We haven't started school yet.... I was planning to start today but we have a couple items still en route to the house, so we'll be starting this week... same as our local elementary school. I'm really ok with that because we never really totally ended schooling around here! 
And having everything totally ready to go 2 days delayed is MUCH better than trying to start unorganized!!!
Last year I learned that I was task-oriented versus time-oriented. I still have some times that guide my day like mealtimes but I use the tasks that need to be done of organize my day:) And a routine also allows the flexibility needed with caring for an infant during the day:)
All that being said, here's our "hopefully this works" routine: Italics are meals. BOLD are activities done together!
Get up and Eat Breakfast
Morning Chores
Math Lessons
Morning Meeting
Bible time and Verses
History/Science – readings, narrations, projects, labs
Anna- Independent work / Mommy Reading Time with Chris
Anna & Chris – Independent Work / Mommy Time with Lydia
Playtime/Outside/ Lunch help
Lunch
One Year Bible reading
Chris, Lydia & Nate- nap /Mommy & Anna - Reading Time & Grammer
Anna – nap, finish projects,etc
Homework time with School Friends / Playtime
Clean up rooms/Dinner Chores
Dinner
I've made little chore "pockets" for the kids based on Managers of Their Homes book. I'll post more on them later.
During independent work times, the kids will have their assignments laid out for them. Chris (4 yrs) and Lydia (3 yrs) will get their tasks from file folders stuffed with work and activities that I have pre-chosen and then some for them to choose. Anna (2nd grade) will have a sheet tucked into a plastic sleeve and I'll write the details of the assignments on the sleeve.
I moved history to before lunch and with the whole group so we can do it together. But it also means that Anna has some MOmmy-time work while the others are napping. I like this because the after lunch tasks are ones that she likes and they don't seem to be as "demanding".
"homework time" isn't probably that "normal" for homeschoolers;) We will be watching 2 kids afterschool for a couple of weeks. They are a sweet brother and sister that my kids have grown up with:) Anyway, last year it worked well to have Anna working at the table with them as they completed their homework. She liked "fitting in" with them and I think they liked having someone else to chat [or commiserate] with as they worked!
The parts of the day that I am looking forward to the most are the group times and the individual times.... LOL... sounds like the whole day!! WE've really enjoyed doing history together this summer so it will be fun to continue. And I really have wanted one-on-one time with Chris to help his progress with his reading... so I'm exicted that we could see him and reading start to "take off". And Lydia is getting to the stage where she wants to do more but I'm always tied up with something else when she asks... so it will be nice to have some time with just her. Anna and I will enjoy naptime, working on reading & grammer things;)
Check out more Day-in-the-life at the Not Going Back to School Blog Hop from Heart of the Matter this week;)
9 comments:
Sounds like a great plan! I can't believe all of your kids nap, that must be awesome! Abby hasn't napped for years and even then the longest was 45 minutes!
I hope that your things arrive quickly and everything goes smoothly. Thanks for sharing!
I love schedules and plans. :) I'm such a nerd sometimes. haha. Hope that the start of the school year goes well for y'all!
You're doing such a super job in planning the schedule for school. I believe my "grands" will have a great year in school.
your schedule looks great! I have a few times that guide my day but I would have to say I'm more about getting different tasks done than what time we actually do them in the day. enjoyed your post!
Hi! I am new to your blog and found you through HOTM! I was excited to see that you do things pretty much how I do them, as in using The Well-Trained Mind as your "homeschool bible". Anyway, I struggle in the area of science. My daughter is in first grade, so the plan is to pick an animal in the Kingfisher Encyclopedia, read about it, have her narrate it, and create a notebook page. Is this what you did? Did you add anything? Sometimes I feel like this just isn't enough! I would really appreciate your insight on this! Thanks so much!
Cassy- I wish I had an email for you:) But I'll just display my failure for all to see in my comments!!!
While we LOVE Science here... our animals study I kept super simple!! Since I had three young ones and preggo with another, I kept the "extras" very simple....
we read about the animals from the encyclopedia, sometimes checked out some library books about the "animal of the week", did the notebook question page, sometimes I printed off some coloring pages or parts of the animal (or life cycle) pages. If there was a project or lab we tried to do it... or fav was glueing spilt peas in the shape of a lizard to explain scales;)
Another FUN thing to do is to see the animals in action on YouTube.... like watching a video of a hummingbird nest!! We also had a membership to the closest zoo and made a few trips.
Since your child is in 1st grade... I think WTM stresses giving kids exposure to the animals and ENJOYing learning about them!!! So I really embraced enjoying it:)
I hope this helps and you can email me if I can help any other way! Although I still feel like I"m trying to find my way through as well.....
are you doing story of the world??? There is a great blog called The Chronicle of the Earth here's the link http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/
GREAT resource for extra resources and ideas doing story of the world;)
Looks like a great plan. That mama time is so important. Thanks for sharing your day.
Kelly,
Thank you so much for your reply to my first comment! Okay, so you have explained pretty much what I had in mind. I like your idea of looking up videos on youtube to watch. My girls will love that! I guess I just needed to hear from someone else to know if this was enough! LOL! I'm still new at all of this!
I actually use Mystery of History instead of SOTW. My husband and I discussed it and thought MOH was a better fit for our family. Other than that, and the fact that I'm using Horizons math, I pretty much follow TWTM! Love it!
Thanks again!
Cassy (cassy494@yahoo.com)
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