A Typical Week of Homeschooling

Ah organization!  Not my greatest strength...but I'm trying. I'm finding that planning is really the key to organization. And planning is the key to staying sane with homeschooling. Even if I do not stick to the plan, it's helpful to have a general outline of where I want to go with the week.  I'm getting better at it as time goes by and  I've found that Sundays are my best days to plan. The kids are usually tired from a long day at church and are ready for bed early, leaving me with ample time to check facebook and then plan my week.  So here's this week's basic agenda.

Monday:
1.  Copy work. I started out having Abby work on one letter a week. We would do a Bible verse for each letter on Mondays and on Wednesdays we would practice tracing and writing the letter. We got through the letter "L" before both  Abby an I were bored with this method.  So now, I write "Coded Messages" for her. Usually, it's in note-form depending upon who she is pretending to be for the day.  Last week she was Belle, and so I wrote a letter to her from The Beast.  I make the letters in broken dots that she has to trace. Last week we were on the letter "M" and so I tried to use many words with that particular letter.  She then traces the words and she enjoys trying to read what the letter says.  This week will be the letter "N".  She has been watching an 80's cartoon called Voltron  lately (a love shared with her Daddy!) , so I'll likely write a letter to "Princess Allura" from the red space ranger "Keat".

2. Planning/Problem Solving. This week, I've decided to let Abby help me plan the meals and plan our shopping list.  We are going to go through the freezer/pantry and see what we have and decide what meals we can make from that food. Then we will determine which foods we need to restock and plan our shopping list for the week. (This should be an adventure!)

3. Bible. Each week our church provides a take home sheet with activities that follow up on Sunday's lesson. We spend time coloring it and talking about the picture on Mondays.  I try to get Abby to tell me things she remembers from the story.  It's usually funny costumes that her teachers were wearing or who she sat next to...but she also will come up with at least one thing she remembers from the story.

4. Reading. We have 10 books from the library that I had intended to read last week including:  The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark (Diesen), Safari in South Africa ( Lumry & Hurwitz), Foxes (Everett), Our Body (Time Life Books). I am particularly excited about Our Body because it answers fun questions like "Why do we sneeze?" and "Why do we yawn?" and "Why does our skin wrinkle when we take a bath?" We won't get through all 10, but will have a good variety.

5.  Loom Weaving.  After lunch and during Caed's nap is usually my one-on-one time with Abby for a fun "grown up" task.  We use this time to either play a game, make a special craft, or bake.  Last week I began implementing hand work.  We tried finger weaving, but it was too frustrating for her. So I bought a weaving loom for 5 bucks at walmart and now she happily weaves knit loops back and forth. She's working on making her first pot holder...(FYI:  many of our friends and family will be receiving one-of-a-kind handmade pot holders for Christmas this year!)

And we have a fun play date planned for the late afternoon.


Wednesday:
1. Sight words. I have a few words that I'm planning to put up around the house. Abby is starting to get curious about the words that PJ and I spell to each other when we don't want her to know what we are saying. This is driving her to want to spell words! yeay!

2. Art/Painting (music appreciation added in there). I just bought some new stamps and other art supplies. We are going to paint and draw on our large floor pad and enjoy some Bach while we express ourselves! AHHH! I love these times!!!  (This is also Caed's favorite time of the day!)

3. Bible. We take the picture that we colored on Monday (from the church take away) and read the story from the children's Bible.

4. Reading. We are currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This we will start while Caed is awake, but we usually do not get too far with Lil'Man around...so it will likely become a nap time event. 

5. I can almost guarantee that we will spend the rest of the afternoon and the next day role playing what we've read from Narnia or the Bible lesson. I'm usually "Susan" and Abby is "Lucy".  Caedmon is always "Edmond" (We call him Ed for short...and he actually answers to it now. That kid is going to be so confused about his name!). PJ is either "Peter" or "Caspian" depending upon the mood of "Lucy."

Thursday
Thursdays are library days. We go to story time and then pick out some books.  Once we get home, we have lunch, a nap for Caed and I let Abby play some learning games on the computer.

Friday
Playgroup. A fun time for me to catch my breath along with my mommy friends while the kids build relationships and play!



Whew!  That's our week in a nutshell.  Many weeks we do not get to everything. Or, some things  will naturally be more interesting, so we spend more time on those specific interests. My goal is to help my kids develop a love of learning. So what we do not get to on one particular day, we simply try another day.

And, obviously, there are a lot of play times throughout our day. I find that Abby is more focused if I let her have free play after breakfast (while I clean up) and before we start "school."  Also, our routine is often determined by attitudes of all involved. On days that Caed is more clingy we spend much more time with art/drawing and building with blocks. 

Surprisingly, Caed follows along with us fairly well. He loves to do what "Babby" is doing.  He enjoys our reading time as long as there are plenty of pictures and he ADORES art/music time!  I've also invested in several puzzles  as well as "Lauri" Toddler Toys http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_18?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=lauri+toddler+tote&sprefix=lauri+toddler+tote.  These, along with his favorite "Beep Beeps" (aka cars) keep him fairly busy!

I would love to hear what works for your family! Please share your ideas!