I'm trying to create a schedule for us. I know there will be days that we don't follow it, and we may not following strictly.. but I'm hoping it will at least guide us. What does your daily school schedule look like. I have tried to include my 2 younger kids in the first half of the day so I don't feel like I'm ignoring them to focus on my oldest. Then the stuff that requires one on one time I plan to do while the younger 2 are down for nap. I just bought a schedule maker because I thought it would tie in with telling time (although he can tell time on a digital clock) and the schedule I created was on a whim, but I feel like it might be too much ?. I wanted to add the nap is for my younger 2.. and from there my oldest starts his math and language arts.
Our schedule varies each day. I do a loopish schedule and keep track of hours. Basically we spend 5-6 hours on different subjects during the school day. At the beginning of the day I choose which subjects we will cover. Each subject has a chronological list of assignments/activities. I keep track of how much time we spend on that subject and mark off any assignments/activities completed. I explain it in more detail here.
Well, my son is only 3.75....but as an unschooling sort of look at education I know throughout the day there will be many learning opportunities. I think that as far as scheduling will go will will focus on about 2h of full out scheduled "class time" to focus on his printing, reading (he is already reading many words and asks for more), and math....as well as theme days/weeks to focus on. Arts and crafts will be spread throughout the day as these are things we always have fun with anyway so I don't want it to become a "must do" task. LOL but our first two weeks of class will begin on a cruise so....I will tell you how our actual days go in a month
We do about 2 hrs of sit down school a day.. But we have to get started as soon as we can in the mornings or else it throws off our whole day
With my oldest daughter I tried a schedule which broke everything down. I was rigidly trying to stick to the schedule that I missed out on those imprompt learning opportunities. I dropped the schedule but had an idea of what I wanted to accomplished during the day/week. Then when my daughter wanted to know why a rainbow had those colors, we could find out and learn together. I just want to caution you to not make the same mistake as I. Don't be so ridged with a schedule that you miss out on those imprompt learning opportunities. My daughter is beginning her fourth year at college. My son is in 9th grade. His schedule is rigid. He has to finish his textbooks each year. Those classes without a textbook, we must count hours. Also, he must put in so many hours each year. I do miss those days were learning was more relaxed. Sigh.
(Ideally) students wake up at 8:30 and until about 9:10-ish, they are eating, drinking and grooming. Immediately after that we clean the breakfast table and pull out the books. We do reading and math in the morning. I try and push to get everyone done before 11:45, 12:00-ish, we have lunch and snack and break. Reading and Arithmetic are our core subjects. We get in some Spanish, ASL through out the day. I'm trying to add in Art also, I'm going to get a good cartooning book and try to do two pictures a week with them.
Wow, that's quite a day! We only do 5 subjects each day which comes out to about 4-4.5 hours this year. When my kids were little we did 2 hours max a day. Our 8th grade schedule looks like this so far: Monday - Math, Science, Japanese, Reading, Geography Tuesday - Math, Science, Japanese, Reading, Geography Wednesday - Math, Science Lab, Japanese, Reading, History Thursday - Writing, Spelling, Vocabulary, Reading, History (CAP meeting) Friday - Art & Technology (Software and Programming)
My husband did not know that we had schedules when the kids were younger lol. He said A schedule? all the years we homeschooled you didn't have one.. ha ha, Yes I did, they were posted in the study area, on kids desks etc, but thats okay hes a year older than me for a few more days haha! I look at all the helpful things they now have for teachers/ homeschoolers in stores now and cry! They have so many things I want to use, but can't. So I am buying things for my prek and Kindergarden teacher friends! I saw the little pocket thing and want to get it for ds to keep track of what subjects he has done each day. I am thinking ofthe ones you used for your numbers -- the beachmom one? I am thinking of just giving him a start time, a break time and self pacing for the most of it. But then we will have band daily for the first month. so I will start regular class after those. I am checking into him maybe taking PE with the school he is getting his band from too. it is a tiny private school so will be helping both them and us.
We're a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants type of family. Every day is different-no set get up time or start time. We start when the mood strikes. We aim for around 30-60 minutes of "schoolish" work in the morning and 30-45 in the evening some days. Other than that we just have fun as we go along with our lives....
As far as the schedule in the picture.. the first 2 hours is mainly for my 3 yr old.. but of course my kindergartner is going to join in... the music isn't strict music.. we have a bunch of toy instruments that they can all play with.. including my 19 month old. I was just trying to find a way to include everyone... but for my younger 2 kids who aren't ready for school.. I wanted it to be fun.. The nap is more than 15 minutes. My 5 yr old doesn't take a nap. My 19 month old and 3 yr old do.. that is for than.. and when they go down for nap.. that's when my 5 yr old will start his math and LA so I can focus on him without ignoring the others.. and he can focus. I have another schedule too.. I swap out the ones that won't apply for our fieldtrip days.. which will be about 3 days a week. So it's not always going to be that strict.
