Update: I have recently begun to do my History/Literature or Science reading in the morning so as to get to the copywork, dicatation or writing right from the lesson right away.

Sept. 2006

To get this from my schedule to a narrative I decided to do it in sections. This post focuses on mornings until lunch.

Bible picture book can be read to my younger 2 children in the morning. Then the Bible is read to the older 4 children.  I pick a book of the Bible and read through it until completion. A lot of discussion usually happens.

Now if my day is interrupted, at least the most important thing has already happened.

Then I begin Orthography (handwriting, phonics, spelling, writing) with my youngest 3 children. I do one at a time using The Writing Road to Reading. Soon I will write just about this book of Romalda Spalding's.  I also give my oldest of these three a separate grammar lesson at this time. My very youngest gets the Orthography only on Mon., Wed., and Fri.

While these lessons are happening, my older three can look at their lesson schedules and begin independent work on Grammar (Easy Grammar series), any independent reading, and Latin review. My older children really enjoy using their schedules to get started in the morning.

It is important to do a lesson with the youngest ones first in the morning. It fills up their little needs & attention tank. Then they are much more likely to enjoy the next activity independently while you work with the olders.

Then my older children get Ayres words dictated to them on Mon. and Tues. This is a list of spelling words in the WRR program. On Wed. and Thurs. they study them.  They are in different places on the Ayres list, so on Fri., they can give each other a spelling quiz.

On Wed. & Thurs. since I don't have to dicatate Ayres words to these older ones, we do a Latin lesson. Then they have the Latin to review the other days. I also make flashcards of all the vocabulary words. 3x5 inch index cards fit well into an old check box.

OK, by the time we do all that it's lunchtime already, so I will post more about our lesson routine next time, under "Afternoons."

Happy lunch!