Our Current Schedule

Our schedule seems to morph throughout the year into somewhat of a monster. I have a tendency to keep adding to it until the kids and I rebel against it. I feel a certain amount of pressure to keep the kids ahead of where their public school peers would be and find it difficult to scale back. The kids would probably do just fine with days filled with reading according to their interests and generally following an unschool approach, but I just can't do it. I am an unfit unschooler. I NEED my lists and schedule to check off. I NEED them to systematically go through their Saxon books. Perhaps these are very selfish needs, but without them I don't "know" where the kids are academically and that makes me crazy. Not only me, but when their father asks, where they are in terms of grade level, it would be impossible to answer. So, the kids are stuck with me and the way I map out our homeschool journey. Anyway...enough introspection. I have come up with a form based on one I saw online somewhere. Here is a blank version if you want it.

This schedule is for next week. I have a fourth and sixth grader. I start at the top and work our way down. I have the lessons listed in order of importance (to me!). 

Math - Monday-Wednesday, the kids both work in their Saxon books. They read the lessons and do the lesson practice only. They also work on multiplication coloring sheets. I found a creeper from Minecraft and a Pokemon. On Thursday, the kids work on Saxon again, but this time they do the lesson practice and evens or odds of the mixed practice on one lesson. This way they are getting the review of the last chapters without all of the (for my kids) unnecessary repetition. Friday, the kids do Timez Attack, a free game.

LA (Language Arts)- Monday-Wednesday, the kids read a McGuffey Reader lesson EXACTLY. I have found that they will skip over words or mispronounce something, so I read it with them. If they make a mistake, I have them read that sentence again. After they have read it, I have them write the lesson (or half of it) as copywork. They do the next half the following day and read the selection again. Alex will work through the lessons on Daily Grammar and I work with Sidney through First Language Lessons, which Alex joins us. After that I make up a sentence or two for them to write in cursive. Thursday, the kids write an original compostion on anything they like. I sometimes need to give my boy prompts, but my girl never runs out of stories. Friday, the kids turn in the final draft of their composition. We do not do Daily Grammar, FLL, or cursive on Thursdays or Fridays. 

Read(ing)- Monday-Thursday, I read aloud. This is the "L" on the schedule for Listen. The kids then read aloud, "A" on the schedule. We are going through What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know. This week I am reading, "Oliver Twist" and "The Secret Garden". The kids are taking turns reading the poems and speeches aloud. This week Alex is reading, "A Song of Greatness" and "The Road Not Taken". Sidney will read, "A Psalm of Life" and "Life E'vry Voice and Sing". The kids then read silently, "S". Alex is currently reading "Hatchet" and Sidney is reading "Eloise". Friday, the kids work on vocabulary.

Art- We are taking an art history class that has a lot of reading. Monday-Thursday, we do the reading and Friday we work on an art project. 

Hist(ory)- We are working through Story of the World, volume 2. You can see my other posts about this. 

Unit (study)- This is where science comes in. We are going to finish Earth science this year and then the kids want to do more random unit studies. Sidney wants to focus on animals and Alex wants more experiments and chemistry. 

Other- Typing and Seterra (geography game) twice a week. Spanish, 3x a week, and Latin 2x a week. 

Happy Homeschooling!

-Michele

p.s. "Proud Mommy Moment"

I have used a simple reading test for the kids since they started reading. The kids both took it this week. Alex is reading at almost 9th grade level and Sidney is reading at an 8th grade level! So proud of both of them.