School Schedule for the 2010-2011 School Year

I have a confession to make.  I've been homeschooling for over 7 years and I've never had a set schedule for our days.  Now, I've followed a general routine for our school days - independent work in the morning and work together after lunch.  As well, workboxes have helped to organize the school day for my boys.  For my oldest child, a daily assignment sheet has worked very well to keep her on track.  So, even though I feel we've been functioning well with the use of a general routine, workboxes, and assignment sheets; there are a number of changes this school year that have urged me to design a schedule for our days.

• For the first time, my children are not all doing Science together in unit studies.  My daughter is starting high school Biology and I am using Real Science 4 Kids with my boys.
• For the first time, all of my children will be doing Science and History at the same time.  Up to this point, we focused on a Science unit study and then a History unit study.  I'll be using Winter Promise Quest for the Ancient World for history which is a 36 week Ancient History program.
• All three of my children will be working on improving their writing skills this year and learning new types of writing skills.  Therefore, I need time set aside to work specifically on writing with each child.
• I am introducing a new subject for my boys - Spanish.
• Amber has been wanting to take a sewing course and this is the year I'm going to make it happen.
• I've been wanting to incorporate music appreciation into our homeschool for years now and this is the year I'm going to make it happen.
• I felt like a ping-pong ball at times last year.  I just went back and forth between children as they needed me.  Now ping-pong mom syndrome cannot be entirely avoided in most homeschools, but the severity of ping-pong mom syndrome can be reduced with a schedule.  (At least I'm hoping that is the truth of the matter).
• I am tired of waiting for my children to finish this, that, or the other before they can work with me one on one.  I am hoping that with a set schedule, they will know when to expect me and will not feel like I'm intruding on their independent work.
• Lastly, there are a number of language arts concepts (poetry, metaphor, simile, idioms, basic literary terms) that I would like to introduce to my younger children and it simply won't happen unless I set aside a time to work with them.

To set up our schedule, I started with the organization that I already have in place for our days - workboxes, assignment sheets, and the basic routine of independent work in the morning and work together after lunch.  So, to get our days under control, I focused on organizing my time in the morning.  I finally realized that I mostly need to schedule ME.  In between working with me, my children can work on their independent work.  I don't need to schedule all of their time down to the half-hour - I already have a system of organizing their independent assignments that works well for us (workboxes and assignment sheets).  Focusing only on where I need to be and what I need to do really helped to simplify setting up a schedule.

So, without further ado, here is my schedule for our days for the 2010-2011 school year.

Monday and Wednesday

8:00-8:30 - Work with Amber on her Lightbearers Worldviews class. 
***Amber will not always need to work with me.  Some days are scheduled for independent reading assignments or independent writing assignments.  I plan to watch the videos with her and discuss the discussion questions.

8:30-9:00 - Work with Mason and Duncan on their Ancient History Writing Lessons from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

9:00-9:30 - Work with Amber on Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar.  When she has completed the unit, this time will be set aside to go over her weekly literary analysis essays.  After we complete the Teaching the Essay unit, this time slot will often be empty.

9:30-10:00 - Work with Mason and Duncan on Megawords and Vocabulary Vine.  Amber will be included only with the Vocabulary Vine work.

10:00-10:30 - Spanish with Mason and Duncan. 

10:30-11:00 - Science with Mason and Duncan.

11:00-1:00 - Make lunch, Eat lunch, Clean up from Lunch, Check e-mail, Put in a load of laundry.

1:00-3:00 - History

Tuesday/Thursday

8:00-8:30 - Work with Amber on her Lightbearers Worldviews class.

***Amber will not always need to work with me. Some days are scheduled for independent reading assignments or independent writing assignments. I plan to watch the videos with her and discuss the discussion questions.

8:30-9:00 - Work with Mason and Duncan on their Ancient History Writing Lessons from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

9:00 - 9:30 - Work with Amber on Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar. When she has completed the unit, this time will be set aside to go over her weekly literary analysis essays. After we complete the Teaching the Essay unit, this time slot will often be empty.

9:30-10:00 - Work with Mason and Duncan on Megawords and Vocabulary Vine. Amber will be included only with the Vocabulary Vine work.

10:00-10:30 - Sewing class with Amber.

10:30-11:00 - Special Language Arts topics with Mason and Duncan.

11:00 - 1:00 - Make lunch, Eat lunch, Clean up from Lunch, Check e-mail, Put in a load of laundry.

1:00 - 3:00 - History

Friday

8:00-8:30 - Spanish with Mason and Duncan.

8:30 - 9:00 - Work with Mason and Duncan on their Ancient History Writing Lessons from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

9:00 - 9:30 - Answers in Genesis for Kids (bible class) with Mason and Duncan.

9:30-10:30 - Biology Lab with Amber.

10:30 - 11:30 - Science Lab with Mason and Duncan.

11:30 - 1:00 - Make lunch, Eat lunch, Clean up from lunch, Check e-mail, Put in a load of laundry.

1:00 - 3:00 - Art; Music Appreciation

I am certain that some of the planned lessons will not take the full 30 minutes and that is completely fine.  I want my children to know when they are expected to work with me and what they will be doing.  If we get done early, I can always put in a load of laundry!  Anytime they are not working with me, they are expected to work on their independent work (unless they are all done with their independent work of course!)

You might also have noticed that I scheduled a very generous time block for myself for lunch.  Due to my children's swim team schedule, lunch tends to be our biggest meal of the day and so I do "big cooking" at lunch and not lunch-type items.  We tend to have lunch-type items after swim team practice when it's much later in the day.

As well, while at the beginning of the year, we definitely have to stop at 3:00 due to their swim team schedule, swim team practice changes to a later time in the fall and we will have a bit more flexibility to watch an educational video or spend more time working on art on Fridays.  As well, if we don't need the entire time block for history or art - that's fine as well.

So, we will see how this schedule works out.  I'll be sure to post an update after our first week of school which is coming up right around the corner!

What about you?  Do you schedule your time during your homeschool day? Do you ever feel like you have ping-pong mom syndrome?