We need help.

[NoodleMom]

We have been having a bit of difficulty with getting going. While I have home-schooled in the past it was not these children and not using the CM method. All of the ten years I schooled at home I used workbooks and textbooks. This is my first experience with this method. The difficulty is mine I believe. My head has not let go of the texts and workbooks idea. We do use a few workbooks now and they are very much child generated in that it doesnt take me to get them going. Sometimes I just cant. If they have questions they can always ask me as I am always available.I love the idea of HOD. I really want this to work.
I sat the children down this am to have a family homeschool chat. We have been having some discipline issues that needed to be hashed out. I involved them in taking ownership of their schooling. They are now drawing a logo for our school. We will vote on them this afternoon and then display it in our home. We are named Solid Rock Academy. We also came up with a daily routine.Can you tell me if this sounds reasonable?
MORNING ROUTINE
8:30 Wakeup and get dressed
8:45 Make bed
9:00 Eat breakfast
9:15 Brush teeth
9:30 Begin Handwriting if I need a few more minutes or
MORNING SCHOOL
9:30-11:30 HOD right side Math and workbooks (workbooks are Easy Grammar, Spelling and Handwriting essentially our L.A. program)
11:30-1 Lunch
AFTERNOON SCHOOL
1-3 HOD left side
3:00 Chores

Does this look reasonable? Are there any changes I should make? The kids really wanted a schedule because they want to know what is happening next. I function better knowing what is happening next also.
So feel free to pick it apart and put it back together for me. I really need input.

Kasey
edited to change up sides

[John'smom]

Kasey,
First off, saying a prayer for you now!! I think your schedule looks great! My only thought I had was that maybe you should swap spots to do right side of HOD in the morning and the left side in the afternoon. It seems like I do better and so do my dc when we do these right away, otherwise we're feeling a little more sluggish and those subjects could easily not get done because they are not as fun or enjoyable to us as our history and science. Maybe you've chosen the way you've set it up for another reason and what you typed would work better for you family. Just a thought though. Again praying for you and your dc to be blessed!

[NoodleMom]

Well thats doable. No rhyme nor reason. I was just going left to right and didnt think out of the box.
I just asked them if they wanted to get the workbooks out of the way first and they of course said YES!

Kasey

[Kathleen]

Kasey,

I can't remember which programs you're using this year with your kids. So I don't think I can be much help specifically, but I remember (& have used!) Carrie's advice in this thread. She talks about CM's idea of alternating inspirational & disciplinary subjects in your kids' day. This has made our day flow along much more smoothly this year, and I can tell that Grant isn't getting bogged down by doing too much writing in one sitting.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2125&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
Here's another that mentions the same idea...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5600

I know that this year as I was putting together our schedule, I found that by just changing the order of a few things as we were first trying them we saved 20-30 min because it flowed better. And, once we got our routine going, we've left it for the year and it has saved me a WHOLE LOT of mental energy by not having to decide where everyone needs to go next! They know the plan (even better than I do ) and we happily can roll through school. I think it will take you several weeks of doing school the CM way to get used to it after text books. We tried that before HOD. And it does take more of you than just having the kids fill in workbooks, but I know that my kids are thriving & learning (which I was not convinced of before)...and we're making irrepaceable memories!! These days are the ones that I'll sit in my rocker and remember fondly when they're grown and living in homes of their own. I wouldn't trade our fun school time for anything!! And, I know that for my family with HOD it's also time where I know that I'm intentionally passing on my love for the Lord and His Word to my kids. They're learning & growing spiritually and they love the time to talk with me.

I just want you to know, too, that we are a "normal" family. My kids (and me ) have attitude issues that spring up to work on, we have health challenges of morning sickness and an appendix to remove this year, we sometimes think that it would be more fun to just play outside all day instead of doing any of our work... But overall, school has really gorwn to be a happy part of our lives that we enjoy, and for us using HOD has made it that way! Working on your schedule is well worth it, because I know it has helped me immensely this year! We've been finishing Preparing & LHFHG more quickly than we were finishing Bigger & LHTH last year.

Kathleen

[John'smom]

I do agree with Kathleen as well about rotating disciplinary and inspirational subjects if you can. My reasoning has mainly been my ds' neck as a lot of writing makes his neck hurt (even though I've made sure he's doing everything properly). With that in mind I do try and get atleast my two least favorite subjects to teach done earlier in our day when I'm not so tired and those subjects fall in the disciplinary subjects for me.

Kathleen, thanks so much for posting those links. They were a good reminder for me.

Also on one of those links was a reference to Catherine Levison. I recently have read her two books on CM and they were a real blessing to me. Maybe see if you library has them and maybe they could be an encouragment to you on the CM thing. I've also been reading Karen Andreola's book and while it's really good it seemed to me that the Levison books were more where the rubber meets the road.

