Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Our Homeschool Schedule

hI had a lot of people that have asked about our daily schedule.  Although it is pretty similar every year we always have a few changes.  

Homeshool Days 2010-2011:
6- Jason & I devos, prayer, & showers
6:30- Rise & Shine for the children- chores, make bed, get dressed, baths, etc. 
7:30- Breakfast then brush teeth and finish chores
8- Praise & Worship
8:30- School Together
9:30- Recess 
10:30- 11:50 Homework/Computer school game time
    **This is also my rotation time to have individual one on one with each child.
11:50- Making lunch/Break
12- Lunch & read book together (right now we are doing mini bios of missionaries)
1- Nap time, reading time, computer time, leap pad time, writing, quiet play
3:30- Wake up the littles/ Individual Recorder lessons
4-4:30 Crafts or Game                                   
4:30-5 Free Time
5-5:30 Pick Up & Movie Time
5:30- Dinner
6:30- Get Ready for Bed & Devos with Daddy
7- Bedtime (8 for the olders)

Nap Time Rotation: 
               Abigail           Andrew        Joshua            Matthew             Sarah
1-1:30    Reading        Play              Leap Pad        Writing                Computer
               (couch)       
1:30-2    Play             Leap Pad       Writing           Computer           Reading
             (Toy room)
2-2:30    Leap Pad    Writing          Computer       Reading              Play
          (Brown table)       
2:30-3    Writing       Computer      Reading          Play                    Leap Pad
            (White Table)
3-3:30    Computer    Reading        Play                Leap Pad           Writing
        (Computer table)

             Monday         Tuesday             Wednesday    Thursday       Friday        Saturday
writing spelling        writing book        spelling      write story        draw/color  copy from a book
play      play                play dough        puzzles                legos    spirograph/light pad     play
 
 OK so I feel completely vulnerable right now of criticism from people, but here it is for the world to see :)  

Thought I would explain some of it to help make more sense hopefully :)

We have a chore chart and 7 of our 8 children (we start when they turn 2) are put in pairs and we have one group of three.  Older with a younger.  They are responsible for doing different things during the week.  Maybe I will post that sometime soon too.

At 8:30 we do school time together.  Which is my core time of the day to do language arts, math, history, general knowledge, and Bible learning, signing- ASL, etc.  This is not a large chunk of time.  We do get a lot done though because of the fact that I teach to a level that is higher and most of the time the younger ones get it anyway....or at least most of it.  This is a way you can teach many at the same time.  Because it is only myself and 5 children - the ratio to learn is really high.  

Some of you are asking---- where are the other 3 children during this time.  Well- Joanna - on my hip or in the bumbo or in the swing, or in the jump thing.  Jonathan and Elizabeth both are to get quiet toys and they are at different "spots" - on the rug in the living room right behind me or at the end of the table or on a blanket I put on the ground.  They play "quietly" with toys or board books while I teach.  They do help learn memory verses, and when they can even answer questions.  They like it that way.  

Although I have down a whole hour for recess....to be honest most of the time it is more like 45 min or half hour.  Sometimes if a student is struggling....I use 15 minutes of this time to give them a boost.  Sometimes I help them get ahead in something because I know our time this week is short.  Others I run around outside with them.  Sometimes I plan tomorrow's lesson during this time.  Sometimes I have to do work for the camp at this time.  

Our quiet time after lunch is exactly that.  The kids get to do a 1/2 hour rotation between the different activities.  To make it easier for writing- they have books they do, notebooks for the rest of the week....where they copy from a book, spelling practice- etc.  as listed above.  As far as "play" time that too is quiet, and they have options when they can do other activities.  

I space my children around the house so they don't have as much temptation to talk during quiet time.  he he he- sometimes it is more successful than others.  

I would love to say that we always have it together and all of our days are perfect- he he he he he- but that would be lying....and that is not TRUTH!  Since this is already longer....will share more later.   If you have specific questions let me know :)

14 comments:

  1. Fascinating! Looks like a good schedule! Of course, I have a hard enough time getting the laundry done during the day so I can't imagine being structured enough to homeschool. :-) And how do you get the little ones to be quiet all that time? I have one that is extremely loud, aggressive, and active! I do have another one that would be quite willing to play quietly all day long... Have you been intentional about training them to be quiet for that long of a period of time?

