continuing from my post in someone's earlier thread... My kids are age 11 (5th grade), 9 (3rd grade), 7 (1st grade), and 3.5 (preschoolish). And I'm pregnant, due in April.:love: I really need a very structured schedule to get us through the rest of this school year..get stuff done before the baby comes..and keep me on track! Here is what I have to use with each kid/subject All 3 kids together: History: Mystery of History Science: Apologia Zoology 1 Bible: Acts Quizzing (for our church) Time4Learning.com we have a subscription..to supplement all subjects Grammar: Easy Grammar 5, Easy Grammar 3, Sing Spell Read Write 1st grader. Handwriting I usually have the 5th grader do copywork and the other 2 do their DeNealian books Math: Saxon 6/5, Saxon 3, Saxon 1 . I also have Switched on Schoolhouse 3rd grade for supplementing and my 1st grader likes his Abeka 1 workbook. Also I have Reading Comprehension workbooks for all 3 kids' grades, and various other workbooks. I would like to do something for Literature..journaling...spelling..which we haven't been doing. I know Time4Learning has Literature studies in the 5th grade curriculum...but we haven't gotten that far yet. So can someone please help me structure my day??? I would really appreciate any help! Thanks, Kindra
I'm not sure if this would help you or not, but what I do usually is work with whoever gets up first on their individual stuff (which for us is just language arts and math), things from their individual work that can be done independently is saved for later when I'm working with whoever is next. Let's see if I can give an example of a typical day here. 5:20am I get up and pack hubby's lunch and ship him out the door, then I exercise. 5:50 oldest gets up and gets himself around for school (he goes to PS) 6:45 oldest leaves, I hit the shower 7:00 my 7yo almost always gets up about now.. he is usually the first one of the Littles up. I give him breakfast and he watches some cartoons. 7:30 I say it's time to get working. I have him watch a phonics video (HOP) while I make sure everything else is around if it isn't already. I then have him go over the words in the big book or have him read the reader that is assigned for that day (we often repeat lessons all week long if he is struggling with it). We do a page or two in his Total Reading workbook. Then we try to get through math. Usually someone else wakes up in the middle of all of this. I give them their breakfast and turn cartoons on quietly for them. 8:15 to 8:30ish the first round of individual work is done. Spelling or handwriting type things are usually pretty independent and can be done now. If the other of my "schoolers" is up by now we start on their work, but usually my 8yo sleeps till about 9 so I will use this time to putz online. 9:00 hubby is on break and we text back and forth, this is a standard break for us and even though hubby goes back to work at 9:10, we break until 9:30. 9:30 8yo does her individual work. I usually set 7yo up on one of the computers to play on one of my approved game sites or use their Ooka Island or Reading Eggs subscriptions. When she is done with all that she needs me for I have DD finish all of her independent work. This is done by 10:30. We then start our cycle of what we do together at 10:30, or if time has gone a little later we have lunch and do our together work after lunch. 11:30-12 is always a break time. Here is pretty much what our days look like as far as what we use: Individual Subjects M-F McRuffy Math M-F Reading (7yo does HOP, 8yo just reads to me) M-TH Total Reading workbooks (this covers grammar, writing, and reading comprehension) MWF Spelling (Free Zaner Bloser) TTH Handwriting MW Science TTH Social Studies M Physical Activities (we use lots of Wii games here esp when it's too cold to play outside) T Artistic Pursuits W Physical Activities TH Music (Classics for Kids site and we are learning the recorder which comes out most days) F Physical Activity one week, Health and Safety the next Everyday we have a read aloud or two (sometimes we have a longer book going and will have a short story or poem on top of it, sometimes we just read a longer book, sometimes we just read a short story or poem and call it good). Fridays are meant for fun.. when it's warm out I try to get outside and do things with them, explore nature or play a game. When it's too cold or too hot to be outside comfortably we play games in the house. Did I help at all?
so.. you have a 5th, 3rd and 1st, and a pre to keep busy with"school work" .. I would start your day with a circle time, go over the weather and your day plans simply but clearly then delve into bible stuff. Pray for your day to go orderly ( always helps). if your kids are early risers-- do breaky together-- 7? Do get up and get dressed time- ALSO! Purchase a LARGE poster board and some velcro. Put together a schedule on it, have each kid use a different color of 3/5 cards to be thier personal schedule. The older two can help you do sbjects to help with organising of time. 1st grader can stick velcro to the back of the cards- Basically classify all the lit, grammar etc as ENGLISH spend about an hour total a day on that. extra reading is good for filler time if they finish before you are ready for them so keep any extra reading books together in a box ( library box? ) to be filler books, make them the most exciting ones so the kids will want to take the quite reading option. Same with MATH_ any of the math work sos or whatever is MATH- 1 hour for each kid here too, though they will probably finish in 20-30 mins at thier ages they can have the full hour to work on it if needed. NO MORE-- save anything else for "home Work" or study hall as I called it at he end of the day lol. As Sommer said Science and History alternate, mw or tth and keep Fridays for whichever needs more work. We usually had Fridays as a half or off day if they finished all their work first. Spelling tests once a week at the end of English class is good. If you have a lot of english subjects separate them into days Grammar- mw Writing- T-th that sort of thing-- I did Spelling MWF ( cause I did have them scheduled for fridays they just didnt have to wait til then.) Grammar daily ( we used daily grams) and the English with BJU was easy for us cause it was just enough for a week. Use tabs in the books if you can for each week--- color code where to start and stop for that week ( tiny sticky notes work great for this) then they get to pull the tabs off as they reach that days work. ok I will let you digest that and check back later
I'd be happy to share the schedule for my kids. I usually schedule out history & bible first, then wrap everything into that. They have a schedule that they follow....basically tells them what they need to accomplish each day. They check it off. Come to me if they hit a wall and need help. And we've started doing history together again, so...
Thank you all for the great samples and advice! I am looking forward to sitting down this weekend and getting it all written out and ready to start gung-ho Monday! I will post what I come up with! How do you juggle 3 different Math teachings (different grades/ages) all at once? I struggle with that...
I had the oldest level separate from the time I had the other two, the youngers read, did english stuff during Math for older and visa versa.
