. Then I made printed schedules and shoved around things until the total time in each day's column was actually doable. The other trick then is to have some flex, like a day or a 1/2 day or something. Whatever doesn't get done from the list rolls over to Saturday and has to be completed before you go on with your amazing life. So it wasn't that I was nailing every day but that I knew we COULD have, made allowances for reality, and then said no really go get it done.

I hear you on the SLDs. My ds has them in triplicate and has bad days to boot because he has autism. He actually RIPS UP schedules, which makes it sorta hard, lol. For him we've done lists on the whiteboard, but we have to flex. And it's harder because things change so rapidly on him. Like my dd, more typical, would maybe change 3X a year. My ds can have things be really hard and then BOOM he's totally bored because it has clicked. So it's crazy and we have to be a lot more flexible.

With him I try to have anchors and routines. I try to go in seasons and know what I'm emphasizing. So I might not get to xyz, and I just let it be intentional, knowing this is the season for something else, this is what I'm working on. And that thing I'm not doing actually MIGHT be really important! Like we didn't do much math for about 6 months, because we did testing and found language needs that were much more imperative. And with a more typical kid, you'd be like oh that's horrible, he's gonna be behind... Nope, not behind. He tests at grade level, but he also just learns in spurts. Things come together and all of a sudden he can do a lot. He's not super linear like a more typical student. He'll be totally not getting something and then he'll get it applied to a whole bunch of areas (fractions and prime factors and division and...). It's crazy. But I think it's ok to allow yourself NOT to do some things. Just put them aside and go not the season, not the focus.

Is that BF core fun? The title sounds fun. I did a state study with my ds last year, and I want to do some world geography this year. The other thing I try to do to maximize our time, since he needs down time after working really hard, is to have things be double duty. Now sometimes they can't be. Like I'm not gonna combine two super disability areas, unfortunately, can't do that.  But if one area has been remediated enough that it's sort of a strength or sort of ready, then we can do double duty. Like I found a book of idioms and expressions, and I think we're going to copy one each day (handwriting), discuss it (expressive language, reading comprehension), and draw (fine motor). That's definitely double duty for us, and I was pretty pleased with my witty idea, hehe. He needs to work on multiple meanings for his reading comprehension and the OT wants him to draw/doodle more, and it will get me a bit of spelling and handwriting. But if the tasks are already hard individually (like maybe she reads her geography book independently), then I probably wouldn't stack that with a lot more just because you don't want to overwhelm.

I also sneak in things, tying them to our routines, without letting them feel like school. So we have read alouds in the morning and at night, and we're hitting language goals (more jokes, multiple meanings), history (Gander Publishing, the series is BEAUTIFUL!!), etc., all while just sneaking it in. Honestly, my ds watches a lot of tv sometimes and spends a LOT of time building legos. So I'm gonna pull him in, do something, and then he'll be gone again. My other trick is to make it idiot-proof. Like I see you're using the BJU DLO, and that to me is trying to make it so it just works, definitely happens. Well like for science, sometimes I've done a workbook that is literally just do the next thing. Right now I've got a V/V book on science from Gander Publishing and a STEM kit from the amazon STEM club. Just literally do the next thing, idiot-proof. The more the stuff is like that, where we don't run around looking for stuff and don't have to prep, the more likely it gets done. I'm already maxed out trying to keep all these strands in my head (therapies, disability intervention materials, oh he's supposed to have playdates and a social life, on  and on). When I can, I go open and go on materials.

Is part of the challenge that your younger is maybe not really independent because of the SLDs but needs some independent work she can do while you work with your older? That's hard. I had the 10 year gap with my kids, and that was crazy being in two worlds at once. Even with one dc though, still you need independent work. And maybe you could find a way to hit some of your goals that aren't getting done? Like what's your list of things not being done? Art? Timberdoodle has amazing kits that could be independent if carefully chosen. My ds still kinda likes the Djeco kits, and they have some paint by number stuff. For 8 with delays, I'd look at Djeco. They have a glitter art kit that is really fun!          Coloured Sands - Rainbow Fish      

[umsami]

I recently read "Teaching from Rest" and really enjoyed it.   One thing she suggested is to do a loop schedule of things you want to hit, but maybe don't everyday... so that way you will hit them regularly.  

