Home Schooling Schedule

Hi T.!
It sounds like your son is very smart and you are doing a great job! You have to remember that in public school much time is taken up with roll-calling, standing in line, giving instructions so that everyone understands, waiting on everyone else to complete the assignment and general classroom management - just because they are there all day is NO indication they are on-task all day! :~)
In your homeschool, all of your time is devoted to one child, and that child can move at his own pace without waiting for others to complete the task.
I have homeschooled for 6 years now. My kindergartener spent no more than 2 hours a day on lessons, but I did make sure she had plenty of opportunity for imaginative play and time out of doors, both are VERY important at this age. Children need to make real connections with their environments and that is done hands-on and not through workbooks.
I recommend John Holt's book "Learning All the Time" and also SimplyCharlotteMason.com
My youngest (who did kindergarten 2 hours a day) is now in 4th grade and we school about 4 hours a day. Her reading level is 6th grade and she does very well in all of her subjects.
If your son isn't interested in paper/cut/glue type arts and crafts, try giving him something "real" to learn, like Knot-tying, or soap carving, or clay modeling, or building small things out of wood, or bead-stringing, or hand-sewing felt animals. Let him make something real and lasting - something useful and that won't just be thrown away in a few days.
I use Ambleside Online curriculum. Here is a quote...
". . . the chief function of the child--his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life--is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavour of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects." Charlotte Mason (Volume 1, Home Education, pg. 96)
Here is a link to the Year 0 curriculum...
http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml
I'm sorry if this is random, I don't have much time this morning for online activities, but I did want to let you know that it is not at all necessary to spend more than 2 hours a day on kindergarten "seat-work".
Enjoy your homeschooling journey!!!
A. :~D

This is also my first year to homeschool also. My oldest is in first grade. We spend about 1-1.5 hours of structured school time 4 days a week. We will continue schooling during the summer for 3 days a week. That way we won't spend so much time having to review at the beginning of next school year.

A normal schedule in our house:

Everyone fed by 8 am.
Everyone bathed and dressed by 9 am.
Chores until 10 am.
Snack
10:30-12 school
Lunch/play
1:30-2:30 Rest/play quietly
Play/crafts/art
4-6 Neighborhood friends come over to play and ride bikes

Of course, with a 6, 4, 3, and 1 year old, I have to flexible :)

I have older children, but this is our second year to homeschool and we moved to the Bryan Tx area last year and found a huge homeschool community here. There is a website for new beginners and designed more for your children age group. They may know of someone in your area or be able to provide you with some information. Really nice folks. I have found that quality is better than quantity and you will know your kids the best. Just use your best judgement and have fun. Here is a web blog that I use all the time this is where I got connected and it is a load of information. I wish you the best and dont forget to breath. It will be okay. Your not alone out there and there is plenty of help.

http://www.hsiz.org (for new homeschoolers)

http://www.triumphhomeschool.org (resources)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BCS-HEARTnetwork/ (lot of information awesome blog)

I would think for Kinders that sounds good. A couple years ago public kindergarden was only half day anyway. My daughter is only 2 so I am not really schooling her, but I would think that you also would be teaching him as the day goes on just in regular activities like cooking (measuring, adding, counting) outside play (science) and arts and crafts.

I home school my children, and I know there are many methods and curriculum out there. In fact, I often read blogs from other home school moms, and you can search for home school blogs and tons will pop up. I subscribe to a few and some are better than others, Our Homeschool Fun is one example, but most of them will post their schedules on the blogs.
Personally, early childhood is the age I studied most and am most passionate about. In my opinion, at the age of preK through K, I am not a big fan of schedules. Research has shown over and over that learning is most lasting when it is done naturally. Your son is going to be asking questions, and those are the best moments to drop what you are doing and have a lesson. My daughter asked me a question about the rain when we were driving in the car, and I was busy when I got home, but when I had a chance (and after doing some reading) I got out some water, sponges, tornado tube stuff, and we had a lesson about weather. My daughter LOVED it, and I knew she would because SHE asked ME for the lesson. There are other things that I did, like creating a calendar for our wall (go to mrspancake.com to print calendar stuff) and I started helping her understand the days of the week, months in a year, etc. In theory, that is a scheduled time in our day, but in reality, it happens when we have a chance to get to it. Lately, it happens right away, but that is because my daughter gets really excited about moving the days of the week and her chores to a new day (send me a message and I will get the link for you to print one - I can't find it right now). If you plan to continue homeschooling, I would not suggest a schedule. I know that I need some sort of structure and schedule, but I try to be flexible with it, and I have to be, because with children, and almost daily schedule changes, I would go crazy if I forced myself to stick to a schedule. The only reason you should need a schedule is if you plan to eventually put your child into school - to get him ready for the structure in the classroom. Good luck and I hope you enjoy homeschooling!

