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PDyer
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| Posted: June 27 2008 at 8:18am | IP Logged
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I have been fighting the idea of having a preconceived order of events for our days. I told myself our lives here are just not that complicated (with only one child at home now) and we could be more 'free', whatever that means. However, my daughter seems to need the security of knowing what is coming next, and her mother needs the discipline of a more secure plan. And all of a sudden I may have other matters to consider.
Yesterday I saw Elizabeth's post on The Daily Details, and decided to try to put something on paper. I've been generous with the time slots, I think, in the hopes I can throw some laundry in during the lulls, and avoid hitting other people over the head with the tightly-packed schedule. 
Madeline likes a four-day week with Wednesdays for Mass, library trip and running errands. I think I'll try to put a block of nature study after lunch on Wednesdays, or a big fat read-aloud time if the weather isn't cooperating. So, for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday:
7:30 Breakfast and chores
8:30 Travel to school and return; morning offering and rosary decade with Matthew in the car.
9:15 to 10 Religion (varies by day)
10 to 10:45 Math
10:45 to 11:15 Spelling (this is very cushy)
11:15 to 11:45 Language - FLL for the WTM (this is too)
11:45 to 12:45 lunch and outside
12:45 to 1:15 Read aloud
1:15 to 3:00 Monday: Music/Art
Tuesday: History
Thursday: Science
Friday: Geography
3:00 to 3:45 Pick up my boy and come home.
Violin practice, homework, getting ready for swim team during the season follows. This time of day was a whirlwind last year, and his teacher tells me his homework demands are going up next year. I really don't know how this is going to pan out, so I'm not trying to corral it at this point.
Oh dear, I'm told if all goes well I'm going to need a daily nap...how am I going to do that?
I'd love to see other's ideas for the ordering of their days, too.
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
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Rachel May
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| Posted: June 27 2008 at 4:57pm | IP Logged
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Well, I've been thinking in a more general way...
7:00 breakfast and Bible reading/discussion
8:00 chores/music practice
9:00 Core subjects--Latin, math, language arts
Sometime after 10:00 break for 15 min and snack
11:00 Memory work--Latin vocab, poetry, geography, history dates etc
12:00 lunch and history or science read aloud
1-2:30 quiet time and reading for bigs/start of nap for littles/my alone time
3:00-4:00 Narrations
It's a little more broken up than this past year, but no one should actually be sitting at the table that whole time. I'll be schooling more ages this year, so it's my time I'm planning more than theirs.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Mary G
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The funny thing for me and mine is that whenever I try to put times to our schedule I end up breaking it as soon as we start ....
I'm going to create a schedule where it just shows what we should do during the day and just see what we get done each day ... so the "set in stone" will be what we actually do while the "schedule" will be more what we hope to do (and where we should end by the end ... whenever that occurs).
Does that make sense?
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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PDyer
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| Posted: June 27 2008 at 8:22pm | IP Logged
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Mary G wrote:
| The funny thing for me and mine is that whenever I try to put times to our schedule I end up breaking it as soon as we start .... |
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Oh I'm not so focused on the times so much as I want to make sure I'm not OVERcommitting myself wildly, and that I can get what I need to get done, done, between the hours when I have to commute to school. Believe me, there will be no stopwatch. 
My daughter seems to really like knowing what to expect every day. My son was more free-flowing, but my daughter is different. And my husband liked to see that I've thought about it. It's all good.
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
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monique
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| Posted: June 27 2008 at 8:34pm | IP Logged
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This is what we've been doing since January. We are finished now until fall! Yeah!! I'm so excited--I so need a break.
7:30 wake, breakfast, chores
8:30 morning prayer or Mass
9:00 saints, memory work, dictation, read-aloud, history (MWF), science (TT)
10:00 Math
11:00 Lunch
12:00 Language Arts
1:00 Foreign Language
I plan on making changes though for fall. I'm all excited to start planning!
Monique
Mom to 5 ages 1-11
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JuliaT
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We don't use time increments either as they make my antsy. We just do the next thing. This is how our days flow together.
