heartofdakota.com

Being new to HOD, I really don't have a good grasp of how long things will take. I have been working on making a schedule for myself and my children to use for our school days in the fall. If any of you have used CTC, with other kids in the house, please let me know if you think this could work, or what you would change? I am open to suggestion and since you all seem really good at figuring the best ways to do things, I thought I would ask!!!

7:00-7:30 Older three kids (10,8,6) get up and do morning chores. Little two (4 and 2) eat breakfast w/Mom
7:30-8:00 Older three kids eat breakfast together, while little two have LHTH "school time" w/Mom
8:00-10:00 Oldest child (CTC) will do: Bible Quiet Time, Independant History Study, and Reading About History boxes, independently
Next two (8 and 6) will do "Beyond" school time w/Mom
Little two (4 & 2) will have independent workbox time. (I'll have about 4 workboxes filled with fun educational activities for them to do.)
10:00-10:30 Oldest (10) will do DITHR/Dictation (level 4/5) w/Mom
Second (8) will do DITHR/Dictation (level 2/3) w/Mom
Third child (6) will do a fun activity with the 4 and 2 yr. olds
10:30-11:30 Oldest (10) will do Saxon Math 6/5 and then work on Poetry Box in CTC guide
Second (8) and Third (6) will do Math and Handwriting (alternately) at table w/Mom
Little two (4 & 2) will work on alternating box activites (different activities for each day)
11:30-12:30 Oldest (10) will do R&S English 5 or Write With the Best w/Mom and then on his Handwriting book
Second (8) will do educational computer game for 20 min. and then do R&S English 2 w/Mom
Third (6) will play with little two (4 & 2)
12:30-1:30 Lunch-Outside playtime
1:30-2:00 Oldest (10) History Project/ Written Narration and then Storytime w/Mom
Second (8) and Third (6) Outside Playtime
Little two (4 & 2) Naptime
2:00-2:30 Oldest (10) Science Exploration Box, Independently
Second (8) Independent reading time/quiet time
Third (6) Reads Emerging Readers to Mom
Little two-still napping
2:30-3:00 Oldest computer time
Second (8) and Third (6) work on All About Spelling w/Mom
3:00-3:30 Oldest (10) works on All About Spelling w/Mom

This is just a rough draft, so to speak. I am still working on it and just thought I would post it here and see if anyone could tell me if this is crazy and won't work or if they think maybe I should tweak something. I appreciate your kind advice!!! Sorry this is such a jumbled up mess to read. It looked great, when I typed it up. It was all spaced properly and when I hit Submit, it changed and was all squished together! I tried to change it and had a lot of problems, so I guess I'll just leave it alone!

In Christ,
Lisa

That's a great schedule Lisa! I'm impressed with how you've put together all the moving parts involved with scheduling that number of children. This was super helpful for me, as I still struggle with this. Whenever I put together a schedule, I get confused thinking about who could/should be doing what when with so many people. I am schedule-impaired. Most days I just wing it but I really don't want to do that anymore! I am trying out some different things this summer so we can get in a routine that works for us. Anyway, enough about me.

I see a couple of places I think you could shave some time off. The block of time from 8-10, the CTC items scheduled in there takes us less than two hours. I would think a half hour less at least. I haven't done Beyond though so I don't know about that part. And I don't think R&S/WWTB plus handwriting would take an hour most days either, probably more like 45 min. Of course with schedules you always have to try them out first to see how much time things are actually taking and then go from there, these are just my thoughts right off the bat!

Are you comfortable doing school until 3:30 each day? I know for us we need to have the majority of school done by lunch, with only one or two "easy" things to do after lunch like reading, being finished by 1:30 or 2, or we all struggle. Of course this is a personal preference, I'm just throwing that out there if you are looking for ways to shorten your day a little, I see some ways you might do that.

You are obviously a great planner!

Monique,

Thank you so much for your kind words! They mean a lot. My husband gave me a funny look when he saw I was posting my schedule on the boards. I wasn't sure about it, myself. I could shave some time off in those areas. Thanks for the suggestion. With five children, it's really hard to figure out what everybody should be doing, and when, to maximize our/my time.

