Our family's subjects/schedule to look over, thanks!

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  • October 8, 2012 at 9:23 pm
    my3boys
    Participant

    Thanks for looking this over. I really appreciate it.

    1st/2nd grade dc:

    *Lit: slowly reading through Little House books (he really loves these), he sits in all family read alouds

    *Math: MUS, 3-4 days a wk.

    *Science: Tags along his brother’s Swimming Creatures/Nature Study/science related books maybe 1x a week, random science experiments, does some of the printables from the notebooks

    *Beginner Reading: DR, First Steps (almost finished, taking our time)

    *Copywork: 3-4 days a week, uses a variety of printed material and Pencil Pete

    *Co-op classes 1x a week and other community classes, outdoor play regularly

    4th/5th grade dc:

    *Lit: reading through Frank L. Baum books, narrating maybe 1 time a week, written or oral (I’m reading Little Peppers and How They Grew to him at bedtime, off and on)

    *Grammar: EFTTC 2, 2 days a week, sometimes more if we have time and depending on lesson

    *SW: Looks over new passage early in the week, try to test on Friday (he enjoys SW)

    *Copywork: 3-4 days a week

    *Math: MUS 3-4 days a week

    *Science: Swimming Creatures, honestly, probably 1-2 days a week (this is first to go on his list if anything goes), science class with co-op 1 day a week

    8th grade dc:

    *Lit: Adam of the Road (maybe 3 chapters a week, I’m sure not anymore than that)

    *Science: Gen. from Apologia, probably a good 2-3 days a week reading, 1 good day narrating, he does the On Your Own Questions/Study Guides but this is taking quite awhile…experiments are just okay. Some are going good, others, not so good.

    *Math: Math class with about 4 other kids

    *Copywork/Cursive: 3-4 days a week

    *Practical Happiness: 1 day a week answering discussion questions in a comp. notebook

    *Uncle Eric book 1: Least favorite book, but reads it 2 days a week. Narrates to me so we can discuss usually 1 day a week

    *Leisure Reading: His choice from our library, reads 3-4 days, his favorite part of school is early morning reading

    *Write with the Best: I think I have that for 2 days a week

    *Grammar: Easy Grammar Plus, maybe 2-3 day

    As a family usually our day goes like this:

    Wake between 5:30-7am, maybe do chores right away, have breakfast, dress, etc.

    Normally start academics between 8-8:30.

    DS 13 starts in his room with leisure reading, then on to whatever he has scheduled. (The other two start with Math, together, then we work our way through what I have scheduled.) I allow my oldest to do his work in the order he chooses, but knowing him, he follows my daily “to do” list as written. He has until 9:30 to complete what he wants then we meet at the table for: copywork, composer music (no bio right now, just music), poetry. After everyone has finished their copywork (5-10 minutes), we each read 1 poem from a selected book (they just read the next one, or if they want they can skip around), if it is picture study day then we do this next (this may or may not happen, but we are on pic 5 of Turner’s work from SCM), if it’s hymn study, we may do it, may not, it depends on how organized I am or how the day is going up until then. Latin is on Thursdays and going well so far. We are on lesson 3 of Getting Started..and review randomly until the next Thursday. If everything is going well, we do scripture memory or wait until Family Time. Scriptures usually happen 3 out of the 4 days scheduled.(We are listening to The Captive when we drive out of town, so maybe 2-3x a week right now.)

    Take a break.

    Then it’s Family Time with history/Bible/geo. We just do whatever the lesson says to do. After this lesson, I may read from the Millers’ books, but I only do that once a week, if I do it at all. (They really love those stories so I try to shoot for 1x a week.)

    Lunch. I may read from The Wind in the Willows or The Great Turkey Walk while they’re eating, depends on the day.

    After lunch, ds 13 returns to independent work (I may sit with him 2 days a week to look over narrations, allow for an oral narration, look over grammar, that sort of thing. Other two do what I have scheduled that may not have been completed before lunch: grammar, practice instrument(s), written narrations, depends on the day. I use a weekly schedule and mark off what has been worked on/completed, then do the SCMO when I have time.

