Daily Schedule

I have re-vamped our schedule.

First of all, I am no longer following the programme set out in the Latin Centered Curriculum. Even though veterans warned me, we became that sort of homeschool which did only its "morning" subjects. We were just not getting to science, art, music, literature, writing, and history. It's really too bad: but I've had to return to a more conventional approach: we all just flat out need the discipline.

So, this is our daily schedule.

Tuesday thru Friday:
Bible Study
Copywork and Recitation
Canadian History (Read Aloud sometimes followed by written work or map work.)
Latin
Lunch and World History (Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Lunch and Science (Wednesdays and Fridays)
Classical Writing
Grammar/Math (Do one child first, then the other).

Saturday:
Bible Study (Review)
Dictation
History (Chapter Review Test)
Science (Experiment or activity)
Composer Study
Art

Here it is all purty:

(as ever, click to enlarge)

I used the Charlotte Mason principle of alternating content with skill subjects...and it works very well. We did two consecutive weeks of school at the beginning of August and starting by 9am, we were finished by about 1:30, 2:00 pm every day.

I really enjoyed that.

Scheduling Success--I hope!

In order to lighten our summer load and prevent free-fall in December, I decided to focus on what is, for us, essential, and move around the rest. The essential Sacred Cows are: spelling, science, math, Latin and writing (for the 10 year old). I continued with Canadian History just because the timing is right, given our trip to Montreal in May. We will continue to do these throughout June and July.

I took someone's suggestion to alternate Grammar. I may play with that a bit, yet, but my son will be happy to know he gets a mid-textbook break from July 20 to August 30th. I tend to think of Grammar like Math, so it may or may not be a good idea. I may try and find a worksheet or two, something he can do in 10 minutes or so. Then again, we are continuing with the writing--and that's just grammar in practice--so we may be just fine.

As for the rest, it's fairly self-explanatory. The rush to finish SoTW and THE-HURRY-IT-UP-AND-CATCH-UP is gone. Wherever we are when my son hits Grade Nine and begins the Classical Books curriculum will be fine as long as his skills continue to grow. I have to do another spreadsheet, of course, for just that. It should be interesting. But not today.

I still have to decide on a science curriculum for the Fall and figure out our read-alouds. I still have to correlate my daughter's Bible study (Vos and Calvary Chapel) with the subjects covered in Christian Studies 1. And I need to figure out whether to speed up on our Canadian History curriculum and if so, how. Next year (2009) we'll do Provincial Facts and Geography. (Must come up with a better name for that!) The year after that, something on the structure of Governments, municipal, provincial and federal. (Maybe). But I digress.

Here is the revised schedule. Many thanks to all.

page two: Boom da da boom!

Scheduling Woes.

We took a lot of time off this fall. Ok, let's be honest. Except for a few weeks in August--we took the whole thing off. Yep, not one math book was opened, not one page of grammar recited, not, even, (much to my shame) one book read to the kids.

But we're back now. We're almost up to full speed. And the teeth knashing and hand wringing are over with, finally. So I've been working with the spreadsheet trying to figure out our schedule for the year. Here it is in two parts.

(Click on them to make them larger.)

Missing from the schedule is writing for the ten year old--Aesop A, and Latin (for both).

The first block of pink is a non-negotiable trip to Montreal--hooray! The purple is our Church's summer "camp" (or VBS program.) The other pink strips are our "weeks off"--1 every six.

These are my woes:
1) How do we have a lighter load during June and July and yet still do everything? I know, impossible, but that's really what I want.

2) We really, really need to do these science units in the summer. They're from Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" and they all have to do with insects. We do not have insects here in the winter! It's one of the few benefits of having winter.

3) See all that dead space near the end of the year (near Christmas)? That's my "wiggle" room. I'd love to start new curriculum the minute we finish the last--but I think that if I don't schedule at least a few more breaks, we will all go mad. Maybe. No, definitely.

4) See all that dead space near Christmas? I know this is going to sound crazy to some of you--but I do not want to take any time off in that period. A really light schedule would be OK--but I've learned from experience--if we take a whole bunch of time off, we just don't come back.

Is that enough info?
Can you help me whip this into shape somehow?
I'd be soooooo grateful, I might even send you cookies.