We're starting on Tuesday and I still don't have our schedule nailed down (it doesn't help that I'm still waiting for part of our curriculum to come in). This is what I'm thinking so far but I feel like I'm missing something or not spending enough time on something. Any input is appreciated! My kiddos are 13, 10, 7, and 6. 8:00 Wake up, get dressed, breakfast, morning chores 9:30 As a group-Pledge, Prayer, Bible, Exercise (walk, stretching, etc) 10:30 Older 2 work independently Younger 2 Do Math lesson with Me 11:00 Dd10 Math 11:15 Dd13 Math Review and give new assignment 11:30 Social Studies/Science on alternating days 12:00 Independent Work/Individual Reading lessons with me 1:00 Lunch break 2:15 Silent Reading for all 2:30 Music Lesson-one child per day. Others will practice during independent work 3:00 Electives/experiments 4:00 Afternoon chores 4:30 Free time/errands 5:00 Leave for evening activities Does this seems reasonable? To me, it seems like so much in so little time and I haven't even added in grammar, writing, spelling, foreign language... Those of you who are able to get everything in before lunch blow my mind! I just can't see how we could do it!
I find in the homeschool environment that is it better not to do every subject every day. My children would get interested in a subject and want to stay doing that and not change subjects so often.
I think your day seems very long, but usually I end up schooling until 3, so I guess it's similar . I think my question would be what are your priority subjects? To me, grammar and writing are pretty important, so those are always scheduled in. Ditto with math (which you got). The other stuff is more.. fit it in or not as time permits. I also don't see any art on your schedule? You might find when you are going along, that your days run more efficiently than you think they will as well. There are days that the kids whip through LA (how long can you really discuss nouns?) and math, and days when we really linger over science. I also find it helps me to schedule a 4 day week instead of 5. Our 5th day is for catch-up and covering anything we missed during the week.
I think lunch at 1:00 is a little late. My dds would start complaining or whining around noon. I also need more than an hour in math with both of my dds. I agree with Tina Razzell, I would spread the subjects throughout he week instead of doing everythings in the same days.that way I know no one is stressed out to finish and they could spend the time learning more aboutone thing at the time instead of rushing through the day
I try not to schedule times...when I do that it rarely keeps exactly that way. Just realize that somedays this schedule may work and others it may not. That is one thing homeschooling has really helped me with...flexibility and just going with the flow. You will find that somedays Math will take twice as long as the time you have given it but Science might be done in 10min. The way I work our day is that Math is first, when that is done we do all of our together work and then dd does her stuff on her own. When I had both sd and dd at home I would do Math with sd in the morning while dd did her Math then sd (high school) went off and did her stuff, I worked with dd and then I got back with sd in the afternoon. I just scheduled who I was working with not the exact times of the subjects but that is me everyone works differently.
Thanks for all the input so far. I'm still tweaking things here and there, so I know this won't be the final schedule. The times are flexible, but I need to put them down just to give me some idea of how long things are going to take. Some thoughts on a few of the suggestions: *My DH's days off are Thursday and Friday. We plan on still doing school work on Thursday and taking Friday off to spend time with dad. If there's something pressing that we didn't finish or if dad has something he needs to do without us (mowing, working with Grandpa on the ranch) then we will use that as a catch-up day. *My main subjects are math, reading, Bible, social studies (or science), and music (which will be piano/and or recorder). *Art will be done during the time for experiments/electives in the afternoon. Just not everyday. Also, they'll have some projects to work on with their independent work that will include art. *I know lunch at 1:00 sounds late, but that's what we're used to. We don't eat breakfast until 8:30 or 9:00. If they need one, they eat a small snack in between, but usually they don't want one. Our evenings are really busy with tae kwon do, church, etc so we usually don't eat dinner until about 8:00, so I make lunch a little later than most. I really wish I could go hang out with a family who homeschools several children and see what their day is like. Last year, we didn't personally know ANYONE else who homeschooled. We've met one family this year, so far, but they only have two kids...
Looks good. Getting your feet wet and actually homeschooling will help you tweak the schedule to fit your family best. I found my boys do well with an exercise break in the middle of the day. I know some people schooling multiple kids do a schedule for the mom and each child. I'm only schooling two and by the time I am schooling three my oldest will be pretty independent. If it isn't covered in independent time I would personally spend more time on science/social studies for the older two.
Then I think your schedule will work for you. You have your most important subjects covered. We also have later lunch (because supper is later) so I totally get that! I hear ya on having other families to peek at. If I didn't have this forum, I'd be totally lost. I actually switched to day numbers this year instead of planning dates. If we took an unscheduled day off during the week last year, I was stressing out. And forget it when we needed more than one day OY! I was a disaster!
The way I scheduled my year this year was to write down which subjects I wanted to cover on which days, but with no times. Last year I made my schedule with time slots, but I ended up throwing that out the window pretty quickly. Sometimes DS would finish one subject very quickly, and then take much longer for others, and it was stressing me out to be 'behind schedule'. Today, we managed to cover math, spelling, history, writing, Spanish and guitar by 12:30! We're all done for the day until 4pm when DS has basketball and youth club.
