I am sitting down tonight to write up a rough daily schedule of what a typical day should look like for our kids to follow. Now that I'm homeschooling all 3, I feel like I must have some sort of structure. Would anyone like to share what your day looks like? When do which kids (ages?) do what subjects? If you have more than one (or many kids), what do they younger ones do while the olders are working? When do you schedule in cleaning, exercise, reading aloud, bible, etc? I thought it might be helpful for all of us to share ideas. ;-) oh.. my kids are 10, 8, 6, 3.
((((fulhandsfulhart)))) That was me a few days ago. Because of some changes in our math approach and a few other things I had to totally rearrange our schedule and it took me 2 whole days to figure it out!! Teaching just 2 kids was so much easier. I can give you a little sample. I have two days that are the same each week and the rest are different. I hope it isn't too confusing. I basically made a list of my children's time in each subject, which ones I needed to do with them one-on-one, and made a chart of my time and started plugging them in. Here is a Wednesday .....nevermind I tried to add it here and the format was horrible and it looked nonsensical. So I posted it here in table format when it is much easier to read. Hope you have an easier time than I did!! My youngest has always played in the same room as my boys while they were in school. She was in the school room/play room since babyhood. I used rotating toy boxes. She is in school part-time now and when not in school she will entertain herself in the school room.
I tried to have a pre planned schedule on our first day last Monday. Then I remembered I have a two year old. :lol: Things did not flow the way I anticipated so I re-evaluated what went well and what didn't. And I changed things according to that. One thing that didn't go well was doing anything with all four together. So I split them and I do "school" with my 3yr old and 2yr old first. We do their calendar, read a book or two, do whatever work pages/projects for that day. I let my 3yr old play with the hands on letter of the week stuff we have while I do some one on one with my daughter - puzzles, extra stories etc. About an hour or so. Then I move on to schooling with my other two. That worked well. One issue I had was that I planned for my oldest to do his math independently while I worked with the little two but the dvd drive in the kids' computer doesn't work and I didn't know that until Monday last week. So he does that pretty much last once my daughter is in bed for her nap. I think routine is important and we do have a loose one but flexibility is also key. Without it you will be super stressed and the kids will feed off that energy and it just won't be fun for anyone (I speak from personal experience). Our days end up looking like ME doing school all day but my pre-schooler only does stuff for about an hour, my kindy the same, and my 2nd grader about 3hrs or so all told. The kids are getting better about understanding that I can't help all of them at the same time and that when I'm working with one they need to just play quietly until I can work with them.
I don't have a schedule per say to work with each dd one on one. My youngest still needs more one on one than my older. I just let them choose what subject they want to work on and if they need help while I am working with the other.. then they do something else until I can get with them. I do tell them that they need to do what they can on their own and when I am able to I will get to them.
I can tell you what I do (did), but it may or may not work for you! After breakfast, we do stuff like reading history and a literature book, where I'm doing it with the whole group. Then I might give a history assignment. I will then give assignments that really don't take any time on my part to explain...for example, pages in a reading workbook. At this point, they will have a list of what work they need to do on their own. Then I pull them individually to go over their math or whatever else I need to actually sit down and "teach". After lunch, the kids have a half-hour of Silent Reading time in their rooms, followed by my reading aloud (usually a fiction selection). Then the rest of the afternoon is their doing the work on their lists, with my helping whenever needed.
This is how I see our day going, but since I haven't started homeschooling yet it may not work. I plan on eating breakfast and getting dressed at around 8am. Then have my daughter,7 and my only child, do some reading while I do dishes and some cleaning. After that we will do a math lesson and then she will work independently on some math while I do something else but stay close enough to help if needed. Then we will do some science/history followed by writing and art. We will do studies of various artists and musical studies through the year but they may not be everyday. We will also work on computer skills but not everyday. I'm hoping we can be done by about lunchtime but again I haven't started so who knows what it will actually look like when we start.
This is the first year I made a schedule, because I felt like I was running around my house all day long trying to help everyone. I still help my other kids but the bolded subjects are my focus and it gives us some more routine and is going well. I didn't include my oldest since he's doing everything on his own and he is in Duel Enrollment so it's different daily. ETA: Deleted attached schedule because it has my kids names on it and don't want it on the internet forever.
