A day in our homeschool......soon

With the addition of baby Tylar, we won't be starting school on time this year. Actually, here in WA, school doesn't start until the Thursday after Labor Day. I've decided to ease back into homeschooling by doing math and reading next week. An hour or so a day, shouldn't be too difficult-it will be harder to get the kids to do it with the neighbors knocking on the door to play. The week after we will add spelling and grammer and then full days starting Sept 14th.

I have found in the past, that schedules work best for us. Keeps me on target to get things done during the day and helps TL finish his assignments in a decent amount of time. His idea of decent means that he spends the entire day writing six sentences for a paragraph while I stand over him literally pulling my hair outta my head.

For the most part, our schedule looks like this:

8:30-9:00 Geography
9:00-9:30 Grammer/Handwriting
9:30-9:45 Snack Break (if we don't do one, then the kiddos moan and groan and insist that they are being mistreated and malnurished.
9:45-11:00 Reading/Spelling
11:00-11:30 Writing
11:30-12:30 Lunch and chores-sometimes daddy will come home for lunch and we have to take him back to work. One of the luxuries of a one car family.
12:30-1:15 Math
1:15-2:30 Two days a week we do science, two days of history, the other day is either library or art.

I am also planning on interrupting our schedule a few days a month (weather permitting) to do nature walks and keep a nature journal. I plan on getting a few done in Sept and Oct, since the weather probably won't let us do any in Nov-March time frame.

This schedule looks very rigid, but its really not. I've tried to leave enough time to help Princess and Bugabug, while trying to nurse the baby. Little Miss Trouble will be helped by everyone and playing in our midst. TL is old enough to do most of his work independently with a little instruction before he starts off his assignments. Our days can/probably will go longer, but we'll see. I'm aiming for the 2:30 time frame to have the kids finish off their chores before the public school kids get home. Little Miss Trouble will hopefully still be napping at his time, so if I need to recharge my batteries for a fifteen minute power nap, I can.

Have a wonderful year everyone!