Our Daily Schedule

So, my last post (from half an hour ago) is down below. And, here I am again. As you can tell, I'm trying to get all of this homeschool stuff documented, so I can move on to other subjects.

This is really for the two of you who have asked. Consider yourself important. I'm doing a blog just for you. :)

I have tried probably four or five different versions of our schedule already in our short time of doing this. And, I have found something that works for us...for now. But, I'm giving myself a week before I change it again.

Our Daily Schedule

Early(ish): Mom wakes up, has quiet time, does last minute prep for school day, gets ready, checks email.

7:00/7:30: Girls Wake Up, do their "First Four" (make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair), and their Prayer Journal (they pick one person to pray for each morning and write down their prayer. Carlie draws a picture and writes the person's name. This has been a sweet thing to watch as a mom...they take it very seriously, even though it's short and simple...and many of you or your children have already been on the list. :)

8:00 Breakfast & Bible, Dad reads Bible story for the day (We use The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos, after years of doing this daily with our school, Providence. We also use the Jesus Storybook Bible alot.) I usually also read a chapter from a character building book of some kind. Right now, we are reading A Hive of Busy Bees. I also really like the "Cassie and Caleb books" {as we call them} by Susan Hunt listed here. And, these are good too, although a bit harder.

8:30 Handwriting for big girls, Reading for AK. I read two or three books with Abby Kate and have discovered that she does so much better if she gets some one-on-one attention right off the bat. :)

8:45 Circle Time all together

*Circle time lasts an hour, and goes like this: Worship songs & Hymn (learn one of each every month), Prayer time, Bible lesson from curriculum (this is actual scripture, versus the storybook versions we do at breakfast time), Books of the Bible, Scripture memory work, Calendar board and notebooks, money value (make the date in money, sing a song about value of each coin, play with money), spelling songs for months of the year, colors, weather words, etc., Quick exercise song where we do stretches, sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, while we count forward, backwards, by 2's, 5's and 10's, Weather charting, Ones/Tens/Hundreds practice, Globe work (continents, oceans, directions), Pledge of Allegiance, God Bless America, Texas flag and song.

**little break**(potty, drink, clean up circle time, mom checks email or does last minute house things quickly)

9:45 Daily Group Subject & Activity

History/Timeline/Geography on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Science/Nature on Wednesdays and Fridays

Our curriculum has lots of experiments, projects, crafts, drawing, etc. so this time is pretty active, and most of it Abby Kate participates in as well.

10:30/10:45 Individual Work with Mom

While one works with me on Language Arts (MWF) or Math (T/TH), the other does their "Work Box". This is an individual drawer they have that has assignments or activities for them. There are a variety of things that are rotated for them...manipulatives, games, journal entries to complete, logic puzzle worksheets, art to copy or look at, nature book to color, etc. There are only a couple of things each day. They are also supposed to have a snack in their box, but I've never actually added one. oops.

There is also a drawer for Abby Kate that she usually spends time destroying too. :)

11:30 SWITCH! (One comes with me, other to workbox)

12:15 Lunch Time

12:45 Read Aloud Time (We plan to only do a couple of chapters, but they usually ask for more! So, this can last an hour or so sometimes.)

1:30 Playtime (also known as LET OUT THE ENERGY! They usually spend it pretending something. :)

2:30 Rest Time

3:30 Piano practice (or lesson), Art or Music "Drip", or Ballet, depending on what day it is.

*The "drip" idea is one I love that I got from a Charlotte Mason article. It's basically using only small bits of exposure to classic art or music--5 or 10 minutes--at a time where they can appreciate it, learn about it, explore it, but not get bogged down or bored with it. Today, they begged for more about Vivaldi, but I cut it off anyway. It makes them look forward to the next lesson!

4:30 Chores (and usually more playtime :)

Our nights always look different depending on what is going on, but we don't do homework, which is such a welcomed change! We do save oral reading for night time, just to space it out, and for Daddy to help with that. :)

There have been times where we do a subject at night, if our day was busy or if we didn't fit it all in. It's so nice to do that as a family though!

Fridays are usually lighter, and I am hoping to keep leaving space for field trips, playtime in nature, or friend playdates. We also hope to incorporate some service projects on these days, although I can see already how quickly the time goes!!

So, anyway, that's the latest schedule. Like I said, it changes every week when I think of something I want to tweak. It's most definitely a work in progress.

But, it's new to all of us, so it feels okay to figure it out as we go along. At least my kids don't know any better! Ha!