Right now, we're looping English/Language Arts for my older kids.  They work through what they can in 50 minutes, and then start up where they left off the next day.   We loop through IEW, Grammar, and a Literature Study (BYL's "The Hobbit" right now).  

[PeterPan]

16 minutes ago, umsami said:

a loop schedule of things you want to hit,

Yes, yes, that's what it was called!! 

16 minutes ago, umsami said:

We loop through IEW, Grammar, and a Literature Study (BYL's "The Hobbit" right now).  

Ok, that sounds more doable than the whole day. I've known people who do the whole day, and I'm like dude you must have some serious self-control. Me, I'm always like xyz is so important we HAVE to do it. But things still get done, even looping the whole day, maybe just a little too wild for me. I like routine, same thing, every day. That makes it hard too, because then if you're not getting to something, you're really not getting to it. 

We used to have a contingent of people who made really detailed lists, printed work lists for the week, for their kids. People used to share them. If you go in Word or whatever you can make a table and play with it. About the age of the op's oldest is when my dd was really needing that more complicated format. It let us get more done, because then I could tuck everything in that printed list for the week, really tightly. Sometimes I did by the day, but by that age usually dd was working with a list for the week. I'd shade the columns (alternating) to make it faster to read,put in check boxes, put a list at the bottom for her to log her reading, everything. It also let me see what the order of her day probably was going to be so that we could have meeting times. Like ok we're gonna meet at 10 am and do these 3 things so you need to have prepped and done these xyz things on your list to be ready to work for me, and so on.

Do you know *why* you're not getting done what you want to get done? Do you have a schedule/routine for yourself, so you know where you're going to be? 

Edited October 18, 2018 by PeterPan

[Rachel]

33 minutes ago, umsami said:

I recently read "Teaching from Rest" and really enjoyed it.   One thing she suggested is to do a loop schedule of things you want to hit, but maybe don't everyday... so that way you will hit them regularly.  

Right now, we're looping English/Language Arts for my older kids.  They work through what they can in 50 minutes, and then start up where they left off the next day.   We loop through IEW, Grammar, and a Literature Study (BYL's "The Hobbit" right now).  

We do something similar.

Science is a subject we tend to miss in my house when we run out of time. In addition to looping, I have also set aside a week a few times a year where we focus on science. I had a friend who technically took summers off from school, but they did science every single day they were not traveling. 

Are you trying to do too much? Do you have a regular routine?

[PeterPan]

You probably already do this, but the other thing that helps me is to get away from everyone else's opinions and voices so I can be really quiet and honest with myself, pray, etc. Sometimes not getting things done means I haven't taken time for that. So then I have to STOP, take a long walk by myself in the cold, take a long shower, something, till all those voices stop and I can hear the still small voice saying this is the truth about our family, about what we need, about why things aren't working or what we need to do next. 

And you go to Disney, yes? A trip to Disney would help, hehe.   It's not exactly quiet, but I do have a lot of epiphanies by getting away, by sitting through Lion King or the Frozen Sing-Along and just reframing things and going ok, what is important. Like look at those dancers in Lion King. Did they have trouble in school? What did their moms do? How did it work out for them? Sometimes we need that time and space to think and see things a different way and figure out what was really important.

Edited October 18, 2018 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

Here, I'll try to attach some things, don't know if they'll interest you. Some of what I did is lost because it was so far back it was on my old computer (pc). The swankiest one that says January is from 8th grade I think, but looking through my files I seem to have rotated formats even with seasons. Definitely by junior high like that we were using the most complex forms, but you could bring them in younger. Sometimes I'd decorate them for the seasons, like changing the font colors to be eastery, etc. I just copied over them each week, editing the file and saving them, so I don't have them. One of those was from the dark days, so that was cracking me up. It's a paired schedule I had made with ds' plan (as he really needed a plan!!) and dd's. I needed to see that for MYSELF to realize ok this is where I'm going to be, this is what's humanly realistic. Then I had to tell her ok we'll meet at these times, set your alarms. It kinda sucked to reduce her education to that, sigh. She survived. Might need counseling, haha, but they survive.

