School: what we do

We're now six weeks into our school year and have settled into a good rhythm. I love homeschooling our children, and not only am I thrilled to be back at it again, but am thankful to find that it is so doable- even with five young children!

Today I'm going to share- generally- what we do for school, and over the next several posts I'll get a little more specific, sharing what that particular subject or element actually looks like in our school day. But for now, the basics:

We begin our school day with Circle Time. Circle Time is an idea I gleaned a couple of years ago from the wise Kendra of Preschoolers and Peace. For anyone unfamiliar with the idea of Circle Time, you can click here to learn more about it.

Essentially, for us- it is the school that we all do together before anyone heads off to do their own individual work. We do our Circle Time at the breakfast table, and it is largely doable because both of the little girls are still strapped into their seats from breakfast. I just keep feeding them cheerios or remnants of breakfast and we can get so much done that way!

This is what we do during that time, daily:

Bible reading
Memory verses


In addition to those two permanent fixtures of our Circle Time, we also rotate in other memory work each day:

Mon | Old Testament books of the Bible*
Tues | Ten Commandments
Wed | New Testament books of the Bible*
Thurs | Landmark cards
Fri | President cards
Sat | Rules/Manners for Gentlemen/Ladies*

*These are repeats from last year, and we are currently reviewing them. When I feel like the kids pretty flawless in their recital of these, we will file them to be pulled out only occasionally for a quick review. When we do that, we'll fill in those daily slots with other memory work.

Other Circle Time elements:

Mon | Hymn practice
Tues | Art: Picture Study
Wed | Poetry
Thurs | Habits/Manners
Fri | Classical music
Sat | Silly songs/camp songs/choruses

MATH daily
Ella does Math daily, and for the most part does this on her own
On Saturdays (and usually at least one other day per week) we do Math flash cards together.

HISTORY 3 days a week (MWF)
This includes the lesson (read aloud by me), an activity, and a timeline card.

COPYWORK 3 days a week (TRS)

ENGLISH 3 days a week (TRS)
Ella and I go over the lesson together, and then there is work she finishes on her own.

NARRATIONS a couple times a week

KINDERGARTEN work for Isaac; Tuesdays & Thursdays

Other daily activities:
outside play time
chores
read-aloud time with mommy
read-aloud time with daddy
Bible reading with daddy

prayer

Oh! Two things I've recently ordered that we'll be adding soon:

1. a handwriting program (cursive) for Ella.
2. speech therapy lessons for me to go through with Isaias, who is really struggling with his R's, L's, and Th's.

NOTE: Although our schedule seems to indicate that we school six days a week, we actually only school five days. Mark has a rotating day off each week (one week he has Monday off, the next week he'll have Tuesday off, etc...) and when daddy has a day off, we all take a day off. So although our schedule lists Monday through Saturday, we drop one day a week depending on what day he has off.

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for the layout of your school schedule. Just wanted to give you a tip (going back to my college days), you can designate Thursday with an R. I don't think they had to worry about Sat and Sun though! :)

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  2. Thanks for sharing. It's always encouraging to see what others are doing, esp with babies around. :)
    Welcome back.

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  3. Nice to hear from you (blog wise) again! Sounds like you are keeping very busy!! Great teaching! ;-)

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  4. NeedANap2- Funny story behind that... I've done that (used an R for Thursday) for years. Recently I did so on our dry erase board for the kids- and my daughter did not like the fact that I used an "R". Made no sense to her. :) So with them I've taken to using a "T" or "Th". Clearly I've gotten into the habit. It *does* look funny, though- so I'm changing it here on the blog. :)

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  5. Thank you! Do you have a book or other resource you use for the Rules/Manners for Gentlemen/Ladies? Thanks!

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  6. Thanks, Stacy! I'm always happy when your post pops up in my reader for the day!

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  7. I'm so happy you are back from your break!! And I must confess I checked your blog about everyday anyway just in case!!

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  8. I love seeing what other people are doing for school!

    I've been a little discouraged lately because I feel like we just can't get to the things I want to get to in a day. (Which I truly don't think is all that much.) But it's nice to hear what you do for Circle Time...right at the breakfast table with the wee ones still eating. I might try that tomorrow. I know we'll find our groove eventually! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. I love hearing what others do!

    We do Circle Time too...inspired by Kendra.

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  10. I am so glad you are back! I have missed seeing what you are up to. I love the idea of rotating things into circle time, we tend to do the same things each day, we are going to try to vary it a bit.

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  11. Pandy,
    I snagged the Rules for Gentlemen/Ladies from Kendra, too! Here are the links:

    Thirteen Rules for Gentlemen

    and

    Thirteen Rules for Ladies

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  12. I loved reading this, and am looking forward to your other posts on homeschooling!

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  13. Oh boy, Stacy is blogging again!

    That's what I said just now. I checked your blog to see if you had "returned" whenever I was on the computer, too. :)

    I love reading about your school days, Stacy! And how you've organized your weekdays so that Mark's rotating day off and school work flow well together.

    I think we may move to a 3 days a week type schedule for some of our subjects as you are doing. With so many little schoolers amongst our big schoolers, we're needing some more flexibility, rather than trying to do every subject every day.

    And I'm curious about Isaias' Rs, Ls and Ths. Michael struggles with some of those same sounds. Where did you find the speech therapy lessons you are using?

    Enjoy your week, Stacy!

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  14. Thank you, Stacy! This has been very helpful...I had taken a break from circle time because I was bored with doing the same things every day, but now I'm ready to start it back up again using some of your ideas. :)

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  15. I have missed you!

    So good to hear what you are doing these days. I have been needing some encouragement for our structure and I am happy to read what you are doing. Not too far off from what we do. I like that it begins at the breakfast table. Very cool. If I could wrap my mind around being alert so early in the day and be prepared enough, we could do the same thing! Back to the drawing board!

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  16. What do you use for speech therapy?

    I like your website. I found it while looking for a book list for my eight-year-old daughter. Yours was helpful. Thanks!

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