Our school schedual- what do yall think?
So we are back to homeschooling, or at least trying to get back into the swing of things. As I mentioned in a previous post, I started back on zoloft and it has been about a month. I have yet to get full relief this time, and I am hoping it is just a matter of time that I am back to feeling good and feeling like myself.
Anyway, I have big plans for this year and lots that I want to accomplish. I just need to stay on top of it because often I find myself really in it, to just find in a few months that we are just going through the motions. I want this year to stay fun, exciting, and with lots of hands on discoveries and projects.
One thing new that I am trying is the short lessons of the Charlotte Mason method, and so far it seems like we are accomplishing more than we ever have in such a short amount of time. It is quick, we both stay engaged, and then move onto th e next thing before either of us have tired of what we are doing. In fact for the first time we are leaving a lesson with Ansley still interested, still wanting to do more, and several times this week I have found her continuing the lessons on her own later in the afternoon while I thought she was playing. So I think this is definitly something we will stick with for the time being.
Subjects we are covering this year are History and Geography....we are alternating these...2 weeks on geo then 2 on history for example....Spelling, we are covering 1st and 2nd grade lists right now, but mostly this is an ease in subject as she has most of these words mastered already I am finding, but it is good review. I probably will start 3rd and 4th grade words with her midyear. She loves spellinga and desperatly wants to know how to spell everything when she writes, so this is one of her favs so far this year. We are doing math and reading of course, and science, along with grammer begginings and copywork....which we like much better than plain handwriting time. We will also be incorporating picture and artist study, art, music, and nature study as well as hand crafts etc that we find fun.
Anyway, our rough schedual for the week looks something like this, although we freely reserve the right to mix it up, leave things out, and just plain take the whole day off and head out into the tundra on the off chance we actually have a pretty day here LOL.
Monday
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress, start laundry etc.
9:30- Circle time
9:45- Spelling pretest- work on words not mastered
10:00- Reading Passage
10:15-Math
10:45- Science
11:15- Copy work/Grammar
11:30-Literature
12:00-Lunch
Rest time
Tuesday
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30- Circle time
9:45- Spelling review
10:00- Reading Passage
10:15-Geography/History story
10:45-Math
11: 15- Grammar/Copywork
11:30- Literature
12:00- Lunch
rest time
Wednesday-
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30-Circle time
9:45-Math
10:15-Reading passage
10:30- Science
10:45- Geography/History activity
Copywork if time
12:00- Lunch
Rest time
Thursday-
8:30-Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30-Circle time
9:45-spelling review
10:00- math
10:30-reading passage
10:45-Science
11:15-Copywork
11:30-picture study
11:45- Literature
12:00- Lunch
rest time
Friday- Float day....not much planned here...we can move a day that we missed due to whatever reason down to Friday...if we have not missed any days then our Friday schedule will look a little something like this...
8:30-wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30- Circle time
9:45- spelling test
10:00-literature
10:30- library time/errands
12:00-lunch
rest time
Anyway, there is the tentative schedule we have, as you can see our lesson times are fairly short, but one thing I noticed so far is that she likes the quick movement from topic to topic and she likes the fact that we are covering more things. She has so many things she wants us to learn about. After lunch we do whatever she wants...play, hike some trails, projects, baking, games, park time, etc. We also are trying to take nature walks at least once a week and are starting a nature notebook.
So tomorrow I hope to post the curriculum choices we have made.
Lots of love and happy homeschooling vibes to all.
Anyway, I have big plans for this year and lots that I want to accomplish. I just need to stay on top of it because often I find myself really in it, to just find in a few months that we are just going through the motions. I want this year to stay fun, exciting, and with lots of hands on discoveries and projects.
One thing new that I am trying is the short lessons of the Charlotte Mason method, and so far it seems like we are accomplishing more than we ever have in such a short amount of time. It is quick, we both stay engaged, and then move onto th e next thing before either of us have tired of what we are doing. In fact for the first time we are leaving a lesson with Ansley still interested, still wanting to do more, and several times this week I have found her continuing the lessons on her own later in the afternoon while I thought she was playing. So I think this is definitly something we will stick with for the time being.