My point is look at what the tech can do for you and then work backwards. If there's ADHD (60% comorbid with dyslexia, common on its own anyway), then they need structure to get more done. So I changed the style of the lists around to fit our season, but we always needed that high structure. Not high rigidity, just high structure, clear expectations, a plan, a way to know what to do if we wanted to change things. A loop is structure but kind of different, because the expectation is different. I was saying the expectation is get these things done, and the loop says the expectation is be here working. So you can think through your expectations. And maybe that's why I'm not hyper about lists with ds, because I'm more about him working with me enough hours per day than I am what we're working on. He's not developmentally ready to be tied to a list, because he's not that flexible. Maybe a little, maybe with babysteps. But by 10/11, a more typical dc probably is ready. 

You'll also see I tried to use my lists to maybe encapsulate choices and grand ideas. Like sometimes I just wanted to improve how she was using free time, so I'd put the list of things for that time slot so she'd realize the things she might like to pursue. It's another way to get more done. Sometimes you want them to do it to themselves but they need the prompt. So I was putting those prompts on the checklist saying do something productive, here's a list unless you have something better...

And yes, you're seeing Sat/Sun work on there. She had issues transitioning back on Mondays after a weekend off, so I assigned work on the weekends to keep her brain in gear. That was one of those still small voice things, where I had to get alone and realize what the problem was and solve it. ;) I think that 8th gr list also has our WWS assignments, btw. It probably doesn't say WWS and it just looks really cryptic, with page numbers and color abbreviations in the writing row. But that's what it was, our WWS stuff. I went through the entire manual with a highlighter, color coding chunks for each day. I did it a week at a time, but that's how I made it independent for her. She's super ADHD and couldn't have done it otherwise. 

2nd week of January.pdf

6th grade March.pdf

Schedule winter '11b.pdf

Edited October 18, 2018 by PeterPan

[Rachel]

27 minutes ago, texasmom33 said:

That’s a good idea. I might have to try that. My ds loves science and experiments but they are the thing I shove over the most because I’m just tired by the end of the day and the set up and clean up of science on top of other things is just too much. But during the summer that might work really well. 

Yeah it’s the experiments that throw us off.  It’s easier for me to do a bunch all in a row instead of here and there. 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Rachel
Typo

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

A few helpful things I've done this year:

- started using a timer, so subjects stopped creeping past their allocated time

- Made a detailed weekly spreadsheet with everything I wanted to accomplish.  I posted about it here.

- Rotated some of the extras into 6-week focus topics, rather than trying to fit them in over the course of a year.

Not every box on my spreadsheet gets checked over the course of the week.  But I can see very quickly which things are being neglected and try to fix that as we go.  Also, the sheet does not include my kids' independent work (reading, typing, math drill) or work they do with their dad (German).

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Sit down and track how your time is actually being spent each day. How much time is being spent locating materials and figuring out the work assignment? How many interruptions do you have to answer the phone, change laundry, run errands? How long can a particular child work before needing a break? Are you immediately available to help or are you distracted by other things allowing lollygagging on the part of the student?

Seriously, try it. I think you’ll find it more insightful than any book you can read.

Beyond that, as the mother of two kids with learning disabilities (and two without), figure out your priorities. Homeschooling with LD on the table is a lot of work. I found it best to block schedule in a somewhat rigid way to ensure everything was getting addresssed during the day. I would start off my older student on a longer project and then work with my younger one. When my younger one needed a break, I would work with my older one again. (The breaks were scheduled and chores were attached.) I cycled back and forth. My youngest ended his day shortly after lunch and then I finished up with my oldest. That “worked” for us up until Oldest hit high school and younger son hit jr high.

[freesia]

Two things that have helped me:

1. Having a list, in order of importance, of what how important each subject is at this time in your "school" (and this will change).  For example, my kids have to do spelling, so that program needs to be teacher intensive and daily.  Parent led math instruction is impt to me, so we do that daily.  At the end I might have artist study or latin for elementary.  These are things that I would like to do, but if the top things are not getting done, they can go.  These are the things that are looped.  Depending on how busy our lives are or how any weaker subjects are going thing may move from loop to daily and back again.  Looping is an excellent way of making sure it gets done.  Another option I've done is say we will do art study  3x a week for 6 weeks. Having a beginning and an end helps, and then I know it gets done.  (And in this season, I buy the Metropolitan Museum of Art picture calendar and put it in the living room.)

