Homeschool Agenda

I am actually covering the last 2 assignments in one post. I didn't get to it last week.
This will be our second week of starting our homeschooling for the year. This is our 8th year. We have 3 children. 2 daughters in 8th and 4th grade and a son in preschool.

When we started home educating, I used Abeka. We used this for the first 2 years. I liked Abeka but I was wanting to have a little more fun. I am a hands on person and I had only one child that was homeschooling so I thought I could find something that was more my style. This led me to Five in a Row. I used Saxon for Math and Rod and Staff for Grammar. I loved the Five in a Row. It was a literature based curriculum with fun things to do daily. All subjects were based on the book that you read for the week. My daughter was exposed to great books.

The year that she was going into 3rd grade, I was introduced to the meaning of a classical education. This was what I was looking for! We have educated classically since that time. This is now our 6th year. I also have a twist of Charlotte Mason tied in but there are many similarites between the two. My second born has needed a more relaxed approach and this is what has caused me to twist in the Charlotte Mason.

Classical education focuses heavily on History, Rhetoric, Latin and Logic from a Biblical worldview. History is studied chronologically and most of your other subjects tie into the time period you are studying. For instance, if you are studying Ancients then you might be studying Earth Science, reading books for Literature that are from that time period and writing papers on research from your studies of the Ancients. A whole school year is spent on one time period. It would start with Ancients in (1st grade), Rome in (2nd grade) , Renaissance (3rd grade), Reformation and Modern times (4th grade), in which you would tie in U.S. History. In Science you would study one science a year also. This cycle repeats itself over and over. After a child has completed a classical education, they will have had each time period and each science a total of 3x's between 1st-12 grade. We have really enjoyed this style of education. If it is of interest to you, there is a book called, The Well Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise Bauer. It is a wonderful and thought provoking book. This book helps you to see in each subject area, the best books to choose to educate for that particular subject.
Our schedule for the school year goes something like this:
6:00 am- read Bible, pray
6:30- exercise, shower
7:00- spend time doing school with preschooler
7:30-9:30 I work on all subjects with my 4th grader. She has a better attention span and can concentrate better in the morning.
9:30- Work with my 8th grader on her Bible, Literature, History
11:00- laundry, light housework, kids help with morning chores
11:30- look over math and grammar and any other assignments for 8th grader.
12:00- lunch
12:30-1:00- go for a walk or be outside with everyone
1:00- read to preschooler
1:30 - start preparing dinner, pick up around house, make phone calls, I try to schedule in one or two major cleaning tasks during this time. Ex: mop kitchen floors or clean toilets, and mirrors.
2:00- rest for an hour
3:00- help by oldest with any last minute things on school work
3:30- kids and I complete afternoon chores

I can't tell you that it always goes exactly as planned but this is pretty much what we accomplish in the day. Each day presents challenges in one way or another so I have the attitude that a schedule is nice but if it causes me stress because we can't stick to it one day than I let it go out the window until we can pick it up again. A schedule is there to guide me along not take over my life and become my new stress. I also realize that discipline and character issues are very important and need to be dealt with so if it means that we can't start math at 9:00 than math will wait until the situation has been dealt with. I think school is very important but character will take a child much further in whatever the child does in this life.