Posted in Spell to Write and Read
My Daily Schedule
Britta McColl
Endorsed SWR Trainer
|
Time |
Task |
|
8:00 |
Bible – mom or dad read aloud |
|
8:20 |
Bible – you read/memory work |
|
8:30 |
Sing-hymns/rounds/Latin songs |
|
8:40 |
Read aloud -kids draw in Nature Journal |
|
8:50 |
Copybook-Bible verse/Latin/ or poem |
|
8:55 |
Latin-Latina Christiana I |
|
9:00 |
Kids- Empty dishwasher and recess |
|
9:30 |
Math (MUS & RS Math) Scott/Linnea |
|
10:00 |
Spelling (SWR) Scott/Linnea |
|
10:30 |
History notebook Wed/Thurs-Ben/Bruce |
|
11:00 |
Spelling (SWR) Ben/Bruce |
|
11:30 |
Math-MUS Ben/Bruce |
|
Anytime in AM |
Silent Reading (History/ Science/ Literature) They
go off and read while I work with the others. |
|
Anytime |
McCall-Crabbs
Wed/Fri |
|
12:00 |
Lunch |
|
|
Lunch Clean-up |
|
1:00 |
Kids play in backyard or nature walk |
|
2:00 |
Silent
Reading (History/Science/ Literature) |
|
2:45 |
Practice Piano |
|
3:00 |
Run laps |
|
3:15 |
Typing Instructor-2 days a week |
|
3:30 |
Schools out--Play anything |
|
4:30 |
Children/Mom Clean Downstairs |
I am putting this schedule
up because a lot of people ask me about my schedule. I am not saying that this need be the schedule for your homeschool,
but just letting you know what is working well for us. Each family is different and we all
have a unique call from the Lord in our lives, so please set your own schedule
according to your call. But within
that call remember that children work well with a regular schedule. They know what to expect each day. By helping them regulate their life
now, you are giving them life long skills of getting up at a regular time and
completing regular tasks.
The times on this schedule
are approximate. We school 5 days a week but there are
only 4 squares for each child because that’s all the space we had. They mark each square like a tally mark
with four marks and then a slash across all 4 marks on Friday. We generally
wake up around 6:30 to 7:00 am and start school at 8:00 am each day. Sometimes we don’t get our morning work
done until about 1:00 PM or later and lunch is pushed back.
In the first hour of the
morning we cover many subjects with about 6 of the children ranging in ages 4
to 14 all at the kitchen table. If
you look closely, you will see that we cover Bible, music, art, Latin, and
science (nature study) all during this morning time of only one hour. We also have a before bedtime read
aloud which is not listed on this schedule. I choose from a variety of read alouds in the category of
missionary stories, biographies of great composers, literature, to nature and
science readings. Next fall we plan to read aloud Pilgrim’s Progress by
John Bunyan in the morning. Each
child will act/read an assigned part in the play. I also plan to add picture study, in the Charlotte Mason
fashion for the morning hour next fall.
This streamlined schedule
reflects our work in early fall and late spring. I have a lighter schedule during these times because I want
to be able to spend more time outdoors with the children. When it gets colder outside around mid
October we add on more subjects such as grammar (Beginning
Grammar Readers by Wanda Sanseri or Easy Grammar by W. Phillips) and Geography (Modern Curriculum Press, GeoSafari
etc.). In addition, the schedule
does not reflect the work my oldest high school age students are doing. They
have their own schedule and work that I help them with as needed. The written schedule reflects the work
of the children ages 4 to 10 at this writing who are still being taught with
SWR.
By the end of this year all
my kids (ages 6, 7, 9, and 10) doing SWR were up to 40 words per week. I review phonograms, dictate 10 new
words a day, do any called for chart work, and quiz on those same ten words plus
a few extra words immediately after the dictation. If there was a chart that day, select chart words appear on
the quiz. This means they get 10
new words Monday through Thursday, for a total of 40 new words each week. On Friday I give the test on the 40
words. In nice weather we
sometimes sit at a table in our backyard for spelling and I confess we watch
birds in between spelling words.
We are able to complete our
SWR work in about 30 minutes each day, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit
more. One time my 8 and 9 year-old
boys wanted to see how fast they could complete 10 words from dictation with a
10 words quiz. As they worked
their very hardest at their List M WISE words, I timed them, and they were able
to complete this task in only 11 minutes!