T., I also have the middle-school teacher background prior to homeschooling and found it challenging (but fun)to be so hands-on for little ones. Having begun in 1990 I feel as though I've tried it all. I began with a strict schedule-no phone interruptions,appts were scheduled after our school hours, etc. That didn't last long when I quickly learned that it wasn't necessary to keep public school hours because you really can finish in only a few hours. Now I am only homeschooling our youngest son who is in first grade. I am not loyal to any one curriculum, although there are several that I do like; I use a mixture. I think the most important part of our schooling is the field trips (this month we have 5! but usually only 1 or 2 per month) I do not make these rewards for reaching a goal (as I did in my earlier years of homeschooling). I have found that any hands-on field trip can teach more than a month of history lessons (or whatever subject). The hands-on experiences help these little guys learn a LOT and are far better than a video field trip (although these are helpful too). As for a daily schedule, we are finished by lunchtime, using our afternoons for art, science experiments, library visits, story time, computer or board games, visiting grandparents. (and chores) We have a bedtime routine which requires him to read to me and then I read 2 chapters of a book to him, he can read to me for another chapter. This means we do not have a strict bedtime, or wake-up time as we once did. I hope this helps, but it sounds like you are already doing a great job!

I think that two hours seems quite appropriate for a kindergartener. I know that with my daughter who is also in kindergarten I spend approximately 1 1/2 - 2 hours Monday -Friday. The subjects we cover are Reading (Intense Phonics program), math, social studies and for us religious studies (the program we use also incorporates art into this). I do science with her one day a week. Also on Fridays we are part of a COOP and there we get art, drama, music and PE.

There are some days that we spend more time on things than others. We also try and get in at least a 1/2 of just me reading aloud to her each day.

Have fun enjoying this time of learning with your son. I hope the health issues improve.

M.

We just started homeschooling our son this year. He would have been in K and is being home schooled on a 1st grade curriculum. Mostly we took into consideration our needs as parents, as a family and his needs.

For us we needed a curriculum a checklist and guide of sorts. I am not a trained teacher nor with 2 other little ones running around do I have the time and know how to quickly put together a lesson plan. We needed something that we could follow, track our progress and on certain days not have to spend much time thinking outside of the box.

My son is self motivated so that helps. What I found really helps is to approach subjects like Language Arts and copy work, worksheets and Spelling first thing. In the afternoon while I am putting his brother and sister to bed he works on Math. While everyone is napping we do read alouds, Reading and Science. The quiet is necessary for concentration and listening. Then when everyone is awake we do handwriting and that is the day. We could possibly stuff it all into the morning but for now that is what works for him. It is a changing evolution and process.

As for subjects and amounts of time spent doing them it varies. His Reading and Handwriting takes him about 5-10 min that is reading and questions on comprehension, Math, LA, Science can take us about 30, Read-Aloud, History and Geography which is all reading and plotting on a map take about 1 1/2 hrs combined (that covers about 4-5 books we are reading from and discussions).

HTH We are newbies. :)

Congrats on homeschooling!! I am surrently homeschooling our 3 boys - 6th grade, Kinder, and prek(as much as possible...).

Having already done this for a couple years, I have tried many things. First of all, you have to find a system that works for you and your child!!I do not have a set amount of time for their work,especially the kinder. we do school 4 days a week and I make sure that we have reviewed phonics and blends. We do a handwriting page, a metters/numbers page and usually a fun sticker page. His attention and attitude really state how long we work. Sometimes I break it up - 2 pages, then he can play the Wii for a certain amount of time,etc.
Remember, one on one teaching is SO much stronger and not being in the regular classroom setting with 25 other kids leads to less distractions.

I was homeschooled mid fourth grade and was surprised that I got all my work done in two hours also. But in school I was SOOOOO bored with all the busy work, I always got everything done quickly. With homeschooling I found I had much more time to get involved in special interests (which at 6 you don't have much of and need someone to help you explore and find some interests.)

I know that often non homeschooling parents think that you have to have 6-7 hours of schooling to 'keep up' with the public schools. However, schooling only 2-3 hours a day my sister (who has learning disabilities) and I always scored above grade level on the standardized tests.

