Fall 2013 Schedule

I've had various blog ideas on my to-do list for several weeks now, but in the last week, I bumped all the ideas out into the "someday" section of my list.  Instead, on my current/active task list was this: "blog anything."  Completely fallen off any kind of writing routine, but I suppose that's to be expected now that school and various fall activities are back in full swing.  I generally do ok on the issue of blog comparison, but I've had to really stomp on some wandering thoughts lately as I see other homeschool bloggers still getting posts up while you only hear crickets here.  Loud crickets!

However!  We have managed to get a great school routine going, and despite the moments of irredeemable chaos (what, you don't have those??), I feel really good about our homeschool, and the kids are (mostly) positive about our lessons too.  I am finding contentment in our progress, even while continuing to try to raise the bar, and that is just about miraculous.

I'm going to show you what we aim at for our Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday plan, knowing full well that it pretty much NEVER happens this way.

daily schedule 2013 TWR


Notes on our schedule:

  • That column for Grant is just for show.  It gives the kids an idea of what he's doing when he's not home, but his schedule changes all the time.
  • Mondays are our CC Community Day, which means we meet to go over memory work and do science and fine arts projects together.  We also stay for lunch and social time, and then sometimes I can squeeze in an errand or two before we head home and start our rest time around 2:00pm.
  • My next door neighbor does child care in her home, and we are working out a trade so that she watches Charlotte for a few hours on some of our school mornings, and I help out with her kids whenever I can.  This is an incredible gift for me, as I can actually enjoy working with the older kids without holding off a left-out toddler with one arm or wondering if I'm going to find all the Legos in the garbage later.  Charlotte puts on a little backpack and one of the other kids walks her over to her "school."  She loves it.
  • Our Karate class is currently on Thursday afternoons at 4:15.  We have also started Cloverbuds, the K-3 division of 4H, and have projects in Cake Decorating, Lego Construction, and Survival Science that occur once a month on various Tuesdays and Fridays.
  • Fridays are our flex day.  We can catch up on work, or do extra reading.  I also plan these days for more involved fine arts or science or nature study, or whatever we are interested in that week but didn't have enough time earlier to pursue.  On the Fridays that we have 4H, we will also participate in a homeschool swim time at a local pool.  We also sometimes use this as a family day when Grant is working a weekend day.
  • Grant and I have some semi-regular evening things (book clubs, Bible study, etc) that are not on this schedule.  Also, I often go to a coffee shop early Saturday mornings, and stay for 4 or so hours to work on blogging, planning for home and school, and my own educational goals.  This is my sanity time.  I used to struggle with taking such a big chunk out of the weekend, but now I know this time benefits everyone through greater organization and a happier mom.
  • I really really try to keep the afternoon hours free from school work.  My kids are little and still need those long blocks of play time MUCH more than they need additional studies.
Any questions??  I'll probably think of something to add as soon as I hit publish, so I might as well get that part over with.  Coming to you from the local cafe. . .



Comments

Popular Posts