[pamh]

Sorry, I just have to ask....Do your kids really wake up at 8:30??? If my boys ever slept that late, I'd first rush them to the E.R. because I'm sure they were deathly sick (lol) and second I could get everything done by that time...whoooohooooo!!!! My families all up by 6am and on Thursday mornings we're playing/practicing baseball at a park at 8am before the morning crowd arrives!

It looks like you have a nice schedule. Our family has an overall schedule but we take a break after a couple of subjects and either jump on our trampoline or play tetherball. I also break up my sons writing, some first in the morning and save the rest for a bit later. Today, we'll homeschool in the afternoon since little brother didn't have preschool, we played all morning at the park and then at home!!! That is one reason I love, love homeschooling!!! Oh yeah, sometimes I leave history reading for bath time. I'll read to both of my sons while they relax in the tub....my oldest loves that!

Good luck on your journey. I'm a workbook person as well but I'm not sure that information always sticks...it feels more like just going thru the motions instead of really soaking up the learning for the sake of learning (not memorizing if that makes sense!?) HOD is a different concept for us but I soooo appreciate them and am thankful to have found'em!!!!

Blessings,
pam

[funkmomma71]

Sorry, I just have to ask....Do your kids really wake up at 8:30??? If my boys ever slept that late, I'd first rush them to the E.R. because I'm sure they were deathly sick (lol) and second I could get everything done by that time...whoooohooooo!!!! My families all up by 6am and on Thursday mornings we're playing/practicing baseball at a park at 8am before the morning crowd arrives!
pam

I just had to reply to this! I and my daughter are late risers, she usually doesn't come downstairs for breakfast until 8am or later. My son on the other hand likes to wake up around 7am or earlier, thank God Grandma is usually up that early and takes care of him until I wake up! That's the best part of HS, we can make our own schedules!

As to the original poster's question, I am no expert on scheduling, we just open the book and go until we are done or it's lunchtime. I work at night 2-4 nights a week so I don't always wake up at the same time, so school starts whenever mommy's ready and goes until I say we are done. Hopefully when my son is ready for school, I'll be done working outside the home and I can institute a schedule. We just follow the subjects from left to right and my daughter knows what is coming next, so that is the only constant in our schedule.

[NoodleMom]

Thank you all for your input, it has been really helpful. This is our schedule thus far.

MORNING ROUTINE
8:30 Wakeup and get dressed
8:45 Make bed
9:00 Eat breakfast
9:15 Brush teeth
9:30 Morning School begins
MORNING SCHOOL
9:30-11:30 HOD right side Math and workbooks (workbooks are Easy Grammar, Spelling and Handwriting essentially our L.A. program),Reading
11:30-1 Lunch Listen to CD(SOTW or others)while eating
AFTERNOON SCHOOL
1-3 Reading 20mins HOD left side
3:00 Chores

Kathleen, thank you for those links. Good resource.
One of the things that drew me to HOD was the fact in everything they are being exposed to Christ and in turn like you, my love for Him and His love for us.

John'smom, I will look for those books by Catherine Levinson on our next trip to the Library. Thanks.

Pam, yes they really do sleep in that late. LOL! In fact they have been sleeping in even later. We are night owls here and getting up at 8:30 is going to be a bit of an adjustment. My kids would rather get all of their work done before playing so that their freetime is uninterrupted. We will be taking little breaks throughout the day.

Does it look okay? Can you see any potential kinks? I am excited to start now.
Again thank you for all the advice. I knew ya'll would help.
Kasey

[Carrie]

Kasey,

The ladies are doing a terrific job of giving wonderful suggestions. If you get a minute to pop back in and tell us which guide or guides you are using and the ages of your kiddos, we could offer tips specific to your situation. The ladies are so gracious with their time and are excellent at schedule tweaking!

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Hi Kasey! I too am interested in which guides you're doing. Do you have boys? Not sure, but if you do, we've found with our boys that the #1 way to combat attitude issues is to finish school early. They like school very much, but they like their free time too. If you have any boys or active girls too with a few attitude issues to work through, and there is a way you could finish earlier than 3 PM, I'd try to do that. Just a thought! One thing that helped me so very much is the time increments suggested for each box of plans. Trying to finish within those time suggestions made a huge impact in our day, as our dc never felt then that we were dragging things out (as I can tend to do being somewhat of a perfectionist ). If you share the guide(s) you're doing, I'll link you to those.

In Christ,
Julie

[Tansy]

I was at a conference focusing on the CM method. Mrs. Seid said Math absolutely must be first because the brain is most awake early in the morning. (Charlotte has never met my brain
Also the child needs to play outside for a minimum of 30 min after lunch. I find if the school day is going to be long this break is essential.
She encouraged cm school kids to have the afternoon to explore the outside world. up to 3 hours.

