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Overwhelmed trying to figure out schedule for 3rd grader and K'er
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I am trying to keep subjects short but even so I can’t figure out how to do everything. Here is what I have so far for my kids:
Family- Bible and/or character story, history/geography, literature (we are doing the Little House on the Prairie series), nature study, art, handicrafts, and would like to either learn sign language or some beginning Spanish.
3rd grader- cle sunrise math, copywork, typing, grammar, possibly some online spelling, violin practice
K- DR for reading, practice writing, math
This doesn’t even fit in poetry, artist/composer study AND I can’t completely neglect my 1 year old! HELP PLEASE. I would really like to make this work. Can anyone give me any hints or advice? Thank you!
One more thing, we will be beginning narration. Do I just choose a short story for each of them to narrate or have them narrate what we are already reading? Do they need to do narration on all reading or just pick something? What about independent reading for my 3rd grader? Should he narrate that too?
It is totally doable. I promise!
First, what are essentials that you feel must be done daily? I tend to put reading, writing or copywork, and math in this group alongside scriptures and a daily read aloud/literature.
Then what are next in importance and can be done 2-3 times per week? Science, history, what? It’s different for everyone. We’re doing history daily but science 1-2 days a week this year. Spelling, if you feel it’s a must, and typing would fit here for me too.
What are the extras that only need hit once a week? Nature study, artist/composer, poetry, grammar. Handicrafts and most of our nature study happen in the kids’ free time (afternoons/evenings) at my house.
You can see how it works at my house (7 kids age 11 down to baby) here: http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/our-schedulea-reader-question.html I have 6th, 2nd, 1st, K, preK and 2 little ones.
Three ideas for you that have helped me keep our days manageable:
– I separate certain subjects out of our sit-down school time – for us these are mainly Bible (we do as a family with dad at breakfast and bedtime), and literature – I do picture books with the littles before naps and we have a chapter book going before bed. I also don’t schedule handicrafts, these just sort of happen as we are intrested.
– For the rest of it, I don’t do every subject everyday. We do daily: poetry (just reading it, less than 5mins), Aesop for narration practice, French, math, copywork, All About Spelling. History and Nature Study (just reading nature books) are 2xeach per week, the others – character, geography, artist study, composer study are only 1x each week. We do our daily subjects plus one or two others each day. My dd also does some independent reading daily, maybe 2x weekly outloud to me. I do about 15 minutes of ‘work’ with my preschooler too. But all of that together takes us no more than 2 hours, often less if we do school when my 2yo is napping (and therefore fewer interuptions).
– I set aside a special ‘project day’ every week or two where we do projects that involve a bit more time – nature study challenges/journaling, art projects, cooking projects, or whatever. On these days we just do some basics – reading and math maybe, and spend the rest of our school time on projects. Gives us a break from our normal routine and ensures that we leave space for these things in our schedule. We’d never do them if I had to tack them on to our full school day.
It’s late where I am right now, so I can’t do it this minute, but I can post a more ‘visual’ version of how our schedule is set up in the morning if you think it might be helpful.
Jen
I’m not an expert, but I have children of similar ages, so here is a peek into our day.
My DD is in grade 2, and DS in Kindergarten, plus I have 4 more younger (one mine, plus 3 daycare children). It can be done, but it takes coordination.
Starting with your last comment first: poetry, artist, and composer take almost no time. We read one poem each day as part of our devotional. 1 or 2 minutes, tops. We look at one picture from our artist once a week during morning snack, then put in on a small easel on the end table in the living room. We listen to our composer during lunch (after the Suzuki violin CD.)
We do science, art projects, handicrafts, nature study, violin practice, and P.E., and any out of the house activities or appointments in the morning. We do our family literature book at bedtime. The rest (the quiet things!) we do during the twin toddlers’ afternoon nap. We start with family devotional and other subjects, then I work with one child while the others play in the room next door, do quiet table activities (drawing, stringing beads, perler beads, etc.) or have their short computer time for the day. It takes about 1.5 hours to get through everything. Once the twins wake up, we go outside for the rest of the afternoon.
What in particular are you struggling with? I’m sure someone on the board will have an idea for pretty much any challenge!
Joanne
Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. I had already planned on Bible reading during breakfast but hadn’t thought about including some of our school reading in our bedtime reading. I was feeling overwhelmed by all the reading and didn’t know if my kids would sit still that long. I want them to enjoy it so they actually learn so breaking it up might work well. I feel like a big baby after seeing how much you ladies deal with in comparison to me! I only have 3 and I’m overwhelmed.
