Out of the House Schedule

I like being at home. I'm a home birthing, homeschooling, stay-at-home mom. Still, I seem to be out of the house a lot these days. I was sharing with my mom about what we did last week and it sounded SO busy. I decided to make a little chart. It looks better on paper.

Green is morning activities, blue is afternoon activities, and red is evening activities. Basically we're on a 2 week rotating schedule. One busy week, one not-so-busy week. I like that.

I feel our out-of-the house schedule is full but manageable. We're certainly doing a lot more then last year!

To use an analogy, this amount of activity is like a 3/4 full cup of water. Safe enough for a preschooler to carry to the table, but if they drop it -- big mess to clean up!

Daily Schedule 2008-9, First Idealist attempt!

Click on the pictures to see them clearly.


This is my plan...the first of many idealistic attempts at corralling the students into a structured learning routine.

My new & improved scheduling idea for the coming year involves actual time slots (something I've tried to avoid in the past).  Although I wish it was more, each child will get 2 individual half hours slots with me in the following order:

K'er
3rd grader
3 yo
6th grader
8th grader

Then we'll all break for a snack.  This will be repeated, then we'll break for lunch.  The idea is that each child will work on their independent stuff until finished or they reach a point of not understanding/frustration.  Then that work will be set aside and the next subject picked up. When they meet with me, I will help them through the trouble spot and give assignments as necessary.  

After lunch will be two group times -- one for the K & 3rd grader for history & literature reading.  And one will be for the 6th & 8th grader for a discussion of their literature reading. 

I think this will accomplish several positive things in our homeschool:  

1.  allow independence without frustration (or simply lack of working because "I didn't know how to do it")

2.  insure dedicated time with mom (something the easy-going students get short changed on)

3.  create time off at the end of the week/month because of finishing early!

What this schedule doesn't account for is what exactly the 3yo & K'er are going to be doing for those blank hours each day!  

I do plan to do a test run in June, which will help work out some kinks and bring realism, I'm sure!

2008-2009 Plan

I've been away longer then I intended -- real life and all, you know: the school year ended, curriculum was ordered, several out-of-state family members visited, children lost teeth, more curriculum was ordered, we hit 100 degrees F here in AZ, my "baby" turned 3, more curriculum was ordered...

I have a plan for the new year. A great plan. A mostly-purchased-for plan... And yet, my copy of The Latin-Centered Curriculum is on it's way and just last week I brought up to my husband the possibility of putting at least one of our children into a local prep school. So many avenues, so many options, so many choices! A blessing to be sure, but a weighty one, indeed.

As of today the plan for 2008-2009 is as follows:

8th grade
M-F
Math: CLE
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Social Studies: CLE
Literature: Logic Stage Middle Ages WTM list
M-Th
Writing: Wordsmith
Science: Total Health (Middle School)

6th grade
M-F
Math: MUS Pre-Alg
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Latin: Lively Latin 2
Science: CLE
Literature: Logic Stage Middle Ages WTM list
M-Th
Writing: Sentence Composing for Middle School
History: Famous Men of the Middle Ages & SOTW 2

3rd grade
M-F
Math: MUS Delta & CWP 3
English: CLE
Reading: CLE
Latin: Minimus
Writing: Happy Scribe and narrations from history OR WT 1
Logic: Building Thinking Skills 1
Literature: Middle Ages (SOTW AG) and FIAR Vol 1 go-alongs
M-Th
Science: Science Through Children's Literature & My Pals are Here 3
History: SOTW 2 & AG

1st grade
M-F
Phonics: OPGTR
Handwriting: HWT
Math: Earlybird 2a & b
Five in a Row, Vol 1

3yo
Tagging along & nipping at everyone's heels
Listening to lots of stories


As a family:
Daily: Homeschool PE
Friday: Artists and Composers from Middle Ages (WTM lists)
Saturday: Phonics of Drawing CD from Masterpiece Art Instruction
One or two weeknights: Mind Benders & Fallacy Detective

I have been refining a list for Artist & Composers -- trying to choose 8 of each from about 400-1600 AD. I might just buy Harmony Fine Arts 5th grade.
My 1st & 3rd graders will do a FIAR co-op with 3 other families every other Monday. I have been looking through the manual and deciding what we'll cover. I used FIAR Vol 1 when my girls were little and am so glad to be able to do it with my boys now! The off Mondays are going to be for library/nature walks (the library backs up to a Riparian Preserve). I signed the 3 older kids up for a 2 week chess class in June and hope to have them all enjoy it so much that they'll continue w/ the homeschool club in the fall. Also my oldest is volunteering at a nearby organic dairy farm one morning a week.

Oh, and when do I plan to start all this? Maybe all the CLE subjects in June and everything else in July...

