Our "Normal" Daily Schedule

So what is normal anyway?? LOL!!

I function better with a "plan"!  I look back in other years and think how much more organized I seemed to be...

but truthfully, the more we get into home schooling, the more I realize that our days flow better when Momma has a well-planned day but is flexible. And might even ditch the plan when something better comes along:) 

Like last Friday, my kids had prepared a simple afternoon "tea party" for some friends coming to visit while their parents attended a funeral. By noon, when school was nearing an end for the day... plans had changed, no friends, but a Grammie:)

While I was in the kitchen fixing lunch, the kids asked to bake for the "party".

By the time Grammie arrived, they had sugar cookies, energy balls, and pizza rolls. Not quite the Science lesson I had planned for the afternoon:) But they all helped to bake from scratch, read recipes, follow directions, measure and problem solve when the right measuring cup was already in use:) And then setting up the table and arranging all the seating... for the 4, Grammie and a couple of dolls. (Momma stood!) Oh, and cleaning up:)

So as you read through this schedule, this what I have planned for our "normal" days but no day really goes as planned... and really as long as we're learning and growing together, I'm good with that:)

Morning Chores

Daily Notebook/ Start Individual Work 8:30ish

• Sometimes reading with Chris
• Time with Nate

Morning Time – 9am

• Bible/Prayer
• Memory Work/Spanish Songs

Math & Individual Work (9:30 – 10:15)

• Mom math lessons with Chris and Lydia, Checks Anna
• Mom sneaks in time with Nate
• Occasionally works on spelling, too

Together Time (10:15 -12)

• Writing
• Art or Music
• History or Science

Lunch Prep for Mommy (12ish)

• Individual Work
• Spelling Tests
• Finish independent history/science work
• Spanish DVD

Lunch

• Kitchen Clean-Up
• Room of the Day Clean-Up
• Brush Teeth

Read Aloud (boys room) -if its a day Nate needs/can take a nap (sadly these days are infrequent)

Back "on the bus" (until they're done!!)

• Finish Individual Work
• Grammar with Lydia/Chris, then Anna
• Spelling (if not already done)
• Read alone or with Mom (20-30 minutes)

Free Time

• Outside
• Errands
• Park/Walk/Swim

Library visits weekly :)
Wednesday -Piano
Tues/Thursday (in the fall) - Soccer
Thursday mid-morning is local home school activities and 4H monthly
Wednesday - RA and GAs

There is our  "plan" !!!

It's very flexible; like who I am working with first... there are some days one is begging for my attention and the others are working quietly... so I start with them:)

It's funny how a plan changes to fit our needs and personalities, too! When we started school the 1st week of August our day looked a little different. The kids explained that they wanted to work on math first in the morning rather than waiting right before lunch:) We tweaked and moved stuff until we found something that fits us now;) I get Bible first and History before lunch and they have Math almost first... win!win!


And right now I haven't been doing anything formal with Nate:/
 
He's been working on ABCs with all sorts of activities that have kept him busy while we school:) Throw in some pattern blocks, a kitchen set, a train track and some Play-Doh and he's been a happy camper:)

We're working on getting  him involved with Bible time and he listens to us practice our memory work, the US presidents, States and Capitals, Psalm 23 and Spanish vocabulary. So he's still picking up on some of the "big kid" stuff!!

 I do want to start up Before Five in a Row with him again.... so that's in the works as soon as I get settled into my online classes for the semester (one thing at a time for this little stretched brain)!!

Linking up to the "not" back to school Blog Hop and WFMW.