{Homeschool Schedule} {A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool} {Homeschooling Kindergarten / 1st grade with a three-year-old in the house}
playdates are a regular part of our homeschool schedule
At the beginning of September I wrote a column for the newspaper titled “Back to Homeschool” because we started our new school year and homeschool routine. More notable, however, is that this is the first year that we are “official” homeschoolers. That is, we have filed our intent to homeschool with the Georgia Department of Education.
When I wrote that column I had a “plan of action” of how I’d proceed with our daily routine, but I wasn’t sure how it would look in reality. I’ve been a mom long enough to realize that things rarely go according to MY agenda, so having a flexible schedule is a must.
Now that we are a month into our new routine I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s going so well, though I have tweaked it as necessary. This was my original plan:
- We’re late sleepers, and though I don’t mind that, I also knew we’d make more use of our day if we got up a little earlier. So I planned to wake up early and also wake the six-year-old by 8:30 so we could start our lesson by 9:00a.m.
- I would e-mail my son a loose agenda for the morning the night before, and first thing in the morning we would check his e-mail and go over this agenda. (There’s more than one reason I’ve given him an e-mail address, and I wrote about this in Using E-mail in Homeschool.) Telling him ahead of time what our plans are has always been essential to getting him to cooperate.
- After checking e-mail and going over our agenda, I would start off with our main lesson. I planned to alternate a math and reading lesson Monday – Thursday.
- On Fridays we would have a more relaxed day with just a project, and I also planned to move my cleaning day to Fridays and perhaps partly on Saturdays too.
- After the lesson, we would do some kind of project either initiated by him or me, but it would be based on his interests or a lesson I want to teach him.
- I thought by this time, it may be lunch time, so I planned to have lunch and then do “book time” after lunch.
- After book time, he would be free for the rest of the day, although, of course, we still have other parts of our daily routine too.
As for the three-year-old, I was hoping I could keep him occupied at least during the math/reading lesson with a learning box I made for him. I filled it with paper, crayons, and coloring pages, which he likes to do sometimes.
So how did that plan pan out?
Here’s what we have been doing:
- I have been getting up a little earlier and waking the kiddo up a littler earlier too. He can be very hard to wake up, though, so I’m not using an iron fist with this rule. It’s my opinion that being able to sleep as much as we need to is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. But after waking earlier for a few days, he’s starting to wake up on his own around 8:30 anyway. It’s been good for me to have a few minutes to myself in the morning too.
- Using the e-mail has been great, and my son enjoys checking it every morning. An occasional message from a friend or relative is a treat too. (See Using Technology in Home Education or Using E-mail in Homeschool.)
- We’ve been alternating a math and reading lesson Monday – Thursday, and that’s been going great. My son has been showing his maturity by being able to complete the lessons, and mama has finally figured out how to stay at his level so that it’s not frustrating for either of us. Keeping this lesson under 30 minutes and doing it first has also been a key to its success.
- Having a relaxed day on Friday has been helpful too. I’m struggling with keeping my house clean, but I think that has more to do with an illness I’ve had, and I’ll get back into a routine at some point.
- Having a project planned has been working too, and so far, my son has liked everything we’ve done. Though not completely “child-led,” the projects are inspired by what I know he’ll like. In an upcoming post, I’ll list what we’ve been doing in more detail.
- And as I suspected, it’s usually lunch time after we’ve completed our project, so I stop there. The difficult part is fitting in “book time.” Unless the project is short or I include a book within the project, we don’t have time for book time. After lunch, the boys clearly need to be “let loose” to play, imagine and sometimes create, if they ask for the art supplies. I’ve decided this is okay because unstructured play, movement and make-believe is still my highest priority for them right now. We have found time to read books at other times, although not everyday. Since my son seems to enjoy the spontaneous reading moments more than when I insist on reading to him, I think I’ll just leave it at that. (I should note that every night before bed, I still tell him a story that I make up, and I read a book to my three-year-old at that time too.)
As for the three-year-old, he’s not interested in the learning box, and this is what I’ve figured out: whenever he wakes up, he needs a good dose of mama. If I can give him my undivided attention for 20-30 minutes, he usually goes off to play by himself while I work with the six-year-old. Sometimes he wants to be with us, and he might be content playing with puzzles on the table next to us. Many times, I’ve been able to include him in our projects, especially those we do outside. If he is in a particularly needy or difficult mood, I let go of my agenda and direct my six-year-old to work on starfall.com while I stay with the three-year-old.
Staying flexible and light-hearted about the whole process has served me well, and it’s made me realize that while we all operate better with a little bit of structure, I can also feel free to stay relaxed and yield to our whims on occasion too!
You may also be interested in:
- In addition, I’m still keeping track of our homeschool with the method I described in this post.
- To read about our homeschooling schedule last year when the boys were 5 and 2, click here. (We did everything after lunch!)
- And, I’ve updated this post in Our Mid-year Homeschool Update….I have tweaked a few things since writing this!
How is your homeschool year going?