Charlotte Mason & the Well-Trained Mind: elementary hours compared

This is a comparison of The Well Trained Mind's recommend weekly hours for 1-3 grade (averaged) and Charlotte Mason's Parents' Union School schedules for the same. It was more difficult then the comparison I did for eighth grade.

I had to make some judgements in order to compare and even then, they just don't line up neatly. Which is, of course, okay, because they are different methods/theories -- but I'm interested in both!

Charlotte Mason advocated hours of outdoor nature study, which is science not shown on the school schedule. Also, the Parents Union School students studied French from the beginning, whereas the WTM starts Latin in 3rd grade. Oh, another thing -- Language Arts for the WTM is comprised of grammar, spelling, penmanship, structured reading, and writing. Language Arts for the Parents Union School schedule were called only reading and writing.

As with my previous comparison, I very well may have a miscalculation in my addition. Adding hours is tricky!

Charlotte Mason & the Well-Trained Mind: hours compared

Tonight, I decided to do a little chart to compare the hourly recommendations for 8th grade age in Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind's to those in A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison. This little chart doesn't include Logic (only mentioned in the WTM), music, art, or nature study. I found it interesting that at this level, the time involved was almost identical.
It is possible that my figures are slightly off -- adding such big numbers in my head is challenging.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you, Tami, for supplying me with an online version of Charlotte Mason's Parents Union School schedules located on the Ambleside Online site! These are identical to the schedules in the back of Levison's book. Although she calls Class III 7th-9th grades, I believe (the book is upstairs). When I was making my calculations, I eliminated the "10.20 - 10.50" period, which seems to serve as a break period and didn't fit neatly in my chart. I put Euclid as math and Old & New Testament as history. Another side note is CM's schools met Monday through Saturday...oh, yes, and the hours listed on my chart are weekly totals!

Rest of the year: 5th grade & 2nd grade

Here is the rest of Momo's year. She's in 5th grade, using mostly the same curriculum as Ginger. The only differences are that she is in Math-U-See Epislon and is using Building Thinking Skills 2 instead of a formal spelling program. She does do spelling by using Tapestry of Grace's Vocabulary. I should post about that one day... I bought a poetry workbook and a test prep book for Momo, I just haven't started them with her yet.

I decided to edit this post & add 2nd grade since I just finished the sheet. This is for Tullius, who just turned 8. He really needs to be challenged...I just haven't found anything that does. Even multiplying a 3 digit by 4 digit number only confused him for a week or so. Oh, and he wrote down our milage on January 31st: 66,032 miles.

Thanks for the kind comments about my last spreadsheet. If you don't use/like Excel, a table in Word can be used to accomplish the same thing. I have to say that I did not come up with the idea on my own!! I've seen it on lovely blogs like Narrow Gate Academy and Trivium Academy.

Assessing where we are, so I can see where we're going...

When I drive some place new, I generally get lost the first few times. I think it might be a gap in my education, since my dad can still remember how to get places he went to years and years ago.

So, speaking of going places, and gaps, and education...I really need to assess where each child is at in their school year. And look ahead to the end of the year. And next year. And then...HIGH SCHOOL.

This 2007-2008 year, I have:

Ginger 7th grade
Momo 5th grade
Tullius 2nd grade
Zamakee Kindergarten

This is week 22 of 36 for us.

Today, while holding my feverish 2yo, I finally started making the colorful Excel spreadsheets that I've been meaning to do for weeks! Here is Gingers:

Clicking on it makes it huge, but readable.

I must buy something new for her for math, I didn't realize how close she was to being done with Key to Decimals! Math is definitely a difficult subject for her. Which makes it difficult for me.

And writing. I've really got to get something for writing. TOG's Writing Aids started out good for us, but I rearranged some things, dropped it for a month during NaNo, then we had 6 weeks off for Winter Break and I can't get back into Writing Aids. I've tried each week, and it has been a flop each time. I need something prepared, precise, and preferably written to the student. Maybe Jump Into Writing...

Surgery on the Schedule

Yes, surgery. And not being performed by me. Today, I took Ginger (12yo dd) to her pediatric eye surgeon for her biannual visit. She has worn glasses since she was 3, did vision therapy four years, and had eye surgery at age 7.

Amazingly, she has stayed steady since the surgery with her eyes aligned -- and she could finally read to learn instead of focusing on the words! With glasses, her vision is about 20/60. In the last few months, though, I've notice her left eye beginning to stray out. Before it turned in (she had almost no vision in left eye at age 3).
So, surgery it is. The surgeon is confident that because she's used the eyes together for so many years that she can and will continue to use the eye...it just needs to be put back into place, as it is returning to its old lazy habits. I am wondering if there is more going on in her brain then just a break down of vision. Lately, she has had a very hard time answering me -- as if she can't process what I am asking, or simply forgets that I asked a question as the moments go by. I mentioned this to the surgeon but he doesn't deal with such things (he doesn't even think vision therapy works, generally speaking). But I'm wondering if this is more than just a 12 yo thing...

