I said that I’d share our homeschooling schedule with you, but with so many people doing different things simultaneously, there are several schedules. It might be hard for you to mentally put them all together, but I’m going to list the schedules for my oldest three kids over the next few days, as well as the schedule for everyone else.
This year, my 12 and 13 year old daughters asked me if they could plan their own curriculum. Of course I said, yes – that’s the ideal, when your kids are motivated in their learning and have their own ideas about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. I showed her whatever curriculum type materials I have around and told her to feel free to use anything that struck her fancy, or not use any of it, as she liked.
Here is my 9th grade daughter’s schedule (we officially homeschool Mon – Thurs, Fri is preparations for Shabbos/Sabbath, and Sunday is for whatever they want to do):
- 7 am – wake up
- 7:30 – 8:30 – morning prayers
- 8:30 – 9 am – breakfast
- 9 – 9:30 – chores
- 9:30 – 10 – chumash/Bible
- 10 – 10:20 – Hebrew language and Hebrew writing, on alternate days
- 10:20 – 11:20 – math (Video Text Algebra – super excellent program but very, very expensive)
- 11:20 – 11:45 – piano practice (she put this in between her most intensive work on purpose, to give herself a mental break)
- 11:45 – 12:30 – writing – once a week using Writing Strands, twice a week using Critical Thinking Press materials, once a week spelling
- 12:30 – 1:30 – reading (this includes history, science, and literature)
- 1:30 – 2 pm – lunch
She also wanted to know if she could design a curriculum for our 6 yr old in the afternoons, so I agreed to that, too. He’ll feel special to spend that time with her.
- 2 – 2:20 – History/Hebrew on alternating days with 6 yo brother
- 2:20 – 3 pm – science with 6 yo (this is a big block of time for when she plans a project with him)
- 6:30 – dinner
As far as science and history with the 6 year old, this is a new thing and we’ll see how it plays out. She’s spoken to him about that things interest him, and taken out books from the library for him on those topics a few days ago. She told me today she needs to find more activities and projects for him so it will be something that is fun and interesting for him.
At the end of last week, a local mom hired her to come in from 2 – 5:30 pm on alternate days (that’s the max I was willing to allow her out) to help her out in her home. It looks as if it will be a long term position, so now it’s likely that she’ll just work with the 6 yo on the afternoons that she’s home. She’s also still thinking about her schedule and there will be tweaking for all of us to our schedules that we start out with. She said she and the 12 year old have been talking about learning halacha/Jewish law and Navi/Prophets together on a daily basis (until now that’s been informal, which is my preference), but hasn’t yet decided about that.
Some of you might think this schedule looks very rigid, and others might be thinking that she’s not spending enough time learning. 🙂 If it’s the latter, it’s probably because you’re comparing it to school (and you’re making the false assumption that time spent in school equals time spent learning), and if it’s the former, you’re probably unschoolers with young kids. :)) We have a lot of flow through our days, and I’ve found the schedules helping everyone to stay relaxed and get what they feel is important accomplished. It makes a big difference when something is externally imposed, and when someone chooses it for themselves. When our kids are doing their academic work, they’re pretty focused, and you can see how a motivated high schooler can easily finish everything by lunch time and have the rest of the day to spend as they want.
Avivah