Subjects we are covering this year are History and Geography....we are alternating these...2 weeks on geo then 2 on history for example....Spelling, we are covering 1st and 2nd grade lists right now, but mostly this is an ease in subject as she has most of these words mastered already I am finding, but it is good review. I probably will start 3rd and 4th grade words with her midyear. She loves spellinga and desperatly wants to know how to spell everything when she writes, so this is one of her favs so far this year. We are doing math and reading of course, and science, along with grammer begginings and copywork....which we like much better than plain handwriting time. We will also be incorporating picture and artist study, art, music, and nature study as well as hand crafts etc that we find fun.
Anyway, our rough schedual for the week looks something like this, although we freely reserve the right to mix it up, leave things out, and just plain take the whole day off and head out into the tundra on the off chance we actually have a pretty day here LOL.
Monday
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress, start laundry etc.
9:30- Circle time
9:45- Spelling pretest- work on words not mastered
10:00- Reading Passage
10:15-Math
10:45- Science
11:15- Copy work/Grammar
11:30-Literature
12:00-Lunch
Rest time
Tuesday
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30- Circle time
9:45- Spelling review
10:00- Reading Passage
10:15-Geography/History story
10:45-Math
11: 15- Grammar/Copywork
11:30- Literature
12:00- Lunch
rest time
Wednesday-
8:30- Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30-Circle time
9:45-Math
10:15-Reading passage
10:30- Science
10:45- Geography/History activity
Copywork if time
12:00- Lunch
Rest time
Thursday-
8:30-Wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30-Circle time
9:45-spelling review
10:00- math
10:30-reading passage
10:45-Science
11:15-Copywork
11:30-picture study
11:45- Literature
12:00- Lunch
rest time
Friday- Float day....not much planned here...we can move a day that we missed due to whatever reason down to Friday...if we have not missed any days then our Friday schedule will look a little something like this...
8:30-wake up, breakfast, dress
9:30- Circle time
9:45- spelling test
10:00-literature
10:30- library time/errands
12:00-lunch
rest time
Anyway, there is the tentative schedule we have, as you can see our lesson times are fairly short, but one thing I noticed so far is that she likes the quick movement from topic to topic and she likes the fact that we are covering more things. She has so many things she wants us to learn about. After lunch we do whatever she wants...play, hike some trails, projects, baking, games, park time, etc. We also are trying to take nature walks at least once a week and are starting a nature notebook.
So tomorrow I hope to post the curriculum choices we have made.
Lots of love and happy homeschooling vibes to all.
Comments
Copywork and Dictation are my favorite writing exercises.
Aidan loves spelling too. We play "Can you spell this?" A LOT. Our new game to play is a mock spelling bee. She gets really competitive with it though.
You are much braver than I when it comes to grade level. I feel so squirmy inside already when I tell people she's in 1st. I don't even want to imagine people's reactions if I said she's in 2nd or 3rd. It's much easier for me to just stick with a grade level for a years time regardless of what level she's working on. I figure I'll work it out later and skip levels when she's older. I also must admit to holding back on her with newer stuff. Again, I'm not brave enough to let her go quite at her speed.
I get what you mean about being across the board.
In math, Aidan is firmly in 2nd (which is why I'm confident she'll be finished with 1st by Xmas LOL).
Spelling is hard to place because she spells a lot of hard words that are for older kids but in general... maybe 3rd?
Writing she's in 2nd/3rd. (comparing her to my 3rd grade niece)
Language, reading, etc... 5th grade and going.
Isn't it hard to place them specifically? To me, it seems that the grade levels of Elementary students are pretty much the same. The distinction is very difficult to see sometimes. Take math, for example. Much of it is repeating what they previously learned. So, if our girls learn it the first time... does that mean they are middle school?
Sorry for such a long, rambling comment
I don't ever tell anyone our grade level LOL, because I can just imagine the looks although there are some people in real life here that know what she is doing, but not many. I don't talk about it much. And so far since Ansley should just be entering Pre-K here, most people just ask if she is in Preschool and we say we are homeschooling...end of story. I am not sure how we will handle it in a year or two when people start asking what grade she is in...but we will figure that one out when we get there I guess.
It definitly is so hard to place them....I tested Ansley today and her reading level is high 6th, low 7th grade. I was shocked. I knew she was reading way ahead of where she was 6 months ago but man, I didn't think we were there LOL.
I am so glad we can talk about our girls here. Good luck this year :)