The Schedule

We are off to a great start with homeschooling this year. We've finished two weeks of school and it has been wonderful so far! It's amazing to me that I have two middle schoolers and high school is looming on the horizon for Peter! Good gracious; it seems to me that they were little ones just yesterday. I remember being the newbie Mom at homeschool group functions with Peter and Anne being among the youngest ones there. Now I'm the "veteran" with "older" kids.

I have always been an organizer. Usually, I'm in a panic if I don't have a finished curriculum plan in May for the next fall. In fact, I have a tentative plan for both children through their high school graduation. I rarely am accused of procrastination in this area! However, I have always baulked at the thought of having a minute by minute schedule for homeschooling. I feared that spontaneity would be lost if I did so. Well, this year we are following the minute by minute schedule that I've always dreaded. What put me over the edge, so to speak, was Teaching Textbooks. This program has been of incredible benefit to both of my children. The scheduling issue is that it is a computer based program and if I wanted our school days to run smoothly, I need to schedule the computer time for not only math, but for other subjects like keyboarding. You know what? The dreaded schedule has been wonderful! I wish that I would have done it years ago! I am no longer asked questions such as "What should I do next?" or "What subject is next?" or "When's lunch?" or (about an hour after lunch) "Are we done?". My stress level has been reduced because I'm not always feeling "behind" or worrying about fitting everything into the day. And here's the great thing...we throw the schedule out on Fridays and make our own! Fridays consist of math, anything we fell behind on Monday -Thursday, art history, music appreciation and anything that we want to learn about.

So, here's "The Schedule":

8:45-9:00: Misc. games/activities* (It's called wake up your brain!)
9:00-9:20: Bible *
9:20-10:30: Language Arts (separately)

Anne's:
10:30-10:40: Math Drill
10:40-11:00: Greek
11:00-11:30: Sonlight Reader
11:30-12:30: Math (then critical thinking or keyboarding)

Peter's:
10:30-11:30: Math (then critical thinking)
11:30-12:00: Sonlight Reader
12:00-12:10: Math Drill
12:10-12:30: Keyboarding

12:30-1:00pm: Lunch
1:00-1:30pm: Free Time
1:30-2:15 pm: Science
2:15-3:30/4:00pm: Sonlight Core 6 World History part 1* (history, geography,
current events, read alouds etc.) Some of Core 6 (Story of the World and
some read alouds) is also done on audio during travel time to activities.

*Subjects that Peter and Anne do together.

P.E.: Kung Fu 3 evenings a week (Anne is also on a church dance team that meets a few times
a month after Sunday service)