Ginger does not want the surgery. But not only do I want her to be able to see the best she possibly can (which is nowhere near what I can see), I want her to look the best she can too! She says she doesn't care about how her eyes look -- but I think she will when she is 16 or 20 or so. Therefore, surgery is on the schedule...except I haven't looked at my schedule yet! I don't want to either. Next week is our last week of the first quarter, then we're taking a week off...then I'll look at the schedule, then I'll think about all the ideals that seem to missing in our days.

I've seen some darling bunny rabbit pictures lately on blogs like Take a Hike and Mini Blessings and I wanted to draw a rabbit for this post! But couldn't find a single cute rabbit picture in this house to draw! So here is one that Ginger made over the summer in a art class she took. It is in graphite watercolor pencil (or something like that!) on canvas. Actually it seems fitting that the drawing in this post be hers! You can see some more of her artwork at Ginger's Art Gallery.

7th Grade Schedule

Ginger is 12 and in 7th grade -- she'd rather be out-of-doors and doing one of the following: drawing, reading or running! I'll have to share more about her another day. Now I must put some thought into next week's assignement sheets. Oh, and her hair doesn't look quite like this anymore. It's chin length, she donated the rest to Locks of Love in June!

5th Grade Schedule

Momo is in 5th grade and there was just too much to keep all her assignments on a single page with my new & improved (just this week!) schedule. But now that the week is wrapping, I'm not sure I like this style at all. So next week, I'm trying something new. But as I promised dh & the kids -- I will not add or alter any of the work for the whole quarter. Which we are exactly halfway through, now that I think about it. Momo has always been an academic minded student -- learned to read at 4, loves math, enjoys logic puzzles...basically likes what comes to most minds when they hear the word "school."
And yes, just like in her Christmas picture, she was barefoot in shorts in December!

2nd Grade Schedule

Since all the children are outside planting their bean seedlings that we sprouted for God's Design Science Plants, I decide to post Tullius's weekly assignment sheet.

Tullius is 7 and in 2nd grade this year. He taught himself to read right after he turned four. I had planned to wait until he was 6 to even start teaching him reading. I'd read enough about boys taking longer to mature, etc then girls. And since I had 2 girls, I didn't want to spend year comparing and frustrating him. However, dh...hmm, he need's an online name too. My 7 yo ds referenced in this post isn't really named Tullius...he chose it for Latin class. His former online name was Moogle (Final Fantasy, anyone?) which I never really liked, so this is better. He doesn't have a nickname at home at all, neither does Zamakee...unlike Ginger, Momo & Beanie!

Anyway, dh played an online computer game called Dark Age of Camelot. Tullius would watch him and ask constantly what was being said, what the text scrolling by said, what the numbers were... And he learned to read. By the time he was four, dh had gone to a new game, Horizons. I made a character and then a few weeks later we let all the kids make characters. His reading just took off AND he could spell too -- well enough to communicate in an online game anyway! We're still an online game playing family but this "reading method" hasn't worked for Zamakee...but that is another post.
Tullius has always been a tagalong schooler -- just doing what his older sisters do...

Here is his eLouai.com Christmas picture! He was still 6 years old.

Kindergarten Week 5

This is the weekly assignment sheet I created for Zamakee over the weekend. He hasn't had (nor appeared to care) for an assignment sheet before. That is probably the reason that certain things for him have gotten pushed to last, or simply forgotten. When he saw the colorful schedules I was attempting to make for the other children, he wanted one too. So this is what I came up with.

The only thing glaringly missing (to me) is Before Five in a Row. I still haven't gotten to planning that. I could just forget it -- save B4FIAR for Beanie next semester and save myself some guilt. I'm not quite ready to do that yet. Perhaps I need to go back and re-read Kerri's FIAR Planning Post

The other thing that I don't have a formal plan for is math. I decided to focus on phonics this first semester, letting math come through picture books and life (counting the forks, pointing out the page numbers, etc). I try to get a picture math book or two from the library each week. We also have a great many math manipulatives at our house...perhaps I should add that to the sheet! Zamakee does enjoy typing numbers on the computer. He'll take one of each color of the play money in, say, Star Wars Monopoly and meticulously enter each amount into a Word document.

Zamakee's "photo" was created at eLouai.com for our family Christmas 2006 card. He was 4 1/2 years old. Now he's FIVE!