With Benjamin in 3rd grade, Joanna in 2nd, Ezra in 1st, and 3 preschoolers/toddlers, here's what our days look like right now:
Early morning:
The kids are up at 6:00, and they have a little over an hour to play before our clean up/chore alarm goes off between 7:15 and 7:30. They clean up their toys, get dressed, and do their dishes or laundry jobs. The older kids have taken over about 2/3 of the laundry jobs, which has been amazing!!
We have breakfast, then all the kids have "book time" (reading or looking at books of their choice), while I finish cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready for the day.
On a good day, I like to read a few picture books to the younger boys, then do "morning time" with the older kids. Morning time includes "Bedtime Math", working through "Our 24 Family Ways" devotional book, and reading a poem. If we're running behind, we'll skip this and go straight to the next part of our morning.
Next up is our table work. The three older kids all have a few activities that they complete at the table, while I rotate working individually with them for 10-15 minutes. I'm currently teaching Ezra to read, by working through Alphaphonics. He practices writing letters, then is free to draw or look at a book for the rest of table time. In our one on one time, both Benjamin and Joanna read aloud to me, just to work on comprehension, pronunciation, and reading slowly (paying attention and not skipping words!).
For the rest of his table work, Benjamin does a couple of pages in Abeka's Arithmetic 2, does a page of handwriting practice, either from a workbook, or by writing out a Bible verse. He also completes a couple of pages of grammar from "Daily Guided Teaching and Review for 2nd & 3rd Grades", from the Easy Grammar curriculum. This has been a great basic grammar book to start with, but I'm soon going to be switching him to "Learning Language Arts Through Literature", which is a bit more comprehensive and includes spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, penmanship and cursive writing, and thinking skills. I'm planning on doing this with him during our one on one time instead of having him read to me.
Joanna's table work includes doing two pages of Arithmetic 1, a handwriting page (she just finished a cursive writing practice book, per her request), and a page from a basic grammar book. Once she's finished with that book, she'll be moving on to the Easy Grammar book Ben has been doing.
It usually takes about an hour for us to complete these tasks.
I finish up our school time by reading aloud a chapter from a Life of Fred book, and a section from our history book. We're doing American History this year, using "A Living History of Our World: America's Story", a Charlotte Mason style history book. I simply read a section, and if applicable, the kids will add an illustration to the timeline we're making.
Then, the kids clean up the table and spend a few minutes outside while I make lunch. I usually read a chapter from our current read-aloud (Farmer Boy, right now) while the kids eat. Then, we spend about two hours at "rest time", which means everyone goes to a separate space and does quiet activities (usually reading, drawing, or Legos). The rest of our afternoon is free time before the craziness of clean up/dinner/bedtime routines begin!
This is our "typical" school schedule, but it only actually happens 3-4 days per week. We take most of Wednesdays off, since Seth is home, every other Friday we have a co-op with friends, and I have put Tuesdays aside as "fun" days. Tuesday is our day to do extra things I can't get to on normal days; art, games, sometimes oral spelling or creative writing. We do our normal school day on Saturday, since Seth is at work anyway.
Also, this is what happens on good days! ;) We have plenty of bad days too! The younger boys typically play together or watch a movie during school, but if one of them is especially cranky, I might need to do more with them and skip some of our school stuff. We also deal with our share of complaining and bad attitudes! Just today, one kid got in trouble for having a bad attitude, and one of the kids write this note:
Everything is a work in progress! But finding curriculum that I like and works for us, and having a dedicated school time where that is my sole focus has completely changed our days and what we are able to accomplish!
