Check out my schedule and tell me what you think!

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  • caycecronk
    Member

    Heer is my weekly plan thus far! Can you guys look over it and tell me what you think. We don’t really have set times we do things. For us it’s just trying to get it done first thing in the day between breakfast and lunch but if we have appointments or meetings then we might do it in the evening during my two year olds naps. There are a few things I have not included yet because we are undecided. For some reason it almost seems too EASY. My son is in first grade and we are getting most things done under two hours. I try to keep the lessons around fifteen minutes long or less for him

    Monday:

    Math: (Right Start Math) Usually do one lesson

    Writing: Handwriting Without Tears (Do one worksheet a day and use blackboard to practice and review letters) I usually go by the teachers handbook and use the workbook as well.

    Science: 106 days of creation (We do one lesson) It usually takes us a little longer to do science and history

    Foreign Language: We are introducing French to him at this time using (Muzzy) have not settled on any one method yet. Looking for someone who speaks French who can speak with my son on a weekly basis.

    Tuesday:

    Math

    Writing

    Reading

    Artist study

     

    Wenesday:

    Reading

    Science

    History

    Poetry

     

    Thursday:

    Math

    Writing

    Reading History

     

    Friday:

    Math

    Writing

    History

    Composer Study

     

    Nature studies are done on the weekend or spontaneous

    We are still deciding what handy craft to do and my son will be taking some art lessons next month beside what we do at home.

     

    MamaSnow
    Participant

    Looks fine to me, although personally I would try to include something for foreign language daily, even if it’s just something simple like watching a video, listening to a CD, or reading a book. If you’re only doing it once a week, he’s probably not going to retain very much. The early stages of FL learning are absorbing as much as possible the sounds of the language.

    My first grader + pre-K and I are usually done somewhere between 1-1/2 to 2 hours as well, so I don’t think that is too little for a first grader.

    HTH,

    Jen

    Des
    Participant

    It looks good to me as well.

    Tristan
    Participant

    Works time-wise similar to mine around that age. Looks nice!

    SueinMN
    Participant

    I’ve not used 106 days of creation. Does that include Science and History? Also are you reading any Read Aloud Literature? How about Bible and Music?

    caycecronk
    Member

    mamasnow,

    What are you using for French? Im not sure if we like Muzzy yet. We checked it out from the library to give it a try but it seems to be mostly watching the videos over and over and there are some games, etc.

    caycecronk
    Member

    Sue,

    At this time we are reading a bible story each night before bed. Im planning on adding in bible in the mornings. Im not sure what we are gonna do for music! Any advice would be appreciated. We can’t afford any music classes right now but maybe next year. I haven’t yet got our book for literature but am adding that in next week. This being our next week we are going slow and warming up.

    caycecronk
    Member

    About the poetry…..are we supposed to go over one poem from the same author only ONCE a week or do you repeat the one poem daily for a week and recite it and dictate it?

    ibkim2
    Participant

    This is encouraging, because I am finding that I am done in under 2 hours with my 1st grader, and I was wondering if I am covering enough!   Our schedule is a bit similiar and we too try to complete b/n breakfast and lunch with a snack break in between (we’ll do a longer “recess” break if time permits mid-morning).  For poetry, we are reading out of a poetry book daily, and in addition I am having him  work on one short poem at a time to memorize (taking 1-2 weeks to memorize if he only works on it a short time 1-2x/week).  I plan to incorporate the poem being memorized into the daily copywork, but right now handwriting is the subject that needs most improvement, so we are working on forming letters neatly (he can write all his letters legibly, just didn’t learn to write neatly last year in ps K).  We also do Bible at bedtime with dh.  Like you, I also am starting with the basic subjects and adding in extras (like formal nature study, composer study, hymns, etc…) as we get into the groove of homeschooling.  

    MamaSnow
    Participant

    I should probably preface this by saying that I speak French at a comfortable conversational level and that we are actually living in France right now – dh and I are attending language school here in preparation for mission work in W. Africa – so we have easier access to French books, videos, etc. Believe it or not, though, it’s been hard to find much direct interaction for the kids other than church – we are definetely ‘outsiders’ on account of homeschooling.