But on the average day-especially if we have some chart work, they
usually stretch out their SWR work into 30 minutes. I remember our first year with SWR. I had heard that some people could get
their SWR work done in only 20 minutes and I felt so discourage as our
SWR work often took 45 minutes
or more to complete. What
was I doing wrong? Nothing, really. It was just that learning this new system was taking us all
some time. I also learned to pace
our work better. In subsequent
years I would break up the Consonant-Vowel Reference Page into three days for my youngest learners. As the years have gone on my kids write
faster and they know the SWR system so well that they can reason through a
dictation much faster. So, if you
are that beginning mom and feeling discouraged, take heart! It does get quicker each month and
year. You are building a
foundation of stone that will last through the ages and enhance every subject area of study for your
children.
Q. What do my other children do while I am teaching
one group with SWR?
A. Play, read, or make something!
For example, when I am
working with Scott and Linnea, Ben and Bruce are either doing silent reading on
their own—usually in their room, or building legos, watching grasshoppers
hatch from their eggs in our backyard, doing a science experiment or making a
“paper world.” When I am working
with Ben and Bruce, Scott and Linnea are reading or building legos or making
something. In five minute snatches
of time I am also teaching Fiona, age 4, her phonograms and how to write
letters using large motor. For
more on this go to:
SWR and Preschoolers (And
non-reading beginners!!!)
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/74652/
SWR Cursive Sandpaper
Letters—New release!
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/310294/
How do we fit in
history, literature, and science?
I do some read alouds
(Apologia- Elementary makes great read alouds!), but mainly my children read
living books on their own in the subject areas of history, literature, and
science. My high school aged
students also have some traditional texts in science (Apologia, top choice!) All the children who are fluid readers
have two “silent reading times” in the morning and afternoon which they do
independently. Starting at about 2nd grade- 3rd grade on up all the children read at
least one living book of
novel length per week in the category of history, science, or literature. I make up each child’s book list in the
summer and they follow it through the year checking off each book they read as
they go along. In the afternoons I
snuggle up under the covers with the youngest kids who are not yet independent
readers and we “trade read” books together. I read a page, and then they read a paragraph or page
(depending on their ability.)
As you see, our schedule is
light in the afternoon allowing for plenty of time outdoors to play, gardening,
or going on a nature walk. I do
the main teaching in the morning and by afternoon the learning is informal or
the child learns by reading a book on their own, making something on their own,
or by helping me pack boxes or with a baking project or sewing project.
Whatever method you choose
to school your children with, I highly recommend that you provide them with a
corner stone of Bible and a heavy dose of “living books” for their reading as
well as time to explore their own interests. Children who are taught with SWR will have the skills to
read a wide range of books with ease.
As a result of being taught with SWR and surrounded by living books, my
children love to read and are self learners. They read outside of their required reading in their areas
of interest. My 9 year old does extra reading on the topic of horses and my 10
year old loves to read about bees or any kind of living creature. My 14 year
old is currently reading the unabridged version of BeoWulf and a Shakespeare
play (both unassigned) for fun! He has studied Greek and Latin, and wants to
study Italian next year. My oldest
son is about to graduate from homeschool and told me he wants to keep on
learning, and if I could provide him with some more books when he is done, he
would read them.
Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse!
The biggest
hindrance I see to success with SWR is not following the suggested schedule for
grade level on page 64 of SWR.
There is a chart that suggests 10 new words a week for Kindergarten, 20
new words a week for 1st grade, and 40 new words a week for 2nd
grade on up. Some people are at
their 3rd or 4th year with SWR and still at only 20 words
a week and their children are not spelling and/or reading well.
Some moms tell
me that their kids cannot handle 40 words a week. They are fussing at
this load. In this case I say, that the child needs to gradually be
built up to 40 words and
see that the mom will not waver on this. Once they get the idea that this
is "the program" they will follow along. I look at the building
up to 40 words as a type of physical conditioning. Naturally we can't
expect a child to run a mile without gradually conditioning up to it, but we
can practice little by little at a regular time each day and build this ability
to run far or "write 40 words a week."
I interact
with some of the most devoted moms who want to give their children the best
education. There are SO MANY
valuable things to teach our children, but in the course of choosing, I find
many hard working moms are getting ahead of themselves by teaching a foreign
language* or
detailed facts about history or science (at 2nd grade) long BEFORE
their children have mastered the English language. These other activities have
greatly reduced and modified their time at SWR. This is the "cart
before the horse" as I see it. Time spent doing SWR as it is laid
out will pay back 100 or 1000 fold! Yes, foreign languages and history and
science are very important, but if you build from a solid foundation (SWR),
these subjects will be more quickly taught at a slightly later date.
*A bit more about teaching foreign languages to
young learners. I would like to qualify that I mean to
avoid teaching the written form of a foreign language in a child’s youngest years. Naturally there is also a window of
opportunity for hearing and speaking a foreign language and by all means, please expose
your young learners (babies on up!) to the oral form of a second language if
you are easily able to do so. And
especially if you are a bilingual family—keep both spoken languages fresh
on the tongue! Simply wait a
few years until English is
mastered through the steps in SWR to introduce the written form of this second language.