To determine what I could do with my girls this year, I looked up online first grade entrance exam and kindergarten entrance exam. Although I didn't have very structured school for kindergarten last year, my 5 YO and 6 YO made 100% on the first grade test. My 4 YO made 100% on the kindergarten test. So they are ahead of where I thought they might be! I was happy.

Anyway, when I was a child our schedule was:

8:30 Bible study

Then we did our school work in whatever order we chose. My mom wrote our lesson plans in a spiral notebook a week in advance and we could work ahead if we wanted to. One year I did all of my English course in one month because I liked it so much. We were finished by lunch time and could explore our own interests after lunch.

We didn't have to work on one subject for x amount of time. If, say, we did 3 pages in Math and wanted to do more, we could. If 3 pages seemed overwhelming then maybe she had us do only 2 pages the next day. If we wanted to do something special one day during the week then we could work extra hard to get all our schoolwork done on the other days and have that day off or make up that day on Saturday. We took our vacations in the fall and spring and did more schoolwork during the summer.

I'm homeschooling my girls (ages 2,4,5,6.)

In the morning we have chores. At 9 (which would be now, I guess we'll get a bit of a late start today) we sing two songs and read in our "Princess Bible." Then we have reading time, social studies, manipulatives, counting, basic ABCs and cooperation activities.

After lunch is naptime for the 2 YO and that's when we practice our handwriting and math work since the 2 YO can't do those things. We do science and history then as well, although sometimes my 2 YO wakes up during that time.

Although my girls are different in ages I'm doing the same thing with all of them. I'm just adding a little with my 2 YO (colors, shapes, and numbers) and a little with my 4 YO (beginning reading and writing) that the older two already know. Because I'm homeschooling 4 of them, school is lasting longer then 2 hours but I'm allowing the older girls to do something they like (such as coloring) while I do those basic learning activities with the younger ones.

Again, no set schedule of time or subject, I just write down all the subjects in my "Teacher's Journal" and what pages we will do that day.

You might like The MAilbox for a wonderful addition to your daily activities.

There are several methods of education. You might want to look into their philosophies and incorporate what you like. For instance, I believe the Woldorff method includes alot of musical and art elements.

The unschooling method allows children to direct their schooling and it can be as lazy as never doing anything unless they ask or (what I prefer) offering them to flip through the math book and tell me what lesson they'd like to work on that day. Of course as they get older things build on each other so you can't do that with math, but you can with other things such as what books to read in literature or what topic they would like to study in science.

Unit studies are a popular schooling method. Basically, you pick a subject such as cats and then all the education (math, science, literature, writing, spelling, everything!!) is centered around cats (yes, you can actually do that, I know someone who did. LOL)

Anyway, I love homeschooling. I buy books at resale shops, half price books, and get them from the library. My curiculem is comprised of many different sources as I don't have the money to buy anything 'complete' but prefer to tailor the education to the child anyway.

I have a friend who does about 4 hours a day with 2 kids.

Don't forget "P.E." and field trips and music!

Hope I'm not too late to share! I love talking home schooling :) One rule of thumb I've heard discussed as far as scheduling home academics is to estimate about a half an hour of seatwork/schooling for every grade of school he's in. Kindergarten may need 30 minutes of pen on paper, reading to mom/phonics and math skills etc. a day. The rest of the day is full of play and exploration (and not too much mischief :)

While these may be hard words for a mom just getting started (I know you're gearing to go and have soo much curriculum...you should see my shelves!) restraint is the best word of caution I can give. We want them craving for more not fighting to stop.

Let him feel the accomplishment of finishing those pages quickly...move through the rest you've planned and give him freedom to do more physical activities or pursuits, you might be surprised at what he finds interesting and feed what he desires to learn about.

I made the mistake with my oldest of knowing that she was so smart she could do all that I set in front of her and more. We were going to move fast! Wow did she dig her heels in!

I once listened to Diana Waring give a speech where she talked about taking the favorite food a child has and serving it everyday in a big a portion so that it overflowed the plate. After awhile the child isn't going to want to see the meal again in his lifetime. Sometimes we do this with what we try to accomplish in the classroom and it's just too much.

You have to know that I remember the story because it hit home to me, because I tend to want to teach the material rather than the student (I just want to get to all I've planned!)

