My day...

Wake up (must start there :)

Morning Devotional... Which includes.

1. Opening prayer

2. Reading in The Children's Friend (LDS Church magazine intended for children, wonderful way to teach values with new interesting stories, the kiddos love it)

3. Reading a part of proverbs (This is where DH asked me to start, lots of great one liners, if you can filter through all the other stuff.)

4. Working on our memorization poem. We are memorizing poems form this book right now. http://www.ldfr.com/catalog/detail/poems/1

5. Writing down or drawing (depending on age) at least one thing they are thankful for.

6. Writing down/ drawing one thing they like about the spotlight family member of the day.

7. Writing down/ drawing one thing they can share that day.

8. Working on the primary song we are learning, and singing and reviewing all the other primary songs we have learned, as long as is enjoyable.

9. Reviewing the daily calendar.

10. Reviewing the chore pay stubs.

11. All of the above, or mix and match the options as we feel the need.

2nd Breakfast (like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. We call it 2nd breakfast because most likely the kids woke up before me and already ate first. :) My newest goal is to wake up before them and do one batch of dishes and laundry. But that has not been our standard.

1 hour cleaning time. Everyone MUST work for one hour, and you get paid for the jobs you get done. The faster you work the more you get paid.

1 hour personal improvement - I.E. Shower, Get dressed, Read a book, write in your journal. Etc. Works allot like cleaning time. We are paying for activity in this category at this time, but are open to the idea of revising this in the future.

If no other homeschool groups activities or family/friend activities are scheduled for the day then we have time for circle time.

1. Learn the interesting factoid of the day.. normally done by themes. I.E. flash cards with large pictures of interesting items on the front and interesting facts on the back, every one picks one or two cards to read for the day.

2. Learn the themes song or poem (themes like birds, insects, states etc.).

3. Memorization flash cards flipped through in a Glen Doman fast way. memorizing things like home phone number, math problems, and reading/spelling words.

4. Interactive play like games, floor numbers line, Drum talk, rhythm band play, Clock games, any learning games.

5. Question of the day. Where we write down questions about the world that the kids wonder about and pick one for Eva to help me research the answer during study.

6. Math Manipulative play, done at the kitchen table, lots of little pieces, and maybe work book sheets to match. Play as long as child is interested.

7. Any other fun learning idea we may have pop up and enjoy.

8. All of the above, or mix and match the options as we feel the need.

We eat lunch about now, maybe earlier, depending...

If everyone is still in a good mood, and scheduled events are not pressing on our time then we start into our traditional schooling.

Study time. This is where we follow an actual educational program...

1. Reading in McGuffey's Readers, one on one with mother. Or other reading series depending on child's interest level. We also have a reading program I wrote, or Bob books, or the God is Good series, or Dick and Jane or actually 3-4 other reading/ learning series that we rotate through to keep up the interest level.

2. Working on McGuffey's Eclectic spellers. Doing Active/repetitious spelling activities. It has been shown that repetitious movement while learning to spell can help with the brain retention and with the child's attention span. Anyone seen Akeelah and the Bee, remember how she learned to spell jump roping? I have funny balance boards, twist boards, bouncing balls, we move on. Or we pass a ball around and spell as we pass. Things like this.

3. Working on Ray's Arithmetic verbal math problems.

4. Working on various worksheets or work books of the child's selection. I have a nice selection I buy and each child gets to choose the workbook and the worksheet they want to do. They cover the three R's and other interesting subjects like geography.

5. Copying a poem we are memorizing as beautiful as possible for presentation. Or writing in Journals or writing a letter or card for a family member or writing a shopping list etc.

6. Working on creative writing of stories. Poems, etc.

7. Doing the research for the circle time question.

8. All of the above, or mix and match the options as we feel the need.

Free time for the kiddos and me... Kiddos can play with friends if the toy room is clean. Kiddos can watch a movie if it is dark outside and their bedroom is clean. Maybe I clean some more. Maybe I work on a project. Maybe I get some Internet time. Depending.

Dinner time with Papa

Family Classic reading time – Papa reads out loud from the classic of choice. Right now we are reading mostly from the BOM but we have read so many wonderful books like the entire Narnia series and the entire Little House on The Prairie series.

Family Prayer

Get ready for bed.

Bedtime Story – If the kiddos are having a hard time sleeping then I will read them a story out of the classic I am reading to them. Right now I am reading The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens. http://www.amazon.com/Life-Our-Lord-Written-Children/dp/0684865378

Or Eva will read to them from the book of her choice. Right now her favorite is “Three short stories you can read to your cat.” I am not sure it helps them go to sleep at all because they are all rolling laughing throughout it. But I love it because it helps Eva get good reading practice.

Or the kids will read the books of their selection, under their bed light, to themselves.

Hopefully the kiddos will sleep :)

I then get my precious much anticipated personal study time and Internet time, uninterrupted, hopefully if they are asleep. If I do not schedule this time in then I find that when it is time to sleep I can not sleep (like now) and I end up spending my sleep time studying.

I realized that in “Schooling all the time” fashion (maybe unschooling) my family has over a dozen learning patterns that we pop in and out of throughout the day depending on interest level. Maybe in the future I will have time to write them down.

That is the basic pattern we flow in and out of throughout the day.

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