Ideas

I would love to hear ideas as well. I have all sorts of ideas in my head that just come out jumbled when I try to organize them. This is definitely my weakness!!!! Help!!:{

I just finished putting together our schedule for November and decided to include something fun, so we’re doing a Game Day schedule this month. Usually I like to plan for a term at a time, but December around our house is crazy; so this time I just planned for November 🙂

A “typical” day at our house would look something like this:

• Breakfast & Read-Aloud a biography or geography chapter, Scripture memory. Depending on how long the chapter in the book is, this could be 15-30 minutes.
• Morning chores
• I work with youngest child one-on-one while older children do independent work: math, science, extra history reading, grammar review exercises, government for the oldest. (Keep in mind that my older children are grades 6, 10, 12, so they can do a lot of their work independently.) I work with the youngest for 20-30 minutes, depending on how long she can focus that day. (Our youngest has autism.) Then I come check on the others to see if anybody needs any help and when they might be at a good stopping place to fit in some together work. They might end up doing independent work for 30-60 minutes or more.
• Family work: This varies, depending on what day of the week it is. (See the sample Game Day chart link above.) This time box usually takes anywhere from 20-45 minutes.
• Lunch & Read-Aloud a literature book, and finish any Family Work that didn’t get done. Depending on how long the literature chapter is, this reading might take 15-30 minutes plus the extra family work. Again, remember that my children are older!
• After lunch I usually do another session with our youngest while the older ones do handicrafts or other projects.

When the children were younger, I had to do a lot more juggling and bouncing between them to help each one. It’s much easier when they get older, if they have developed the habit of self-educating!

I’d be happy to answer any questions. Your comments have really confirmed to me that my next writing project is as needed as I thought it might be: a step-by-step guide to planning your CM education. Y’all pray for me as I continue working on it. I want to make it simple!

Below is my schedule for Monday at our house. Our “formal” school last 3 hours in the morning. Afternoons are spent either in nature study outdoors or expanding on one of the topics we did for the day. We like to read Shakespeare just for enjoyment. Sometimes we go on our own field trips.

15 mins. prayer/Bible reading/gratitude journal

20 mins. math

20 mins. History – (“This Country of Ours”)

10 mins. grammar

15 mins. Plutarch – Mom read

15 mins. geography (right now – learning where the states are on the map)

15 mins. PE

15 mins. Shakespeare

10 mins. literature-self read (Book of their choice from MY choices)

20 mins. personal dev. study

10 mins. picture study

15 mins. economics (“Whatever Happened to Penny Candy”)

This schedule varies from day to day, but looks similar to the one above. We don’t do every subject everyday. Some days we have art. Some days we do a composer study. Some days we do practical living where they learn common things like baking bread; etc. That is usually one of our afternoon endeavors. We only do grammar one day per week, simply because it is the one subject we all agree we like the least. Hopefully I’ll find a way to change that!

I’m very new at this and my kids are very new at this so we are taking it slow and steady. As my confidence builds, all of this could change.

Just a look at a day in our life!

Hope it helps!

Angie in KY

This is a TOPIC WHERE I strive for grace on myself and a schedule. I work best on a schedule, but since my condition started, every day is not the same. I’D SAY BLENDING HOUSE DUTIES AND H.S. IS THE HARDEST FOR ME. So I wrote a “quarterly” schedule which lists my topics of study and the books to use. The book list does GET ALTERED DEPENDING UPON AVAILABILITY AT THE LIBRARY.

THEN I HAVE A LINED WEEKLY SCHEDULE W/THREE COLUMNS THAT I DESIGNED AND MY HUSBAND CREATED. ONE COLUMN FOR EACH CHILD, THEN A FAMILY COLUMN. SOMETIMES I HAVE FOUR WHOLE DAYS, SOMETIMES 2 FULL AND TWO HALF DAYS A WEEK, I JUST DO THE BEST I CAN.

DAILY-BIBLE

MEMORY WORK W/THE SCRIPTURE MEMORY BOX

POETRY AND/OR FAIRY TALE – PRE-1950’S

MIN. 1-2 AUDIO STORIES

HEBREW LESSON-SON WRITES WORD IN SCRIPT, PRINT AND ENGLISH

MATH-2 DAYS RAYS ARITHMETIC; 2 DAYS DEVELOPMENTAL MATHMATICS ALT.

