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Basic Homeschooling Information |
Planning Your Day Schedules vs. Routines Some
people like to schedule every minute of every day, others don’t schedule
anything. Most people fall between the
two extremes, scheduling some things but not others. Here are some examples of what has worked
for us different years. It definitely
changes as the kids get older and have different commitments. Note that with routines, activities are not attached to the clock. Things are done in sequence, but allowed to
take ten minutes, or thirty. It is
particularly nice to use a routine,
rather than a schedule, when there
is a baby in the house. Routine 1young
kids, baby in the house Morning
routine: Feed animals, Bible story,
dress, eat breakfast, brush teeth Housework: wash breakfast dishes, clean bathrooms,
vacuum floors Schoolwork: math, reading, penmanship, history,
read-aloud Break
(recess), snack Schoolwork: MWF: Music Ace, Science TTh: Drawing,
Recorder Activity of the day M: Mommy,
It’s A Renoir T: Thinking
Skills W:
Geography Th: Nursing home
visitation F: Rummy
Roots Lunch Naptime Learning
games Routine 2young
kids, baby in the house Morning
routine: Feed animals, Bible story,
dress, eat breakfast, brush teeth Housework: wash breakfast dishes, clean bathrooms,
vacuum floors Schoolwork: penmanship, history, math, read-aloud, Thinking Skills, spelling Break
(recess), snack Schoolwork: health, science, music Lunch Naptime Freetime,
learning games Routine 3baby
in the house Morning
routine: Feed animals, Bible story, dress,
eat breakfast, brush teeth Housework: wash breakfast dishes, clean bathrooms,
vacuum floors, start dinner in crockpot Music: those taking music lessons need to practice
daily Schoolwork: social studies/history, read-alouds,
grammar, writing Break
(recess), snack Schoolwork: math, spelling, science Lunch Naptime/Silent
reading Freetime/Music
lessons (one day
per week meet with others for drawing, choir, and P.E.) Routine 4toddler
in the house Morning
routine: Bible story, dress, eat
breakfast, brush teeth, feed animals Housework: wash breakfast dishes, clean bathrooms,
vacuum floors Music: practice instruments for those taking music
lessons Schoolwork: history, math Break
(recess), snack Schoolwork: spelling, writing Lunch Naptime/Silent
reading Freetime/Music
lessons (one day
per week meet with others for Latin, science, music, and geography) Routine 5Morning
routine: Bible story, dress, eat
breakfast, brush teeth, feed animals Housework Schoolwork: math, science, writing, history, art,
spelling Music
practice Lunch Schoolwork: afternoon activities M: piano
lessons T/Th: swimming lessons W: violin lessons F: horseback riding, guitar Dinner Detailed Schedule – Sample 1
Computer
& Games: Mon-Music
Ace, Tues-Art Cards, Wed-Quarter Mile, Fri-World Discovery Mon-Quarter
Mile, Tues-Art Cards, Wed-World Discovery, Fri-Music Ace Mon-World
Discovery, Tues-Art Cards, Wed-Music Ace, Fri-Quarter Mile The
year we used this schedule, I did laundry in the afternoons while the
children had free time. note: FOBOB = flat on back on bunk - acceptable terminology for kids who think
they’re too big for a nap Detailed Schedule – Sample 2This
was a very busy year. We hope to never
be so over-scheduled again. On MWF,
the schedule was as shown below. On
Tuesdays we left the house at noon and spent the afternoon at the YMCA for
homeschool PE, swimming lessons, and gymnastics classes, returning home by
7p.m. On Thursdays we packed lunch and
left at 9:30 and spent some time at a local nursing home before going to the
YMCA in the afternoons.
Current SystemAs
the kids have gotten older, they are able to take more responsibility for
their own time management. Everyone
knows what they are expected to learn.
One child gets up at 6:00, and we are often able to finish that
child’s work before anyone else is awake.
It works very well for the kids to choose the order that they do their
studies. I am available to teach the
subjects that need to be taught – sometimes I call a child and say, “Let’s do
you grammar now.” Other times someone
will come and ask, “Can we do my spelling test?” Following is the checklist that we use (I
print the entire week on one sheet of paper; shown below is one day). When a subject is done, we check off that
it is complete (for some subjects, we write the assignment that was done that
day). The kids are free to work on
whichever subjects they choose, as long as it all gets done. I am finding that it works well to give the
older kids freedom in learning to manage their time, and to have a routine in
helping the younger kids with their studies.
Only Monday is illustrated:
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