Today I am starting a series of homeschool posts called, "What We Do For...", giving you a glimpse into what our school days look like...one subject at a time.
I guess when talking about anything, it's always best to start at the beginning, so above is a copy of this week's school schedule. I have been making up this type of schedule for probably about 8 years now. One page per week. This year (and it is rather hard to tell from this photo), I have the courses that the girls do together in purple type, the courses that Amber (Bookworm) does in pink, and Anna's (Ladybug) is in blue. I diligently make out this schedule every weekend for the following week and the girls check off each subject as they complete their assignment. The girls take turns picking out what the color pencil of the day will be. :) You will also note that I don't have blocks of time assigned for each lesson. For some, writing out the times works; for us it doesn't as it tends to stress us out and we become more of a slave to the schedule. Just know that currently on a perfect day (wink), we start school at 8:30 a.m. and finish around 2:30 p.m. This allows for a long lunch & some breaks when needed and I hope that in a couple of weeks, as we get more acclimated to getting into the routine again, the school day may shorten a bit. Then after the school year is complete, I file this sheets along with some samples of what each girl does - just in case I ever have to show our work.
So, the first subject you will see on the schedule is BIBLE.
We put Bible first, so should the day fall apart, at least the most important subject was covered. So here is how it would look:
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We first begin with prayer and Bible reading. We are currently going through The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order as recommended by Robin Sampson in the Heart of Wisdom teaching approach. We only do this on school days, so it is taking us over a year, but may finish our first time through before Christmas. I haven't decided yet whether we will start going through it again when we reach the end or if we will just take turns reading from our own Bibles. Usually, I read the daily portion of scripture while we are sitting in the family room, the girls listening quietly while working on some of their handiwork (sewing). Sometimes one of the girls asks to read. Also note, the girls each have their own personal devotions each morning as a part of their morning getting-ready routine (both girls prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior at the age of 5 1/2).
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Next we read through in unison our memory verses for the month. This month we are memorizing I Corinthians 13 (all 13 verses). I had found in the Christian high school I attended that if you just audibly read through a good portion of scripture every school day, by the end of the month, you have it memorized with basically no effort. Each month we will have a portion of scripture to memorize like this that will either relate to the character quality we are studying, or to the month it is (ie. Luke 2: 1-14 for December).
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Then we do Character Study. This month is "Love". My main text is the Bible and The Power for True Success by Institute in Basic Life Principles. But I am also using The Narrow Way, from Pearables, and Building Christian Character by Blair Adams, as well as other material & articles I have on hand. I am not following any curriculum - just following as the Spirit leads. We have used a lot of different things in the past, this just happens to be what we are using this year. We don't take a long time to do this - just 5 or 10 minutes a day and we cover 1-2 character qualities a month (out of the 49 character qualities listed by ATI).
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Missions is next. Again, I don't use a curriculum for this either, but use my PrayerPoint prayer guide from Samaritan's Purse. The PrayerPoint features a different country each week; we locate the country on our big classroom wall map (good geography training) and I read the story in the prayer guide on Monday. Then on consecutive days, we point out the country each day (and review past countries) and I will give some highlights about that country from Operation World or other sources. This week is Ecuador and the Decision magazine by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also has a big article about Ecuador. Then we pray for the people of the featured country.
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Lastly, we sing a hymn. Each week the girls will pick out a different hymn, either from one of the Hymns for a Kid's Heart books or from a hymnal. This week is Holy, Holy, Holy. We will either play a tape/CD or they will plunk it out on the piano.
That covers our first subject! We also have family Bible Study time once or twice a week where daddy can join in. We are currently going through Grapevine Studies' "Biblical Feasts and Holy Days" and also trying to celebrate the feasts as they come throughout the year. I really like this study as it just gives Scripture -- not a lot of human commentary as most Bible studies. We also use A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays by Robin Sampson & Linda Pierce and Celebrate the Feasts by Martha Zimmerman, as well as a lot of good articles on the internet to supplement our learning.
We also began a Proverbs 31 girls Bible study a couple of years ago that we call Ruby Girls.
This may sound like a lot, but it really does go fast, and besides, we are currently not invovled in Sunday School or a typical Wednesday night church program as many are (we were involved in AWANA for many years). We have found many of the local church programs more of a social club and light on Bible teaching - with children picking up more bad traits from their peers than good, so we have chose to just attend Sunday morning service at this time without other activites except kid's choir for Ladybug.
So there you have what we do for Bible. Next time I will journal about our Opening Time (yes, after Bible) & Vocabulary.
Blessings, Jane
This post is linked to my dear friend Mary. If you would like to join us for Show & Tell Friday, please click here for details - we'd love to have you! |
Training Hearts 
