Our Homeschooling Schedule and Logistics

 

Disclaimer First: This is the schedule that works best for US. That does NOT mean your own schedule will resemble it in the remotest degree!! The Lord will give you wisdom to know exactly what your young learners need and how that fits into a schedule. I do think it is necessary to have a regular, flexible schedule because it makes me protect our school time and it is necessary to be intentional. Otherwise, for me anyway, there are too many days that we just don't accomplish anything.

I tend to be one that learns best by seeing it done. Many people over the years have said that they just can't imagine homeschooling their children. I am including our schedule here as a means of encouragement. Just one way it can be done. It changes as we do, but for now this is the framework that helps us fit everything into our day. The discipline of structure is a blessing as long as we still understand that not everyday will be a cookie cutter of the one that went before. Flexible Structure works well. And we accomplish so much because we have a plan!!

 6:15  Up and at 'em 
         Chores and Breakfast

 7:10  Prayer-We use a prayer journal to record our prayers and His
         answers
         Worship-We are learning new worship songs together
         Read 5 chapters of Psalms and 1 chapter of Proverbs 
         We take the date (ie May 1st) and read Psa. 1, 31, 61, 91, 121 
         and Prov. 1


 7:35  Bible Study: On Mondays, we study a Character Quality from          
          Bill Gothard's Character Sketch books and try to focus on that
          for the week
          Tuesdays through Fridays, we use Grapevine: a Bible study 
          where we "stick-figure" our way through the Bible.
           

 8:05  Gratitude Journal: We spend a little time each day counting our 

          blessings. The kids and I each have a little book in which we list 

          them.

 8:10  Fallacy Detective is a course on Logic. We learn to detect fallacies.



 8:20  Spelling: we use a word family approach.They practice for several
          days and then we take a practice test. If needed, we take a final one.

 8:35  Winston Grammar: an excellent resource for learning all the
          parts of speech.

 8:40  Composition: We use the Institute for Excellence in Writing 
          program.


 9:10  Handwriting: We use the Getty-Dubay Italics handwriting 
          program and are using the Presidential Penmanship Copybooks.

 9:10  Dictation: While 3 of the kids work on their handwriting, the 
         other one has dictation. We take passages from books I read aloud 
         and they study the passage and then write it from dictation. So each
         week, each child has dictation one day.


 9:20  Math: Each kiddo is in their own level of Saxon. They read the 
          lesson and study the  examples for themselves. Each problem in 
          every lesson is keyed back to the lesson number where that 
          concept was taught. That way, they can review for themselves. 
          The goal is for them to learn how to teach themselves. If they 
          miss more than 3 on a complete assignment, they have to do 
          that lesson over the next day. 


10:20  Science and History: We are using the Apologia curriculum on Astronomy. 
          We have science 2 days per week. On the other three days, we study
          history. We use Mystery of History.


10:50  Lyrical Life Science: A cassette tape to help with memorizing
          scientific facts
          Geography Songs: A cassette tape to help with memorizing
          facts about geography

          Westminster Shorter Catechism: Holly Dutton's musical version
          to memorize the catechism
          We alternate days for these three things each week.


11:00  Art:  We are using the Drawing Textbook, learning the 
           principles of line drawing and shading techniques.


11:20  Poetry:  We use Institute for Excellence in Writing's Poetry 
           study. They memorize lots and lots of poems and recite them.
           On the day they have dictation each week, that child also recites
           for me the poem they are working on at the time.

11:35  Memory Work: They memorize chapters of Scripture. We follow
          the same schedule for dictation, poetry and memory work for recitation.
          So on the day it is Elizabeth's turn for dictation, it is also her day for 
          poetry and memory work recitation.


11:55  Greek and Latin Roots:  We use English From the Roots Up.They study
          groups of roots and then we take a test where they must spell the root.

12:05  Vocabulary:  Words are drawn from our reading and they           
          memorize the definition.

12:15 Book of Knowledge: I had to look on Ebay, but found an old set          
         that they are reading through. At first, they weren't thrilled, but 
         now they really enjoy these wonderful books.  At least most of 
         them do.

12:25  Lunch


12:45 Story Time and Drawing: This is our favorite part of school. 
         I read to the kids from a list of wonderful books. We have read 
         everything from historical fiction (G. A. Henty, etc.) to fantasy 
         (The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings), to lots of Newberry Award 
         winners (mostly the old ones). While I read, they work on their 
         maps and coloring pages from History, and when that is 
         complete, they draw or color anything they like.

 1:45  Biography:  It is beneficial to read about the lives of important 
          people and see how the choices they make have very definite 
          consequences, good and bad. We have collected thousands of 
          books over the years and so I have a large number of biographies 
          they get to choose from.

 2:05  Assigned Reading: I choose the books for each child. This is 
          where they get to read something wonderful on their own to 
          improve comprehension and fluency.


 3:05  Pack up and put up and go outside to PLAY!!



Yes, it is an intense schedule, but they are thriving with the challenge. If you ask them whether they like school, you will receive mixed responses that will change with how the day went for them. But when we see new concepts being applied independently to life situations, that is the fruit that makes it all worth while!

This is my lesson plan. I make a sheet for each day. As we complete a subject one day, I write in the next assignment on the lesson plan sheet for the next day. That way, I can be very exact. If we need to spend longer on an assignment than I thought, my plan isn't filled in several days ahead. It is totally flexible. I remember lesson plans when I was teaching school. We were required to have them filled out at least a week ahead of time. If the students needed more work on a specific lesson, it messed up my plans for days!

Since we do not have a dedicated school room, we have school around 
the kitchen island or at the dining room table. Each child has a shelf on this rolling 
cart, from Sam's. It is stationed in our utility room, right off the kitchen so it's easily
accessible. 

We homeschool year round. It offers many advantages for us. The kids don't lose ground from long breaks and the momentum really builds because we never completely lose it. It also offers us much more flexibility in take a week off here and there, as needed. During the summer, we will drop back to 4 days per week.