How does your day flow?

This is one we change depending on what is working. For this last 6 weeks we don’t even have any morning time planned! (gasp!) 😉 I prefer morning time to be in the living room so kids are on the couch or floor depending on their choice. It is never as quiet as I fantasize about because 9 kids and lots of little boys just don’t make for truly quiet times. However, we make it work.

If they truly are having a hard time being there we move to the table. But then when morning time is up they get to work anywhere on individual work (floor, table, bed, couch, etc).

We generally have a rotation that begins with singing a hymn or two, prayer, and scripture reading (short!). We do a memory work standing up for those who prefer to stand/need to move, then we may pass around a piece of art while I share about the artist. Next might be our states project – I flip open 2 books to the current state. Then they can sing or say the states we’ve done up to now (think 50 Nifty United States song) or I may do a capitals quiz where I say a capital and they shout out the state, or vice versa, or it could be a map quiz where I ask a child if they remember where ____ state is and they point it out on the map. So this states portion is a bit more energetic than just listening to me read. Then I intro the new state and share interesting facts, we look at it’s shape, find it on the map, find the capital. After this it’s reading from a book – could be a fairy tale, a history book, literature, anything we are working through. On a different day it may be looking at a page or two in Nature Anatomy or listening to a musical piece or doing a 5 minute sketch of something.

We do our”morning time” type activities on the couches.  I break these up into 2-3 sessions, which are often in the afternoons.  lol  We do better with our school spread throughout the day, than when we have one long morning session.

Our seat work is done all over the house, front porch, or backyard.  They have clipboards for their math and copywork to make it more portable.  While I encourage writing done at the table, I don’t require it.

Mrs Mc…

This seems to be ever changing for us, other than we always start our day with devotion, hymns, scripture memory and prayer. (After chores of course:-))  Some days we do this on the couch in living room, sometimes while I make breakfast in kitchen, and sometimes in our designated classroom area.

I have found that being flexible with this, makes for a more restful experience.  Sometimes they are in cozy mood, sometimes hungry first thing, and sometimes we get started in classroom area and move right to schoolwork.  I tend to be more lax when we don’t have any commitments to attend to for the day.  I really try and stay home as much as possible.  I have found that having a plethora of activities only makes things worse for my clan. We have two days a week where we leave the house, so those days are a little more structured.  ie; time we start, where it is completed etc…

Other than covering most things we need to in a day, I even switch up when certain things are done.  I definitely split up concentrated brain work from creative work.  The two biggies I make sure have lighter subjects around them are math and reading.  Some days I might do copywork first and some days it might be last.  Some days we might do piano (which seems to really get my kids back on track; they like it.) before or after reading.  I still use short lesson times for all subjects, but the order in which we do can look different on different days.

This is one of the lovely things about home schooling.  Yes, we want a schedule, but where we do it and when we do it can change with days, seasons, age etc… The ability to change according to moods, sickness, activities, and all the other things that a day entails is so nice.

When I first started homeschooling, I very much had the ‘classroom’ picture in my head and started out thinking we needed a desk and rigid structure.  God had other plans and every year we get more into our groove.  I think this is different for each family.  However, I think a common goal is that our families enjoy learning and that it becomes the environment.  If it is part of our environment, then ‘where’ it is done is a moot point.  As long as learning is going on, chaos is kept at a minimum (Ha!), and joy is to be had….then all is well. 🙂

Blessings,

Renee