Tristan, your blog post was very helpful too so thank you for sharing that. Jen, I’d love to see your schedule too if possible.
So, I am now wondering if you all have a schedule written out or do you just know what needs to be done daily and work with it however you can? I feel like a schedule would help me but maybe I’m wrong.
Also, I know this is a bit off my original topic but where would I get artist and composer studies? I’m new to CM so I’m still figuring everything out.
Even though I’m really feeling overwhelmed with the initial planning, I am still very excited to get started and our start day is Monday!
Thanks for all the help! I appreciate it so much!
Okay, here ’tis. If you PM me your email address, I can send you may actual ‘table’ which may be easier to see since the formatting is lost here.
Breakfast + Scripture Memory and Hymns with Papa
Chores…DD6 starts her independent work checklist while I help the two little ones (4 and 2) get ready for the day. Her checklist includes: French (computer program), copywork, math drill (on the MUS website), read a section from Christian Liberty Nature Reader and be prepared to tell mom something about it.
School Time (all 4 blocks below takes us 1.5-2 hours, sometimes we move the whole thing to the afternoon if we have other things going on in the morning.) I kind of use a “block” schedule idea with various things that get dropped into each block depending on the day.
Block #1 Opening Family Work:
1. Calendar + Read that Day’s Section from God’s World News
2. Poetry (read aloud 1 poem, practice reciting the poem we are memorizing)
3. Aesop Fable + narration (for dd6)
4. French song (action nursery rhymes, so we get some wiggles out) + activity
Block #2 First daily reading:
M – Character/Personal Development
T and Th – History
W and F – Nature
Block #3 Indpendent and Guided Work:
DD6 does: Cursive Workbook, All About Spelling, Start Math together. She completes her math worksheet on her own, plus any work from her checklist she didn’t get to in the morning while I do about 15 minutes worth of work with my preschooler (letter/sound recognition, nursery rhymes, math games, a wee bit of handwriting).
SNACK BREAK
Block #4 Second Daily Reading
M-W-F French story (read and talk about it, define words we don’t know, etc.)
T Geography
Th – Composer or Artist Study (we alternate – spend about 6-8 week on a composer, and then switch and do 6-8 weeks on an artist.)
And that’s all. We do lit read alouds before nap (picture books with the 4 and 2 yo) and a chapter book (with 6 and sometimes 4 yo, depending on his level of interest in the book) after Bible reading/devotions at bedtime.
Every other week or so we have a project day where we only do Bible and literature (since those aren’t part of our school time) and dd does her independent checklist and we spend the rest of our time doing fun, more time consuming things like nature journalling, art projects, watching a video or movie in French, or other things like that.
Hope that helps some!
Jen
Oh, and getting started with artist and composer study….
As I mentioned above, we do one or the other at a time and switch back and forth. I plan to do 3 artists and 3 composers each year.
I found this guide helpful for getting going with artist study this year. http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/06/worlds-greatest-artists-unit-study.html I didn’t use all of the ‘busy work’ aspects of it (we don’t do lapbooking or anything like that)or get into much about the style/medium unless my dd wants to know, but I liked how it walked me through the book for each artist and gave some suggestions for discussion questions and projects. And because we only do 3 artists per year, it’ll last us a couple of years too (by which point I hope I’ll be able to fly on my own a bit more.) SCM also sells some very lovely portfolios for artist study (check out the bookstore).
For composer study, I like these collections which I downloaded from Amazon. Can’t beat the price and I love that they include WHOLE pieces of music (meaning all 3 or 4 movements from a concerto or symphony rather than just part as on most compilation type CDs.) http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=rise+of+the+masters We often listen to our current composer in the house while doing chores, cooking, etc. (Or you could listen in the car). We continue to listen to our composer during the weeks we are doing an artist too. During the block of time set aside for composer study in our schedule we do things like: listen to and discuss the Classics for Kids radio program related to that composer (http://www.classicsforkids.com/), maybe read a composer biography if we have one handy, or listen to a specific piece of music by a composer and talk about it – was there a ‘story’ we imagined while we listened? How did it make us feel? etc. Or we might draw while we listen. We haven’t gotten into any of the technical aspects of music (form, etc) yet…my focus right now is just on building familiarity and enjoyment.
HTH some,
Jen
I have a 2nd grader and Kindergartner. I alternate teaching time with each of them (the other works independently on an assignment or activity while I am teaching) then a lesson all together. I am finding this very doable. I would be glad to share my actual “schedule” if you send me your email address. Sorry, that is the only way I know how to send a file… Not very techy around here!
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