PHONICS-TRY TO DO BOTH OF THEM, BUT DEFINITELY DAUGHTER

LIT.W/NARRATION-ALL OF A KIND FAMILY-BOTH

PERSONAL READING W/NARRATION-SON ONLY

HANDWRITING/COPYWORK-DAUGHTER ONLY

DAY ONE-CREATION STUDY W/106 DAYS OF CREATION

PARABLES OF NATURE

NATURE JOURNAL

NATURE FRIEND MAG. READ THROUGH THE MTH.

DAY TWO-

COPYWORK/SON

DAY THREE-

SHAKESPEARE AUDIO E.NESBIT

MEDIEVAL/RENAISSANCE MUSIC

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

MATH DRILL-BOTH

DAY FOUR-

HISTORY (ORIGINALLY LEIF ERIKSON, RIGHT NOW THANKSGIVING)

C0PYWORK-SON

DAY FIVE-(HALF DAY, ABOUT 2 HOURS OR START EARLIER – WHICHEVER HAPPENS)

SOME OF THE DAILY DUTIES

JEWISH STUDIES

DICTATION-SON (HE READS LESSON FROM PICTORIAL PRIMER THEN I DICTATE A FEW SENTENCES TO HIM AND HE SPELLS IT BACK TO ME)

MONEY AND TIME STUDIES

I PICK A CLASSICAL MUSICIAN TO LISTEN TO DURING THE WEEK

THEY LISTEN TO FOLK/CULTURAL MUSIC, HYMNS W/AND W/O WORDS, AND SOUNDTRACKS TO MUSICALS AT NIGHT.

1X A WEEK MY DAUGHTER USES COLOR-CODED MAGNETS WHILE ON THE FLOOR ON AN EASEL TO SPELL WORDS FROM OUR PHONICS LESSON. SHE’S VERY KINESTHETIC.

I’VE STARTED WRITING SOME VOCAB/SPELL WORDS ON MY SMALL CHALKBOARD ON THE WALL WE REVEIEW DURING THE WEEK.

I ALSO HAVE SOME PATTERN BLOCKS, EQUILIBRIO BLOCKS AND BOOKS THEY BOTH USE FOR VISUAL STRENGTHENING AND AS A QUIET ACTIVITY DURING AN AUDIO STORY.

GEOGRAPHY COMES UP ALL THE TIME WHEN WE ARE READING A STORY OR TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING GOING ON IN OUR LIFE. WE HAVE MAPS ON OUR DINING ROOM WALLS-WORLD AND USA

I’M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHEN TO INCORPORATE DRAWING, ART STUDY, PIC. STUDY, MANNERS, REGULAR CHARACTER STUDY, G-D’S WORLD NEWS AND BETTER HISTORY AND SCIENCE ORDERLINESS. I HAVE WHAT I NEED, I JUST NEED TO FIGURE IT OUT. I DON’T GET IN AS MUCH READING ALOUD AS I WOULD LIKE, NOR DO I ALWAYS GET AS MUCH DONE IN THE DAILY SECTION AS I WOULD LIKE. THANK G-D THIS IS A MARATHON AND NOT A SPRINT!

I BREAK THIS DOWN INTO A DAILY SCHEDULE THE NIGHT BEFORE. THEY GENERALLY DON’T WORK AT THE TABLE THE SAME TIME AND MY DAUGHTER HAS MOVEMENT AND BOTH HAVE VARIETY. I KEEP IT HANDY DURING THE DAY TO ALLUDE TO.

GRATEFULLY, MY SON (7)IS SELF-MOTIVATED SO WHEN I’M HAVING A ROUGH DAY, HE’LL ACTUALLY DO THE BIBLE STUDY, MEM. WK., AND HIS OWN STUDIES. I TRY TO STILL AT LEAST READ THE LIT. THAT’S ALSO A GOOD DAY FOR AUDIO STORIES AND MOODY SCIENCE VIDEOES! THOSE ARE MY UNSCHOOLING DAYS!

HOPE THIS HELPS OR ENCOURAGES SOMEBODY.

RACHEL