a day in the life of Home Ed @ the Roseberry's

It might seem like we've got a lot going on and truth be told, it took a few weeks to get into the hang of things. Definitely the most time-consuming part was figuring out what we were going to do this year. Now that we've kind of got a groove, the scheduled "schooling" part of our days is really easy. (Yes, I did say "easy" knowing that I could be shooting myself in the foot come tomorrow.)

From the time my K5-son was a wee babe, I've been encouraged to establish a routine for our days. We are not strict, set-the-timer schedule followers, but I have seen so many good things come out of having a general routine - both for my children and me. And now, five years after our first "routine" was established we have cherished "times" in each day including Bible Time, Table Time, Story Time etc.

When I started planning to "officially" educate K5-son, I wanted our days to flow in the same way they had been. I did not want him to feel a "jerk" into "schooling" and have a big schedule change. Therefore, I fit our "schooling" times into his normal routine, with just a few tweaks.

Our schedule for Term 1 of Kindergarten reflects how I would like things to go. This is our general flow - sometimes the times correspond to the schedule and most times they do not. Having this list printed and on the fridge helps me get back on track if the out of the ordinary happens - which does happen most days. (The highlighted parts of the schedule reflect the "official" 4 hours per day of "schooling".)

When I make up a new routine, it takes a week or two before it becomes habit, so I mostly look at the "schedule" for the first couple of weeks and then after that, the kids generally remind me what we do next.

I found the the book "Managers of their Homes" to be a good tool to learn how to make schedules and fit everything in that you want to fit in (like time for playing and exploration and reading aloud). I borrowed this book from a friend and learned their method of making a schedule. I don't use the book or forms for making my schedules now. I just use Excel or a spreadsheet in Google Docs. In my opinion, the content of the book is not worth the expense, unless you want pre-made paper forms.

My kids don't know that the schedule exists. They do know the pattern in which we do things. It makes life easier for me and more predictable for them - and they thrive.

weekly planning

Each Friday afternoon I get ready for the following week. So far, I like planning on a weekly basis so that I can tweak the plan based on what we accomplished the previous week.

At the beginning of the year I created a term-long Master Lesson Plans document that showed each lesson I wanted us to do in each subject. For instance, in Math, I put in each of the worksheet numbers for the Miquon Orange Book, but also added lessons in for introducing a concept (like subtraction) with time for playing with manipulatives and other games to help my K5-son grasp the concept before we went to the abstract work of reading and writing the math sentences (3-2=1).

I update the "Lesson Plans" document on Fridays to mark what we accomplished the previous week. I've taken care not to add dates to the lesson plans since I want to be flexible and go with my K5-son's flow and not force him to go with mine.

After noting our progress in the Lesson Plans document, I plan out what our goals are for the following week. I use a printed version of my Weekly Planner Template. I write the dates at the top and fill in which math lesson, history story, etc. he should do during the week . I check off each thing that we accomplish and put an X by the things we didn't do. (see completed version) On some subjects I have space for my K3-daughter, but lately I've just been letting her choose a folder game or two, letting her color a page in her shapes book or Handwriting without Tears Preschool workbook and letting her play with some math manipulative like Cuisenaire rods.

After making my Weekly Plans, I put the appropriate worksheets in my K5-son's folders. I have 5 manila folders in our file cabinet marked for each day of the week (Monday-Friday). (I got this idea from Preschoolers and Peace.) Usually we only have two worksheets in each folder - Nature Journal page and a Miquon Math sheet. My K5-son completes these during morning Table Time.

This weekly planning session usually takes me around 15-20 minutes and is working really well for us. Since his work is already organized according to day, he knows right what to get and usually gets started working without me in the room.

For archival purposes, I scan in the completed Weekly Planning sheet and save it on my computer. This will help me in subsequent years to see just how much we actually did day by day in Kindergarten and also provide proof that I am actually schooling should I ever need it legally.

planning for the school year

I found the workbook from Simply Charlotte Mason, Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education, to be extremely helpful. The book walks you through simple steps starting with determining your "Big Picture" down to planning your day.

I bought the hard-copy version and am glad that I did. However, a purchaser of the book can also download additional copies of the charts and forms.

I decided to make my own charts in Word, based on hers, but with my own tweaks.

Here are a couple of examples (I made them in July and they are now a bit out of date. They helped me get started though.)

2009 - 2010 Term Schedule

From home_education

Term 1 Weekly Schedule

From home_education