schedule Archives - Growing In Grace

Back-to-Homeschool Routine

September 10, 2012Tracy2 Comments

It’s finally here! After a two-week break to get my affairs in order, we are ready for Back-to-Homeschool. (Actually the kids have been ready—very ready. But I’ve insisted on my break.) And thus, a back-to-homeschool routine. Which means, among other things, back-to-early mornings.

We’ve been very casual learners this summer: starting around mid-morning or whenever I finally get things in order, working through topics with only a skeleton of a lesson plan. It’s been very enjoyable—loving summer, loving learning, and best of all, loving on Littlest. But it is time to bring back some structure. I can feel it, and I can sense that the kids need it, too. But oh! Those early mornings are the worst.

Thankfully, I do have Littlest, who insists on eating at 5 a.m. every morning. So the first step has been to stay up after I finish the early morning feeding. And the first half of the first step is to get to bed a little earlier.

To achieve all of these steps and half-steps, I’ve turned to my ipod alarms. I figured out that I can customize any number of alarms on particular days and label those alarms with a name. I currently have six alarms set to go off each weekday:

5 a.m.—Pray

7:15 a.m.—Shower

9 a.m.—School Begins

2:30 p.m.—Exercise

4:30 p.m.—Take pills

10:30 p.m.—Bedtime

5 a.m.—Pray

Labeling this alarm convicts me when I consider hitting the snooze. It’s not just my time to wake up (if Littlest hasn’t already done that job for me); it’s my time to meet with God. I start with prayer time rather than Bible study for a number of reasons but primarily because I know that if I need to feed Littlest first, I can still pray while I do that. No excuses = greater chance for success. After I finish feeding, I continue with my Bible study and a cup of coffee (decaf, but hey, maybe I can fool my body into thinking it’s the real thing).

Once I finish my prayer and Bible study, I then get to work answering emails, setting up any posts for my Facebook page, and blogging. I can usually produce 2-3 blog posts in about an hour (reviews take a little longer); and I try very hard to schedule my posts in advance.

7:15 a.m.—Shower

Before this alarm actually goes off, I’m fervently praying that the kids don’t wake up. If they do, I make breakfast and push my shower just a little bit later. If not, I like to get my shower out of the way before the day erupts. This time also includes getting dressed, doing my hair, putting on make-up, etc.

9 a.m.—School Begins

I am a stickler for this start time during the school year. My mom was a stickler for starting on time back when I was homeschooled, and it made college so much easier. During the summer, anything goes. But now it’s time to get in gear. {Sigh}

2:30 p.m.—Exercise

I have found that I can be most successful at including this into my routine if I do it in the afternoons with the kids. I’ve been reviewing Family Time Fitness (stay-tuned for the details coming soon!) and literally exercising WITH the kids. Otherwise, the rest of the day tends to crowd out this good-intention. The alarm is for accountability. The kids know it’s coming, and when the alarm goes off, there’s no more procrastinating.

4:30—Take Pills

Nothing exciting here, folks. I have certain pills I have to take before I eat supper, and I never remember them. This has helped me immensely. It also signals the beginning of dinner prep. Littlest comes to the rescue again here, as well. There’s no room to procrastinate. He eats at 5:00, so if dinner is not prepped and/or in the oven, we eat about an hour later than normal (if there is a normal at this stage in life).

10:30—Bedtime

Littlest used to take his last feeding at 11:00, which started a really bad habit of staying up way too late. Even after he dropped this feeding, I still stayed up way past what I should have. The evening really just gets away from me. This alarm helps me to shut the day down at a half-way decent time. And it is a source of accountability as well; when my husband hears the alarm, he helps me by insisting that I start preparing for bed.

So that’s it, folks. My new routine, and the tips and tricks to make it happen. (1) Set lots of alarms; (2) get a five month old who wants to eat every 3 hours!

I’d love to know what makes things move at your house. Leave me a comment with your tips for setting up a routine.

Learning to Let Go

September 1, 2011Tracy1 Comment

I mentioned a few weeks back that the pace of the A Beka books we were using seemed to suddenly switch to turbo speed. We’ve been clipping along at such a pleasant pace, and then quite unexpectedly my son and I have found ourselves holding on for dear life.

