2nd Term Schedules

I got this idea from AmyKate at Polishing Gems. She is an on-line friend whom is highly organized. At least she appears to be. She is the one who mentioned that she needs to plan for 21 meals a week... not 7. That was a light bulb moment for me. Well -- duh... of course. Seems remedial now... but when she first mentioned that I was like WOW -- that sure would help a lot.

So -- last week I saw she posted her new school schedules on her blog. HEY -- I've got My Father's World (MFW) friends who read here. I bet they would be interested to see how we squeeze it all in. And how about my other friends who don't home school -- sometimes they ask me, "How do you do it all?" Well - on a perfect day ::SNORT:: this is what we do. Starting with me.

Remember you'll have to click on the chart to enlarge it.
Either that or grab your handy dandy magnifying glass.

I'm going to exercise with Tori every morning (5 days a week) alternating between CATHE on FitTV and Walk Away the Pounds.

I'm trying to read my Bible through in 90 days... thus the 2 bible reading times. But -- that's not going to hurt me in the least. I pray I stick with it!!

The big kids, Tori-12, and Mansel-8, are going to get their own breakfast. They were both so excited about that this morning that one made pancakes and the other made French toast. That won't happen every morning, because that makes for a long clean up time.

While they do that I'll go wake up the littles and do their morning routine. Get dressed, make bed, etc.

At 8:00 -- we'll all do BIBLE for school together. All 5 kiddos sit and listen. I try to have them all memorize the memory verse. Can't hurt 'em.

I liked the Hymn study that Ambleside On-line does. So we try to add a hymn into our day. I move on to another one, once we've learned one.

We have the cards from English from the Roots up. I write out the root word and tape it to something. Today we learned Phobos, which is the Greek work for irrational fear. We thought of claustrophobia... thus I taped Phobos up onto the closet. We all decided that none of us want to be stuck in the closet and aren't sure why that's an irrational fear. LOL But Phobophobia is sort of ridiculous... an irrational fear of irrational fear.

Then 3 kiddos do math. We all sit in the same room during this time in case they have questions. I really push Tori to get 1 entire lesson done in Saxon. Last year we did the skippity lou sort of deal... do just the evens, or just the odds. Well -- when she did that she wasn't mastering her math. So this year... we start at the beginning and do the WHOLE ENTIRE LESSON. She gets 1 hour... after that she's on her own and has to finish it up before she gets free time. This is OK on test day... that doesn't take an hour -- but other days...she's working on her own in the afternoon. But it's a real incentive for her to get her math done. I like how she is doing better with mental math and her math facts this way.

Milo - in Kindergarten is hardly doing any "real" math. But lest you grandmotherly type start to get fearful. We took this route with Mansel -- and when he started his "official" 1st grade math -- he was right on target. No catch up time needed at all. I noticed with Tori that K and 1st grade math seemed to be repeats of each other. So now we skip "official" Math in K. Milo likes to read his M&M's counting book. (Me thinks he likes chocolate). LOL We work on writing the numbers and letters with a little bit of Getty and Dubey Italic Handwriting practice.

The big kids and I do History, and Science together. Well -- even with Science, I just listen in while Tori reads and she is the Scientist and Mansel, the 2nd grader is her assistant. So that is independent work a lot of days as well.

Milo and I sit down and do 100 EZ lessons every day while the big kids are practicing the piano or doing their foreign language. Mom - by the time he is done with this book, it says that he should be reading at a 2nd grade level. I don't really worry about getting this done in 100 lessons because of that. If he can read at a 2nd grade level any time between now and 2nd grade... fine by me. ;)

Then I sit down with Mansel after lunch - get him started on his English lessons. We are using MFW's Primary Language Lessons book.

Then I scheduled another Bible reading for myself after lunch. I like to read along in my Bible while I listen to it on-line.

One thing we are always doing at the last minute are the Sunday School papers, and the Wednesday Night papers. I really want them to memorize these verses and get these papers done. So -- I've schedule it in. I used to say, "We will be done with school by noon." But -- that's not true any more. I want more done than that. So -- they will work until they get their work done -- then have free time -- which is still more than most kids. So I think they should be happy with that. Don't you?

I'm going to work on chore packs today.

So -- if you are still interested... here are the kid's schedules.

Tori takes care of lunch every day. I'm going to take care of lunch clean up.

In the afternoon they have mostly independent type school work.



She's a busy girl. Oh -- another new thing this term is, I'm going to have the big kiddos play with Wayne. I think I'll have them read to him. He's going to be watching PBS a lot more than normal (normal is none at all), so -- I really want to make a point to get some out loud reading time in with Wayne. It'll be good practice for them, and maybe a little bonding will go one too.




Oh -- I had the nature walk on the schedule last term, and it didn't happen very often. Fridays are usually short days around here. Their dad gets off work early on Fridays -- as early as 10:30 some days. Then 1 Friday a month we have a home school co-op that we participate in. Then the other Fridays... well -- I said we'd get this all done on a perfect day. Apparently most Fridays are NOT perfect. ::giggle:: So -- I'm telling you now... I really want to get this in on as many Fridays that I can. So -- ask me in 3 months how we are doing with this. :P



Last, but not least, is Milo - the K'r. His schedule looks sort of sparse doesn't it? Well -- that's on purpose. We play with rocks and sticks until they are 6 around here. He'll have a chore pack -- don't worry. He didn't turn 6 until October, so "officially" with the school district, he's not even doing school. We can be fluffy if we want to. Next year -- we'll fill out the paper work and he'll be a 1st grader. Now -- won't that be exciting? Ü

I'm praying now for the day when I'll have a 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 11th grader. Whew... I'm tired already. Oh -- I'm just kidding. I think if we train them right... it should be OK.

But for now -- a new term, a new schedule...
God's in his heaven
all's right with the world.

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