# Need help figuring a schedule



## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

This is my first year homeschooling. My daughters are 14 and 4. I am trying to pick up curriculum for next year and want to work on planning our days. How many days a week do I plan for each subject? We work on a 4 day week. My older daughter uses Switched on Schoolhouse and her lessons are planned for her, its my younger daughter I am having a hard time planning. Could someone give me a sample schedule of which subjects need to be taught daily, weekly or every other day?


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

With my newly 5 year old I touch on all the "main" subjects every day (4 day schedule). Reading, Math, and Writing. At this age, I just do it until they get too wiggly, a page or two. Then we read aloud with a coloring page. This year I am doing just whatever books I feel like. Next year I am going to start The Story Of The World, this comes with an activity book that is great. I have some science books but I really don't do much this young. They get so much with just outdoor "mud" experiments .


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

I have chosen the curriculum, I just need to know how many days of each subject is appropriate for a 5 yr old. My daughter is such an eager learner, she wants MORE MORE MORE everyday. I dont want her to burn out. When we started preschool this year she would do a weeks worth of work that I had planned in one day. She wasnt satisfied with doing just preschool things so I started her on Kindergarten work. She is almost half way through the Kindergarten stuff I planned. 

For next year I have bought the Math U See Primer, All about Spelling level 1, Exploring Creation Zoology 1, Explode the Code books 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5, and First Language Lessons for the well trained mind. 

Since September she has completed the Primer Explore the code books (3 of them), we are half way through Teach your Child to Read in 100 Lessons, and have been working on the Exploring Creation with Astronomy books. She can tell time, she knows the basics of money and have completed many of the Kumon workbooks (love those!) She absolutely LOVES schoolwork, working out of workbooks and constantly begs to do more. 

I want to balance out the schoolwork but I am not sure exactly how much of each subject a day I should be doing with her. I have been letting her go at her pace but she will literally want to do 20 worksheets a day. She finished the last Explore the Code book in 3 days. 

I have four kids and my Goddaughter. My oldest son is in College, my 17 yr old is autistic and attends a private school for kids with autism, I homeschool my 14 yr old, my 4 yr old and my 3 yr old Goddaughter. When I started out this year we were mainly doing PreK work, which my Goddaughter loves, but my 4 yr old wanted "real" work. Do I let her go at her own pace or do I limit each day? 

I also want to add.. this is my first year of homeschooling so I have no previous experience. My other kids have always battled me when it came to homework or reading. This is unchartered waters for me lol


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## christij (Mar 5, 2006)

Your little one sounds like mine. DD just turned four in Jan and we have been working on preschool material from Brightly Beaming. I shoot for planned work 2 days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays. But it doesn't matter what day of the week she asks to do something. Last night, she was asking to "study" by writing animal names. We would pick an animal. I would write and then she would spell and rewrite it herself. So next year I have decided that we will start K material even though she will be 4 1/2 in the fall. So I will be checking out the materails you listed. 
Good luck planning out next year!


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

Christie, that is exactly how my daughter is too. We have been working three days a week, but every day she begs to do school. Its constantly on her mind 24/7. I dont want to overwhelm her but she enjoys it so much. 

I forgot to add that I also bought the first three books in the Draw Write Now series and we also will be using Growing up in Gods World for bible.


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## BusyBees2 (Dec 10, 2004)

You could also offer her learning manipulatives and learning games. These would still be learning, but fun! They'd be perfect for the two youngers ones to do together. You wouldn't want her to be burnt out by 2nd grade because it was no longer fun.

Encourage her to see all the learning opportunities, even if they aren't book & paper.


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

I agree with BusyBees, I wouldn't burn her out too much on just work book pages. If she still wants to do "school" after 2 or 3 workbook pages, load up on learning games, most of the catalogs have pages of them, and we have a book about making your own math and reading learning games, grades K-3. Also pick great books to read to her. What about starting the Little House Books. All of this is learning, don't put learning into too small of a box.


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

I have a bunch of other learning things that are not in a book. She loves the magnetic letters/numbers, games etc. She WANTS the bookwork though. She literally begs for it. I started the year with nothing that was "formal". We worked on lapbooks and reading. We play with playdough and her new favorite, Pixos. She didnt want to do just "baby" things. 

We take a lot of trips, we have a great homeschool group and we are always on the go. We just got back from going to Disney for homeschool week. I am taking the girls to Mexico to see the Mayan ruins firsthand. The bookwork is easy for her, she gets it and really likes it. My problem is I cant fit it all into one day. I need to figure out how much gets done each day to balance it all out.


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

Jakk said:


> I have a bunch of other learning things that are not in a book. She loves the magnetic letters/numbers, games etc. She WANTS the bookwork though. She literally begs for it. I started the year with nothing that was "formal". We worked on lapbooks and reading. We play with playdough and her new favorite, Pixos. She didnt want to do just "baby" things.
> 
> We take a lot of trips, we have a great homeschool group and we are always on the go. We just got back from going to Disney for homeschool week. I am taking the girls to Mexico to see the Mayan ruins firsthand. The bookwork is easy for her, she gets it and really likes it. My problem is I cant fit it all into one day. I need to figure out how much gets done each day to balance it all out.


