# Daily schedule



## Marthas_minis (Jan 28, 2014)

We're homeschooling my son this summer to try it out for various reasons. A little nervous, obviously. Mainly worried how I will handle being with DS all day, everyday and how it will work into my schedule. Or non-schedule.  

I spend most mornings in the garden while it is still cool and just "putter" around. It's much more involved than that but it feels like I am going to have to actually structure my time rather than my current "flow" method. 

We're going to be doing the usual summer camps, swim team, etc. but in the past I've found we spend a lot of time looking for things to do so it looks like homeschool activities will fill those blank spots this summer.

What does your daily homeschool schedule look like? Do you homeschool during summer too? How do you balance homeschooling and alone time? 

-MM


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

First of all - how old is your son? His age will probably have a lot to do with how much you need to be involved in his daily schedule.

My kids are in 7th and 10th. They have "regular" school work that is done each week (math, foreign language, history, writing) that I don't supervise directly because they don't need me to anymore. So I get them going ("e.g. I want you to get started on that XYZ and show me a draft in about an hour"). 

I don't have to stay in the room (or even in the house) but, since they are kids, it is not a big surprise to sometimes find that they have been getting little done. So I am in and out of their work area most of the morning. 

But, when they were younger, there was usually at least one kid at the dining room table working while I was doing other things, and/or me sitting with one of them working on something.

So...it really depends on your son's age, his interest in the subjects (e.g. some kids will write computer programming all day on their own, but have to be forced to write a paragraph)...and also the materials you use. 

We do some subjects all year long with some breaks -- math, foreign language, reading and writing (although less formally than during the school year). It's just easier that way, and my kids do get bored in the summer so it's easy to give them one or two things to do and then they feel like they have "free time" after they are done.


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## HTWannabee (Jan 19, 2007)

You can work your schedule around your gardening or other chores. We tend to start the actual school day around 10:00 because I like to do chores in the morning. I know some families that get their children up and get to it around 8:30 but they have no garden or animals to care for. The actual school day takes half the time it will in a school environment so your child will have more time for hobbies and other interests. That frees you up too. I hope that helps!

I am in the NE and we take the summers off. We get a lot done in the winter and tend to finish up at the end of May. However, I know of families in the south that do much of their schooling in summer when it is too hot out and take the more moderate seasons off to work outside.


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## Marthas_minis (Jan 28, 2014)

He's 10, high energy, psychologist & neurologist diagnosed as moderately ADHD with some Aspergers-like behaviors but we don't medicate because it just killed his personality and enthusiasm. 

He does great one on one but sometimes it does take a lot of energy to keep him focused. I often say it's like the world simply isn't big enough for him because he wants to see and experience -everything- and all at the same time. Very bright and LOVES learning to the point that I've let him guide me to decide some of the content he'll learn. 

"Math! Lots and lots of Math! And bugs! It's summer so insects are everywhere." 

I'd like to do as much as I can with him. Some things I can probably leave him to do by himself but he really seems to prefer to be interactive. 
Right now, we are reading The Cricket in Times Square together. He is reading at a more advanced level but I realized that although he knows certain words, he doesn't know how to pronounce them correctly. 
I found free comprehension curriculum for this book online so we are reading it aloud then using the comprehension questions to discuss it. He's doing really well and it's so nice to know what it is he is picking up. We never had this level of communication in school. His discussions points are well thought out and he's often surprised me with how much he understands. 

I am using some of Hoagies Gifted recommendations for curriculum. 

- Math: Jacobs' Mathematics: A Human Endeavor 

- The Hands-on Equations Learning System to supplement. I figured this would be good to have to supplement any math curriculum. 

- Real Science Biology text w/ Labs. 

This is all I have so far but I also ordered an Entomology text (for kids) and a book called the Thinking Toolbox which focuses on Logic. 

I am still looking for a language arts curriculum. I really like what I've read about the Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts but I am still looking for some real reviews on it. It's pricing is not bad for what you get but it's out of our budget this month. 
Which is fine because it's still summer. 

We're in Texas so the heat is almost unbearable after 11:00am. I've been speaking with some other area homeschool parents and my little community actually has quite a large homeschool population. 

Large enough that we have an active Robotics club and a One Day Academy with a huge, very well rounded course offering for k-12. I am really excited to learn about the One Day Academy. They even offer things like Latin, Engineering, and Robotics in addition to things like study skills for his grade level. 

Right now, I am trying to figure out ways to structure his class time. 
All subjects, everyday for X amount of hours or broken up like college classes where he has certain subjects on certain days, etc?