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  2. Yes. We are intentional about having our children work at being quiet for certain periods of time. 1 hour in the morning (with a few breaks for the littles), and in the afternoon the youngest 3 are taking a nap...sometimes the youngest 4- depending on what kind of day we have had). We start with shorter periods of time with little bursts...and then work at it. I do have to say they are NOT perfect at it...but as long as it is not out of control....I let it go most times :)

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  3. I think it's absloutley a wondeful schedule! I bet they are so smart!

    I will be honest in saying...I couldn't do it. It takes a special person like yourself to homeschool and especially 5 kids! Your awesome!

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  4. I LOVE the photo of your children at the top! Beautiful! I mentioned in my email to you that my husband is a camp director as well. Not sure if I said I homeschool. I do, but we only have four (soon to be five!). I like your blog. Your heart is so lovely! I must admit, I read this post with great interest because I enjoy reading how people schedule their days (because I'm not at all a scheduler and I'm intrigued by people who are able to do this so well). But I was so, I don't know, "shocked" I guess, to read your thoughts that people might actually criticize your schedule. I took a break from reading blogs for the summer and now am back at it and see a common "judgmental theme" in blogs, especially those of adoptive families. Are people REALLY judging you and others or do you just think maybe they are? I can't imagine anyone judging your amazing family! I DON'T schedule our day. But judge you, who does it so well? NEVER! Hmm...it's just really disturbing to me to see people's preferences described on their blogs and then being criticized for them. As long as you're doing what God has told YOU to do, I don't see room for anyone to judge. Just my thoughts...clearly a few too many thoughts for this space! (LOL!) Blessings, Jennifer

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  5. Our schedule looks a lot like that- but we start later in the day. My husband works evenings- so we have dad time in the morning. Looks so good! Thanks for sharing!

    Our book time (right now) is Little House on the prairie series (I'm lovin' them!)Sometimes our reading time is extended because I can't put the book down.

    One thing I am struggling with is Music. Crazy, I know. God did not include it in my list of talents (ha! trust me!) So I skipped it last year(bad homeschooling mom!). I'm thinking I may have to pay for lessons. Do you do anything special?

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  6. Wow, this is great and so helpful as I begin my journey of homeschooling. We are on day six and I am really not sure what to do with my very crazy four year old:) Thank you for sharing all of these tips with scheduling and ideas of how to manage a multi-age classroom. I wish we lived closer so I could spend a day watching you do all of this:) Thanks for the encouragement and great ideas.

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  7. As far as music....I am NOT great at crafts and usually make Jason do that part or just skip to games or baking cookies :0 he he he- both Jason and I LOVE MUSIC. In fact I was a band teacher - so that part is nice :)

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  8. Dawn-
    Found your blog via a comment you made at Save The Orphan. We are sponsoring a few kiddos at The Covering and preparing for adoption. We have 3 bio boys and the sibs we sponsor total 4. We are finishing up our homestudy w/a reluctant case worker. They are very hesitant to recommend so many adoptive kids to a family with 3 already. And, of course, Sierra Leone isn't the most adoption friendly place at the moment, as you well know! Anyway - what a blessing to find our blog! We homeschool, too. Thanks for posting your schedule - I love seeing what other people are doing. Good to "meet" you!!

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  9. Oh my goodness I love your schedule. I wish I could do the homeschooling thing and have an awesome sc hedule like that. I just don't know if I would have the smarts and patience for it all. My kids would love it. DOes it cost a lot to firts get started in it all. Oh boy I don't even know where I would start. This is so exciting to read about though! Way to go! Blessings!

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  10. Oh, how nice... Band teacher! I just feel so inept in that area. I'm trying...

    I'm so art-sy fart-sy... love craft time. Try to incorporate glitter in everything we do! (the girls love that). Love to get messy- so glad God made us washable!

    I agree baking cookies should be part of everyday schedule ;)

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  11. Thank you for being vulnerable. I love your schedule. For the past two weeks I've been gearing up to share how "back to school" looks in our family. Thanks for going first. :-) And I love Kelli's comment: "so glad God made us washable." lol

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  12. wow! You are one busy homeschooling mama!

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  13. You are blessed to be able to do this! I just don't think I'm cut out for homeschooling my five!

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  14. Do you use specific books for kids devotions--or just do your own? If book--what are your favorites?

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