    Anyhow…we are using The Learnables as our base. We don’t LOVE it – it’s not super exciting – but I like it better than anything else I’ve looked at or tried. (I also tried Le Francais Facile and hated it, L’Art de Dire and found it too classroom focused and hard to implement at home, and Rosetta Stone which I liked OK for myself, but couldn’t imagine my 6yo using it. I don’t know that there’s really anything very good out there for young children.) She works with the Learnables software 3x per week, and watches one of these videos http://www.knowitall.org/instantreplay/content/program.cfm?SeriesIDpassed=45 on the other 2 days (again, I don’t love these, but the kids do, and it’s giving them additional exposure). I supplement with a variety of other things :my kids watch French cartoons several times a week and we try to read a French picture book everyday (and talk about what’s happening). I have a CD of French nursery songs with motions and we learn a new one each week – all three of mine love this (ages 2, 4, 6). We also do little activities like reading and following the directions in a little French activity book, or play “I Spy” type games to practice describing things. My dd is very visual, so we keep a little notebook that we record new words in as we come across them, come up with a sentence to use them in, and she illustrates it. I realize that’s not super-CM, but it works well for her. Quite honestly I think they’ve gotten more out of our ‘supplementary’ stuff than the formal program, but I realize that those kinds of things may not be possible for you if you don’t speak French.

    Anyhow…hope that helps some…

    Jen

    ibkim2
    Participant

    P.S. I just wanted to add, I don’t have a formal music plan yet either, but am thinking about teaching the recorder.  Both my son and younger dd were given plastic type recorders from a friend and I found online there are numerous step by step instructions and videos that teach the basics of playing a recorder.  It would be a good introduction to how the musical scale is read, how it sounds, and rhythm I think.  If I add this in, it will be in the wintertime, as right now I’m trying to keep dc outside as much as possible since the weather is finally pleasant.  

    Rachel White
    Participant

    I also think it looks good, though I have a couple of questions: what literature are you reading aloud and/or other read-alouds? He can begin narrating at this age the lit. and the read-aloud is just for listening without narrating.
    The Fifty Famous Stories Retold are a great collection for this age for read-aloud. Aesop is another common one with which to begin narrating.

    As for music, don’t feel pressured to have him actually take music lessons unless that is your desire, though it is a very good thing. I notice you have composer study 1x a week, which is right. I recommend playing that musician’s music (As well as other types of music) daily.

    I second doing FL daily in some form.

    We always (up till the last half of this year) read a poem daily; it doesn’t take very long and it really gives them an ear and interest in it that once a week can’t do, IMO. I didn’t follow the view of one poet at a time, though I think that’s the “rule”; for the exception of A Child’s Book of Verses, I read a variety of poems directed towards children.

    HTH

    caycecronk
    Member

    ibkim2,

    It sounds like we are both on the same page as far as scheduling goes. Your plan sounds great as well! my son attended public school kindergarten as well and they allowed him to write very sloppy so we are having to go slowly and make sure he’s forming his letters right, etc. So far I LOVE Handwriting without tears and it makes it easy and fun for him. As far as poetry….do you guys read a the same poem daily for a week then dictate it or a different poem from the same book daily? We will probally add that to his handwriting as we get more used to homeschooling. We tried to cover all the basics first so we can legally homeschool and not get into any trouble but we ARE Loving all the CM extras. It truly is beautiful! That’s a great idea about the recorder! That is something I liked about the Waldorf method!

    caycecronk
    Member

    mamasnow,

    That is amazing that you guys get to live in France and learn french! AWESOME! We have been to France four times in the last six years. We have some dear friends in Belgium and France. We were invited to come stay with a dear family for six months to a year to learn French but it’s difficult for my husband because he’s military and can’t be moved overseas. Have you ever checked out the MUZZY language programs? They are very CUTE but not very CM I guess. We are still trying to find our way. Thanks for the links….I will certainly look at those and try to implement more French daily. I want us all to learn French so we are able to go on mission trips to Europe and be better able to communicate with the people when my kids get old enough to go!

    caycecronk
    Member

    Rachel,

    I think we will be reading The Swan and The trumpet for literature! I have to go pick it up from the library. We are using ALOT of library books. As far as read alouds go I take the kids to the library once a week and they get to pick out many books. We do read alouds about twice a day. Usually before my two year olds nap time and then again at night before bed after we read a bible story. Thanks for the suggestions for read alouds! Composer study is usually done in the car because I have a captive audience!LOL! We listen to a different piece of music by Bach almost daily in the car while doing errands. Once a week we will discuss the composer, read a book about him, I even had them color a picture of Bach to put in a notebook. I try to talk about him as if we know him! It’s kind of fun!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
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