2.  Realized that I can not sustain high teacher intensive game/activity based curriculum in all subjects at all times.  There have been season where my middle 2 just read science (in elementary school) to themselves. Guess what? they loved it and talked about science more than at any other times.  Last year my dd1 did history completely on her own with no discussion.  It was right for that season.  This year we have weekly discussions.  Having 2 days for history and 2 days for science can help this, too.  Or one day history read aloud, one day science, on the off day the kids read about the subject on their own.

 

[freesia]

1 hour ago, texasmom33 said:

This is no lie. I don't know how people do AAR, AAS, and Right Start math all in the same school year for example, much less with multiple children. I'd lose my mind and would be throwing tiles and manipulatives in the air like confetti after two weeks and crying. I have to basically pick one intense product/subject to keep my sanity. 

Ok this is really funny! I am a total visual processor and the picture in my mind right now is awesome. I will hold onto it for those moment when I need to laugh instead of fighting the urge to hurl mamipulatives!

This would actually be dangerous in this house as I have a fourth grader who still uses manipulatives at times and a 13 year old who may actually be at risk of being on the receiving end! (Jk everyone--I don't actually throw things at my kids other than baseballs)

[Ausmumof3]

For schoolwork kinda we have a workingish routine.  

For the rest of life not so much!

I’ll just share what’s working for us for school now in case that’s helpful.  Also teaching from rest is good.

Also mystie Wincklers stuff - I haven’t done the paid stuff though I’d like to if we had to money for it but the free stuff via podcast and blog are helpful.

Our current school schedule

9 - morning time 

includes memory work, maths facts, bible, read alouds, poetry etc

10 - outdoor time or catch up on chore time - nature walk and snack

11-12.30 maths and language arts. Either every one on the same subject or alternating depending on who needs most help.  For language we do two days of spelling, three days of writing, then any extra time after they’ve completed the assigned pages is for assigned school reading and cursive 

1.30-2.00 screen based learning - mostly independent - apps for language, Hoffman academy, Picta dicta latin, typing tutor etc

2.00-3.00 subject of the day rotating through history, science, geography, art, grammar galaxy

Theoretically that leaves me two hours for housework etc before tea although most days we have afternoon or evening activities and some days I’m catching up on the basic morning chores because I didn’t manage to drag myself out of bed in time to get on top of them.  So some days like today we are going to skip morning time and nature walk so I can just get done by lunch and play catch up on everything else.

[HomeAgain]

This is why we strive for a 4-day week.  I can always use the 5th as a flex day: anything we need to get done can happen, or we can take a rest, just have poetry tea.

When I find us constantly behind, that's when it's time to cut things: set times for subjects so I know what we're accomplishing in a reasonable amount of time, or get rid of extra things (like right now we're doing an extra reading, it's a bit tough on our day).

[Clemsondana]

We do something from math, something from language arts, and something from history OR science every day, but we don't do every part every day.  We do history and science in longer blocks (usually a quarter at a time) in the younger grades (we switch to daily in middle school, but you wouldn't have to).  We do geography weekly since that fits the schedule for what we use (Simply Charlotte Mason's 'visits to' series).  If we tried to do all of them every day, it would feel rushed, but by only needing to do 1 (Geography on F, history or science the other days)we can do longer or shorter depending on schedule, but it still gets done.  For Language Arts, we pick a subset of things to do each day - spelling is usually daily, but grammar might be 2 days, writing might be 2 days, poetry might be 1 day, etc.  When we were at the earlier grades, we did phonics and spelling combined - we'd learn the words and then spell them back, so there was no need for 2 separate things to do.  I have found that I need to avoid things that come with a daily schedule because I always end up feeling rushed or behind.  

I also use a ticket system - I write out cards for how many days I want to do each subject each week, and let the kids sort out the cards into days of the week.  Some things, like math, are daily, but then they can put the subjects that are done fewer days into groups that make sense to them.  They might put writing (which they don't like) and lit reading (which they enjoy) on one day so that it feels balanced, and then put vocab and grammar (both OK, neither overwhelming or likely to be frustrating) on the same day, whcih might also be  a busy day and thus a good day for 'just get it done' language arts.  Maybe something like that could be adapted to fit your needs?

[Rachel]

5 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

This is why we strive for a 4-day week.  I can always use the 5th as a flex day: anything we need to get done can happen, or we can take a rest, just have poetry tea.

When I find us constantly behind, that's when it's time to cut things: set times for subjects so I know what we're accomplishing in a reasonable amount of time, or get rid of extra things (like right now we're doing an extra reading, it's a bit tough on our day).