I wake up and have 'my' time.
Kids wake up, usually around 8:00
Breakfast and chores
Bible reading ( usually start around 9:00)
Circle
Read aloud
Main lesson (this can take anywhere from 1 1/2--2 hrs.)
Lunch
Read aloud--picture books
Core subjects--math review, reading, copywork, dictation, piano practise, etc.
Quiet time
Clean up
Supper
Our afternoon learning time usually lasts until 2 or 2:30. Our days have been flowing together like this since Oct. and it has been working out extremely well.
Blessings
Julia
mom of 3(9,7,5)
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graciefaith
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| Posted: June 28 2008 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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I dont use time increments either but this is how our morning/afternoon goes.
-Wake up and eat breakfast
-Family prayer around the table
-Do spelling, writing and reading
-Math
-Naptime for baby
--Lunch--
-Read alouds which include Science, Religion and various picture books
-Quiet time
-During their quiet time i pray.
-Craft time
Our day is normally done by at 3pm, at the latest. We normally have lots of breaks due to the baby.
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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TracyQ
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I'm going to be more diligent with a *school routine*, rather than a detailed schedule for this coming year.I'm only going to have two this year schooling, as our oldest just grauated.
Zach will be in 11th grade this coming year, and he pretty much wants a list and is extremely tenacious, so he likes to be given free reign. I think I'll have a morning meeting, and a end of the school day meeting with him to go over and do discussions, etc.
This year though, I'm planning to give both kids a weekly list, rather than a daily list. Our daily list fizzled into the second quarter, because it was hard for ME to keep up with. The kids liked them though. So instead, I'm going to do their weekly list when I plan on the weekend, and give them a weekly list, so they don't have to count on *my diligence* in order to keep on track.  
Sarah will be in 8th grade, and will need my attention much more. She will have certain independent things for sure, and those will be on her weekly list. But I'm also going to be doing Charlotte Mason learning with her now, so that will require some one on one discussion, dictation, picture study, composer study, etc. with her. She's a MUCH more relational, hands on, very right brained learner, so that requires much more of my time nad energy toward her education. But she's worth it! 
One thing I got an idea of on these boards is that I bought the planners that were mentioned, one for each of them, and one teacher's planner. Their weekly lists will go in their planners. MY planner will not have the plans for their learning in it, (that will be in my other planner), but instead, MY planner will hold what I need to do with each of them daily....what *I* need to do. For example,
Zach- morning meeting, go through writing assignment, discuss ______, end of the day meeting
Sarah- narration of science chapter, dictation of Spelling Wisdom, picture study of Veneer's _________, listen to _________ from Bach, etc. etc.
I thought the idea to use the teacher's planner to write in what *I* have to do daily with each of them was BRILLIANT, because I'm SO visual, and SO busy, that I quickly lose track of what my responsiblities are, and that often end up getting pushed aside for other things that come up, and I cannot and will not allow that to happen this year or any other year anymore.
Our home education must be priority, and I need to be more organized, yet still flexible according to God's will. That's why a daily *homeschool routine* works best for us, and why I do think that having a scheduled routine and being organized is really important.....at least I know it's really important for me!! 
I'm adding this in to say though, that although I don't put absolute times to our hs routine, I will have general flexible timeline of our day, because otherwise, our son would sleep until noon. So we won't start just whenever, because otherwise all won't be able to be done.
I think it's just that for me, if I have exact times, then go off of them, the perfectionist in me will allow the day to be less than good because of my tendency toward perfectionism, so for me, it's not a good idea to have exact times, and instead to have a general framework of time. For others, definite times are a good idea, and a good thing, because they don't suffer from the same problem I have in having one.  I just wanted to clarify that.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Erin
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Patty
I not only have done away with time increments as they made me feel like a clock watcher but I have given up on having planning what would be done when, ie. morning block will be maths and language arts, after morning tea will be science, faith and history. It does still tend to happen that way but by the dc's choice. I wrote up a 'weekly expectations' sheet, so instead of a daily sheet they have a weekly one, they chose what they do and when. They may chose to do all of their maths for example on one day instead of spreading it over the week etc. I was also really wanting to teach them time management and this is really working, and believe me we've tried lots of ways over the years.
