This post, Stacking Up Your Homeschool Day, was written for Sonlight Curriculum.
While I don't need to have every minute of our day scheduled, I am always happy when our days fall into a steady routine.
I used to rely on a checklist of subjects I wanted to get done each day to establish a routine, but lately I rely on our Sonlight stack.
When we start a new week, I now grab our stack of books and place them on my bed. One stack for Malachi and Eliana. One stack for Bo.
Homeschooling lately means I only have to grab our stack and work through it.
My favorite part is when I get to put a finished book back on the shelf and grab a new book to add to our stack. But I also love knowing that when we get through our stack, we have completed our day.
Of course, we don't always get through our stack, so the books we don't get to go on the top of our stack for the next day to do first.
Our Sonlight stack is always changing, so at the end of the week, I shelve any books we have completed and pull out any new books we will be using. Then I stack them in the cupboard and close the door, ready for a new week.
If you like making lists, you can list the books or subjects in the order you want to do them and work through your list much like we work through our stack, moving anything that doesn't get done to the top of your list to do tomorrow.
The goal is to do school consistently everyday because children thrive with routine.
While I love the freedom we have as homeschoolers and don't mind taking a day off now and then or schooling at various times of the day, homeschooling is a priority in our day because it's our job.
So, what matters is that, barring unusual circumstances, we steadily progress through our curriculum.
Bonus points if you share on Instagram using Sonlight's hashtag #sonlightstack.
I'll be watching for your stacks!
6 Steps to Fit in All the Subjects for Homeschooling Each Day is another great article from the Sonlight blog that's worth a look for managing your homeschool day.
However, don't be confined to a daily routine if a weekly routine works better — schedule in blocks or chunks and only pull out the books you need based on which subjects you study that day.
No matter how your day stacks up, just keep working through it — one book at a time!
Moving on to the Middle East, Israel, and Saudi Arabia
Our travels lately take us through another amazing pile of books!
Shadow Spinner was our favorite. I especially loved the lessons for life and storytelling, and that I'm learning to chew my words seven times before I let them out.
One lesson that really sticks out to me is that when we hear a story, certain parts of the story stick out to us more than others. So if I get an important message out of a story, that doesn't mean my children will get the same message. During our conversations about books now, I often ask what was meaningful to my children. Often, their answers surprise me.
I liked that the main character name, Sharazad, also appears in the book Seven Daughters and Seven Sons, which we also loved. And she will come up again when we get to Africa.
I liked that the main character name, Sharazad, also appears in the book Seven Daughters and Seven Sons, which we also loved. And she will come up again when we get to Africa.
For our Choose Your Adventure, we decided on a recipe for Apples in Pajamas. I had just ordered a case of apples from our local food co-op, so I was happy to make something with apples... and well, fried food.
I'm really loving how our homeschool day is stacking up so far!
Previous editions, in case you missed them:
- Being Content with Your Curriculum
- How I Set Up Our Sonlight Instructor Guides | No Flipping Required
- Itinerary for an Eastern Hemisphere Education
- Travel to China from the Comfort of Your Couch
- Keeping Up with Current Events, North Korea, South Korea and Japan
- Reading Through Russia, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, and India
- Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight
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I love the picture of the pile of books. It gives me a little thrill to see books waiting to be explored.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Books and food....delightful combination! Those apples in pajamas look good! I stack books similarly to get through them, too.
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