Meme: “How You Schedule”

 Heart of the Matter hosts a weekly Meme - – one of the previous meme’s was: “How You Schedule.” When I pulled Boo from Public School, I had been reviewing several “techniques” (CM, Classical, and Unschooling). I used information from Ambelside Online (Year 1) to base our basic ‘rest of the year’ curriculum/schedule. At that time, I knew that I wanted to homeschool year-round – - but, I needed to figure out if I should do “hard-core’ schooling during the ‘normal’ school-year and ease-up in the summer OR stretching out whatever the curriculum that I had chosen, throughout the year – - making it all about the same. In the last nine months, I have realized some pretty significant things: 1) Our family/Boo works better with a ‘hard-core’ Public School schedule and an easier summer; 2) Boo works best with structure (unschooling won’t work for her – - at least for now); 3) I need to be more persistent versus allowing her to lead; 4) Boo likes grades and she responds best with a perceived ‘threat’ to any grade lower than an ‘A.’

Taking all of that into consideration, I am going to have three 14 week terms – - and whatever is left (throughout the summer) will be more low key. I am basing most of the curriculum around the United States: US History, US Geography, US Civics/Elections, science in Colonial Times {in the US], three US artists, three US composers, etc. I will basically break down the material I am using into ‘workable’ chunks during the day – - starting slower and building up.

So here is an example of how I would organize a day:

9:30am – - First Wake-up call {for Boo}
9:45am – - Second Wake-Up Call
10:00am – - I get up
10:30am – - Spelling/Vocabulary {I will have more specific posts about HOW we do this and WHAT we use.}
11:00am – - I will read a picture book or two to her
11:15am – - She will test {www.bookadventure.com} on the previous books, if applicable
11:30am – - We will read from the SS text, History Book, and/or Famous Americans Book.
12:00pm – - While we eat, we will listen to whatever historical fiction/non-fiction CD that ‘matches’ the time period we are studying.
12:30pm – - We take a break
1:00pm – - I will read another picture book or two to her – - OR she will read to herself
1:15pm – - BookAdventure Test(s), if applicable
2:00pm – - We will read through the Science Text or the colonial science book
2:30pm – - We will watch the Math-U-See (MUS) lesson and then work through the lessons in the workbook.
3:30pm – - We will take another break
3:45pm – - Quiet reading (from historical fiction series)
4:15pm – - Language Arts (copywork, handwriting, grammar, etc.)
5:00pm – - We are usually done!! AND Daddy is probably on his way home.

9:00pm – - Bed time. She can read whatever she wants for as long as she wants – - provided that she remains IN bed. If she gets up, lights go out and its bed time.
She is usually asleep by 11:00pm.

Now, I want to make sure that you know, the above is a ROUGH sketch of what a day would be like – - and it all depends on her. Sometimes we are done by early afternoon – - sometimes it is early evening before we get done. I also only school four days a week, as we usually go to town once a week (or so). Once I can get a better handle on our schedule, I will post it.
If you are interested in how others schedule, hop on over to HOTM, and check out their blog posts.