She is doing fine, sounds like you are fitting in more then enough, not sure exactly what the question is. Fit in Math, Reading, Writing, once a day, 4-5 days a week. Do 2-3 sheets or when she gets wiggly, or let her do 20 if you want. I would make her do all her three R's, at least 1-3 pages, then go back and do the extra work sheets she wants to do, that way you are fitting everything in. I am not a huge fan a work book pages, especially this young, but I have one that loved work books and it sure made homeschooling her easier. Then do extra things, which you are already doing. It is not rocket science at this age. I would spend, depending on the kid 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, including reading aloud, I believe that reading aloud is one of the best things we can do for our kids. When my older girls were this age we read aloud an extra 30 minutes at bed time - not included in our "school work" in the morning. We started the Little House and worked our way through the entire series, that was our first series, followed by years and years more! I should start that again now that my youngest is 5. 

Some books that should be at your library (or available through inter-library loan) that you would probably like:

The Way They Learn - Cynthia Ulrich Tobias (great for discovering your child's learning style and your own!)

Home Learning Year by Year - Rebecca Rupp (a basic idea of what you should teach year to year with resources, a little out of date)

Games For Learning - Peggy Kaye (great games! highly recommend)

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling - Debra Bell (helps you write a scope & sequence for the year and lots of great information)

The Three R's - Ruth Beechick (wonderful book on the basic's, Reading, Writing, Math)

A Charlotte Mason Companion - Karen Andreola (I just loved this book back in the day, guess I read it maybe a dozen years ago, but I still think it is a great book, well worth it, even if you have to buy this one)

The only other thing I can recommend is that you aren't doing a handwriting program. I really like Handwriting Without Tears, it would give your daughter a few more work sheets a day, and handwriting is a good one to start early. 

I guess my only other little piece of advice, having home schooled my oldest until college. This young, enjoy her, let her set the pace, and you've got at least a decade left of homeschool, this isn't a race but a marathon, have fun. We are really trying to lay a foundation for our kids. First and foremost is love, love of learning, love of family, love of who they are as a person, love in their hearts. These are the most important things you will "teach" her over the next decade or so. As long as you are doing that, you are good to go. Everything else is icing on the cake. Basically it sounds like you are already doing a great job :goodjob:


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

Thank you Morningstar, that is very helpful. I guess I am just afraid of her burning herself out by doing too much. I am going to have her do the core subjects first, and then she can go back and do extra work on each subject. She loves books, she would choose a book over a toy! She also loves to read to me, which just melts my heart. I have the booklet " A reason for Handwriting" but I havent started it with her yet, I just got it last week.


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## christij (Mar 5, 2006)

I have worked with DD on Handwriting without tears. I like it because there is a lot of focus on forming the letters before you ever pick up the work book. Then once you start they still work in songs and hand plays. The workbook pages are simple and DD would want to do several letters once we started the book. But she loved the songs and stamp n see as well. She now writes all the uppercase letters. She has reversals but I am not worried about that at her young age when she is practicing on her own.


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

Jakk said:


> Thank you Morningstar, that is very helpful. I guess I am just afraid of her burning herself out by doing too much. I am going to have her do the core subjects first, and then she can go back and do extra work on each subject. She loves books, she would choose a book over a toy! She also loves to read to me, which just melts my heart. I have the booklet " A reason for Handwriting" but I havent started it with her yet, I just got it last week.


You are doing so fine! She'll be super easy to homeschool. With one of mine we had to start setting rules about how much time she COULD read, not how much she had to read! Just follow her lead, just get her core stuff out of the way and if she wants to go back and do extra pages, more power to her. My one that I homeschooled to college, actually just started this fall, at 16. Mostly I just stayed out of her way


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

I have another question regarding scheduling. We have not had a set schedule or curriculum up to this point. Its just been random workbooks, field trips, books and hands on stuff. I want to set up a 4 day schedule but I cant find a calendar-less planner. I dont know if this makes sense or not lol... I want a planner that I can plan my activities but not assign a date ahead of time. I would like 180 days, and then date them as we do the assignments. We school 7 days a week, not M-F or any particular set days. I also want to school all year round, with a few weeks off each season for traveling. I like all the other features of the homeschool planners I have seen, but they all follow a calendar. Any suggestions?


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

Jakk said:


> I have another question regarding scheduling. We have not had a set schedule or curriculum up to this point. Its just been random workbooks, field trips, books and hands on stuff. I want to set up a 4 day schedule but I cant find a calendar-less planner. I dont know if this makes sense or not lol... I want a planner that I can plan my activities but not assign a date ahead of time. I would like 180 days, and then date them as we do the assignments. We school 7 days a week, not M-F or any particular set days. I also want to school all year round, with a few weeks off each season for traveling. I like all the other features of the homeschool planners I have seen, but they all follow a calendar. Any suggestions?


That is a great idea! I'll have to hunt around for a schedule like that. We've used Sonlight off/on over the years and that is how they set up their schedules. If I find something I'll post a link. 

In the past, the years we haven't used Sonlight or set curriculum, at the beginning of the year I write a a few pages for each kid, what I want them to accomplish in that year such as knowing correct punctuation or mastering the multiplication tables, then I will refer back to it through the year to make sure we are meeting our goals. As the kids get older and can read, you can make a master list of what they need to do everyday (such as 2 pages of Exploding The Code) then they check it off as it's done, just keep a copy in Word and print off a new one each week with 4-5 new boxes for them to keep track of assignments. You can probably do the same thing, with yourself as the check-e.


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## BusyBees2 (Dec 10, 2004)

you might look at a teacher supply store for a lesson book type schedule. They usually have one or two different kinds.

I never did find one I liked so have created my own type of recording system, but you might find something there.


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