Thursday

Juggling It All: Our Homeschool Routine for 2014

One of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, parts of homeschooling is figuring out a routine for our days and weeks. Between teaching two kids with a three year old underfoot, housekeeping, ballet practice three days a week, American Heritage Girls once a week, family time, and church involvement, finding a workable solution to juggling all of that is definitely a trial and error process. It took me about four attempts to come up with the routine I’m sharing in this post. Why? Because sometimes what works perfectly on paper doesn’t work that way in real life. My advice is for you to not give up. Keep tinkering and rearranging until you hit on the perfect routine for your family.

Juggling It All 2014

One thing that works very well for my family is not to have a schedule, but a routine. A schedule is where there are specific times slotted for different activities. For example, math with Chipette will be from 10:00 to 10:30 every day. A routine is more of a general flow of the day without specific times. I do better with routine because when things throw off my schedule with its nice, neat time slots, I get cranky and stressed.

I do have some touch points with our routine though. I like to get started with our Morning Meeting by 9 AM and start school with Chipette by 10 AM. My other touch point is lunch at 1 PM and finish school at 4 PM. Some days we make all of those; some days we don’t, but that’s my general time frame I like to work with. We are late starters and late finishers compared to most homeschools, but all of us like to be up later and sleep later so it works for us.

I’ve shared in detail how I plan out our week and our school day, so I won’t go into the specific process I use to make our homeschool routine. Here is what is working for us this year as far as day in, day out life combined with our fourth grade and first grade curriculum choices for this year.

Monday

Since Preacher Man is in ministry, Sunday is our game day. We are busy all day long in the work of the Lord. A good thing to be busy doing, but tiring as well. Because of this, Monday is our down day during the week. We don’t do as much book learning on that day. Everything is more project based and relaxed. This is also the day that I add in most of the extra stuff that I want Chipette to do in addition to Heart of Dakota’s Preparing Hearts for His Glory. Combine our Sunday Worship Hangover with the girls visiting the nursing home every Monday at 10 AM and Magpie’s ballet class at 4 PM, it makes Monday a shorter day naturally.

  • Wake up. I try to get up somewhere between 7 and 7:30 AM depending on how many times I hit snooze. This is early for me and my night owl tendencies so don’t judge!
  • Devotional time and shower. Yes, I have to plan my showers. Don’t you? Smile
  • Breakfast and chores. I get breakfast ready and the kids do about 15 minutes of chores (get dressed, make beds, empty dishwasher, feed pets).
  • Morning Meeting. During this time I run our Morning Meeting time while the kids eat breakfast. Morning Meeting is just a time when I fit in some of the quick fun extras and memory work in our day. I will do a later post on how this works and what we do.

-------------- Everything above this line is done Monday through Friday------------------

  • Break while the girls go to the nursing home with Preacher Man. Monkey and I stay home and pick up around the house. Monkey’s not quite ready to visit the nursing home. He’s still a little too energetic! They are usually back to the house by 11:00 AM.
  • An hour with Chipette. During this time we cover two chapters of Life of Fred, writing (a writing clinic type approach focusing on whatever our focus of the year is via my writing scope and sequence), Spanish, and one chapter from Paddle to the Sea with the corresponding activities from the Beautiful Feet study guide.
  • An hour with Magpie. During this time we cover phonics (either a lesson from Reading Made Easy or Logic of English Foundations), two chapters of Life of Fred, about four pages of Miquon math, one lesson in Language Lessons Through Literature.
  • Lit for Lunch. This is our read aloud time where I read through the books on each girl’s read aloud list while they eat.
  • Recess. I let everyone play in the backyard while I eat my lunch and prep for our content subjects.
  • Content Subjects. Chipette works on her American history (Native Americans right now) and Sassafras Science (this is the extra science I add in to Heart of Dakota), while Magpie does science with me.
  • Ballet Class for Magpie. While I’m taking Magpie to ballet, Chipette hangs out with Preacher Man at the office and reads from her independent reading list and reads from her science biography book (Tooth and Claw: Animal Adventures in the Wild is our current one). After that, she has free time to do what she wants, which usually means stop motion videos of her American Girl dolls.

Tuesday and Thursday

On Tuesday and Thursday our big commitments are Chipette’s ballet classes which lasts for two hours each day. I have started taking Magpie’s school work with us, and we work at the public library while Chipette has class. This helps me get in our content subjects with both girls before we leave home in the afternoon. The morning routine from above stays the same, and after Morning Meeting we jump into our school day.