This method really frees me up too, I don't feel so frazzled or tied down, I seem to be getting more individual time with the children particularly the younger ones. Any way if you're wanting to see a visual of our sheets, you can view here
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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sewcrazy
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Erin,
I tried that method one year, and unfortunately, for us it was a dismal failure.  My children just couldn't figure out how to budget their time. I worked with them all year, and in the end I still imposed my schedule on them. I think if children have adequate self disclipine this is a wonderful way to organize their assignments. We are just not there yet.
I make a daily checklist. I don't tell them what to do when, just that everything must be done to be free for the day. We are several extra-curriculars, and they aren't allowed to particapate with assigned work not done. Also, I try to have something fun to do when assingments are completed.
LeeAnn
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LeeAnn
Wife of David, mom to Ben, Dennis, Alex, Laura, Philip and our little souls in heaven we have yet to meet
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Mackfam
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I finally, finally figured out how to get our rhythm up on my blog...sigh...
(Erin - PM me and I'll tell you how I did it so I don't hijack this thread - oh - nevermind, I'll try to get over to your other thread asking about uploading docs to your blog.)
Disclaimer...it's nailed to times on paper only - not in real life...
Here 'tis.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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TracyQ
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Neat! The ical looks very cool. How does one use it, and is it free, or do you pay for it??? I tried to print out your Fine Arts Friday, but it didn't print out. Maybe they print out only in PDFs. Anyway, it's COOL to have these to help in my planning, thanks so much!!!
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Mackfam
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Hmmmm...I thought you'd be able to print ---- I just went and clicked on the enlarged image and I'm able to print. ???? Sorry, Tracy. Hopefully, you can figure out a way to make it print so you can use it for ideas. If not, pm me and I can email you a pdf - blogger won't let me post pdfs !
ical is a mac thing. If you have a mac, it came with you operating system, so it would be free then. My dh mentioned that ical works a lot like his Outlook Explorer?/Express? (I can't remember what he called it) on his pc at work. Maybe you have something like that on your pc that you could tweak to work in the same way? I'm not familiar with pc's. sorry.
Anyway, glad if it can be of use for ideas. I benefited soooo much from seeing Elizabeth's.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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PDyer
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Erin wrote:
| I not only have done away with time increments as they made me feel like a clock watcher but I have given up on having planning what would be done when, ie. morning block will be maths and language arts, after morning tea will be science, faith and history. |
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My son responded very well to this approach when he was home. My daughter is asking for a more predictable schedule.
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
Life at Home
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Bookswithtea
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Patty, are you asking if you've planned too much into your day? I'm trying to figure out how old/what grade your dd is...1st grade??? I'm guessing because my '02 child is K???
Fwiw, if I am anywhere near right on the age of dd (K-2nd grade), then I'd say, yes, you have too much planned for the day. You need to feel refreshed in the afternoons for ds, not exhausted, and dd needs to not burn out on academics, imho. How about this?
7:30 Breakfast and chores
8:30 Travel to school and return; morning offering and rosary decade with Matthew in the car.
9:15 to 9:45 Religion
9:45-10 snack/transition
10 to 10:30 Math (MUS is doable in 20-25 minutes)
10:30 to 11:00 Spelling (I don't even do sp. with 1st or 2nd gr)
11:00 to 11:30 Language - FLL for the WTM
11:45 to 1pm lunch/outside/mom relax a bit
1-2:00 Read aloud. Choose a chapter book and read one chapter a day. Then read about/listen to music on Monday, read a FIAR type history book on Tuesday, Read a FIAR style science book on Thursday, and read a cool geography book on Friday (check Mater Amabilis for fabulously interesting titles that expose the child to different places in unusual ways in their nature study columns)
2:00-3:00 quiet time. Let her play quietly with something she loves and you rest too.