We don’t technically do a 5 days week but I plan for 4 regular days and 1 light day. The light day allows for field trips and catching up without it throwing everything else off. I used to do it on Fridays, but last year switched to Mondays. That gives me Mondays to regroup from the weekend. Of course it’s flexible, so if it needs to be on a Tuesday or whatever, it can. 

[Another Lynn]

22 hours ago, texasmom33 said:

This is no lie. I don't know how people do AAR, AAS, and Right Start math all in the same school year for example, much less with multiple children. I'd lose my mind and would be throwing tiles and manipulatives in the air like confetti after two weeks and crying. I have to basically pick one intense product/subject to keep my sanity. 

Preach it!  

[Hobbes]

I have a 10yo, an 8yo, and a preschooler and toddler. One thing I've found very useful is making weekly checklists. I'll try to attach one here. I make them each Friday afternoon from my homemade template. Taking the time to think about the coming week has really helped me to figure out what works. Over time, I've also become much better about knowing what each child can handle in a day (and then, of course, it changes). 

We school four days a week and have a group class and our poetry tea on Wednesday. On schoolwork days, we typically begin morning time together at 8:30 and finish at 10, then do independent work and finish around lunch. I have a separate binder for myself for morning time, which includes Bible, memory, Shakespeare, read aloud, some grammar/science/history/art/whatever. 

The girls really like the checklists - work expectations are clear, they often choose the order, we don't forget stuff, and I can always remove something if we struggled in a day. 

[Hobbes]

3 minutes ago, texasmom33 said:

@Hobbes I LOVE your checklist!!! 

 

Thanks! It used to have loving notes and Bible verses, but it turns out that kids love comics and jokes. ? It's taken a lot of tweaking, but now it serves us so well. 

[freesia]

I always forget to mention checklist. Each child has one with assignments that I write in. Some things are assigned weekly, Somethings daily after we meet. I also gave a list of what I am doing with them daily and a looping checklist for when I am looping. Writing things down saves a lot of time during the day. 

[Moonhawk]

I have a kind of blend of the schedule and the checklist. I have a schedule for the week (this doesn't change), with our subjects in basically 1 hour blocks. Each block has room for me to write the actual assignment for the day. Then as we go through it they can check off or highlight or whatever they want to do on their sheet to show they finished something. The last column of the sheet has their "homework" ie the material they have to have finished by the end of the week. Right now I only have them for 3 1/2 scheduled days/times, with the rest of the week they get to manage on their own to get that stuff done (it's usually only science and sometimes math). I'll try to attach a screenshot.

Oh, and the last 5 minutes of each hour block is set aside for putting stuff away, going to the bathroom, getting water, and getting out the materials for the next hour. This has really cut down the time in transition between subjects. 

eta: here are screenshots examples. Two are the weekly schedules I print out for the kids: 1 for the weeks they are here all the time, 1 for when they are either visiting grandparents or one of their activities or a field trip happens on Friday or something. Then, I have my general schedule. Mornings are the same everyday but slightly varied with each kid doing their own thing until 9am. Each afternoon is a little different but all the kids are together, that's why I broke it up into morning and afternoon tables. The grey areas on the weekly prints are just to show the transition times that I mentioned earlier (I had my very rule-oriented kid want the schedule to reflect the reality, lol). (sorry they're so big, I can't see how to make them show up as thumbnails)

Edited October 20, 2018 by Moonhawk

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

@Hobbes Your checklist is wonderful. I am going to adapt mine to include space for a comic.  ?  I think- although it will add 10 minutes to my weekly organizing session, it will very surely be one of those things kids look back on and say, "Remember how mom always put a comic on our checklists?"  GREAT idea.

[Ausmumof3]

Just a quick q for y’all with the schedules and checklists - do you populate them weekly with the actual work?  I’ve tried various stuff like a diary or bullet journal or whatever but often end up not finding a time slot on the weekend to do it or finding even over a week we might get behind one day and stuff doesn’t line up.

[Ausmumof3]

9 hours ago, Moonhawk said:

I have a kind of blend of the schedule and the checklist. I have a schedule for the week (this doesn't change), with our subjects in basically 1 hour blocks. Each block has room for me to write the actual assignment for the day. Then as we go through it they can check off or highlight or whatever they want to do on their sheet to show they finished something. The last column of the sheet has their "homework" ie the material they have to have finished by the end of the week. Right now I only have them for 3 1/2 scheduled days/times, with the rest of the week they get to manage on their own to get that stuff done (it's usually only science and sometimes math). I'll try to attach a screenshot.

