School Schedule

I believe that many parents who are choosing to homeschool wonder how to schedule, how to keep records, and how to time their days.  Though I am just a novice homeschool parent, I have been a teacher for years.  I am going to try to share what works and what doesn't in this blog.  

My student information: 

LO, boy, 5 years old, K-1 (Schola Rosa has their K-6 program broken into K-1, 2-3, and 4-6 levels). 

MT, girl, 3 years old, PreK

CP, boy, 1 years old, Nursery

The tricky part here will be to educate the school age child while managing the other two children.  My plan is to include the 3 year old in as much learning as she is willing to participate in while having the baby set up to play with activities (sensory, crafts, blocks,etc).  My hope is that the 3 year old will float between learning and playing.  

It might be because I have managed classrooms with multiple levels, or it might be because I was homeschooled myself, but I am not afraid of teaching with toddler's underfoot.  Nor am I concerned about teaching multiple levels later.  We will see if my tone changes in a few weeks. 

For the actual subjects, my children have been learning Spanish since birth, so this will continue. We will be following the Schola Rosa subjects: Art, Classically Catholic Memory (Recitation in other school programs), History, Language Arts, Latin, Mathematics, Reading, Religion, Science, and Virtue.  We will be using Under the Home for additional enrichment, as desired.  

The bulk of school will be in the mornings.  Our family does have a reading time in the evening where mommy and daddy will read a few books to the children before family rosary.  I plan to use that evening time to read for pleasure books whenever possible.

Our daily schedule looks like this:

*Morning Gathering - Prayers, Calendar, Weather, Memory Work

*Phonics Block 1: Pre-K Phonics - Alphabet awareness, Letter sounds, Handwriting practice

*Latin, Religion, and Virtue - Latin, Bible, Religion, Virtue 

*Snack Break - Outside picnic when weather permits

*Nature Study - Directed nature study, Geography lessons, Free play, Gardening

*Mathematics - Counting, Facts drill, Lesson from Ray's Arithmetic series, Abacus practice, Chapter from Life of Fred, Notebooking

*History - History lessons and activities, Mapwork, Interactive notebooking

*Phonics Block 2: Phonics lessons from Word Mastery, Reading lessons from McGuffey

*Science - Science lessons, activities, and videos

*Wiggle Break! Exercise or play outside

*Language Arts - Picture Study, Narrations and Illustrations, Poetry, Prose, and Read aloud

*Languages - Spanish lessons and videos

*Enrichment - Art, music, crafts, projects, library, adventures

We keep lessons short. No more than 20 minutes on any subject. We take breaks when and if we need. If something does not work in a lesson, we reschedule it or omit it. When the younger children are fussy, we pause. 

Our school days can vary in time from an hour to four hours. It depends on attention spans, including mine, our week as a whole, and what needs to be done. We are usually done by lunch at the latest. Once the little ones take a nap, my oldest decides if he wants to stay and read or if he wants to nap. 

 So far it is working nicely.