I am wondering how you balance your time with school and home? I feel like there is so much I would like to teach to the kids but there aren't enough hours in the day to school and keep the house tidy. And adding to that our associations activities start again soon. Right now I have school broken into alternating days for some subjects but I would like to add other subjects in too without overwhelming both the kids and myself. Any thoughts. This is our week: Day One: math english french computer art Day two: math english history science gym Day three: math english computer french art Day four: math english science geography gym Day five: Is off unless they are way behind or really awful during classes the rest of the week. I use this day to prepare for the next week and write up school notes for my records. I would like to add more things in but am unsure if I would be pushing it or not. What do you ladies think. Right now school is anywhere from 3-4hours in length.
I'm certainly no expert (by a long shot) but I would ask how long you are taking with each subject? Your line up looks similar to mine (same number of subjects per day) but at this point, we are mostly doing review. When my ds puts his nose to the grindstone, he can get his done in an hour. Dd takes longer because she dawdles- maybe an hr and a half. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with your setup AT ALL. I worry sometimes that I'm keeping things too short! (but when I try to lengthen them, the kids glaze over...). I also tend to try to do some cleaning while the kids are working. That might only be 10mins while my dd does her math, but that's enough time to get some dishes washed. kwim? Every tiny bit helps. We instituted chores this past week after my thread on my messy house. The prices are steep for what I'm getting, but I'll take it! ***adding: ds is in 4th this year, so the plan is for 3.5-4hrs work after the 'review' (but again, he's my speed demon so he'll challenge me there). Dd is in second, so I'm looking at 2-2.5ish for her (and my dawdler.. she'll talk until we hit the three hr mark :O)
What I find is there are certain things that are a must, we do those first. I have a few things that I want to add to their curriculum as well so I do it on our Friday once a week and it will take a few months but that is okay with me. One I am incorporating is winston grammar because I like how it works and I think it will help them with what they are learning. After 3 months or so I will switch that time for Health. But, this is what our week looks like. Monday: Geography History Math Vocabulary Science Spelling Tuesday: co-op classes IEW crocheting Chorus Wednesday: Writing math science history Thursday: another co-op day Tae Kwon Do Drama Art 4H Kinex Friday We test what they have learned in all their topics, Science Grammar History Then I move onto Easy Grammar and typing which this year since they have the hand position down, I have them type out Proverbs for some Bible and practice Our schedule has been crazy this week. We just started and every morning so far my children have had Dr appt. Which I do take that time to school the other child. But when we got home and started I let them work at their own pace, we finished realisticily after lunch. Which I explained it would be a longer day for them since they wanted to do 2 co-op days. I am done working with them around 1:00 and then at 2 I go to work. Generally, there is something left for homework while I am there. But, I find what is key is I sit with them every moment in the beginning to help them see where they are dilly dallying and how they can manage their time together. To help with chores, everyday before lunch or before we start schooling what ever works that day we do the 15 minute tidy. We all work for 15 minutes cleaning up the house, from vacuuming to cleaning shoes, rooms, etc....
We do the longest day ever this year in my house. Ds gets up an hour later than he used to because we have activities more often later, church, drama, sports are in the evenings. So they like to come home and unwind before bed and then we end up late starting it but we start still by 9 am, So far we are playing with the order of things Tuesday it was Bible Look over the books to see what he would be learning figured the how many pages per day out. Break Sos-Civics ""Spanish ""Civics Wednesday we addied in the book work first Bible Math H/g Lang arts Break SOS SOS SOS done! Thursday same as day before but I had to drive ds1 to job interview so ds did school with dd and he wasnt sure of his grade for math the day before and put it off till the end so Math actually was done last! With a big gigantic break to play games with dd! How do I handle that with house stuff? I do cleaning while ds does work ( he is highschool so more independent sometimes) Usually! Cause right now I am doing the best I can before they get up, then do assigning chores for college kids to get to! Of course as I look around this morning those were not completed yesterday so will be added on to their usual Friday mom freak out cause its the end of the week and its a messy house- day! hahaah We had auditions or two hours that night. Wed was Bible Math History
Honestly I keep schooling as a priority over housework. I make sure we have things reasonably clean and if someone is coming over we clean a bit more. I say we because I require my boys to be involved in chores. This year they are alternating between dishes, clothes, bathrooms, and cleaning-up. They will have a different chore each week. For them the dishes and clothes will require some help, but hopefully they will be independent at them before too long. I don't spend time with associations, but we do activities with out homeschool group when they appeal to us. Associations can be a time hog, but if what you receive out of it is worth it then go for it. I'd consider adding subjects depending on how you are doing with the current ones. If everyone would like more or if you think everyone can handle it then I would add one or two subjects and see how it goes. I spend time in the summer planning the entire school year so my daily preparation is very short.
