Rampin' up for homeschool

After about 5 years of being my kids' primary educator, I finally had a good year last year!  That's not to say that I never blew it; my head did spin around a few times, but never actually shot off.

This is what worked last year, and will be used this year, with some modifications for Number One.

We have 5 boys, I don't school them all at home.  I would like to do a good job at schooling them all, but I'm just not there.  Tom has his hearing impairment and other delays that make me nutty; Bis is an attention seeker.  Bis has greatly improved, he no longer breaks everything, or lies all the time - but he likes to play dumb and that instantly makes me furious.  My problem, not his, but until I master my fury, he needs to not school at home.

Last year I had Yo and EQ at home, this year Number One will be home, too.  I have missed having #1 at home. 

Back to what works for us.  I have a set daily schedule of things we do together:

The far right column, free choice, has nothing to do with the specific days; I just had room in the margin so made a list there.   So there are things we do together, like every day at 12 I read to the boys for an hour, yep an hour.  On Tuesdays at 2 we watch a documentary.  You get the idea.

Free choice are for those times that we do not school together.  The boys have folders with tabs for each free choice item.  We have about 15 hours that are not filled in the week, and about 12 hours of free choice options to fill those hours.  I know from experience that we don't always fill our time; and that's OKAY! Honestly, even if your homeschool friends tell you they stick to a schedule and never stray....they are lying, or just better than me.

Here is what Number One's folder looks like:

Each day has 3 hours of free choice.  The boys plan their day in the morning to fill those three hours.  They choose.  Seth may choose to do all of his math on Monday, that's cool, no problem.  EQ may choose building, spelling, Bible reading, art and cooking, great! 

It's good to have choice.  My boys like choice, but at the end of the week, they need to have all of the tabs moved to the done spot in their folders.  So they can put off spelling, but it still has to be done.  If I get a grumpy kid I can point out that they planned their day, not me, so buck up.  A boy that gets things all done before Friday gets to sleep in, and knock off early...whooohooo!

I have a list of local hikes we want to take, so I am ready for Friday's 10-12 hike.  I have lists of parks, so we are ready for park day. 

Suggestions for writing times:
picture writing (cut pics from magazines, write a story, use pics to illustrate)
creative writing
be a reporter
diary entry
book report
documentary report
change the ending of a story

Ideas for art:
photography
hot wax drawing (paper on hot plate like you use for pancakes, crayons to draw with)
paint with toes
sketch
silhouettes
illustrate a book you are reading
cave painting
torn paper
mosaic

We will be using nature journals that I'll order up for us in the next week or two.  For history we will keep a timeline and tie it in to biblical history.  Cooking includes finding a recipe, making a list for the store, and making the food item. 

Refer to links for where we do our spelling, and where we get our news, or do math on the computer. 

I'll post a book list on another day.