No, I don't want to do school that late in the day, but feel like I have no other choice. It just seems that there is so much for us to do in a day, that I'll have to go that long. That's partly why I asked for help. If someone could give me direction as to how long some of it takes, I could probably squeeze more into certain time spaces. I want to have a lot of fun and feel relaxed as we go through our day. I am not actually one to stick to a minute by minute schedule, however, I do like one to keep on on track with things. I am more of a routine person, but know that I have to make up a schedule so everyone knows what to do at certain times of the day. (And to manage my time better!)

Thanks again!

In Christ,
Lisa

Hi Lisa! Wow! I really like how you took time to plan what each family member would be doing in your schedule, as when this is not done, it is often what causes problem areas in the day (especially for those little ones). You have a super plan set up here! We did Beyond, LHTH, and CTC last year, and enjoyed the year very much. One thing that helped me set up a schedule was having about how long each box of plans was going to take. LHTH takes 20-30 minutes, which is easy to plan, but here are some links for CTC and Beyond where Carrie posts the box times:
CTC time it takes:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3765
Beyond, time it takes:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4390&p=32417

For the first 3 CTC things your oldest is doing, those boxes would take at the most 1 hour and 15 minutes. Likewise, for Beyond during that time slot, it looks like you'll be doing the left side of the plans and Storytime (as the other boxes are covered later in the day). That also adds up to about 1 hour and 15 minutes worth of time. Of course, they'll probably take longer when you first begin until you get in the groove with it, but I thought I'd throw that out there as you could move your entire schedule up about 45 minutes or an hour. You can check out the rest of the box times too, but I think the rest match pretty closely, if anything they'd be a tad on the long side, which would move the schedule up some too. I was just thinking how nice it would be for you to have your dc's nap times to do other things you need to do (like breathe, have some coffee, throw in some laundry, etc. ). So, with that thought in mind, I'll mention that we used to do additional spelling, and found replacing it with dictation to be a good academic choice and time choice for us. Also, there is quite a bit of writing CTC, so your ds's handwriting could really be omitted as it is covered nicely through copywork, notebooking, written narrations, etc. - unless he needs instruction on formation of letters yet. If you dropped the extra spelling and handwriting, you could even have your oldest take a turn playing with the littles if you needed some quieter time to do some of Beyond's things with the 6 and 8 yo. Your oldest would have time to do it then, and would probably grow close to the littles while appreciating a short break at the same time.

That would bring you to finishing about by the time you put your littles to nap, and your olders could just finish out science/independent reading, while you finish out Emerging Reader's Set with little pumpkin. I have sons, so I am most likely warped in my thinking , but finishing school early in the afternoon goes a long way to keep the love of learning flowing all year long in our house. However, I fully respect that the things you've added may be very important to you, and if they are, then by all means keep them. I just was thinking how much it does for me to have that afternoon time to get all of those other piling up type things done rather than to be schooling still, but then that's about the time I s-l-o-w down (must be my age). By late afternoon I get my second wind. Anyway, thanks for sharing this here, as talking schedules is an important part of making homeschooling work in the day to day for all of us!!! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

I just read Monique's response and yours after typing mine - we must have been typing the same time. I guess we were all thinking the same thing - a good sign, I guess! You really don't have to be homeschooling all day with HOD - even when doing 3 programs. We always find time starts to fall off our schedule as the order of it becomes routine (usually about a month into the schedule). I bet you'll see the same thing!

In Christ,
Julie

Let me start off by saying THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I was debating whether or not to do the handwriting and the All About Spelling Program. I actually purchased them last winter in anticipation of next school year. I also purchased a lot of other things too. Well, to make a long story short, God has totally changed our little school around. Through His AMAZING guidance, we are changing basicly everything this coming year. We had a really tough year, last year, and am looking forward to beginning a new (happy) era of homeschooling with HOD. God has directed our path to HOD and I am so thankful He did!!!!

That being said, I am quite relieved that I don't have to incorporate those elements into our day. I just want to say a special thank you to Monique and Julie for taking the time and being so encouraging in helping me. You really did help me. I can now plan out a school day that ends at a good time, gives my children a chance to play/relax later in the day, and gives me the time I need to be a good help meet to my husband and family! Thank you so much!

In Christ,
Lisa

I agree that doing school late into the afternoon wouldn't be enjoyable for very many people, and would easily lead to burnout. I wanted to find out how you felt about it first though, and how committed you were to AAS. I heartily concur with all of Julie's recommendations and scheduling ideas if you are good with all of that! I think you'll enjoy your days much more this way.