I have 4 kids, with the oldest turning 9 soon. We live in SC, where it is hot a good 5 months of the year, so as we started school a few weeks ago, I have our day arranged so we do some school in the morning, then play outside in the later part of the morning before it gets too hot, then do some more school stuff later in the day. I am just struggling to balance my kids needs for school, rest, chores, free play inside, outside time, reading aloud, free reading/quiet time. I know CM advocated kids to spend 2.5-3 hours per day on school, but I am curious to hear how much time per day your children spend in all these other areas. Right now my kids are in bed 11-12 hours at night, and have 1.5 hour rest time when they can read and quiet play. They seem to need this! I keep wanting to get them more outside time and can’t seem to arrange it all. My 4th grader is doing his school reading independently, and we have been doing a lunchtime read aloud for awhile now, but my baby just turned 1 and it’s been difficult to read while trying to feed her too! I feel like they love all these things: outside play, inside play, reading time (both alone and me reading aloud), legos/dolls. How to manage it? I don’t feel that I can just have afternoons “free” with 4 kids able to handle various amounts of freedom. I love having my break with them doing quiet time in the afternoons, but then I feel like it interferes with outside time. Sorry this post is so rambling…I’d love to hear thoughts for your kids and their ages!
Are you keeping the short lesson time? Perhaps you need to loop some subjects, and not do every subject every day….
My girls go outside to feed calves, then we have breakfast, school, snacktime, finish school, dinner, free outside or inside time (if their work is done), they feed calves again, supper, and bed. (We dairy farm, so our daily routine is weird and doesn’t fit anyone else’s schedule.)
I guess my thought is that perhaps you’re stuffing too much into a day.
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