I am thinking he can be searching out the garden for insects while I weed, etc. We've always been into teaching our kids as we go. DD jokes that I turn everything into a teachable moment. I'm ok with that.  

I'm realizing that homeschooling is not that far a stretch from what we were doing already. It's just with a set, organized curriculum rather than just what we know or help our kids seek out. 

-MM


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

Marthas_minis said:


> I'm realizing that homeschooling is not that far a stretch from what we were doing already. It's just with a set, organized curriculum rather than just what we know or help our kids seek out.
> 
> -MM


I disagree that you have to have a set, organized curriculum to homeschool, especially prior to high school. Different things work for different kids, and if something isn't working - you change it. No need to gut it out for the remainder of the year. Or, if you get some great opportunity or inspiration mid year....you go for it! Learning doesn't have to be organized.  That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Obviously you have to have some goals - but if learning math is the goal (for example), you can skip around in your materials, play games, change materials, join a math club, etc. I think that when it's too rigid it becomes boring and tedious.


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

I was just coming to start a thread about this, how funny.

My boy is five. He'll start first grade work in August and we'll wrap up K in July. It is very catch as can here... I have more of a goals list that we check off each day/X number of times each week, rather than a set "Now, sit. Do this worksheet" thing going on. Since I don't stop for long stretches, I feel less pressure to cram everything in throughout the traditional school year. 


If this is disjointed, I'm sorry. Said boy is noisily building at my feet and his baby sister is involved. You get my drift I hope, lol. 

I am a huge introvert. My kids are small, so alone time looks like me throwing them at their father and going out for an hour.


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## anahatalotus (Oct 25, 2012)

My kids are six and three and our homeschooling schedule is somewhere between Waldorf and unschooling clashing with the states quieted texts, lol. Basically I let my daughter choose a theme for the week then we explore it as a group. So for instance she wanted to learn about butterflies, the required math was patterns. We made butterflies and arranged them in patterns. We drew the life cycle of the butterfly and she arranged it in order, sort of a pattern. Each day she would do a work book page that I would bring to life with our craft projects. So instead of long at the circle square square circle pattern I would draw a butterfly with different shaped wings. 
Typically I spend early morning in the garden then do an online bible study. If my kids wake up while I'm doing this, I read out loud and it have them read key word I write. Then it counts as a reading lesson. 
I. Think for your son getting an entomology kit and having him start a bug collection would fulfill his interest in bugs and help him with science as well. Some kids with similar characteristics do a lot better when interacting with animals than with people. Perhaps you could teach him how to identify different types of bugs, feed them to chickens and observe which ones they prefer. Or maybe that's to simple for him given his age is older than my kids. Sorry for rambling but I too have been having a tough time with a summer schedule, lol.


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

I was actually working on a bug unit study last night. Did you know you can buy mantis egg cases? Put them in a cage, they hatch, billions of tiny baby mantids tumble out to be released into your garden. 

I think we're going butterfly watching today. If mine were older I might let him catch some... I don't know how I feel about turning a wild five year old loose on some fragile creature. I may catch a few myself and pop them into paper bags- you leave them for a bit and then release. If they were female, you're likely to have eggs inside the bag to care for and watch grow.

BUTTERFLY PATTERNS. Previous poster is a genius. I'm still figuring out how to tie everything together.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

Does he have a microscope of decent quality? There are places to buy used ones at a reduced rate. If we were closer to our grandson I would be working/experimenting with bug collection and showing him what's there beyond unaided sight. Be careful if you see a battery powered bug vacumn as a toy. I found it not to be very powerful and instead of sucking bugs/wasps into a safe chamber it just makes them MAD! :sob:


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## Canning Girl (Jan 13, 2010)

I have 3 children, ages 10, 10, and 8. I have them working this summer on things that I don't want them to forget or lose ground on, so after lunch, I have them go through 30-minute "stations" and take turns doing piano, math, and Rosetta Stone Spanish. They moan about it, but it keeps them from being bored, and hopefully it will keep me from having to review/reteach in the fall.


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## FarmFamily (Feb 12, 2014)

We homeschool our 3. Ages 9, 12 and 13. I had plans to continue our full lessons throughout the summer but I don't think that is going to work out due to our busy gardening/canning schedule right now. So we are going to simplify our studies until things slow down a bit around here.We are working through the Prairie Primer (a relaxed version of PP) and still have a few books to go so we plan to continue that. We are going to have Math Mondays where we work on our facts and my oldest will finish up her math text. All of mine are in the middle of reading a book and I'll have them finish those which will be within the next week. Other than that it will be helping with garden/canning duties and leisure reading until the gardens putter out.


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