Four Day Week?

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  • August 4, 2016 at 4:03 pm
    Tiffany
    Participant

    Hello!

    I’m new to homeschooling and spending this month planning and prepping for a new year starting in September. Part of me is tempted to just decide on homeschooling all year round once I get the hang of things, but I’m not sure yet.

    I have a 6yo (who was in public Kindergarten last year), a 3yo, and 13-month old twins. I really want a very, very light and easy schedule for my older boys this year as I feel like Kindergarten was too much for my 6yo and my 3yo is clearly not ready for anything formal. Plus, did I mention I have twins? Yeah.

    Anyway, I’m thinking about a four-day schedule. Has anyone done this with CM? I’d still like to do habits/Bible/nature study 5-days a week but then just do any other lessons 4-days a week to give us all time to take it easy on Mondays or Fridays, depending on which day of the week I decide to take “off” …

    If anyone does a 4-days a week schedule or something super low-key, please share! This is all new to me and I’m going to be writing out our schedule this weekend … twins permitting. LOL

    August 4, 2016 at 4:37 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    We did a 4 days week once upon a time, until my 7th child was born (he has lots of medical appointments even now at age 4.5 and always will, and we now have 9 children including a homeschooled high schooler – 5 days a week works better for us now so we can take off for appointments as needed). 4 days worked well.

    Here is my suggestion: read the Preschool Guide here on SCM because with your kids ages it’s a great place to start. Be sure to follow the link to the early years blog series they did too. http://www.simplycharlottemason.com/planning/preschool-guide/

    For a schedule I would be super basic. Daily read alouds, daily time outside, and lots of play. Incorporate math into everyday activities (games, cooking together, setting the table, counting toys, etc).

    August 4, 2016 at 10:50 pm
    jmac17
    Participant

    I agree with Tristan. At age 6, school doesn’t need to be complicated. We spend about 30 minutes (total) on skills: learning to read, math, learning to print, about 30 minutes on read alouds/narration, and then up to 30 minutes on activities such as art, memory work, nature study, etc. We mix up the subjects, of course, but that’s the basic breakdown.

    One thing I did when I had a house full of littles (I ran a home daycare) was to plan a regular 5 day week, so I had a nice balance between history/science/literature, etc., but instead of labeling the days as Monday – Friday, I just numbered the days.  For example, during the first week, we might do days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, but then the second week Monday gets hectic so we work Tues-Friday on days 6, 7, 8, 9.  The third week Tuesday might have dentist appointments and someone gets sick on Friday, so we work Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday on days 10, 11, 12. It might take until the middle of the fourth week before we finish 15 days (or 3 rotations) of our 5 day schedule, but we still had the basic overall balance and weren’t missing anything.

    I hope that makes sense.  It’s easier to do than explain! Now that my kids are all school aged and we have more scheduled out-of-the-house activities, we have a basic weekly schedule, although we have a few ‘loops’ where we just do the next thing in our routine so that if life happens it doesn’t mess us up.

    August 5, 2016 at 11:47 pm
    Tiffany
    Participant

    Thank you for these great ideas and examples!

    I really like the idea of numbering days instead of focusing on days of the week so that things can be picked up if they get interrupted or otherwise must be rescheduled (you know, just in case both my twins decide not to nap … lol).

    I’m so motivated to just take stuff easy, even with my super-inquisitive 6-yo. I really don’t feel the pressure to over schedule at all, so I’m really excited to just have a good time together.

    Thank you for all the insight!

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