Cherry you got me curious lol what is Kinex? And thank you ladies. It does help alot. I do have kids help with chores and don't worry too much over the house when we are schooling. I love the idea of trying to incorporate more subjects to see if we can handle it. Or maybe come winter add our Fridays to mixed classes since we are stuck in the house most of the time with the cold. As for time spent on each subject it really depends. I spend as much time as needed to complete the work assignment and lesson. Then we move on. Generally I am finding it taking about 3.5-4 hours so far. Alot of that is getting my two to focus instead of distracting each other with chatter. P
Right now this is our weekly schedule: Everyday - Language Lessons, Early Grammar, Life of Fred, Bible, free reading Every week we swap out science and social studies, doing 2-3 days worth each week. We also do art, music and typing when we have time and feel like it. (Yeah, we're so well disciplined here! LOL) But I am going to work those into our schedule better this coming week when we have off (we do 6 wks on, 1 wk off). I also want to get a foreign language in there, though not necessarily a full curriculum, more just conversational learning. And we will be doing some sort of nature study once a week, too, once I figure out exactly the best way to do that for a 4th grade boy. A normal day of actual work (not including any breaks or feet-dragging time) takes about 2 hours right now. I am thinking of dropping Fridays from our schedule and just using it for over-flow from the previous days, esp if we get art, music and foreign language added in to the week. All this to say, if you feel overwhelmed, don't add more to it yet. Give yourself time to get a routine going, and then add in a subject here or there. For house cleaning, well, our house is cluttered because we have a lot more stuff than space. But DS has chores he does most every day, so after our work is done he gets started on those while I get my part done. We find if we spend 30 min a day we are able to keep it decent looking. Then I have my Sunday mornings (usually) that I do my heavy cleaning. Our house isn't gross, but it is lived in and usually looks that way. LOL And I agree with the others that if the activities are too much without giving enough back, drop them or cut back on them. But if they are worth it to you, then just make adjustments to your schedule on those days.... doing things with other kids count as education, too, in my book.
I'm not sure LOL It was one of the classes for the co-op, they learn through building with kinex. That is all I know so far. I will keep you post. My son was sure interested.
I have a chore chart on the 'fridge. I never used chore charts. We always did what needed to be done. As Ems gets older, chores are changing and there seems to be more that needs to be completed. So I went with the chart. It works fantastically. There are daily chores like dishes, vacuuming, sweeping & dusting, and a few others that are daily. The others are every other day or a couple times a week. It really takes little time if we keep up on them. I do not think chores take more than an hour out of our day, unless it is dishes or laundry.
You vacuum, sweep, and dust every day?!? That's AMAZING. But then again, I have 3 kids 4yo and under with another baby on the way. I can't wait until they are old enough to do chores!
sarah vacuuming and sweeping is the easy part, you just get the kids to help you find anything that may be suckedup toy wise. Have them help you do the dusting too! The 4 yr old is the right age for dusting! If you have floors or carpets have the kiddos help with pick up and get play cleaning supplies, my kids had thier own toy vacuum, dust pan and broom. then if someone spilled something even my then 2-3 r olds could "help mommy clean".
When things went well while my spouse was still working, and I worked from home it went something like this. Kids got up ate, made beds, bathed and dressed and tidied up rooms. Then kids got to have 45-60 mins of free time that included upto 30 mins of screen time (tv or computer) During this time, I ate, bathed, made bed, and did meal prep. Meal prep meant taking something out to defrost, cutting veggies, makeing a salad or whatever. This included lunch prep. Then we did school for a couple of hours, with me sneeking time in for housework if possible. More often however I worked on computers that belonged to clients while doing school, rebooted them and ran scans while inbetween tasked with kids. After lunch we ran errands, went to park, library grocery store etc. Once a week we met dad for lunch. Mid afternoon we did whatever else needed done for school. An hour and a half before Dad came home was power hour. Kids and I scrambled to tidy up everyroom, put laundry away, and I tackled a chore or two like vacuuming or cleaning bathrooms. Any left over time was used for computer or TV leaving great incentive to bust it and get it all done. I used remaining time to finish meal prep, or to take a nap. After dinner I would work on computers or deliver them back to clients if needed, or visit freinds, ride bikes as a family or run errands with family. etc. Saturdays, we all took the first 3 hours of the day to catch up yard work and housework, then took off to have fun for afternoon and evening. I worked outside after being trapped inside too much all week and hubby enjoyed being inside with AC blasting after working outside much of the week. THis gave me a change to chit chat with neighbors etc.
I do. :lol: We have more windy days than not in the desert so these chores are a must. We also have dogs. As much as I love my dogs, I do not like dog hair all over the place. My mom had four daughters. We were all born within four years of each other. My brother came along later in life. Once all the daughters we old enough to clean house, let me tell you, she probably had the cleanest house around! lol Now I want more children!:lol:
