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Mar. 4, 2009

A Typical Monday

Posted in Homeschooling
I get asked a lot about what a "typical" day is like for us.  I have a hard time really answering that question because every day is so different!  There is no real "typical" day!  But then again, if I think about it, we do have "typical" weeks. 

So I thought I'd write a little bit about what each day is like for us.  I'll start with Monday, since it's (duh) the first day of our week.

Monday, like every day, I try to get up by 8:30AM and go down to the kitchen to "get ready".  I should make my breakfast and eat it before the kids get up, but for some reason, I am never in the mood for that.  I do start making my coffee or tea.  I'm serious about my coffee and tea, so this whole thing is a bit of a production--from the grinding of the beans to the assembly of the vacuum coffee press.  By 8:45A, K's alarm goes off and I start yelling up the stairs for the girls to come down.  They are supposed to be down and eating breakfast by the time I come back from walking the dog, which is around 9:15A. 

By 9:30A, the girls are all at their desks in the homeschool room.  They are allowed to be in their pjs (they always are) and are not required to have their teeth brushed, nor hair done, and they don't even have to have their breakfasts eaten.  They all have independent seatwork to do.  On Mondays, the girls all have to teach me the math that they learned last week, to ensure mastery.  This is a part of Math U See's philosophy.  So they all take turns "teaching" their math to me, one at a time.  The others stay at their desks and work on something else when the one is teaching me.  If they have taught it to me adequately, they get to proceed on to the IMac, where they watch their current week's math lesson on DVD.  They then go back to their desks to do Monday's math assignment. 

At their desks, they also work on their language arts workbooks, copywork (A), handwriting (A and L), and read their readers (K and A).  L is usually finished with her seatwork in about 20 minutes and gets her read aloud books and her reader and joins me on the couch.  The older girls continue their independent work.

FQ usually is running around playing with his toys but he joins me and L. on the couch with his "school books" as he calls them.  I read L's books to her, and then she reads her reader to me.  I also read a few books to FQ.  It's usually around 10:30A by now and L is done for the day.  I send her upstairs to get dressed, brush her teeth, wash her face and do her hair.  FQ usually goes up with her and they find things to do to keep themselves amused.  They sometimes do some coloring or art work or just play with blocks or Legos or have a picnic.  They are really very cute when they play.  L sometimes does her Rosetta Stone at this time--she does 25 minutes on it, just like her sisters.

At around 11A, I summon the older girls to the kitchen table.  By this time, both girls will have done their seatwork.  We do the Bible, history and science readings together.  At noon, we are done and I send the girls upstairs to get dressed, brush teeth and hair and wash up. 

We're done with lunch by 1P and K goes upstairs to do her 25 minutes of Rosetta Stone.  A. practices her piano, and we do her spelling.  By then, K is done and I send A. upstairs to do her RS while I work with K. on her spelling and read aloud.  At 2:10P, I send K upstairs get dressed for her private tennis lesson.  I take her to the courts by 2:30P.  She is there for an hour.

Back at home, I get afternoon snacks ready and read A's read aloud to her.  After this, she is done for the day.  We then all get in the car to pick K up at 3:30P. 

From 3:45P-4:10P, K finishes up anything she hasn't done and has her snack.  Then at 4:10P I drive K to her gym practice, and she's there until 7:30P.  We get back home at around 5P and get ready to have dinner.  We tie up loose ends at this time--L. practices her piano, and I do anything with A. that we didn't get to.  Usually though, A. works on her various creative writing projects--she writes stories for fun and has at least 5 or 6 filled notebooks full of stories.  L. also has a notebook she writes stories in, but she also likes to draw and do crafts.  I usually walk the dog again at this point.  The girls usually get into their night clothes at this time as well.

We eat dinner at around 5:45-6P.  At 7:10P, I pack K's dinner, along with her chocolate milk.  She drinks her milk first and then eats her dinner in the car.  We're home by 8P usually and we start the night snack/dessert process.  LOL  They also get vitamins at this time.  By 8:30P, everyone is upstairs for brushing teeth and face and going to bed.  Ideally, lights are out by 9P.

Whew!  And that was Monday!  Monday is a not-so-busy day for us!!!  Now, I'm describing what I do when F. is not home to help us.  He's home to help us at least a third of the time.  So he usually helps out with either the readings or sometimes the driving around.  He helps with getting dinner, playing with FQ, and sometimes he takes both L and FQ out to the park.  He's really a gem.  I tell everyone he's my homeschool secret weapon!!!


Well, that is it!  I hope you all enjoyed seeing a slice of our life.  Okay, next time, Tuesday!

Blessings,
A.H.
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Sep. 27, 2008

Week 5, 9/22/08, learning from last week

Posted in Homeschooling
One big lesson to learn when homeschooling--reevaluate every year.  Many times, things that worked so magically one year will flop terribly the next.  Up until now, I had a very loose schedule for the girls.  Sunday night I would write out all their assignments for the week in their assignment books.  During the week, I would designate a time (usually a different time each day) during which we would do our readings together.  Outside of that, they had free reign to get all their assignments done.  Then, of course, we had all of our extracurricular activities and classes. 

This worked very well last year.  Everything seemed to be in cruise control.  But it seemed to crash last week!

While we eventually got everything done, it was a lot harder!  The free time seemed to hurt K., who usually dislikes having a strict schedule.  Toward the end of the week, she was asking me if I could put together a schedule for her that would account for all of her free hours. 

And so I did just that.  I made a schedule for myself and both the older girls, accounting for every 30 minutes.  It's a full schedule, but at the same time, I have designated a lot of 30 minute time slots for just catching up.  I also have schedule in "car schooling" times, where they are to read their readers in the car or work on their memory verses in the car. 

It worked fantastically this week!  We got everything done and were a lot more focused.  We'll be keeping this very focused schedule for a while--it has really taken the stress out of our days!

Here is a sample of one of K's days (she's 9 years old):

9:00AM--Math, memory verse
9:30AM--Vocabulary, grammar
10AM--readings with Mom (Bible study, history, and read alouds)
11AM--science with Mom (including doing our experiments)
12P--Lunch (with all the family!)
12:30P--read her reader
1:00P--spelling, dictation
1:30P--piano
2:00P--Latin
2:30P--snack, pack for gym class
3:00P--Rosetta Stone Spanish (on the computer)
3:30P--catch up time
4:30P--Gym class

And one of A.'s days (she's 7 years old):
9AM--Math, memory verse
9:30--Vocab, advanced phonics, handwriting
10A--readings with Mom
11A--science with Mom
12P--lunch
12:30P--read reader
1P--piano
1:30P--discuss reader with Mom
2P--Rosetta Stone Spanish
2:30P--snack
3P--read aloud with Mom
3:30P--spelling
evening--catch up read aloud with Mom

And here is mine:
9A--read to FQ
9:30A--read to L.
10-noon--readings and science with older girls
12P--lunch
12:30P--rest!
1P--spelling and dictation with K
1:30--discuss reader with A
2P--Latin with K
2:30--snack
3P--read aloud with A
3:30P--spelling with A
4P--drive K to gym, dragging all her siblings along!
4:30P--drive back home, get dinner ready
5P--dinner
6:30P--catch up read aloud with A if needed
7P--drive back to gym to pick up K, dragging siblings along
7:30P--drive back home
8P--kids' night snacks, vitamins, get ready for bed
8:45P--bedtime!!!  for the kids
9P--shower, Bible study, exercise and possibly cook, and hanging out with the hubby
12:30A--this should be my bedtime but I go to bed much later sometimes.  It's bad. 

You should see my ICal calendars!  I have color coded calendars for A. too, and for myself.  Also I have a calendar for Daddy's work schedule.  It's a rainbow of calendars, but it is working marvelously.  I keep track of all of this with my lovely new Ipod Touch (thank you Aunt J!!!). 

God bless,
A.H.
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Aug. 16, 2008

Homeschooling??? Why we chose to homeschool

Posted in Homeschooling
I admit I never in a million years thought we would homeschool our children.  We lived within walking distance of a classical Christian private school and I had dreams of walking our children down the sidewalk, clad in their cute little navy blue plaid uniforms, complete with the saddle shoes and navy blue ribbon in their ponytails. 

Homeschooling was a weird idea to me, conjuring up visions of...of...well, of nothing.  I had never met a homeschooler at that point in my life and knew nearly nothing about homeschooling.  It just was weird and maybe it was weird to me because I knew nothing about it. 

But somehow I came across The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and I read it all in one sitting.  Or nearly one sitting.  And it opened up a new world to me.  I had thought homeschooling was for those who didn't really care about academics, that the texts and books used by homeschoolers were sub-par.  This book proved me completely wrong.  Susan Wise Bauer, who was homeschooled herself, has quite a resume, as do these folks. 

So the seed was planted.  I thought about it and prayed about it.  I went to the Open House hosted by the classical Christian school down the street and somehow the school just wasn't appealing to me the way it was before.  Maybe I looked too long at their tuition prices:  $7, 700 per year for kindergarten, which included a half day and lots of arts and crafts.  Arts and crafts are nice...but I think I can do that for less than nearly $8K.  And that was just kinder--prices went up every grade.  It hit me that by the end of 12 years of classical Christian private school, we would be too broke to send our kids to college. 

And so I went back to the homeschooling idea.  Someone sent told me about Sonlight.  I got their catalog in the mail.  And a grand idea hit me square in the nose.  K. at that time was only 2 years old.  I could home-pre-school her!  If I messed up, well, I could just send her to kindergarten and no one would know!

We started when she turned 3--just reading aloud and playing with wooden letters.  A few months later she was reading 3 letter words.  By the time she was 4, she was reading first grade readers.  I guess she doesn't need to go to kindergarten. 

Quite by mistake, I had turned into a weird homeschooler.  I love being weird.

God bless,
A.H.
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Jul. 30, 2008

Schedules, schedules, schedules

Posted in Homeschooling
Every time I hear a homeschooler get upset about being "behind" in her schedule, I say, "hey--you're homeschooling!  You make the schedule and you're always on time!" 

And I do believe that, with all my heart.  But sometimes, I have to remind myself that I believe it.  I'm a type A person and it's hard sometimes to be finishing after our local public schools.

I have been working out our schedule for next year and what with all of our vacations and things, we'll probably be finished with Core 4 mid June 2009.  I was hoping to be done before summer. 

What do I care?  Really.  What's a few weeks, months, even years when you're talking about a lifetime journey?  What's important in the journey itself, the time spent learning together, the great discussions, the fabulous books read shared.

So I will say it again and again, most of the time to myself more than anyone else.  Enjoy the journey, and don't look at the calendar.  It'll all get done....at some point or another!!! 

God bless,
AH
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About Me

HELLO!!! This blog is a place for us to publish some of our children's work and just to journal our amazing educational journey.

Recent Posts

• Weeks 34-36
• Week 33, May 11-15, 2009
• Week 32, May 4-8, 2009
• Week 31, April 27-May 1, 2009
• Writer's Circle for Weeks 26-33
• Week 18, Jan 11-16, 2009 • Week 19, Jan 19-23, 2009 • Week 20, Jan 26-30, 2009 • Week 21, Feb 2-6, 2009
• Week 22, Feb 9-13, 2009 • Writer's Circle, first week Jan 9, 2009 • Writer's Circle, 2nd week Jan 16, 2009 • Writer's Circle, Jan 23, 2009 • Writer's Circle, Jan 30, 2009 • Writers' Circle, 2/8/09
• Writers Circle, Feb 13, 2009 • Writer's Circle 2/20/09 and 2/27/09
• Writer's Circle, March 6, 2009 • A Typical Monday • Spring break, March, 2009--Jamaica, pt 1: incompetent airline agents • Spring Break, March 2009, Jamaica part 2, the actual trip!!

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