Monday, October 13, 2008 - Our School Day
Stacie has asked how long our school day takes. I thought I would take a post to break it down.
We are following the Ambleside Online schedule for Year 2
Bible we do every day. It depends on the passage how long this takes. It has never taken us more than 20 minutes but usually it is around 10-15. I read from the Bible while he colors a picture that corresponds with the story. I got this pictures from Calvary Children's Chapel.
For memory we are using a modified Simply Charlote Mason method for memorizing. We also review at least weekly our address and phone number, days of the week, months of the year, and books of the New Testament which we learned last year.
We do this every day and it takes us about 10 minutes at the beginning of the week and less than 5 at the end of the week.
Phonics/Reading takes us 20 minutes every day.
Math takes us 20 minutes every day.
All of the literature we do looks like we read a lot and takes a lot of time but it really doesn't. We do not read every book each day but spread it out over the entire week. For example this week we read:
- Pilgrim's Progress is broken down into small sections. We usually break our chapter up into two days. We could easily read it in one day but I think Cameron does better with smaller portions. It takes us less than 10 minutes on 2 days.
- Little Duke is only a half chapter a week. If it is a longer reading I will break it up over a few days.
- An Island Story takes us about two days of 5-10 minutes
- Children's Hisotry of the World, which is not every week, only takes 5-10 minutes to read.
- Tree in the Trail has very short chapters. They are only one page long. We could almost sit down and read the entire book in 3 or 4 sittings. We read 2 chapters a week. They take less than 5 minutes each.
- Burgess Animal Book we read two chapters every week. This is one of Cameron's favorite classes. He colors a picture of the animal we are reading about from the book Peterson's Field Guide. Sometimes we do a chapter in one sitting and sometimes I will break the chapter up for two days so that it last longer for the week.
- Trial and Triumph we read every few weeks. I broke this chapter up over 3 days.
- We only take about 2 minutes on poetry every day.
- Additional reading is done at bedtimes and we read for 10-15 minutes.
There is narrations done for each of these except for additional reading. Narrations don't take very long at all and can be done while we are getting ready for the next thing.
Copy work takes 20 minutes every day. Some days he takes less than 20 minutes and he is always given that as free time.
Spanish is done every day on the computer and takes 10-20 minutes depending on the lesson.
Artist and Composer study doesn't take long at all. We will listen to our selection for the week 2-3 times and always during either math or copy work. I use little bits here and there to discuss the life of Bach. Our picture study takes about 5 minutes twice a week. We view our art selection for a few minutes and then he narrates it back to me.
Hymn and Folk song we do twice a week. It takes us about 10 minutes. We do end up singing our songs throughout the week at different times but actually sitting at the piano going over our songs.
Nature Study is done here and there through the week. He does it naturally as he plays outside. When we take time to do it right it only takes 5-15 minutes and sometimes we can take longer.
Handicraft only takes about 15 minutes a week.
All together, our day takes about 3-3.5 hours a day. Sometimes it might take a little longer if we are dealing with attitude adjustments (on both of our parts)
Comments
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Stacie
Wow, it does look like a lot, but when you break it down it doesn't seem so bad. Levi does better delving deeply into a few subjects, than he does doing a little bit of many things.
We don't follow a strict routine. We are very relaxed. When I started out I was very regimented, but it was stressful and wasn't good for mine and Levi's relationship.