  • An hour and a half with Chipette. During this time we cover Heart of Dakota’s Bible Study, Math in Focus lesson or half a lesson depending on length, one lesson from Introductory Lessons in English Grammar (our vintage grammar book), half of a level in Apples and Pears Spelling, Heart of Dakota’s poetry study, read from our current mythology book (Tales of Ancient Egypt right now), and one lesson from K12’s Fourth Grade Literature program.
  • Bible Study with Chipette and Magpie. This usually takes us about 30 minutes. We use Bible Study Guide for All Ages and currently are using a new Bible curriculum that I’ll be reviewing next month.
  • An hour with Magpie. During this time we cover phonics (either a lesson from Reading Made Easy or Logic of English Foundations), one lesson from Math in Focus and one lesson from MEP Math (Math in Focus has very short lessons at this age so doing two full math programs has not been a problem), and one lesson in Language Lessons Through Literature.
    • While I am working during this time with Magpie, Chipette is doing her independent work. This includes her history project, science, and independent history study from Heart of Dakota, reading from her current book from her independent reading list, a logic or geography worksheet, math worksheets that correspond with our Math in Focus lesson that day (if there are any), a page from Singapore Math Intensive Practice, and a page from Singapore Math Challenging Word Problems.
  • Lit for Lunch and Recess.
  • Content Subjects. I do Heart of Dakota’s History Reading and Rotation Box (only on Tuesday) with Chipette. The Rotation Box is semi-independent so once we talk about the assignment, Chipette goes off to finish it on her own. On Thursday, Chipette and I do a lesson in Sassafras Science instead of the Rotation Box. I cover history with Magpie and work on her term subjects for this trimester. Term subjects is something new I started this year because there were all of these extra subjects that I just couldn’t fit into our schedule, but I wanted to cover them. I divided the term subjects into three 12-week blocks. So for 12 weeks each girl is studying one subject during this time, then for the next 12 weeks a new subject, and for the last 12 weeks a different subject. Magpie’s current term subjects are logic and geography. Next 12 weeks will be character training and the final 12 weeks will be art.
  • Down Time. I’m trying to be more purposeful about giving everyone some down time during the afternoons to be alone. One of the things about homeschooling is that everyone is always around each other! So I try to work in 30 minutes or an hour most days of the week where everyone goes to their own space in the house to play, craft, read, etc. for that time. But no screens! Even Monkey does a pretty good job staying in his room and playing.
  • Ballet Class for Chipette. During ballet class, Magpie and I work on her math worksheet that goes with her Math in Focus lesson, a couple of pages from Rod and Staff’s GHI series of workbooks (these are actually below her level, but she LOVES workbooks and wanted to finish the series anyway), a couple of pages from her Explode the Code workbook, and she reads to me for 10 minutes from a book at the library. Magpie wanted “independent work” like her big sister has so this is her version of that.

Wednesday and Friday

On Wednesday evenings we have Bible study, and Friday is my errand day and/or American Heritage Girl meeting (every other week). On weeks when we don’t have an AHG meeting, we all head out to run errands around 4 PM. On weeks when there is an AHG meeting, we leave home at 2 PM, which usually means that the kids have a little bit of work to do over the weekend. The morning routine from above stays the same, and after Morning Meeting we jump into our school day.

  • An hour and a half with Chipette. During this time we cover Heart of Dakota’s Bible Study, Math in Focus lesson or half a lesson depending on length, one writing lesson using either Writing and Rhetoric from Classical Academic Press or Igniting Your Writing (We do two weeks of W&R, and then one week of IYW since there are not enough lessons in Writing and Rhetoric to last a full school year), half of a level in Apples and Pears Spelling, Heart of Dakota’s poetry study, and Spanish (on Wednesday) or one lesson from K12’s Fourth Grade Literature program (on Friday).
  • Bible Study with Chipette and Magpie.
  • An hour with Magpie. During this time we cover phonics (either a lesson from Reading Made Easy or Logic of English Foundations), one lesson from Math in Focus and one lesson from MEP Math (Math in Focus has very short lessons at this age so doing two full math programs has not been a problem), literature (On Wednesday, I read poetry, and on Friday, I read fairy tales) and Spanish.
    • While I am working during this time with Magpie, Chipette is doing her independent work. This includes her history project, science, and independent history study from Heart of Dakota, reading from her current book from her independent reading list, a logic or geography worksheet, math worksheets that correspond with our Math in Focus lesson that day (if there are any), a page from Singapore Math Intensive Practice, and a page from Singapore Math Challenging Word Problems. On Friday there is no history project in Heart of Dakota, so she does her science biography reading instead that day.
  • Lit for Lunch and Recess.
  • Content Subjects. I do Heart of Dakota’s History Reading and Rotation Box with Chipette and we also do her term subjects (explained above) on these days as well. Chipette’s current term subject is character training. Next 12 weeks will be art and the final 12 weeks will be Shakespeare. With Magpie we study science both days and cover geography on Wednesday (this ties in with our history) and history on Friday.
  • Errands or American Heritage Girl meeting.
  • Family Movie Night. So after we run our errands, we usually make it home around 9 PM or so. The kids know that the minute they hit the door they need to get ready for bed (except for brushing their teeth) because it’s family movie night. I buy one candy choice for each kid and, of course, we have popcorn. While the kids are getting ready, I make a big pile of pillows and blankets on the floor in the living room, and then we all settle in to watch a movie together and munch on snacks. I try to do some pre-planning on what will watch so that if I need to get a movie from Netflix, Redbox, or the library, then I will have it. Our favorite are doing movie series like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, or Star Wars. Plus I love pulling in some movies that I loved when I was a kid like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Swiss Family Robinson, and pretty much every Hayley Mills movie ever made!

