Homeschooling - day in the life.

[Wildsky]

I took both kids out of school today, and will have them home tomorrow (due to the school handing out flu shots)
So, anyway, we had a blast today, my daughter doing pages out of workbooks, she did a bunch of stuff - I did have to help her along the way but she really enjoyed it.
My son had stuff brought home from school, so he worked on that stuff for the most part. I gave him the job of writing a current event review, let him pick a news story and write a review up. (he will actually need that for school next week)

 

[HannaLee]

I blogged about our routine here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Mommaofmany/487124/

It's a year and a half old, but the routine is just about the same.

 

[eggs4sale]

We don't have a set routine. I have an 11yo son, 5yo daughter, and 3yo devil dog. I have found the 11 yo works best with doing what he feels like doing, in the order he wishes. I just set a deadline, like say "We need to leave at 5, so you need to have everything done by then." The two oldest play violin, but they practice when they feel like it, as long as they practice once a day for a certain amount of time.
The oldest has three music lessons a week, one science club meeting a week, Boy Scouts once a week, and chores. He does most reading on his own. He also just took a CPR and First Aid Course, so is now certified. He has to do math and reading every day, but I don't push other courses because he does them on his own. We also have a list of cool internet website for him to do things, like typing and history lessons. He thrives when he gets to choose.
The 5 yo has two music lessons a week, 1 Girl Scout meeting a week, 1 ballet class a week, and I'm really easy on her when it comes to homework. She doesn't even know she's learning. She has a few chores, too.
The 3yo, he's the chief tagalong, and he is being taught his alphabet and numbers, but he's teaching himself (!). He doesn't have much in the way of chores yet.
We value full bookcases.

 

[tamlynn]

To those who worry about their kids passing them up education wise- what do you do when you want to know/learn something? Wait around for someone to tell you the answers? Teaching a child how to find the answers is more important than knowing all the answers.

Our schedule:

Wake up until 9am: get self up, dressed, teeth brushed, breakfast, bed made, hair done, pet fed.

9am- noonish: Official "school" time. We rotate subjects and don't do all subjects every day. Both kids are on the same level in every subject except for Language Arts. They each play a different instrument, so during music I work one-on-one with the other in LA. If the kids are especially enjoying a subject, I don't make them stop doing it to move on to something else.

After lunch: chore, one page math homework then free time.

During the week we'll also have activities like history club, basketball or other sports class, music lessons, cub scouts and occasional field trips.

My kids are 7 and 8, or 2nd and 3rd grade. I also find it effective to let them pick subjects. This year they really wanted to learn chemistry, so I found a chemistry curriculum on their level. I also keep in mind they may not know they like something until they try it, so I offer a lot of variety and spend a lot of time researching different books/topics.

 

[Wildsky]

I blogged about our routine here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Mommaofmany/487124/

It's a year and a half old, but the routine is just about the same.

Page won't load for me, it keeps freezing up.

 

[Wildsky]

If you use a curriculum, which one do you use?

We're not particularly religious, and I've found many are religion based.

 

[Wildsky]

We don't have a set routine. I have an 11yo son, 5yo daughter, and 3yo devil dog.

very similar ages to mine, my son is 10, and my daughter is 5 (will be 6 in a couple of weeks)

We don't have a devil dog (my 6 year old makes up for that!)

 

[HannaLee]

I blogged about our routine here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Mommaofmany/487124/

It's a year and a half old, but the routine is just about the same.

Page won't load for me, it keeps freezing up.

Oh, sorry! The link worked for me... I'll copy and paste:


I use Ambleside Online with six of my eight children. I have my very nearly 12 yod in Year 4, my 10 yod in Y3, my just turned 9yod and nearly 10yos in Y2, my 6.6 yod in Y1 and just turned 6 twins in Y0, with his twin sister listening in, but not doing any academics. I also have a 2 yos and I babysit a 2 yog.

My day can be long, as I read everything to the Y2's and under, and some to Y3 and 4, but much is done together. In fact, my older children often sit in on the stories of the youngers, since they enjoy them so much!

Here's my usual routine:
We start the day with breakfast, then clean-up, then we gather together. I read the Scripture, and the commentary (I use J. Vernon McGee) and then we practice out memory verses (currently Ps. 1) After prayer, we do math, all together. Then the older children begin their independent reading, and I call one group of kids to me for aloud reading. When they are done, I send them to do copywork or drawing and read with another group of children.

We do this until lunchtime. The older children who are not reading with me play things with and supervise the babies quietly. I have certain toys and activities set aside for schooltime. They are usually within eyesight of me.

After lunch and clean-up, we gather together for more together studies, like Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, art or something, then we get back to the individual readings/work. The Babe's nap time is 2:00-2:30 until 4:00 or so, and during that time we finish up, then have free time outside if possible. I get dinner ready for 4 PM (but it's often closer to 5..). The Lambies have free time all evening, after kitchen cleanup.

I broke the AO schedules up into four days of work, and made check off sheets, so they always know what to do each day. Anything not finished by Thursday can be finished on Friday. Fridays are service day and Park Day with other homeschoolers. I haven't ever had anyone miss service projects or parkday for not finishing school.

It took awhile for us to get into the swing of this routine, but it works really well for us now! I do take one week "off" every six weeks, and use it to catch up with housework that may not get done otherwise. Things like shampooing the carpets, The Great Toy Sort, The Great Clothes Swap, gardening, painting, dusting (one of my hated chores!)etc.

 

[eggs4sale]

If you use a curriculum, which one do you use?

We're not particularly religious, and I've found many are religion based.

We are the same way. The kids go to Sunday school, but I'm just not into the religion-based curriculum. We paid $99 for the World of Adventure and $20 for the supplemental book. It's great in theory, but we are bored with it. The idea was to learn history from the beginning, starting with Egypt. I thought that was a great idea since I was never taught world history in a meaningful way. It uses library books and the bible. Well, we got halfway through Egypt and neither one of us has shown an interest to continue. Their book to read was "The Golden Goblet", and the other families are gushing over how moving it is, and how it's important to read it aloud together, and this one was crying and the kids were begging for more.... I read aloud for days, and I hated that book. Now we're behind and I don't care. I'm going back to our original style of "You like it, you do it, and you do it a lot."

 

[Wildsky]

Wow Hanna you have a really full classroom, I'm terrified and I only have two kids!

Eggs - I'm just worried my kids will miss out on doing something if they're allowed to choose, my son would just read all day! he just loves to read if its HIS chosen book, the book they HAVE to read at school is just ruining it for him. that is the one thing that really irritates me, they're ruining his love of reading.

The teacher kept telling us what a fantastic vocab. he has - which is from all the books he has read, last year he was allowed to read anything he wanted, in fact him and his teacher would chat about Harry Potter often because the teacher was reading it too. I really liked his teacher last year, a young boy right out of college, but so great with the kids, and so enthusiastic about his work it was just really great. I'd see the teacher out with the kids at recess playing soccer or whatever. (My daughter has his wife as her teacher this year and loves her too) Both really young kids themselves, but with such enthusiasim and love for the kids it shines !