Also:
I used to feel guilty because of all the neat centers my children were missing out because they didn't go to kindergarten...sigh... The best centers in the world are cooking with mommy; dusting and sweeping, with mommy; dressing up with baby siblings; curling up with a book on own or with mommy; playing in a sandbox; doing puzzles; going on field trips; putting away toys into boxes in his room while singing the clean up song.

Its good to concentrate on loving the heck out of him, establishing good character traits, teaching him to work quickly and efficiently, and have a good work ethic of cheery helpfulness. We do a lot of reading! Have you seen the Milly Molly Mandy books? or books like Just David by Eleanor H. Porter...Great read alouds for sharing and instilling these virtues.

Remember that in Texas we do not need to "detail lesson plans," but you might better spend the time doing a brief plan of what you want to do and more time journaling what you did...that's the keepsake...no one is looking at the other...it's kindergarten and you are a private school (with other very young children you need to be tending to...and it just gets more time consuming until they are all reading :) I just want to encourage you to spend your time while your little ones are young to look at this process a little differently than as a time to build the "school" part of your day.

FYI I'm certified 6th-12th in Language Arts/Speech Communications with a Lutheran Teacher Degree and taught for 5 years on an elementary school/middle school level. Have been homeschooling since the year 2000. We now have a 9th grader, 6th, 4th, 2nd, pre-k 4, and 2 year old. You are right, home schooling is more challenging...mostly I think because we have such high expectations (this is good; but lays a lot on our shoulders) We're trying a new schedule this week and after day one...I know it will work tomorrow :) Meantime everyone got a lot accomplished and went to bed happy. Mom too :)

Thanks for allowing me to talk shop and ramble...

Well, what I'd try to do is since you're only spending "two hours in school" what I'd do is the first two hours then a break, maybe the computer lessons then come back for a couple more hours & do something else 'in school' then repeat til you've covered everything. I remember kindergarten as just being half a day, til noon then we let out to go home so at first, since children's attention spans are developing & are not long at first as far as school is concerned, I think it'd be good to try school til noon w/learning to read, letters, crafts, etc. & see how that goes. That way, they know when school is going to 'let out' & can hopefully last til then as far as getting bored easily is concerned. Also, strange as it may seem, some astro signs like Aries DO get bored easily. I'm an Aries, so is my hubby, my nephew, & best friend, as well as others I know & can tell you right now, it does happen, even as adults we DO get bored easily sometimes so you may want to check his astro sign (no I don't really "follow" astrology but there IS something to that once you start reading about it) & see if that's one of his traits then you'll know, oh okay that may be why too, that's just a thought anyway. But do try the 'school til noon' trick & see how that works. Another suggestion if that doesn't wk for you is try the schedule like they have in college or some high schools now, have certain 'classes' on certain days & the other 'classes' on the other days, for example, we had like math & science on Tues. & Thurs. & English/Lit, Geography or History on M-W-F. You can try the same things w/the kindergarten type lessons having reading & letters on M-W-F & crafts & something else & something else on T-TH; it's always something to think about and try if the school til noon trick doesn't work for you. It also may help alleviate some 'boredom' w/having the same schedule everyday at first but whatever method you choose, stick to it so he'll know that this is the way school will be, with a set schedule, from then on. Hope these suggestions help & good luck!

I home schooled my 2 children and after talking with other partent who did this before I used their schedule 8am to 12 noon. The reason for half a day is because in the government schools the teacher has to use so much time roll calling and just keeping students on track. But when you work one on one at home you do not have that waste.
The benefit also of home schooling is you know if your child has mastered the subjects.
We used a videro program for high school and that did take up alot more time. We also co-oped some of the classes with other parents, the kids loved that and we also had an organzied group PE class and many field trips.
My children are very successful and the colleges loved home schooled students as well.

The one thing I want to point out is that this is homeschooling. You do not have to follow a schedule that public/private schools follow. You must realize that you are spending all your time and effort on one student. You could not devote that kind of time to each child in a regular school setting. That said, I really spent only about 2 hours with my youngest during Kinder. At the same time, I was spending more time with my 2nd grader. Every child and every grade is different. Don't judge yourself by school system standards. Be realistic...you set the standard in your home on what structure you follow. The great thing is you can change (and will change) how you teach your children.

I belong to Sycamore Academy which is based in California. They are a fully accredited school (K-12). I pay tuition and I receive my curriculum and daily work schedule from them. I don't have to put anything together. They keep track of all the administrative needs. I absolutely love them!

I hope you enjoy homeschooling. Best wishes.