Planning and Scheduling, years K and 1st
It's getting to be crunch time around here! I've scheduled our first day of school for July 7. Which still seems like a long way away, honestly, but it's close enough that I feel like I need to start getting my year planned out a little bit.
I browsed online for what felt like FOREVER looking for a good way to organize things. I stumbled upon a website, which I can't find now of course because I didn't bookmark it, with all kinds of free forms. I browsed and settled on some that made the most sense for me. (edited to add: I found it! http://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/free-printables/7-step-curriculum-planner/)
I am planning on schooling 4 days per week, with Friday (or whatever day) as a catch-up, field trip, library, whatever day. This may not work, but that's what I'm trying for now. We might need to do 5 just to fit it all in, we shall see. Regardless, it's nice to ease into the school year a little bit. I also have read about some people, especially ones with young kids, doing a half day of school on Saturday when the dad is home to help with the little ones. That makes sense too. So, we'll see I guess. The beauty of home schooling is that if it works better to do science at 7 p.m. after Ben goes to bed then we have the ability to do that!
So here's my schedule for our first day. Yes, it's just one day. An entire page for one day. But I like a hard-copy schedule better than trying to do it online, it's just easier for me to see and check off and change as necessary. Plus there is plenty of room without trying to squish a whole week onto one page, and I have both boys' info on the same page so hopefully that will be easier on me.
It's kind of blurry I know. Tuesdays and Thursdays we'll do science instead of history. I still haven't found a place for art or music, those will both probably be only once a week though so I'm not too worried about it. I also need to figure out a plan with Cassius as far as reading for "fun" goes - I'm not sure if read-alouds are still the thing to do until his reading skills get a little bit better or if he can start reading on his own, or if we should just do some combination.
Here's what we're using for curriculum if anybody cares:
Cassius (1st Grade)
Phonics/Reading: Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (may have to get something else before the end of the year depending how quickly he finishes it)
Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
Writing: Writing with Ease
Spelling: Spelling Workout A
Math: Saxon Level 2
Yusuf (K)
Phonics/Reading: Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Writing: Handwriting Without Tears (Letters and Numbers workbook, may move on to something else depending how the year goes. He struggles quite a bit with fine motor skills still so we will see)
Math: Saxon Level 1
Together:
Bible: The Bible, and Big Truths for Little Kids
History: Story of the World part 1: Ancient Times, with the activity book, as well as Kingfisher's History Encyclopedia and other supplemental books from the library
Science: DK First Animal Encyclopedia, DK First Human Body Encyclopedia, and Green Thumbs (which is an activity book about growing plants, we'll work in that next spring).
Art: Need to figure this out, hopefully something that will go along with our history but maybe just doing Pinterest crafts :) Possibly studying artists but I need to look into this more.
Music: My parents are going to help us out here, otherwise we will just learn a song that we are going to sing at church. I'd like to really start Cassius in piano lessons, we'll just have to see how that goes. We kind of fizzled out at the first of the year but maybe now that he's a little older and we will have more time together it will be better.
So I'm excited! I met with a friend who has been homeschooling her girls for I think 10 years and went over my plan and she seemed very impressed with it. Of course I can't take any credit; I'm really good at following directions and all this info I got from the book The Well-Trained Mind as well as other forums and from asking questions from other homeschooling parents!
So much more to say, but I'll save it for later and maybe try to blog more frequently than once a month or so. :)
I browsed online for what felt like FOREVER looking for a good way to organize things. I stumbled upon a website, which I can't find now of course because I didn't bookmark it, with all kinds of free forms. I browsed and settled on some that made the most sense for me. (edited to add: I found it! http://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/free-printables/7-step-curriculum-planner/)
I am planning on schooling 4 days per week, with Friday (or whatever day) as a catch-up, field trip, library, whatever day. This may not work, but that's what I'm trying for now. We might need to do 5 just to fit it all in, we shall see. Regardless, it's nice to ease into the school year a little bit. I also have read about some people, especially ones with young kids, doing a half day of school on Saturday when the dad is home to help with the little ones. That makes sense too. So, we'll see I guess. The beauty of home schooling is that if it works better to do science at 7 p.m. after Ben goes to bed then we have the ability to do that!
So here's my schedule for our first day. Yes, it's just one day. An entire page for one day. But I like a hard-copy schedule better than trying to do it online, it's just easier for me to see and check off and change as necessary. Plus there is plenty of room without trying to squish a whole week onto one page, and I have both boys' info on the same page so hopefully that will be easier on me.
It's kind of blurry I know. Tuesdays and Thursdays we'll do science instead of history. I still haven't found a place for art or music, those will both probably be only once a week though so I'm not too worried about it. I also need to figure out a plan with Cassius as far as reading for "fun" goes - I'm not sure if read-alouds are still the thing to do until his reading skills get a little bit better or if he can start reading on his own, or if we should just do some combination.
Here's what we're using for curriculum if anybody cares:
Cassius (1st Grade)
Phonics/Reading: Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (may have to get something else before the end of the year depending how quickly he finishes it)
Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
Writing: Writing with Ease
Spelling: Spelling Workout A
Math: Saxon Level 2
Yusuf (K)
Phonics/Reading: Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Writing: Handwriting Without Tears (Letters and Numbers workbook, may move on to something else depending how the year goes. He struggles quite a bit with fine motor skills still so we will see)
Math: Saxon Level 1
Together:
Bible: The Bible, and Big Truths for Little Kids
History: Story of the World part 1: Ancient Times, with the activity book, as well as Kingfisher's History Encyclopedia and other supplemental books from the library
Science: DK First Animal Encyclopedia, DK First Human Body Encyclopedia, and Green Thumbs (which is an activity book about growing plants, we'll work in that next spring).
Art: Need to figure this out, hopefully something that will go along with our history but maybe just doing Pinterest crafts :) Possibly studying artists but I need to look into this more.
Music: My parents are going to help us out here, otherwise we will just learn a song that we are going to sing at church. I'd like to really start Cassius in piano lessons, we'll just have to see how that goes. We kind of fizzled out at the first of the year but maybe now that he's a little older and we will have more time together it will be better.
So I'm excited! I met with a friend who has been homeschooling her girls for I think 10 years and went over my plan and she seemed very impressed with it. Of course I can't take any credit; I'm really good at following directions and all this info I got from the book The Well-Trained Mind as well as other forums and from asking questions from other homeschooling parents!
So much more to say, but I'll save it for later and maybe try to blog more frequently than once a month or so. :)
A few tips from a fellow homeschooler.... Don't write out your day to day plans until the week before, you will have things that change and it is a headache if they are all out. I do a general layout of what we hope to accomplish each month, then use that and our current progress to do the dailies (some people like a weekly too).
ReplyDeleteWe enjoy doing some read on your own and some read to mom at all ages, even kinders can "read" familiar books and it is good for kids to practice reading out loud too.
Yes I'm definitely doing only a week of planning at a time! Especially since I have no idea when this baby will come or really how this will even go. I WANT to plan more but I'm going to restrain myself, ha ha! Maybe once I get more comfortable I'll be able to plan two or three weeks but for now the first week is done and that's all I'm doing so far. Thanks for the advice about the reading! :)
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