How we do it {school}

This is how we do school (with some more detail)……

We head to our school building about 9am, after chores, breakfast, and devotion (Our 24 Family Ways).  Sometimes it is 9, sometimes 8:30, sometimes, when Dad is cutting down a tree it is a bit later…..

(the beauty of homeschooling)

We always start with Math – not sure why, but we have always done this and it works for us.

So, each student gets their math and starts.  Since we use Math U See and I have 4 working with the videos, I think I am going to have my boys watch their video on Sunday so on Monday, Ally is the only one who needs the computer to watch her video. 

On Monday we start a Math U See Chapter – they do 2 pages per day and take a test on the 4th day.  This works for our 4 days of schooling.  I am having J move a little quicker (when he can), since he should be in the next book and he is 1/2 way through this one.  My plan is for him to complete 2 books this year.

After math, they do their handwriting.  The younger 2 copy 2 verses I have written out and put into a document protector.  I wrote down 5.  The first week they copy 1 & 2, the next 4 & 5 and 3 gets thrown in randomly.  The older 2 write 3 or more at a time. 

When they finish that, everyone should be done with math and copy work.  The older boys go read their Year 4 stuff when they are done.  I usually have the younger ones just stay at the table and wait – we are usually waiting on one of them.  Occasionally I let them take a trampoline break (5 min) or play, but less play – it is hard to pull them back.  The trampoline is great to give their brains a break and work their muscles too!

(3-5 minutes) After all of that is done, we read poetry with the whole gang.  I read a Year 4 poem (right now Tennyson) and a Year 1 poem (Robert Louis Stevenson).  They all sit with their heads down & eyes closed for that.  Then we might talk about it, might not.  Very laid back.

After that we read something together.  This year since the big boys are good readers and they are keeping up wonderfully reading most on their own, they choose to sit with us as we do Year 1 – even though they did all these readings about 3 years ago.  They love to listen. 

(15-20 minutes) We try to read one or two things a day for Year 1 – maybe Our Island Story, 50 Famous Stories, Aesop, or Burgess Bird Book, or our very favorite Paddle to the Sea.

(10 minutes) After that, we do Latin – together.  We make notecards for each word on Mondays.  Then, on Tuesday we do the notebooking page for each word (to reinforce).  On Wednesday we do a new word with notecards, and Thursday we do the notebooking page.  Right now, when we do our notecard, I try to review all the words we already did. 

Depending on the day, then we do science (Apologia Botany) or we do geography (Map Drills or notebooking pages).

(15-20 minutes) We do this together, I made notebooks for Botany.  The notebooks vary by age and for the younger ones just a little writing, some drawing and coloring.  For the older boys, they have more writing, and some drawing.  They all love the notebooks – keeps their hands busy while we read and talk.  We try to get out and look at real botany too when we do this.  [This changes it up, by running out, getting a few leaves, and then coming back in to talk details]

(10 minutes) For Geography, we have notebooking pages where they write the state, the capitol, the bird, flower and tree and then an interesting fact.  They each take turns picking states.  Then P (my 4th grader) finds his geography atlas book for kids and reads all the info to us.  We record it and put it with the others.  I try to do 2 a week, so that we can do all 50 this year.  Some weeks we do 1, some none.  Then, when we do our map drill, the kids then know more states since we add some every week. 

We try to talk about these at lunch too, and I try to keep my US placemats out so they can drill each other (natural competitive natures) while waiting to eat or while eating.  Keeps it fresh in their minds.

That is what a normal day looks like.  The big boys are starting daily writing assignments too – from a box of Writing Prompts.  They do this when they want, but before we are done.   I might be leaving something out.  We do not follow a “by the clock” schedule.  I write everything we need to do for the week on a big white (dry erase) board and as we complete it we erase – by Thursday it is pretty blank.  I usually write our state (s) for the week up there too so we see them more often.

We finish by lunch time, which may be 12:30 on a long day.  After lunch we have quiet time, everyone reads “their” book.  I get to read, work on something else, or blog.  After that, it is free play outside – climbing trees, walking the dog, more trampoline time, etc.  I think it works out to be a pretty good deal for our kids!