Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Real Life Homeschool: Changing Up the Schedule

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Real Life Homeschool: Changing Up the Schedule

Welcome to Day 2 of the Real Life Homeschool Blog Hop with the Schoolhouse Review Crew! Yesterday we took a look at our current, normalish schedule. You may have noticed there were a lot of "IFs" in there. Unfortunately there are still things that will sneak in and get in the way of that schedule working perfectly. For example:

Sleeping in late
Getting sucked into Facebook (when I really was just over there to do one simple thing for my blog)
Being behind on a blog post and working on getting it finished in the morning
Sick children
Sick mommy
Appointments or other need to do errands outside the home
No motivation on mommy's part

Now, with some of these situations, we may not have school that day. I have to say, I am glad none of the children are old enough for us to have to report to the school district yet. If we miss a day, no big deal.

There have been times, when I have been sick, that I have been ever so grateful for computer programs and online learning sites, because I can have the children keep busy with their work. Some of their favorite sites are Starfall, ABCMouse, and Red Apple Reading. We are currently reviewing A+ Tutorsoft's Adaptive Placement Test and Individualized Lesson Plans, so they are able to get on that to do math. In the past they have also enjoyed Mathletics. There was one time, over a year ago, I just could NOT get up off the couch. I remember the older girls helping Hannah with her computer time. It was just so sweet. They also get to watch educational shows on "mommy sick days."

The more common reason for straying from our schedule is being late for one of those various reasons listed above. Most of the time, we just start the work later. Which, as I said yesterday, makes for a stressed mommy. But sometimes the children decide to take matters into their own hands.

The older children take charge of one of their siblings and teach them. Sometimes I even find them having their own little lesson time on a Saturday, or on a day during a week we aren't having school. There was a day last week when I was, not-surprisingly, running late. I came downstairs after taking care of the laundry, to find Tabitha paired up with Hannah and Amelia working with Harold. They work with them separately and are their teachers. On this occasion, they were going through our daily schedule, but they were flipping it around so that both groups weren't doing the same thing at once. However, by the time they were done, I believe they had a both taught their charge everything on the morning schedule.

Here let's take a look:

Let's start with Tabitha teaching Hannah.

They decided to make their own crosses to take to the Cross Walk the next day.

Then it was play time.

Bible Time

They moved into the dining room for "Lesson Time."

After the Pledge of Allegiance, they did the calendar. You can see Amelia and Harold in the background working at the computer.

Recording the weather

Memory verse time

Tabitha then led Hannah in her preschool time.

While Tabitha and Hannah were engaged in the above activities, Amelia and Harold were working their way through the daily routine.

They began with Bible Time.

They had to do calendar at the easel because mommy hadn't printed out an April schedule yet.

Amelia singing our weather song, "What is the weather today?"

Harold over at the window checking it out.

This is a regular part of our lesson time. As I sing the song, they head for the window to check the weather.

Memory verse time

Books of the Bible

Snack Time

Harold's Preschool Time

The letter was O.

She also tried to help him with his LaLaLogic worksheet. Mommy did step in to help a bit with this one as she wasn't quite sure how to explain to him what to do.

Story Time

Poor guy still wasn't feeling the best.

They all gathered together for lunch:

Then the girls spent some time on their own work.

I have to say, I really love the way they will decide to have school time. They love to teach and learn. It brings to mind memories of me trying to teach my stuffed animals and dolls when I was a young child, but they have real people to teach.

Stop back tomorrow to see what the girls have to say about homeschool.

Discover real life in other homeschools with the Schoolhouse Review Crew bloggers! Join the blog hop to read more!

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