our "school time" schedule

Lots of people ask me, what do you do everyday? How do you fit in "school time"? It has taken me a year to figure it out... and when I say "figure it out" I use that term loosely. I am prepared that "what works" is going to be an ever changing thing. As the kids interests change, there needs change, curriculum changes, we to will change. But for now our schedule looks like this. This year I did not buy a curriculum, next year I am considering purchasing one, but I'm not sure what.

Mondays-
Welcome Time
Bible
Reading
Math
Art

Tuesdays-
Co-op
Reading

Wednesdays-
Welcome Time
Reading/Poetry (which I think is their favorite lesson)
Math
Critical Thinking (which usually involves some type of game we play together)

Thursdays-
Welcome Time
Math
Current Events
Reading (based from our Bible lesson from Monday)

Friday- Review Day.
Welcome Time
Bible
Reading
Math
Art

This schedule has seemed to work, on a good day, when we are all having fun, paying attention and enjoying the lesson we can school for three or four hours. On a day when they just don't seem to want to focus we will get through the key points and it usually takes about an hour and a half. We break up the subjects with songs, games, and snack time.

This has seemed to work well for us. I like that we have a "school time", it is specific, the kids know what to do, they know what is expected and they have no questions about what we are doing next. There is comfort in the security of that and it makes it easier for them to pay attention. I know a few homeschooling families and they don't have a set time, they just school throughout the day... and we do that too, every moment is a learning moment, but I know that we do better by having time set to do our schoolwork, then freedom to play and explore the rest of the day. We tried schooling two or three days a week and doing all "subjects" during that time, but it just seemed that there wasn't enough playing and fun in our learning time so I decided to break it up throughout the week and this has seemed to work great.

Welcome Time? Every day except Tuesday we open our day with "Welcome Time" this is a bundle of activities that help us get ready for "school time". It gets them focused and offers me a few moments to get organized before we begin that days lesson.

Welcome Time usually looks like this....
Prayer Journal (this is a spiral note book with today's date, they can color or write something they want to pray for that day. It is also a keepsake for momma).

Here is a picture of Sophia's prayer journal from last week- she was thankful for horses.



Then, prayer, they both love to pray before we begin our day. Sophia prays for animals, people less fortunate, herself, her family. Troy plays for Super Hero Squad and Jesus.



Pledge (which has to be the funniest part of our school time, Troy holds the flag and Sophia leads us in the pledge, then she breaks into "My Country Tis Of Thee...." It is so funny.





Then they both get a chance to sing the alphabet song (this is mostly for Troy, but Sophia likes to help him).
Then we sing the Books of the Bible, which at this point is me signig the Books of the Bible because the kids just laugh at all the "funny names".
Then we take turns singing the address and phone number song. (A catchy little song that helps them learn their address/phone number).
We do some counting activities (mostly for Troy).
Identifying shapes
And review our Bible Verse for the week
Then it's on to whatever subject we are going to start with.

The kids seem to really enjoy this "Welcome Time", like I said, it gets them focused and serves as a review for what we are studying that week.

So for now this is our schedule and it seems to work. Some weeks we add in a unit study, which we do at night before bedtime... we call it "pajama learning" and they think it is really special.