Oh, and the last 5 minutes of each hour block is set aside for putting stuff away, going to the bathroom, getting water, and getting out the materials for the next hour. This has really cut down the time in transition between subjects. 

eta: here are screenshots examples. Two are the weekly schedules I print out for the kids: 1 for the weeks they are here all the time, 1 for when they are either visiting grandparents or one of their activities or a field trip happens on Friday or something. Then, I have my general schedule. Mornings are the same everyday but slightly varied with each kid doing their own thing until 9am. Each afternoon is a little different but all the kids are together, that's why I broke it up into morning and afternoon tables. The grey areas on the weekly prints are just to show the transition times that I mentioned earlier (I had my very rule-oriented kid want the schedule to reflect the reality, lol). (sorry they're so big, I can't see how to make them show up as thumbnails)

Feels like you guys do a lot of hours!  We’re doing around 20 excluding sports etc and it’s killing me!

[BlsdMama]

On 10/18/2018 at 6:35 AM, Bay Lake Mom said:

I have been homeschooling my girls for 5 years now. I can not seem to find a routine that works for us that also allows us to get it all done. I know we’ll never get it “all” done, so I’m not expecting miracles. Are there any books or resources out there that have helped you nail down a workable schedule/routine?

My 10 yo is fairly independent, but she still wants me to spend time working with her, and I think there’s value in that. My 8 yo has LD’s. She is working at a 1st/2nd grade level.  I’m looking for a new read anyway, so I would love to find a book to give me some guidance and encouragement. 

Have you closely evaluated your curriculum?

So, essentially, evaluate what's not going well?  Is it that you have curriculum that is easy to utilize but you find yourself sidetracked?  Or is that you're unmotivated by the curriculum?  I'd make a checklist of what you need to do in a morning.  If you find yourself sabotaging your morning, then you know you need to be more disciplined.  If you find that each subject you've chosen is intense and nothing is just easy to do, then you need to make some adjustments there. 

I think it's good and right to choose some teacher intensive curricula - but not all of it can be intense.  

I absolutely, positively, do NOT advocate a schedule.  They are then driving your day and it allows for no flexibility, following interests, or enjoyment - UNLESS it is a morning only schedule and the kids have a huge amount of time to follow interests in the afternoon.  They may work well for a classroom, but homeschool homes are not classrooms. A flexible routine is more fit to a family.  If it is you that is the issue, you have to tell yourself you will devote yourself to a block of sitting at the table - no cleaning, etc., and this is a challenge for some of us, namely me.  I've battled getting sidetracked for the eighteen years we've been homeschooling.

On the 8yo - if you can afford a neuropsych, do an eval.  It's hard to make a plan to remediate something that you don't know, accurately, what it is.  We are a family with several diagnosed dyslexics, three of them diagnosed by three different docs because I was so skeptical.

I wrote a long post once about what was important and I guess I think of it like a house - foundation, walls, furnishings.  

If one thing, work on READING every single day.
If I skipped math K-4, it wouldn't phase me one bit.  But I want them reading solidly by grade 4 no matter what it takes.  And I have one who borders on profound dyslexia, for whom this did not happen.  It has been absolutely crippling.  We did manage to work around it utilizing audiobooks heavily, but I cannot begin to tell you the impact of delayed strong reading abilities.  He has severe working memory issues so we see this ebb into everything and I wonder what it would be like to still be homeschooling "blind" without the CORRECT neuropsych eval.  (We'd had him worked up by the school district initially.)  We are making steady progress now, thank the Lord, but it has been a very challenging K-8!  

Read aloud or have them listen to audiobooks at least 1-2 hours a day, 2-3 would be far better.  This will actually build the foundation for future writing abilities.
Live a life such that they are encouraged and willing.  If they are not willing to do a day of school, it is better for them to school joyfully for three hours than drudgingly for six.  Why? Because, oh mama, you have to do middle school and high school and a happy, willing, hard working student is a habit you DEFINITELY want/need in place.

