Planning, Scheduling, Recording, Daily Stuff

I plan, but I don't schedule. I pray for the Father to order my day each and every day and life in our house demands flexibility. However, I realize that some kids thrive on having some sort of structure. So, I am trying something new with the boys. I made them homeschool charts that list their subjects and the days of the week. I gave them enough room in each box to write in what they did that day and a check mark to show that they completed it. Nathan is already planning what he will do the rest of the week for his Bible reading and asked me to help him plan his day tomorrow. He may be one that needs more structure. Jordan and Dylan, so far, are writing in what they do as they do it.

At the end of the day I will check their charts and if they have completed each box, they will get a star for the day. When they get 5 stars, they can choose from a reward box. The box will have things like 30 minutes of computer time, 1 hour of TV time, a movie rental (We don't allow a lot of time for TV or video games so these will be "prized"), matchbox cars, small prizes, etc. We also discussed saving stars for bigger prizes.

Here is what is listed on their charts: Bible reading (30 minutes daily) Memory verse (15 minutes daily) Hebrew lessons (15 minutes daily, 1 hour lesson per week) God's Awesome Acts (Jordan only) (1 lesson daily) Life skills (from Prepare and Pray, Contenders of the Faith or shop class) Explode the Code (Dylan only) (1 lesson per week, about 2 pages a day) Phonics Book C (Nathan only) (1-3 pages a day) Phonics/Spelling (We are going to try Eagle's Wings Phonics Handbook (One chart's lesson/activities per day) Grammar (1-2 pages) Italic Handwriting (1 page) Writing (1 lesson a week every other week, off weeks we write letters, journal, etc.) Reader (1 story, 1 poem per day) Geography (Mom directed) Science (1 lesson per week, Mom directed) Math (Textbook lesson, 1 Workbook exercise daily)Piano (Dylan only) (15 minutes daily, 30 minute lesson every two weeks) 

In Wyoming, I don't have to record keep and I am thankful, because I am not very good at it! I use the work they complete (notebooks, journals, etc) as a way to record what my children are doing in school. That is one reason why I love notebooking so much! Their notebooks are a detailed record of what they have learned.

When I started blogging, it was just a way to share what we are doing in our homeschool. However, it has become so much more! After the first week, I thought there was no way that I could keep it up. It took too much time. Then one day I was inspired to start a post to plan a lesson. What a time saver! (Thank you, Father!) Now, I plan our lessons in a blog post and and save it as a draft. I can refer back to it (this is especially helpful when I have links that I will be using). I have 4 drafts started already. Then I will publish them as we complete the lessons.

Here is a preview of what is coming up: Australia, New Zealand and Oceania for Geography, Swimming Creatures Lesson 1 - Aquatic Animals, Hunter's Education Home Study, & Preschool letter M.

So, I am using my blog to not only share what we are doing, but as a way to record keep and plan our lessons. I will not blog everything we do, but may share the boys' homeschool charts from time to time. Today, we worked on our memory verse. Each boy tested out on Ephesians 6:1-9 (the first half of our memory passage) and passed. I wrote the first letter on the board of each word in the verses and let them use that to test.

 

 Dylan has Ephesians 6:1-9 memorized without the hints.

 For grammar today, the boys made a prepositional bingo game to play. We discussed their writing assignment and I will hopefully share that this week. For Geography, we started our study on Australia, New Zealand and Oceania and they worked on Geography songs.

 Math is not an interesting subject to photograph and blog about - normally. (I may have to change that!) Today, Nathan is studying capacity and his assignment was to make his own measuring container to measure liters and milliliters. He poured 100 ml of water into the bottle and marked the level, poured another 100 ml and so on. Then he had to estimate and measure the capacity of 3 smaller containers and then 3 bigger containers. It was fun hearing the comments coming from the kitchen as he measured. When he measured a 2 l bottle of club soda, I heard him exclaim from the kitchen that it was exactly 2 liters! (He didn't know).

Math will be the last thing Jordan checks off, but I am praying that will change!