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Read Aloud
Writing - Thank You Notes
Math
Practice Instruments
Individual Reading
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A Great Day! I think I have finally come up with a plan to solve our daily schedule problem. Here was the problem: I am not a morning person. Ideally, I'd like to get out of bed at 8am, but that doesn't always happen.. Then I need some checking email/drowsy, waking up time. Then I exercise, shower, eat breakfast and just get ready for the day in general. I'd like to be done with all of this and ready to start school by 10 am, but... During all of this morning stuff my kids are waking up , eating breakfast, watching TV, playing on the computer, and playing with each other. I have been feeling like they should be doing school stuff in the morning, but our routine has always been to do our readalouds and/or group activities first and then move on their individual with me or independent stuff. If we get started late, then we drag into the afternoon with the individual/independent stuff. This causes a problem if we have an afternoon activity to go to and leaves me with out any time in the afternoon to do my own stuff on the other days
So... today we had an afternoon activity, so I asked the older 2 to do their independent stuff this morning starting at 10am. Then when I was ready we would do our read aloud. If they had any problems or questions they could ask me and if I was unavailable (like in the shower) they could move on to something else and I would help them later.
This morning I woke up late ( 9am... I am still reading the last Twilight book before bed and it is hard to put down). At 10am the girls started their work - Math, Independent reading, and Practicing instruments. At 11:15, I was ready for reading aloud. While I read the girls had a late breakfast/early lunch. Then we worked on Thank you notes. At this point it was about 12:15 and I hadn't eaten lunch and I needed to shovel the snow off the car before we could leave for our activity at 1:15, so I asked Sierra and Kali to help with Arwen's school. She read a easy reader to each of them and did a page of math with each of them. It was great. We got school done for the day and were on time for our activity (our Middle ages group, the mom whose turn it was set up a Medeival Fair - fun, fun).
It worked out so well that I told the kids that we would be doing this from now on. At 10 am every morning they will start their independent stuff and then when I am ready we will do our read alouds. My kids are not morning people (especially Sierra), so a 10 am start time gives them time to lounge around and wake up and do their morning chores and be ready to face their school work. I still want to add in grammar and spelling for Kali and Sierra. I will continue to work with Arwen on her reading and math even though it was lovely to have Sierra and Kali help with Arwen today. I still need to work out the fine details of this new schedule, but I really think this will help us to get school done in a timely manner and for it not to drag on into the afternoon.
1 comment:
This is what I love about homeschooling, it's flexibility and adaptability. No school would ever allow kids and parents the kind of flexibility that they need. We, too, are having problems with late starts. Luckily there's no school administration to tell us off for being late! :)
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