School in a Day

I promised I'd post about how we fit our school plans into our day.

This is my attempt to do that.

But don't forget that this is coming from an amateur.

I'm no where near having it all together.

In fact, there is generally one point in my everyday where I feel overwhelmed.

Then again, thats just motherhood for you!

What matters is that at the end of the day I still love being a mom, having the opportunity to be home with my kids and to teach them.

I wouldn't change any of it.

I am content.

Enough rambling.

Here goes.

My biggest help is this handy dandy binder.

It contains the master plan.

Plus a million other things.

I have a schedule for each day of things that I want to get accomplished.

A wannabe lesson plan, if you will.

Complete with book page numbers and activity descriptions.

At least until Christmas.

(Note to self: Get Christams planning done!!)

I keep a circle time plan in my binder.

75% of our learning happens here so its kinda important.

And my head is a little foggy at 9am.

(Yes, I'm one of those.)

A little guidance helps immensely!

A lot of lists can be found in my binder, too.

Like craft and activity ideas for upcoming themes.

Books I need to reserve at the library.

Songs we'll want to learn.

Its ALL there!

Finally, our calendar board is a huge source of organizing our learning.

We use it each morning during circle time.

The girls love being the ones to add the date or the weather.

The printables for our board were found at the following sites:

Calendar and Seasons: Montessori For Everyone

Weather and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow?: Confessions of a Homeschooler

Color of the Day: 1+1+1=1

Memory Verse: Totally Tots

( We have some extra space left in the top left hand corner. I'm thinking we'll put a hundreds chart there to count to our 100th day of school (from 1+1+1=1). )

In terms of how we fit our school time into our day, its pretty simple.

We spend 30 -45 minutes in the morning (usually) doing our circle time.

This includes our calendar board activities, Bible lesson and All About Reading lesson.

Everything else (ie. nature studies, cooking lessons, math, french, and themed workbox activites) gets fit in where I can find a good place for it.

I try my best to do it on the day on which I had originally planned it in our schedule.

But it doesn't always work that way.

And it is rare that we accomplish everything I set out for us to do in the week.

As long as a good chunk of it gets done, I'm happy!

Also helpful has been my husband's suggestion to make Friday a free day!

Nothing is planned for that day.

Instead it is reserved for catching up on schoolwork or housework or simply to get out and do something fun!

(Sometimes I do all 3!)

But its been wonderful in giving me some space to get things completed!

I'm enjoying this new level of organization for us this year.

It keeps me in order and not feeling like I'm pulling things together at the last minute.

Running around like a chicken with my head cut off is never fun!

As well, I love that homeschooling is something that you incorporate into your life.

The idea that you sit you kids at a desk for 8 hours a day in the basement is a false one.

We're living together, learning together and growing together.

And its beautiful.

(And frustrating and rewarding and time consuming and a blessing...)

In the end, I have no advice for how to 'do it all'.

Except to say that you simply don't.

Nor can you.

Its all a process of learning how to balance and manage it all and deciding what's most important.

A domestic triage, perhaps?