Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Lamb Homeschool 2.0 Our Day

We just started our second year of homeschooling. We started homeschooling for multiple reasons, and our first year was rough. Thankfully we were able to find some amazing resources over the past year, and this year has started fairly smoothly.

I love to hear what other homeschoolers do with their day, so I decided to share our day.  We have three children, girls ages 9 and 6, and a boy age 3.  With a few modifications for the 6 year old, the girls are both in third grade. The boy is starting preschool outside our house twice a week this Fall.

Our goals for homeschooling our children include providing them with an advanced curriculum in a Catholic environment to help them grow into intelligent and virtuous adults.

Below is a little sample of our day. We actually follow the times fairly closely as we like a lot of structure in our day, and it keeps mom from pushing the kids too far.

7:30 AM Daily Mass

8:15 AM Breakfast, Patriotism, and Exercise (GoNoodle and Brain Gym) We use exercise to transition between each subject and to wake up our brains.  Our six year old has a sensory processing disorder and frequent movement greatly increases her focus and comfort. We also take this time to say the Pledge of Allegiance and learn a song. Last year they learned My Country Tis of Thee, the Star Spangled Banner, and America the Beautiful, among others.

8:45 AM Latin (Song School Latin) or discuss our Virtue of the month (Character First Education and Virtues in Practice). On Fridays we study religion (Seton and Faith and Life). The kids also attend Catechesis of the Good Shepherd once a week at our church.

9:15 AM Reading (Both girls are advanced readers, so we choose quality literature to read, discuss, and learn vocabulary from. This year our selection will include Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and the 1st Harry Potter book. We started our year off with some simple picture books that discuss anti-perfectionism, being yourself, and taking ownership of your work by Peter H. Reynolds. After reading, I encourage the kids to take five minutes and sketch a picture with a topic related to our reading.  Afterwards, they stand in front of us and tell us all about their picture.

9:45 AM Chemistry (REAL Science Odyssey and Apologia Chemistry)

10:15 AM Snack time!  The kids eat, and I take a little break from them to play the piano and relax.

10:30 AM Language Arts Three days a week we work on grammar skills (Voyages in English by Loyola, level 3), one day a week we work on vocabulary (Vocabulary in Action, Level D) and on Fridays we work on our writing(Daily writing prompts).

11:00 AM Math The girls are in two different levels for math.  Right now the 6 year old is working on becoming fluent in her math facts using an awesome online program (Reflex). Once she is fluent, she will start Math U See Beta. The 9 year old is working on multiplication (Math U See Gamma).

11:30 AM Tidy Up We all take time to clean up a little, finish our morning chores we may not have finished before Mass, and I prepare lunch.

12:00 PM Lunch and play outside

1:00 PM One child works on spelling (All About Spelling) with mom while the other child completes handwriting (Zaner-Bloser) and/or fine motor activities.

1:30 PM The child working on handwriting gets a piano lesson from mom while the other child completes her handwriting. (The kids like our spelling program, but Mom finds it a little dull and cannot facilitate an hour of spelling a day, so we trade off doing spelling and music each day.)

2:00 PM Chores Each child has a specific chore to do on each day of the week: vacuuming, dusting, washing a bathroom or kitchen floor, etc.)

2:30 PM Reward time!  If everything including their chores is finished, the kids get to play on the computer for about 45 minutes.  They are allowed to use Khan Academy and study any subject they would like (usually computer coding or ancient art), continue using ReflexMath, or play Stack the States/Countries.

4:00PM Usually one of the kids is off to Irish dance lessons for the evening.  The rest of us usually go along and hang out, talk to friends, and play.  The Celtic Junction has become our home away from home. As the kids get older, they will also take music lessons there as well.

This past year we also added gymnastics to our extra-curriculars and have continued playing soccer.

One morning a week we attend a homeschool academy for children who work 2-3 years above their grade level.  This semester the girls will take classes in Physics, Time Travel and the Universe, and Construction of Simple Instruments. We usually stay for lunch and outside play time as well.

7:30 PM Social Studies (Harcourt) Dad is in charge of reading social studies three nights a week at bed time.  He does a really good job making sure the girls know their stuff!

Throughout our day, the three year old joins us or plays on his own.  He is a pretty content kid. One morning a week he takes care of his grandparents ;-) Soon he will also be attending preschool two mornings a week outside the home.

Socialization: The kids probably talk and interact with over 200 different people each week, so we try not to get too worried about this.  The only person who tends to feel under socialized is Mom, which is remedied by a happy hour or two a month.

That is our day!  After all that, we usually sleep well!