Phonics: covering 2-3 new sounds each week, plus continuing to learn to read two-vowel words
Numbers: adding 10 new flashcards every three lessons, adding a new addition family, plus skip counting

Thank goodness we had already tackled skip counting by tens, or I’d really feel lost right now. We’ve tried our best, and my son has worked really hard. But in spite of it all, he made a C for the first time on a graded sheet, which merely told me what my gut has been telling me. We are going too fast.

But that meant that I had a decision to make: slow down and start the year already two weeks behind on the beautiful lesson plans I produced, or continue to allow him to struggle through. After all, he might catch on and get caught back up eventually. And then my mom, having had the experience of homeschooling me, reminded me of the greatest privilege of homeschooling. I don’t have to be controlled by a lesson plan!

Think about it. If you hired a tutor for your child, would that tutor stick rigidly to a lesson plan she had created, or would she work with where your child was having difficulty? The answers obvious, right? Yet, it is sometimes so hard, in the daily grind of home education, to remember this principle—that I am my child’s tutor and that curriculum is merely my tool not my master.

So, we’ve taken these last two weeks of summer completely off (much to my son’s displeasure). For one, we all needed a breather, especially me; and hopefully, the worst of the morning sickness will be over by the time we start back. Second, by starting the year off two weeks behind my planning, I will have officially and dramatically let go of those beautifully typed out plans. There will be no need to force ourselves to “stay on schedule” to the detriment of learning, since we are already “off schedule.”

And I say “off schedule” rather tongue-in-cheek. We are on lesson 110 of a kindergarten curriculum; my son is four. He loves learning, which is why we started in the first place, to capitalize on his desire. Up until this last month, he has absolutely devoured everything we’ve tackled and made 100s on every graded sheet. We’re coming to the end of our two-week break, and every day my son has begged to do school with the statement, “But Mom, I LOVE to read!” We’re hardly behind.

Thus, with everything in perspective, I suppose we’re not starting two weeks behind, but rather one year and 110 lessons ahead. With that in mind, I guess I’ve got some wiggle room, don’t you think? How silly of me to even struggle with the decision—to waste an opportunity to learn (and enjoy it) or to protect a piece of paper with clean lines.

I know this won’t be the last time I struggle with the decision to “let go” of the lesson plans, but I do hope that this moment will be a precedent for me to come back to. I want to remember that learning is not a lesson plan, it’s the joy on my son’s face when he understands what he has discovered.

Fitting it all in: a preview of our schedule

August 4, 2011Tracy2 Comments

I’ve had a lot of questions about how we plan to tackle all of our subjects and activities, so I thought I’d do a quick post previewing our preliminary schedule. In other words, I’ll write a more definite “A Day in Our Lives” post closer to the start of our fall schedule (first week in September).

I organize our day with our workbox pocket system. I have 12 pockets to work with, but will plan to use only 10 on most days.

1. Art/Music

2.-3. Seatwork

(“Seatwork” will include handwriting and phonics worksheet,

and will probably take up two pockets)

4. Phonics Review (time with me)

5.-6. Geography/Science

(I will probably use two pockets here;

however, science is not scheduled every day.)

7. Critical Thinking Skills

8. Math Review (time with me)

9. Math Worksheet

10. “Fun” pocket

(“Fun” will be motivational and vary every day:

a “happy” note, an origami animal, a Highlights magazine, etc.)

I typically spend about 15 minutes per activity, and I set a timer for each pocket to keep us on target. It doesn’t sound like much time, but I’ve really found it to be more than adequate. And using the workbox system cuts way down on our transition time. There is no scrambling around to find stuff; every thing they need for an activity is already in the pocket waiting for them.

Bible is a subject I’m going to do largely outside of regular school time. In other words, I’ll have them listening to the Bible audio CD either in the morning before school or during “quiet time” in the afternoons (plan on experimenting to see which we like best). So, we’ll spend our Bible review time within the first 15 min. of pledge, prayer, and calendar work at the beginning of our school schedule. It won’t really have its own pocket on most days, unless I want to add a Bible coloring page.

The last pocket is also an exception to the schedule, as it really won’t be a timed activity. It’s merely meant to be a reward for their hard work.

That leaves 9 timed pockets, or roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes of activities (2 1/2 hours if you include our pledge, prayer, and other beginning activities), which has our school schedule running from 9 to 11:30.

So that’s how I’m fitting it all in, a steady pace with lots of variety!

Feel free to link up your curriculum choices and schedules in the comments section. I love to read what others are doing.