    Our dc have various out of the house activities throughout the week they participate in, but this is the gist of their academics. I’m sure I have forgotten something highly important, but this is off the top of my head. We have been doing Nature Study pretty consistently, well, for us anyway and that has been on Fridays. So far, so good.

    I hope I have been honest with our frequency and subject lists. I don’t want to underplay what we do or exaggerate, either.

    If you made it through our family’s daily routine, I appreciate it. Somehow, writing it out seems like so much more, so that’s good. At the same time, I know exactly how it feels to make it seem like so much more, when in reality we haven’t hit science in a week, but the schedule says it’s scheduled, so we must have, LOL.

    I appreciate this forum so much and your thoughtful, helpful words. Thank you in advance if you find something to comment about that may help me rest at ease or think about readjusting.

    October 8, 2012 at 9:45 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    I’ll share my thoughts, and overall I like what you have going! At my house we would drop the grammar for the middle child and copywork probably just once a week for anyone who can write neatly (we don’t aim for beautiful, just nicely readable).

    The other main difference here would be we do math every single day using MUS. My kids usually need all the practice they can get so they master a concept well. If I were only doing math 3-4 days a week we would never ever finish a lesson through to the test in a week. (Maybe math comes easily to some of yours though, so the daily math is unnecessary?).

    October 8, 2012 at 10:26 pm
    Tecrz1
    Participant

    It sounds lovely 🙂 looks like all bases are covered. You know, sometimes we may skip something for a week or so. It doesn’t hurt. Just keep going forward is my motto. 🙂 something that helps me is gathering all the books and resources I need for the scheduled activities of the day. Then we just keep working. My main things I like to skip are Spanish and my children reading aloud. So I taught my ds8 how to start the Spanish on the computer and started having each child read a few verses from our Bible reading.

    I try to think of ways I can make it easier to get it accomplished. My favorite ways to do this are to teach my children to do it independently or to add it to another activity 🙂

    Tara

    October 8, 2012 at 10:27 pm
    my3boys
    Participant

    Thanks so much for your reply.

    I say 3-4 days a week for math (MUS) because we have co-op 1 x a week and can not get to math on that day (I’ve tried, doesn’t fit, lol). I have Math *scheduled* the other 4 days and try to fit in more practice sheets, if possible, but to keep to reality, I say we do 3-4 days, always shooting for 4. My oldest has a group math class 2 days a week (Tues./Thurs.) and does the assigned homework/tests on Wed/Fri.

    I continued copywork for my two oldests because they wanted to do cursive so they can do that or copywork for spelling (especially for my oldest, he struggles). I have All About Spelling for my oldest but just haven’t made that fit. Maybe I should consider having him (13yo) add to his Book of Mottoes, or something else, at that Table Time, hmmm..something to consider. Or maybe we (13 & 10yo can do AAS while my little guy does Copywork. Something to consider.

    To be honest, I could adjust the copywork (I will definitely work on that) but the Table Time was created because my oldest enjoys too much time alone. It is a way to draw him out, us do something together each morning, scheduled, besides Family subjects. I could adjust *what* we do, but this time is working so well for us. My 10yo works on his SW at that time sometimes, as well.

    Thanks so much…gives me food for thought.

    October 8, 2012 at 10:35 pm
    my3boys
    Participant

    Thanks Tara. We were typing at the same time:)

    I did have my dc do alot independently last school year and, although I still expect that for certain things (and can have them do more, for sure), I felt so disassociated from what they were doing. I think I’m am all or nothing type of person. Sometimes too extreme, iykwim?! So this year I took a much more hands on approach, but now that we’re a little over 2 months into the year I think I can start passing a bit more off, we’ll see. I really felt like my kids we’re on their own too much and that was okay, but looking back it wasn’t in the way CM describes….too complicated to say, but this year feels better with me at the helm. I do see what can certainly be passed on, but last year it was science for my then 9yo, not good. Next semester when he starts Jack’s Insects will be a better fit.

    Gotta run. Thanks so much for your helpful replies.

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