We start our school time after breakfast. Mom prepares the lesson plans on Sunday for the upcoming week. We cover the following areas daily: "Bible", "Sign Language", "Reading" (Mom reads storybooks from the library at this time. We read all kinds. We especially enjoy books with rhymes, as well as stories.), "Phonics", "Writing", "Arithmetic", and "Readiness Skills". We do the following subjects some time during the week, "Science/Health", "Social Studies", "Music", "Arts/Crafts", and "PE".
We usually do school in twenty to thirty minute intervals and then stop for a while and do something fun or work on household chores together. Our two year old's activities are much more "hands on" than our four year olds. Our daughter is learning to read, so we do her Reading time when the baby and two year old are laying down for their naps in the afternoon. This takes about twenty minutes and then she also lays down. We usually are finished with all of our school time by naptime. Occasionally we will finish up some activities after naptime if we have had morning errands. For us, it is better to do things that require more concentration first thing in the morning because the children are fresher and can pick up information much easier at this time.
DAILY SCHEDULE
This is an ideal day for our school time. There are days that we run errands, go skating in the morning, or have storytime at our local library. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that you can adjust your schedule to fit your families needs.
Prior to 9:00 is breakfast, getting dressed, cleaning the kitchen up, etc...
9:00 - Bible time, Sign Language Practice, Phonics
9:30 - Break for chores/playtime
10:00 - Readiness skills, Writing, Arithmetic
10:30- Break for chores/playtime
11:00 - Reading/Poetry Mom reads orally, Children have "quiet" sit-time with a book
11:30 - PE, Science/Health, Social Studies, Music We rotate Science/Health, Music, and Social Studies at this age.
12:00 - Break for chores/playtime
12:30 - Lunch
1:00 - Arts/Crafts, finish anything from above that was not completed
1:30 - The children have "room-time". This is structured time that they spend in their own rooms daily with a specific toy that Mom picks out for them to explore.
2:30 - Reading time with our daughter
3:00 - Naptime for all
The rest of the day are family type activities
Sample Lesson Plans
Listed below is a sample of our lesson plans for one day. We are not using
a set curriculum at this time, but rather a variety of things. Our schedule has
a great deal of flexibility because the children are still young.
BIBLE --- With both children --- We do one lesson from our Character Building
book, orally say our memory verse, and each pray for specific needs we have listed
on our dry erase board.
READING --- With both children --- Mom reads a story aloud. The
children pick out the stories they like when we go to our weekly storytime at the
local library. After our oral reading time, the children have "sit time" with three
books. They are expected to sit quietly and look at the pictures.
PHONICS --- Our five year old --- Complete one lesson in Teach Your Child to Read
in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann.
Our three year old --- Practice (with Mom) identifying ABC's on a puzzle and
saying the sounds using the sounds chart.
WRITING --- Our five year old-- Practice writing two numbers (we use the two
numbers we are working on for the day) and two letters (these are taken from the
100 Easy Lessons book above).
Our three year old--- Complete a coloring book picture. Practice staying in
the lines. Our three year old has just turned three, so we will start working on
writing letters soon.
ARITHMETIC --- Our five year old --- We are using workbooks purchased from
Wal-Mart and stores such as this. On this particular day we practiced with the
numbers 7 and 8. We do counting, some adding, and writing these numbers. We have
also been working on orally counting and she is able to count aloud to 100.
Our three year old --- We are working on shapes and counting blocks to 12. He
has a shape workbook that he colors one picture in and then we get out blocks and
after Mom puts out a certain number, he touches and counts them.
READINESS SKILLS --- Our five year old --- Complete two pages gaining practice
with the letter "j". This is done in a purchased ABC workbook.
Our three year old --- This particular day he was expected to draw a picture
and color it using his imagination. Somedays, he plays with an electronic learning
toy or completes puzzles or uses Jumpstart Preschool by Knowledge Adventure
on the computer.
SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE --- We rotate days doing these activities. This particular
day we worked on flash cards which have different animals (mostly wild animals) to
help the children learn to identify them.
P.E. --- We do various activities at home for PE time. We do several different
things outside, such as throwing and catching the ball, jumping jacks, running laps.
This particular day we went to the preschool skate in our area.
We also do arts/crafts on different days during the week, as well as music activites.
At this point, our music activities include learning new songs and keeping rhythym.
We learn a new sign from ASL (American Sign Language) each day. We are already
teaching these signs to our baby also.
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