The mornings are getting cooler. Dark is starting to set in earlier. Harvest is in full swing. You know what that means, don't you? School!
The first day of school is fast approaching. After almost two months of lazy, hazy days of summer, I am looking forward to some learnin'. I am itching to get back into a state of routine. I am a girl who likes her routine. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed these helter--skelter days, but routine is good. Very good.
I have been thinking about what school is going to look like for us in the fall. I will be having a third grader, a first grader and a pre-schooler this year. In TJED talk that translates into one child in the Love of Learning Phase and two in the Core Phase. I have talked quite a bit about how our days flow, but I am going to do it again because there will be some changes this year.
Mia is 8 now. Technically she is in the Love of Learning Phase. She isn't quite there yet, but I can see glimmers of it starting to blossom in her learning time. I want to take this year to gently lead her into a more independent way of learning. I want to mentor her in how to be better organized in her day--how to plan her studies and her interests. So this will be how it all plays out (at least in my mind.)
The beginning of our mornings will still be reserved for cleaning up the house as a team. I will begin to give Mia more advanced jobs to do and I will train her in how I want those jobs done. After the cleaning up is done, we will meet together for Bible reading and praise singing. At this time, we will talk about our day. I will let Rocky orally plan what he would like to do during his learning time. He can choose three things. If he doesn't get them done, that is fine but I still want him to plan. Mia will do the same thing but her choices will be put in a day planner where she will have the visual of her choices. Once this is done, Rocky and Missy can chose various acitivities.
I will then spend time with Mia. We will begin with our read aloud and we will discuss this informally. I am not good at the discussing thing. I am a thinker, not a writer nor a talker. So this will be a stretch for me. But I want my children to be able to discuss their ideas and their feelings about the various genres of literature. So we will take this time to talk about genres and literary elements. Again, this will be an informal discussion, there will be no note taking nor chart making...just talking. We will then do math and one other subject. This year we are doing Memoria Press' Greek Myths. Mia is loving this, so I think we will be doing this every day by her choice. After the 'requireds' are taken care of (Note: I just want to make clear that even though I love TJED, we are not purists. We mix'n'match our philosophies. We do have some 'requireds' even though that is not part of the TJED philosophy.) then Mia is able to spend the rest of her morning doing what interests her. I recently purchased some lapbooks and unit studies from Homeschool e-store. I told Mia about them and she has expressed an interest in the Mythological Creatures lapbook that we have. So if she so desires, she can work on this at this time for the month of Sept.
Now comes Rocky's turn. We will have our read aloud and then it will be reading and writing for Rocky. He is having a struggle in this area, so we are making it a required for him. Then Rocky can have some Mommy time with playing games or anything of his choice. Then it is MIa's turn. We will read some books and do some math and reading games.
Before you know it, it will be lunch time. After lunch, will be play time for the kids followed by quiet time. It is at this time that the kids go to their own rooms and play quietly or read books. After quiet time, we will spend time together reading and playing games, maybe doing some cooking, craft or nature acitivities. Whatever they would like to do. It is at this time that Mia will write in her journal. I would like her to write about one thing that she learned during that day. This will be the beginning of teaching her how to write a paper. This will be a slow process but a very important one, in my opinion.
Before supper, we will merge together as a team again and do some quick tidying up around the house. After supper, we will have our family read aloud, then it will be bed time.
Looking this over, I am struck at how perfect this seems. Maybe too perfect. But I do know it works because we have been living this way for almost five months. Five months of peaceful learning. I am so ready for this to start up again.