This is what our homeschool day looks like this year. I usually wake up by about 8, I got into the habit of waking up early back in Burk when I had a job and it's stuck with me. I usually lay there awhile and snuggle with whichever kids are in my bed. Usually it's Lily and Lacey but sometimes it's just one or the other. Then I read two chapters in my Bible and say my prayers before I get out of bed. I've found that once I'm up I lose track of time and if I don't read my Bible first thing a lot of times I just never get back around to it. Sometimes the girls stay with me and I read aloud, other times they go off in the other room to feed our pets or wake the other kids up.Then I make my bed (another habit I'm trying to get into) and rotate the laundry. Once I wake the other kids up Ashley takes her dog Momo for a walk and the other kids pick their pillows and blankets up out of the living room. Both little girls and sometimes Kyle sleep in the living room. Don't ask me why, they have beds, I promise you. But they always want to sleep in the living room. All my kids wake up very easily, usually they are already wake. I've never really enforced bedtimes but I've always made it clear I will not fight to wake them up. If they don't get up when I wake them up they will definitely go to bed on time that night. I think I get that from my dad he used to say if you can't fly with the eagles don't hang with the owls. Or something like that. I interpret to mean take responsibility for your actions. Then we sit at the table and do our prayer and Bible time. We work on 1 verse a week. We just started doing the prayer and Bible verses this year. I really like it, I never did it before because well, it seemed a little dorky. But it's made such a difference in our lives and attitudes, I'm a believer! We also go over our Joshua Contract, family policies, house rules. Whatever they are, we haven't actually named them. This is something else we just started this past April. We have done The 21 Rules Of This House before, this is kinda the same. All this takes about 30 minutes. After that Kyle and Lacey get on their computers to start their lessons while I cook breakfast. I love the school the kids are doing this year! It's an online program that they seem to enjoy. Well Lacey and Lily LOVE it, Kyle likes some of it, some of it not so much. If they get done with all their lessons early sometimes they will do extra, sometimes not. Ashley only does math online. She doesn't like doing school on the computer so most of her schoolwork is bookwork. She usually starts with reading, she's reading a religious book, a literature/reading book and a Biology book. The Biology book is a Sonlight book, Introduction to Biology by John Holzmann. When she finishes this book she will start Apologia Biology. She did an Apologia Science (I forget which one, I think Physical Science) in Burk with the Homeschool Enrichment group and really liked it and wanted to use Apologia again this year. I'm not that impressed with it and my older daughter HATED doing Apologia. But she really wasn't into Science. For the other two books she chooses one from our religious shelf and one from our reading shelf. I'm trying to get her to read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn or something (I don't know) classicky? So far no luck. The last book she read was Creature by John Saul that Donna had checked out from the library. I did tell her this book had to beone from our shelf. So she is reading It's a Jungle Out There, it's also a Sonlight book. She picked it out but I'm not sure if she is enjoying it or not. The last book is How to Stay Christian in High School. I just realized all three are actually Sonlight books. That's not really that surprising I love their books and buy them quite a bit. For Language she is doing Alpha Omega Lifepacs. I'm not going to say anything about Lifepacs except that it's what she chose to do. We do History together every other day. So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we read aloud from Eyewitness on History. Right now we are working on the Immigration book. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she does History on her own, usually it's write a letter or journal entry. We just started doing a Proverbs 31 Bible study together last week. We do it one day a week. She does her schoolwork off and on through out the day taking breaks to watch t.v, walk her dog, text her friends or boyfriend. She is really into walking and usually walks down to the cemetery a couple times a day. Sometimes she is still doing school at 10:00 at night. I pretty much leave her alone as long as she stays pretty much on track. I make her up a weekly schedule and she usually gets it done by Saturday anyway. Kyle and Lacey both do all their work on the computer. Lacey swaps out with Lily so when she wants a break Lily gets on for awhile. Lily has her own Pre-K program online and also does Starfall. The two just swap back and forth through out the day sharing the computer. When Lacey isn't on the computer she is usually either reading something, writing or drawing or playing outside.When Lily isn't on the computer she is usually playing on her Innotab, looking at books or playing outside. I have a bunch of workbooks laying around, mostly from the dollar tree, sometimes the girls will do worksheets ( Lily especially likes cutting up the old ones and gluing the pictures on construction paper). And lately Lacey has been making up math problems to solve. Me and Lacey had been doing reading lesson everyday but now she just reads to me off and on when the mood strikes. Kyle works pretty steady on his lessons and a lot of times he sets his alarm and wakes up early. He has learned the quicker he gets done the quicker he can get to his true loves, the Wii and computer. The house rule is 2 hours of screen time but it's not strictly enforced. Sometimes he is on as much as three or four hours but I do try to limit screen time and encourage him to play outside, read or play Lego's. Right now he is reading Robinson Crusoe They all have chores, they do their chores. I usually clean house, do dishes, laundry, help out, answer questions, etc. while they do their school. They take breaks pretty much when they want, breaks are usually only 15-30 minutes. We don't have a set lunch time. We eat when they start saying they are hungry, sometimes I cook, sometimes it's sandwiches or leftovers. After school is done they play with their cousins, go swimming or do whatever they want. They start on baths about 8:00 and the girls lay down to watch a movie by about 9:30. Me and Shane usually do our devotions together around 8:30 or 9:00. Kyle reads his Bible then plays in his room until about 10:30 then he lays in his room or in the living room. Ashley's official bed time is 12:00 but I rarely enforce it because she usually goes to bed earlier so on nights she's up later I don't say anything. I know it sounds like I never enforce rules, I kinda do and I kinda don't. Most of the rules in our house are more like timeframes and goals than hard and fast rules, if that makes sense. This is pretty much how we've been doing school for the last year and it seems to be working.
If you found this post interesting or helpful , please share it!
No comments:
Post a Comment