Also the kids are to play outside for 30 min no matter what the weather. (barring blizzards and thunder storms). I have to say it really does toughen up the kiddos. I know its 105 in the shade here are your water bottles try to stay cool... lots of TX mommies didn't like this but then I look out and there is the grass service mowing my neighbors lawn in the same weather. Yup they need to learn to play in all weathers.

do you think you can squeeze that in during the lunch... maybe if you did bag lunches have the kids make their lunch after breakfast? then you would get 30 min of clean up/me time too.

[NoodleMom]

We are using Preparing for all four. Ages 9,13,14,14. Because we have learning disabilities to work with academically my older two are more at a 10 and 12 year old level.

Yes I most definitely can fit in outside time in during our lunch time.

Kasey

[Tansy]

my older two are more at a 10 and 12 year old level.

I so understand that!
My dd1 is 10 an in her 3rd year of 3rd grade :-/ she just has no concept of math reasoning tho her reading comprehension is responding to therapy.
she's a 6-7 year old wandering around in a 10 year old body.

[my3sons]

Hi Kasey! Well, if you are doing PHFHG, here are the time increments I was telling you about for each box of the plans:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4244&p=31219#p31219

I just tried to shoot for those, and it seemed to keep our day clipping along, as we were able to move through the plans in a more timely fashion. For me, this was a big deal, for a few reasons. First, I can lose track of time and draw things out, and second, I don't enjoy the effects of drawing the day out - though I know others enjoy that sometimes. I like to teach, but I have a lot to get done in my life besides teaching, as so many moms do. You've already gotten some great ideas here, and have done a good job yourself of tentatively mapping out a plan.

I think it's really helpful to step back and think what you want your day to be like in general. For me, I'm a morning person, though I don't love getting up super early. A good time for me to get going is 7:15 AM, as my toddler gets up then and I'm up anyway. I also begin shutting down by about 1:00 or 1:30 PM, by then my burst of energy is settling into a yawn. So, I need to finish school by about then, and then do something sitting down and alone for awhile - usually some type of work that's quiet and gives me some alone time. Then, I can rally by late afternoon, and can get supper together, make it to the kids' bedtime, and at that point not much physical work is going to get done. That's just me though! But all of that - coupled with the fact that my kids need to RUN and have some independent playtime/free time after lunch - works together to make our school day start at 8:15 AM and end at 12:30 PM. So, what kind of a person are you? Are you like me, or are you more like my good friend who wakes up more slowly because she's a night person? And does that mean you'd enjoy starting later and spreading the day out more with lunch and a break in the middle? If so, that's the way to go. However, if you try that, and you are still thinking that thought... "AGHHHHH! We need help!" (as we have all thought at one point or another) , then you may want to try starting earlier and powering through to finish by lunch or early afternoon.

One thought that gives me peace, is school is just ONE part of our dc's lives, and ONE part of our lives. It is not meant to take over our lives. There should be time for school, and then time for everything else. That doesn't mean it's not enough, and it doesn't mean we're not doing a good job just because we don't do it allllllll day - it just means it's balanced with the rest of the things in our lives. HOD is full of so much more life and meaningful talks and tasks than any textbook and workbook program out there - I know in your heart you want this to work, and I know in my heart it can work for you. You can take the reins and run with this, if you just know in your heart you can. The Lord is so alive and active in HOD. It just gives a way to our dc's hearts that other curriculums I've used have not. This doesn't mean when we get to our kids' hearts that it's all roses - no, we all have a naturally sinful nature, but while HOD doesn't solve all of that in one fell swoop, it's gives us the avenue to work through these heart issues with our children. And textbook/workbook program or not - they don't go away on their own unfortunately. We are working, working, and I do mean working, on heart issues with my middle ds right now. It is sometimes depressing and draining, but HOD is helping me work through these issues with Christ at the center, rather than me at the center trying to solve it all on my own. I can understand your struggles you are sharing, and I think we all feel that way with every one of children at different stages and points in their lives, though more so with certain ones, maybe that clash with our personality.

It is quite alluring to think of putting dc in ps or switching to some type of very independent curriculum or letting them just pick what to do all day - but none of that solves the heart issues they're having. HOD does often bring heart issues to the surface, and then uses the Bible and Christ-centered learning to work through them. Over time, this effects our dc deeply. I know you will find this with your dc too. Anyway, I just want to encourage you because as moms we tend to be a bit hard on ourselves if we don't feel we've got all the "plates up and spinning perfectly together in the air". Once and awhile, no matter how good of moms we are, one smashes and breaks (or more than one ). I think you are doing just fine and need to just mess around with tweaking your days so they fit what you want your average day to be like. I hope something here helps, but I have prayed as well, as God is the best helper of all.

In Christ,
Julie