Schedule Break Down

So I posted our wonderful Homeschool schedule already but now I feel like I need to explain it. I'll try to break down each section with a few more details.

 

Breakfast & Chores: I hope to have the kids chore charts posted soon but I don't even have them typed right now. Basically, I wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 to pump and feed the baby. After my husband leaves for work around 6:00 I work on my art, enjoy my coffee, watch the news for a bit, prepare school work, start laundry, work on any chores I'm behind on (usually laundry), and start breakfast.

 

I don't wake my kids up. I just let them sleep until they're ready to get up on their own. Now and then I do wake up my 13 year old if the babies are tag teaming me and I need to do something important (like shower or use the bathroom, haha). Then I'll take one baby with me and bring the other one to her.

 

When the kids wake up, they usually play for a little while and start chores while I finish breakfast. We all eat together and I try to explain our plans for the day so they're not wondering around confused about everything.

 

Then they get dressed and finish chores.

 

10:00 Circle Time: Circle time is about the only time on the schedule that we try our very best to keep. I'll holler how much time is left before circle time a few times every morning so they can speed up their chores if needed.

 

 

We meet at 10:00 on the rug in the play/school room. We start with a prayer together, asking God to help us accomplish our tasks with joyful hearts and to guide us throughout the day. This is also when we name the sick, pray for the lost, and ask God to bring Daddy home safely each day.

After that, each day varies. We do mystery riddles like, "I am white and I fall in the winter. What am I? Snow" or one from yesterday was "I fly, but I do not carry people. I hunt at night. What am I? An owl." Mary actually got that one. She gets almost as many as Taylor. We also do a Character story from a favorite book of mine and read scripture.

 

10:30 Handwriting and Language Arts: Time varies but we always start with these after circle time, except on Kitchen Day.

 

Lunch: We always eat lunch together, even if we don't eat the same lunch, we still sit down together and eat. The girls clean up after themselves and I clean up the kitchen.

 

After lunch I put Victoria (1) down for her nap. I usually rock her to sleep. I have busy work I some times give to Mary (6) to do while I'm getting Victoria down.

This is my new favorite busy work. I bought this big activity pad at Michael's a few weeks ago and it has 50 pages of seasonal activities. Mary had so much fun working on it yesterday. I'd say it's good for grades K-2nd. It's always good to have something the little ones can do on their own. 

 

 

 

Then we do math. If the day is crazy or Mary isn't feeling like it, we may skip math. If we skip it we'll either do it later or catch up the next day. Some times math can be flash cards or a math activity that isn't actually in her book. She doesn't really like math very much so I don't stress her out about it.

 

Science and Social Studies: We are totally laid back about these two subjects. I try to work them in at least twice a week and they usually involve me reading something while Mary draws a picture of it, labels it, and colors it. Sometimes it's a movie or experiment. It all just depends on how the day has went so far and how long the babies sleep. It's better to do activities if the babies are awake because if I'm trying to read her a lesson or have her listen to a movie, she can't concentrate with all the noise.

 

Story time can be a library book or something from our book collection.

 

Free time & art are pretty self explanatory and times vary as well as activities. Today the girls painted wooden butterfly magnets and decorated them.
 

3:30 Clean up: By this time every day the house is in complete disorder. I know a few paragraphs ago I talked about chores and cleaning up but non of that matters. Kids still manage to destroy any and all progress we've made throughout the day. This is supposed to be a quick but thorough whole house cleaning before Daddy gets home. Some times it's just 30 minutes of me saying "Come one everyone should be cleaning" and "Get off the floor and help clean" and so on.

 

Dinner Prep: Me and the kids preparing dinner, the dinner table, and juggling babies.

 

Dinner: At last we all sit together and enjoy some together time. Victoria usually screams through the whole thing and afterwards Daddy reads scripture and we talk about what he read.

 

That's it! After dinner is play time and evening chores. If the evening chores get done well, then morning chores are a breeze.