Saturday and Sunday

No school on these days unless something didn’t get completed during the week. On Saturday we typically clean house and take a nature walk with a little bit of nature study added in. The kids don’t consider nature walks “school”, so it’s easy to get them on board with that. Sunday, as I mentioned above, is our busiest day of the week, so it’s basically survival mode!

The Reality of Life

The above routine is what everything would look like if it all worked out perfectly every day, but that’s obviously never the case! As Preacher Man likes to remind me, “Things won’t ever be perfect until we get to heaven.” This routine keeps me on track, though, with what I want to get accomplished. Usually I have to drop something here and there to make it all work, but having a routine to start with allows you to be more flexible with changing things up and staying on track.

Letting all of you take a peek inside a week at the tree house,

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Monday

Want to Homeschool?: Five Pinterest Boards to Help Get You Started

My first advice to people who mention that they want to homeschool is do NOT put homeschooling into a search engine! There is so much information out there that it is overwhelming. Being the good Samaritan that I am, I wanted to share five of my Pinterest boards that will be most beneficial to those considering home education.

Homeschool Beginner Pinterest Boards
1) Homeschool Encouragement
Sometimes the biggest obstacle to home education is even mustering the courage to begin. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to home education is mustering the courage to continue when the times are rough. I created this Pinterest board with the sole purpose of pinning blog posts and articles that provide encouragement for me when I’m questioning everything about homeschooling. You can also check out my two part Homeschool Newbie blog post.

Homeschool Encouragement on Pinterest
2) Homeschool Organization

I love organization and planning so I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to homeschool organization from scheduling  how your homeschool operates to ideas for organizing school supplies. If you need help with the nuts and bolts of homeschooling this is your place. I love planning so much I even wrote an entire step by step series about it!

Homeschool Organization on Pinterest
3) Teacher In-Service Required Reading
As a former teacher, I realize the importance of continuing to educate yourself about teach methods and ideas. I see no reason for that to stop now that I am a home educator. I created this board as a way to further my education to be a better teacher and mother to my children. I try to read at least three books from this Pinterest board each year. I’ve gleaned so much valuable insight and wisdom from doing this.

Teacher In-Service Required Reading on Pinterest
4) Reading Lists for EVERYTHING!
If homeschoolers are known for anything, it’s our love of books. We read aloud, we read for science, we read for history, we read for math, we read for nature study, and we sometimes struggle with where to find books for all of these things. That’s why this Pinterest board was created. I wanted one centralized place where I could pin reading lists or individual books that I discovered for different subjects. Lists like these help new homeschoolers find what they need to add literature to their home school. Check out my reading lists tab for my contribution to the reading list mania.

Reading Lists for EVERYTHING! on Pinterest5) Speedy Quick
I love to cook, but some days when you are busy homeschooling and with outside commitments, you need some go to recipes that you can get on the table in 30 minutes or less from start to finish. As a new homeschooler (or a veteran!), just the thought of going in the kitchen after a long day hitting the books is not enticing. This Pinterest board is all I need to find those quick and easy meals for the times that I really just don’t want to cook. Be sure and check out the recipes that I’ve shared on my blog under the recipes tab above.

Speedy Quick on Pinterest
I continually add to these Pinterest boards and all of my others, so be sure and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any other helpful pins for new homeschoolers!


Check out these other top 5 Pinterest boards from the other iHN bloggers:

pintasticpinboards
And some Pinterest boards chosen as the best of the best on iHN:

cream-of-crop-pinterest

Happy pinning from the tree house,

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Friday

Science Biographies Reading List

This post does contain affiliate links. See full disclosure policy here.

One thing that I’ve wanted for a long time is a book like All Through the Ages, but for science. Unfortunately such a thing doesn’t exist, but I did find a website that lists award winning science trade books as chosen by the National Science Teachers Association. The books are categorized by topic and grade level, but they are organized by year instead of one master list. I am slowly working my way through the website and putting the books in a topical list that is subdivided by grade level. I’ll be adding to my science reading lists here on the blog as I work through the website, hopefully adding one list a month.

