What We Really Did

Posted November 5th, 2007 by Jen in education, family life

It’s always a little nerve-wracking to post a schedule, proclaim a goal, or shout out to all of blog-land what you intend to do. Because then you have invited accountability of sorts. What if someone asks me about what I said I was going to do? And what if I didn’t do it? Then do I look like a loser or a liar?

I did post a schedule for our homeschool, and I know that doesn’t make me answerable to you, gentle reader, but I will follow up. There’s a certain amount of accountability I need to function well, to stay disciplined, to maintain the course. Like I said in that post, I was feeling overwhelmed with inability and disorganization, and writing out our homeschool schedule - and posting it - was just the framework I needed to lock down on myself.

Now I get to tell you that writing out a rigid schedule doesn’t mean you have to be chained to it. Let it act as a mere suggestion on the days you don’t need it because all is well; let it serve as the guiding principle when your objectives have become dim; or demand that it be the strictest procedure when reigning chaos requires order.

I have the first few months of school behind me, and I can say that our schedule has been somewhere between a strict procedure and a guiding principle. I’d like to tell about what we really did mostly for those who are freaked out about their ability to homeschool. A comment I hear fairly often from non-homeschoolers is this: I could never do it because… I’m just not organized enough, I don’t have enough patience, I’m not smart enough…and so on. You’ll see following that there is, and arguably should be, a lot of room for flexibility.

Here’s what was in the planner, with what we really did on one particular day below each subject entry:

9:00 Math: Ray’s New Arithmetics

First of all, at 9:00 a.m. we weren’t doing math. We did art first, only because one of the kids had gotten into the paints and art supplies, and while I was making breakfast and otherwise busy with dishes, they all went wild with painting. This lasted for an hour.

We actually used our Singapore Math workbooks all week, because the kids still hadn’t finished them up from last year. So, we’ll continue Singapore. We also played with Cuisenaire rods.

The little ones (3 and 4 years old) sat with Grandma during math. Mulit-age teaching is possible and a beautiful thing, even if hectic at times. Grandmas sure come in handy right about now! In this photo, Grandma was telling little L. that he was building the arched entry way into Pine Grove Park, and creating little floats for the parade. Grandma was in a distant time some 60 or 70 years ago, and recalled with great detail the beautiful parade floats from her hometown of Port Huron, Michigan.

“Mama, look at my pretty float on the St. Clair River,” says little L., pridefully pointing a chubby finger at his stack of Cuisenaire rods.

9:30 Spelling: Spelling Workout, Modern Curriculum Press

On Monday, we didn’t use the workbooks at all. Somehow, my oldest (8 yrs) got it in his head that he wanted to write a letter to Santa. We don’t even promote Santa around here, but enough friends and family do that the kiddos are well aware of the jolly red suit. So, that’s what we did. Here’s the beginning of my son’s letter:

He told me that when he grows up he will move to the Aleutian Islands so he can have a Swedish Elkhound - in case you can’t read the last part of what he wrote, he asked Santa for a Swedish Elkhound. He poured through a dog encyclopedia, and after reading all the various characteristics, picked out that exact canine. Friendly. Alert. Can possibly pull him all over Alaska in a sled.

Naturally, my 6 year old daughter wanted to ditch the spelling book and likewise write a letter to Santa. I had to be fair. She drew more pictures than actually writing words, but for both of the kids, we did spend time working on how to spell the words they wanted to use.

The rest of the week we did use our Spelling Workout books. My son finished his on Friday, and will move to Level C.

9:30 Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

While the older kids wrote their letters, I worked with my 4 year old on her reading lesson.

10:00 Language Arts: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise.

By the way, it’s really not 10:00. More like 11:30, but who’s keeping track? We memorized a new poem, went over the definition of a noun for the hundredth time, talked about common/proper nouns and wrote the names of some relatives. Took all of 10 minutes. I DO NOT need 1/2 hour at this point on First Language Lessons. I think I’ll cut this section to 15 minutes. However, if I combine two lessons, as I did a few times this week, I’ll use the whole 1/2 hour.

Multi-age note: the 6 and 8 year olds both do generally the same work. They memorize the same poems and are together learning the grammar techniques. Their written work will obviously differ, but it’s been effective to teach them simultaneously. The 3 and 4 year olds participate by memorizing the poems. Yes, a three year old can memorize “The Caterpillar” by Christina G. Rosetti with ease!

10:30 History: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, by Susan Wise Bauer.

We pretty much follow the program here. The kids love history time more than any other subject, mostly because of the great storytelling by Susan Wise Bauer. Chapter 15, The Phoenicians - the kids listened as I read about Phoenician traders and settlements, they did some map work, and then colored a picture of a great Phoenician sailing vessel. The children contemplated boiling snails to make the purple dye that the Phoenicians were famous for.

11:00 French

I read aloud La Chatte Perdue, Les aventures avec Nicolas. It’s a cute story from the Berlitz publishers about a missing cat, and we practiced some basic vocabulary and phrases. Ou est Princesse? Je ne sais pas.

11:30 Science

We read aloud from our Special Wonders of our Feathered Friends book. We learned about the Arctic Tern, and the kids drew pictures of this amazing migratory bird.

12:00 Art/Music

Well, we already covered art at the beginning of the day, so we’re done!

Formal schooling for the day is done. Next, we ate lunch and had a clean up time. Now the three year old needs his nap, and the rest of the children have a quiet time for 1 1/2 hours. I’m busy on the computer, catching up with the business, maybe a little blogging.

Once afternoon naps and/or quiet time is complete, we head over to the office for about an hour. I pack up orders for the day while the kids play with projects they’ve brought with them. Today it’s gluing beans onto cardstock, making interesting designs.

Back home, it’s time for dinner, clean up, storytime, and bed. There you have it, a day in the life of a homeschool family. Of course, no two days are ever the same, but you get the flavor.

Speaking of flavor, my six year old just brought me a cup of something that she made. “Here Mom, it’s a banana shake I made for you! It has cinnamon, milk, yogurt, mashed up bananas, and that’s it - it’s a simple recipe!”