Homeschooling and Order

We are in out 2nd week of doing something new. I know that routines need freshening, and I never expected my other method to be what we did forever and ever, but I really thought it was a better plan than it was. I guess I was wrong.

Here is what we did:

I put Caleb's work and books into folder and clipped a number to each one.

As he/we finished, he put the number on the grid.  When the grid was full, he was done.

Sounds cute right?  And organized and orderly and workable.  I really thought this was what was going to work for us. 

Well, I was thinking like a school teacher: language in the morning, math after lunch.  I wasn't thinking like a mom of a toddler.  It was a rare day when Natalie could be amused long enough for us to "do school" in the morning.  It was making me insane.  Seriously.  It felt like a non-stop struggle between everyone's needs.

I knew something was amiss, but couldn't put my finger on it...and I do not know how it struck me, but I realized that I could have him do all his independent work in the morning and all his lessons during her nap!  As I said this is only our 2nd week into this but it is amazing and I am loving it.  It is homeschooling like I wanted it to be.  I actually have time to do things that need to get done!  Time!  I forgot what that was like!!  In the mornings, we all do our Bible lesson together (Natalie actually says the first 10 words of the Lord's Prayer - it is so cute!), then I present Caleb with his independent work and set the timer for 20 minutes.  After that he gets 20 minutes off and then 20 minutes back to the grindstone.  Once he saw where this was going, he got cracking and gets it all done in 2 work sessions.

While Natalie is napping we do a phonics/reading lesson, take a break, and then do math.  Sometimes she wakes up during the math lesson, but he doesn't get as distracted during math as he does during reading.  We try to do one Spanish activity (either they go to Miss Lucy's for their lesson or we read a book, watch a video, look at the Spanish/English dictionary together, or play a game) and one other subject (geography - this month's Iowa, science, art, or safety).  If the "other subject" is a book, I slide it into our after lunch storytime.

So we haven't been doing the number grid at all. I kind of liked it, maybe we will find another use for it.

One other new thing didn't really change.  Our state requires that you keep a log of what you do.  You don't have to keep a log of what you plan or have school any set number of days.  The log is very loosely defined, so I had just been writing down what we did.  Which sounded easy, but it was maddening.  I'd forget to do it or I'd forget what we did.  Here is what I came up with instead.  We've been doing it this way since March. 

There is a free lesson planner online at homeschoolclassified.com. I print it off and make our plan, then as the week goes on, I highlight the name of the day and all the things we did that day the same color.  I have five markers.  That way, I don't have to think as hard about it - or writing anything down.  This was an earlier version where I used two pages to schedule other things (like remembering to water the garden, which is toast now). 

So for the last 10 days this has been beautiful and I hope it continues to be...at least for a few months.