Work Schedule

We're working into our weekday work cycle with the children.  I've heard from other parents who do homeschooling full time that they can get accomplished in three hours the same amount of school work done in a full day of classroom-based school.   There are bits of time lost as the children move from the classroom to the lunchroom, take bathroom breaks as a group, have P.E. lunch, snack, etc.   I don't know if this is true for us, but we're basing our day on a schedule that puts all the main learning in the morning and leaves the afternoon for other activities.

We've received information from both my son's Montessori teachers as well as my daughter's main classroom and VI teachers at the end of last week and we're integrating that into our schedule and making changes where necessary.  We had a schedule worked out, based on our neighbor's timeline.   My son thought it was okay, but he wanted to make changes.   Here's what he came up with:



My daughter liked the schedule so we went with it.   There are several things I like about the schedule, the first being that we don't start until nine o'clock.   This is loads better than getting up, rushing to get the children fed, teeth brushed, bags ready, outerwear on and out the door when the cab arrives at 7:40am for my daughter and then 8:00 off to school with my son.   I have to get ready in that time too unless I want to go out in my pajamas, which I have.

Starting at nine o'clock lets my children wake up on their own, get themselves breakfast and then have school in their pajamas for the first part of the morning.   The downside is my husband and I have turned into teachers, which takes a lot of the day's schedule up for both of us.   We have two bright children, but they're only eight and nine and they need a lot of management as they go through their assignments.

Things are going well though.   I much prefer them being educated by teachers who know what they're doing, but they've given us the tools and materials to do a fairly decent job while we're here at home for the next month or two.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been alternately a nightmare and a dream to work with for home school.   His teachers sent work he's familiar with.  He and I came up with a work menu of things he can choose from throughout the week.   He did some work gladly, but lost his mind entirely and had a fit of epic proportions about other things.   Some of the issues were things weren't exactly the way they are at school.  I didn't do things the right way, apparently.   He explained how things worked at school and I told him how that wasn't possible while we were at home and we had to do the best we could.   Once he settles into the change, he's going to be fine.   Today, after finishing his main work, he wanted me to print a copy of the United States.  He colored each state and then started to cut them out.   He asked for a second copy of the map so he could create a puzzle.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is more than willing to work.  Our issue with her is having enough work for her to do.   We have some information from her teachers but not very much from her VI teachers yet.   They emailed to say they were working on things and we'd hear from them soon.   In the meantime, my daughter is reading until her fingers get tired, doing creative writing and creating homework for me to complete. Tomorrow she's going to correct the four pages of homework I completed today in between other work.   I still have three pages to go.   She's given me some good problems that have been more difficult than I expected.   She's my teacher too.