Science Biographies Reading List

Part of making our homeschool more Charlotte Mason is that I am prioritizing reading science biographies along with our science studies. Basically the way it works is that for whatever science discipline we are studying I will find corresponding biographies for the kids to read on their own. Not surprisingly, the first list I completed was for science biographies, and I wanted to share it with you.

A couple of caveats: 1) This list is not Christian based; and 2) These grade guidelines are not set in stone. You know your child best; they could possibly read books from multiple age categories.

Grades K-2

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

A Picture Book of George Washington Carver  by David A. Adler

Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientist (On My Own Biography) by Ginger Wadsworth

Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? by Tanya Lee Stone

Grades 3-5

Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

Taking Flight: My Story by Vicki Van Meter with Dan Gutman

Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek: First to See Microscopic Life (Great Minds of Science series) by Lisa Yount

A Picture Book of George Washington Carver  by David A. Adler

Great Black Heroes: Five Brilliant Scientists by Lynda Jones

Rocks in His Head  by Carol Otis Hurst

To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers by Wendie Old

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Search for the Smallpox Vaccine by Albert Marrin

First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane by Peter Busby

Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream by Robert Burleigh

The Man Who Made Time Travel by Kathryn Lasky

Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson by Amy Ehrlich

Tooth and Claw: Animal Adventures in the Wild  by Ted Lewin

The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis

Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France by Lorraine Jean Hopping

Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein by Marfé Furguson Delano

Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine by Leslie Dendy and Mel Boring.

Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin

Thomas Edison: A Brilliant Inventor by Editors of Time for Kids with Lisa deMauro

The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies

The Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America’s First Naturalist by Deborah Kogan

Barnum Brown: Dinosaur Hunter by David Sheldon

Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gene Barretta

For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Peggy Thomas

Electrical Wizard by Elizabeth Rusch

Lives of the Scientists by Kathleen Krull

Grades 6-8

American Environmental Heroes (Collective Biographies series) by Phyllis M. Stanley

Isaac Newton: The Greatest Scientist of All Time (Great Minds of Science series) by Margaret J. Anderson

Bird Watching With Margaret Morse Nice (Naturalist's Apprentice series) by Michael Elsohn Ross

Elephant Woman: Cynthia Moss Explores The World of Elephants by Laurence Pringle

Science in the Renaissance (Science of the Past series) by Brendan January

Exploring the Earth with John Wesley Powell  by Michael Elsohn Ross

Pond Watching with Ann Morgan by Michael Elsohn Ross

Charles Darwin: The Evolution of a Thinker by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Jonas Salk: Conquering Polio (Lerner Biographies Series) by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists by Jeannine Atkins

Copernicus: Founder of Modern Astronomy by Catherine M. Andronik

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Search for the Smallpox Vaccine by Albert Marrin

Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison by Marfé Ferguson Delano

Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities by Kristan Lawson

Rider in the Sky: How an American Cowboy Built England’s First Airplane by John Hulls

The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis

Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France by Lorraine Jean Hopping

Galileo: The Genius Who Faced the Inquisition (National Geographic World History Biographies) by Philip Steele

Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein by Marfé Furguson Delano

Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine by Leslie Dendy and Mel Boring.

Leonardo da Vinci (Giants of Science) by Kathleen Krull

Maria Mitchell: The Soul of an Astronomer by Beatrice Gormley

Marie Curie: A Brilliant Life by Elizabeth MacLeod

Onward: A Photobiography of African American Polar Explorer Matthew Henson by Delores Johnson

Sigmund Freud (Giants of Science) by Kathleen Krull

Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium by Carla Killough McClafferty

Isaac Newton: The Scientist Who Changed Everything by Philip Steele

Giants of Science: Marie Curie by Kathleen Krull

Tycho Brahe: Pioneer of Astronomy by Don Nardo

A Life in the Wild: George Schaller’s Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts by Pamela S. Turner

Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910–13 by Richard Farr

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci  by Gene Barretta

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery

Lives of the Scientists by Kathleen Krull

Jacques Cousteau (A&E Biography series) by Lesley A. DuTemple

Dr. Charles Drew: Blood Bank Innovator (African-American Biographies) by Anne Schraff

Niels Bohr: Physicist and Humanitarian (Great Minds of Science) by Naomi Pasachoff

American Women Inventors by Carole Ann Camp

Stephen Hawking: Breaking the Boundaries of Time and Space (Great Minds of Science) by John Bankston

Linus Pauling: Advancing Science, Advocating Peace by Naomi Pasachoff

Marie Curie: The Woman Who Changed the Course of Science by Philip Steel

Learning science one amazing scientist at a time in the tree house,

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