That is my preference as well, but my boys do better when they have consistent times. I am sticking with every day being different though. I just need to tell them ahead of time what we will be doing that day.
Since I'm schooling Other People's Kids, we have to have a mutually-agreed-upon start time, end time, and that's about it. We generally start at 8:15 and end (officially) at 2:45. This ensures that we miss the ps bus traffic by starting later and ending earlier than ps. We usually break for lunch about 1145-ish until 1230-ish. In between, they're free to work on whatever is on their list on the whiteboard of what I want them to accomplish that day. If dh isn't there that day, I might have to schedule a bit more strictly, so that I'm not slammed with having to teach something while checking/grading a pile of other things, but in general it works out well. Some years I'll have a specific thing I want to start the morning with (after pledges, songs, and prayer), such as Daily Grams or Sequential Spelling, but that depends on who I have and what levels they're on. Some years I'll have two or more doing the same level and subject at the same time, as a class, so I'll try to get that in early and out of the way so that it doesn't depend on everybody getting finished with their choices at the same time to make room for this one subject. Letting them choose what to do and how long to do it sometimes means that somebody doesn't get to every subject every day, but I don't generally intervene unless I find they're neglecting the same subject several days in a row. Then I'll tell them to start with that one for a few days in a row. Sometimes I find the whole group is just dawdling and not getting on with it. Then I might either offer incentives for finishing everything I have on the board, or I might get out the timer and "ring the bell" when time's up for that subject, and whatever you didn't get done is homework! (That usually does it!)
This is the part that makes me nervous.I am definately trying to keep things as relaxed as possible.But this is our first time,so I guess the butterflies are just natural.I chose online studies this year until I get the hang of everything,also unit studies that will keep the attention of my 5 year old as well as my 8.5 year old.I do know that our bible study time will be first thing in the morning.But other than that,I'm not real sure how it will all pan out!I'm still waiting for some materials before we get "officially" started.I also signed up for free spanish lessons with LiveMocha,(Thank you,SimplySonita!).
I have a K'er and Preschooler. I do Bible, Language Skills/Phonics, Math, Reading-Aloud and Outside Play every day and also Handwriting most days. Then each day I also will add one of the following: Music (very basic and fun), Science, and Phys Ed (motor skills). I started with a time-specific schedule but found it was too rigid for me, so we start around 9 or 9:30 every morning with Bible and fit each subject in from there. We also do a lot of crafts that tie in with whatever we're learning. I'd like to add in some history to our once a week schedule too (when I decide what I like!) It may seem like a lot of subjects to cover with little ones but our lessons are short (15 min) and mainly hands-on. One thing that helped me: write out some basic goals you have for each child for the year and then build your schedule around that! That will help you not to do too much (or too little) and guide you in how deeply to cover each subject.
We dont have a schedule. It's more of a routine. I have a certain amount of things that have to get done each day and how ever long it takes is however long it takes. I do try to have us done by lunch just because after that we are pretty much over school. Myself included. With it being so hot right now though we have had to put school off until later in the day so that we can play outside when its cool. It's been getting to 100 before noon. Also, our co-op days (2 times a week) look way different obviously LOL.
We also have more of a routine than a schedule. We get up when we get up, have breakfast and get to the household chores. I need to have some sort of routine to the day or I get totally thrown off and nothing gets accomplished. If we have any errands to run we do them in the AM. After lunch we start our school day and wrap it up in time to get dinner on the table. If we didnt get to something, we finish it after dinner or add it to the next day.
Since we haven't started yet, I can't say 100%. I do know that we need to work around "outside" activities. Tuesdays we have staff meeting at 9:30, and need to be at co-op by noon. Wednesdays, we need to drive a good distance to an English class. I will be driving my kids plus three more, staying the hour (or actually shopping at Krogers right up the road!) and then bringing Faythe (and Phillip who is along for the ride!) and one of the other kids home after their class. Rachael has a three-hour wait until her class starts. The mom of the other children will pick up the crew and bring them home. Oh, and one day TBD will be piano lessons. And science co-op at my home with Phillip and two of is friends on Friday AMs. SO...we usually are up at 6, school starting no later than 7:30. We have individual Bible reading, and then prayer. I will read history, then I go over math and language with Faythe and Phillip and give assignments. Then the kids work independently pretty much the rest of the time. We break for lunch about 11:30, and are finished about 2:30. After lunch, we do have a half-hour of in-their-room silent reading of a book of MY choice. This is my "Mommy Time"; kids know not to bug me AT ALL during this time, unless they see flames coming through the ceiling, lol! This is followed by my reading aloud; we'll be starting Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne when school starts up.
Scheduling, or not, seems to be an individual preference. I am a take things as they come person so we don't have a set schedule. On days we need to run errands I usually let the boys decide if they want to do that first or school first. So school starts at different times different days. Once we do start we do our Bible lesson first, but from their I usually let the boys pick what order they want to do their work in.