[Moonhawk]

5 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Just a quick q for y’all with the schedules and checklists - do you populate them weekly with the actual work?  I’ve tried various stuff like a diary or bullet journal or whatever but often end up not finding a time slot on the weekend to do it or finding even over a week we might get behind one day and stuff doesn’t line up.

Yes, I write in the actual assignments weekly onto the printed schedule. So, Math on Monday would have me write in the box "Epsilon 10A", Tuesday's Math is "Epsilon 10B, Beast Academy pg 38" and so on (though, it looks like "EPS 10B, BA 38" because the box is small, lol). I'll admit that I am supposed do this on Saturday (hence the paper starting with Sunday), but usually fill it out Sunday evening after dinner and give to them Monday at Morning Time. 

As for getting behind: their free time on Sunday is reliant on them finishing their stuff from the week. Saturday afternoon has a specific slot of "self directed learning" which was my fancy way of saying "do your unfinished work here or find something smart to do if you completed everything." Usually the only subjects that bleed into the weekend are science and religion (they have little art activities that take my kids foreevvvveeeer even though it's a 10 minute project lol) and art (which I do give something independent specifically for the weekend). And if something gets fantastically behind, I know by Sunday and when I'm writing up my week for them I give the first block of that subject to catch up. 

[Moonhawk]

6 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Feels like you guys do a lot of hours!  We’re doing around 20 excluding sports etc and it’s killing me!

 

Oh man, I don't think I could handle a sport on top of what we do, kudos to you! 

I think mine adds up to around 20 overall when you don't count the choirs/lessons and self directed stuff, and that's including the piano practice in the morning. My problem is that Friday-Saturday morning is usually spent with grandparents, and Thursday afternoon is purely prep for that and errands, so it feels like I'm just hitting my stride and then it's yanked from me, lol. I really wish I had more time for art and science. I've been thinking of dropping Quiet Time, but it's really helpful for getting my business feet on the ground, and they really like it.

[PeterPan]

On October 19, 2018 at 3:53 PM, Hobbes said:

 

You think if I put a comic on checklists for my ds he finally wouldn't throw them away?  Very nice!!! Love the jokes too. LOL

[PeterPan]

13 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

I absolutely, positively, do NOT advocate a schedule

You can have a *plan* without a schedule. You can have a routine or structure and still be flexible. I'm with you that we seldom, if ever, held tightly to a *schedule* but we really needed structure and clear expectations and a sense of the plan. We would anchor things (after ice skating we read and have quiet time, etc.) and we sometimes had scheduled meetings or goals (get these things done before lunch). There are lots of ways to be flexible and still know the plan. 

I really like Hobbes' point that when presented well, you're conveying a mindset of how you interact with the plan. Your organization can show that flexibility. 

[Hobbes]

On 10/20/2018 at 4:50 AM, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

@Hobbes Your checklist is wonderful. I am going to adapt mine to include space for a comic.  ?  I think- although it will add 10 minutes to my weekly organizing session, it will very surely be one of those things kids look back on and say, "Remember how mom always put a comic on our checklists?"  GREAT idea.

Thank you! I'm hoping it's a delightful memory. And it always starts the week off with fun, since they're excited to see their checklists and read the comics and jokes. Calvin and Hobbes are our favourites, Peanuts and Garfield are hits too. Once I got my system, it only take about two minutes. I  do a Google image search and copy and paste. Very worth it!

17 hours ago, PeterPan said:

You think if I put a comic on checklists for my ds he finally wouldn't throw them away?  Very nice!!! Love the jokes too. LOL

? It's worth a shot! 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Hobbes

[Hobbes]

On 10/20/2018 at 5:10 AM, Ausmumof3 said:

Just a quick q for y’all with the schedules and checklists - do you populate them weekly with the actual work?  I’ve tried various stuff like a diary or bullet journal or whatever but often end up not finding a time slot on the weekend to do it or finding even over a week we might get behind one day and stuff doesn’t line up.

I do make mine up weekly. Some things are specific (readings, etc), others are general (in math they work until the star I mark in the book, in French we work for a general amount of time). I like to think about the week ahead and lay out heavier and lighter days based on what we're up to. Sometimes I get it wrong and use white-out during the week (sometimes I do that the night before, if I see that the previous days missed some things). But having it specifically laid out each week helps me to get my head ready for the week and also makes the days run more smoothly, with fewer questions about what we should be doing.