Saturday, January 8, 2011

Our School Plans ...

We will be starting back to school on Monday.  I am making some changes to our current schedule in the hopes it will help promote calmness (my word for 2011).  The biggest change is that our days will be themed.  Everyday, we will be doing prayer/Quaker silence time, the 3 R's and Literature.  Then we will have a theme for the rest of the day ... Monday ~ Art, Tuesday ~ Music, Wednesday ~ Life Skills (cooking) and Science, Thursday ~ History, and Friday ~ Child-led day.  Friday is a really messed up day with early morning therapy appointments, so I thought having the kids pick an educational activity out of the school cabinet would be a way to get some fun school done.  The idea is for me to pick an activity, then each child picks an activity and then we finish up with an activity from whatever I think was lacking in the week.  Friday will also be our library day.


Our school cabinet has lots of language arts, geography, and art games. 
It also holds a few of our puzzles and Occupational Therapy toys. 
The kids have access to this cabinet all of the time. 
I rotate stuff from other cabinets to keep up interest.


They can also pick from the math manipulative shelf.
I was not able to drop any of our therapy/doctor appointments.  In fact, I have added one weekly appointment for the next 21 weeks.  However, we have decided that I will no longer be doing most errands during the day.  It has finally occurred to me after 11 years of homeschooling that I have a full-time job teaching (duh), and like others with full time jobs, errands are saved for night and the weekends. It looks like I will be doing errands one night a week and grocery shopping on the weekend.  Except for our Friday appointments, I have been able to move all of our other appointments to after 11 am so that I have a few precious hours in the morning to get the hardest parts of school covered without interruption.

We will be starting several new things in the coming weeks.  The thing I am most excited about is cooking class with each child.  They have helped me in the kitchen for years.  However, now they will be working independently.  To my surprise, Timothy, my 2009 graduate, asked to be included in the cooking class so that he could become more comfortable cooking, as well.   Each child will pick out a simple recipe or boxed mix and then I will supervise them making it one at a time.  They will be totally in charge of their own recipe.  This will produce four yummy things to eat and give each child a little one-on-one time with me. Timothy is capable of preparing a complete meal with appetizer and dessert, but he apparently wants more practice in the kitchen. That's fine by me!

Well, I can't wait for Monday.  We are all refreshed from 3 weeks off and ready to get back to work. 
HAPPY LEARNING!

Blessings,
Dawn

6 comments:

  1. Your schedule is very flexible. I love the way you think and work around the many obstacles.
    It took me years to learn that I needed to shop and errand run at night and weekends too..It works most of the time. Share more about your quiet time.
    Lovely photo of the cabin in the snow.

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  2. Sounds like some great ideas!
    A cooking class is excellent. Wish my mom had done that.
    May your weeks be more calm :)

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  3. Love your ideas! I totally understand about therapies wreaking havoc on your school days. I have one Mon at 9:30 which just seems to start our week off to a slow start. I should probably try to move it!

    Cooking class sounds like tons of fun! I should consider that for a couple of mine. My oldest two are excellent in the kitchen and I reap great benefits from that. The little boys are probably ready to be doing more.

    Hugs,
    Leslie

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  4. Ok so I guess you started out wild and got back to calm? HEe hee, does this mean we can never talk on the phone, because all heck breaks lose when ever we are on the phone, diffently not CALM. Hope nobody gets sick after playing with us today, he did eat when we got home and has kept it down so far. Kristi

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  5. I somehow missed this post, and it's funny because I was just wondering how you organize everything. Here's my answer! I have a similar cabinet upstairs that could make its way downstairs as one central place for the children's games, puzzles, and educational toys.

    I love the themed days! I'd thought about trying that before, as some of my children don't transition well. It just might make our days run more smoothly, especially because we've had so many changes with all sorts of therapy. I'm thankful that most of the therapists come to the house but it still has changed our schedule a lot!

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  6. your schedule sounds much better and more calming!! I agree, afternoon is better to run around. Doin it in the morning means its difficult to jump back into the day. I also find that by grocery shopping on the weekend, I can coupon shop and not guilted into buying extras if the kids are home with dad.

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