3:00 to 3:45 Pick up my boy and come home.
I think its crucial in these early years to keep in mind CM's short lessons. And at this age, exposure to history/science/geography is all that is necessary, imho. My kids all seem to operate better on routines than with a freestyle approach. They generally don't look at the clock, but they will understand something like "religion, then snack, then core subjects, then lunch and playtime, then reading aloud with Mommy, then quiet time, then get big brother from school."
just .02, my friend.
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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lapazfarm
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Here is what I think our days will be like:
Morning:
Get up and get dressed,eat breakfast.
Head off on an adventure of some sort, together or separately, either here at home or elsewhere depending on mood, weather, or funds.
Afternoon: gather, have some tea, and either continue with previous adventures or begin new ones.
At some point during the day JBug will read and do some math, and Superboy will do some algebra. These are my only "musts." Other than that, we have a big, beautiful state to explore here and the kids are as eager I am to learn all about it. That should keep us pretty busy.
Of course, I could be totally wrong. And that's ok, too. I am sure whatever it is, it will be good. How could it not be?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Bookswithtea
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lapazfarm wrote:
Here is what I think our days will be like:
Morning:
Get up and get dressed,eat breakfast.
Head off on an adventure of some sort, together or separately, either here at home or elsewhere depending on mood, weather, or funds.
Afternoon: gather, have some tea, and either continue with previous adventures or begin new ones.
At some point during the day JBug will read and do some math, and Superboy will do some algebra. These are my only "musts." Other than that, we have a big, beautiful state to explore here and the kids are as eager I am to learn all about it. That should keep us pretty busy.
Of course, I could be totally wrong. And that's ok, too. I am sure whatever it is, it will be good. How could it not be?
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When I grow up, I wanna homeschool like you do. BTW, what's it like in Alaska???
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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PDyer
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Patty, are you asking if you've planned too much into your day? I'm trying to figure out how old/what grade your dd is...1st grade??? I'm guessing because my '02 child is K??? |
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Ok I have been completely unclear. There is NO WAY we're going to spend 45 minutes on spelling, or FLL for the WTM, but I can't schedule 15 minutes for spelling then 15 minutes for moving laundry around and then 15 minutes for something else without absolutely losing my mind in the details and then banging everyone else over the head with the clock. Does that make any sense? I put 45 minutes knowing the times were very generous and it really wasn't going to take that long and we'd end up with plenty of time to do other things while still covering everything we should.
The auditor in me is coming out -- I look at the times like they are generous accruals, and I'm well covered. Sorry, accountant joke.
I really don't know what I'm asking. I've never tried to put a particular order to what we do in a given day. I'd rather not, actually, but she's asking for an order of events. She wants to know that Tuesday is for whatever it's for, and Friday is for something else. She likes that. And frankly I'm finding the older I get the more I need a list of what I need to do in a day or I get distracted.
Is that any more clear?
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
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PDyer
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| 0 quiet time. Let her play quietly with something she loves and you rest too. |
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This is a very hard sell in my house. She's an extrovert, I'm really, really not. Unfortunately, when I say, "I need a few minutes of quiet reading time", she hears, "I want you to go away and leave me alone." This has especially been the case since Matthew went to school. Maybe I can talk her into sitting next to me for silent reading time, now that she's reading independently?
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
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Bookswithtea
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LOL. I'm so relieved, Patty! I nearly fell over in shock at the idea of a child that young doing 30 minutes a day of spelling.
I'd say its a decent rhythm and definitely workable. The thing with schedules/routines is that they always need tweaking at first. Don't let that discourage you. Its normal to need to tweak for several weeks before it works well.
I hear you about extroverted children! Its hard when mom is on the introverted side. I'd try the 'let's be quiet next to each other' thing and come up with some really good reason to be quiet. Would she listen to an audiobook, maybe?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Topic: Daily rhythm, schedule, flow...