For instance I am teaching
my youngest children (ages 4 on up) Latin through singing and we orally do the
Latin flash cards of Latin Christiana 1, but wait until the children have at
least a mastery of WISE S or above before they do any written work in
Latin. Since I am following the
suggested guidelines on page 64 of SWR, my children don’t have to wait long to
start the written form of a second language. Last year my 3rd and 4th grade boys
were able to start the written portion of Latin because they had a mastery of
List S in the WISE Guide.
Wanda Sanseri,
author of SWR, writes:
“Children have
a natural prime time when they can most easily master this material. The
longer you wait the harder it will be to teach, the more you will need to undo,
and the less likely it will become truly second nature. The
optimum window for implanting this type of thinking is small. Ideally
the student will master all the WISE words by fourth or fifth grade. This needs to take priority over a host
of other subjects that can be delayed with little damage. We recommend as
soon as possible teaching 40 new words a week. The dabblers decide that
10 or 20 words a week will do nicely. When someone tells us that
they have been doing the program for one, two, or three years but are not
seeing the progress, we can pin-point the reason why with one basic question.
"How far have you gotten in the program?" Consistently
they are way behind the recommended schedule. A little dab here and
there will not give you the results you crave. Please make SWR a
major educational priority. Teach this with
commitment, resolution, and joy. You will be glad that you
did.” (End of quote by Wanda
Sanseri.)
Q. When
should we start writing?
A. Day one! J
Your children are
writing when they complete their first phonogram with large motor. Expand this to writing their first word
“top” and then expand into sentences.
Do as much writing as possible as a part of their SWR work. When I scanned both the book SWR and
WISE Guide I found dozens of writing exercises. Since
these are a direct outgrowth of SWR you can maximize your efforts and improve
their mastery of the words in WISE.
I see a lot of people spending time and
money on writing programs for children who are behind in SWR. They may
have only a mastery of List J or K WISE Guide but will be spending an
additional 30-40 minutes a day on some detailed writing exercise.
This seems a
terrible waste of time and efforts to me. I'm not saying don't write at
all if you are only at list J or K. Yes, of course write sentences from
the WISE words (do the many enrichments on writing in WISE) and perhaps keep nature journal
or write a few sentences about a book you like, but I mean in the early years
go easy on major writing curricula that require a lot of time and money.
Nature Journal Bundle
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/339336/
Your efforts
would be better spent getting your child to a mastery level of a higher list in
the WISE Guide. Then they would have a larger pool of words to write from
with ease.
Laura Ingalls
Wilder in THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS didn't write her first composition
until she was 16 years old. She spent the previous years learning
reading, and writing, and arithmetic and her first composition was a great
success according to her teacher! And of course she went on to become a
famous author.
Now I wouldn't
go as extreme as waiting till a child is 16 to refine composition skills, but I
would certainly wait until they were quite high in the WISE Guide on
mastery. (I'm not sure I'd set a required level, but somewhere around
WISE Section R or S for mastery seems like a fair bench mark for a highly
demanding writing curriculum.)
I really like
the Charlotte Mason way of teaching composition (a natural outgrowth of reading
and narration) along with the recommendations at Step 33 of Spell to Write and Read. With these two combined and a
high mastery in WISE Guide you could save a lot of time and money, while
spending the early years most wisely in building spelling and reading skills
through regular work in SWR.
Again, each
family has a unique call and needs to prayerfully decide together how to
arrange the details of their schedule.
I couldn’t resist sharing a few of my observations and thoughts about
where to best place SWR in your children’s education.
Wishing you great joy in
your endeavors to train a generation of God seeking life long learners!
©Britta McColl
Morning Star Learning
Endorsed SWR Trainer
Mom to 7 exuberant children
I am continually growing
as a mom/teacher. Our school seems
to be a mix of Charlotte Mason and Classical at this time, with the heaviest
leaning toward Charlotte Mason.
Recommended reading:
A Charlotte Mason
Companion- Karen Andreola
Disclaimer: Though I love every other part of A
Charlotte Mason Companion, I do disagree with the Charlotte Mason method of
teaching spelling and reading!
Stick to SWR for these topics!
The Original Home
Schooling Series Charlotte M. Mason
Pocketful of Pinecones-Karen
Andreola
Real Learning by
Elizabeth Foss
For the Children’s
Sake- by Susan Schaeffer
Macaulay
Combining Charlotte Mason
with Classical Education methods
http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/methods.html
Visit: http://amblesideonline.org/WhatIsCM.shtml
Books
on a Classical Education:
Teaching the Trivium Bluedorn
Norms and Nobility: A
Treatise on Education by David Hicks
