Post
by Nealewill » Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:02 pm
I am happy to report.....that today went GREAT! I did a couple of things. I do actually highlight my guide to show what is "T" and what is "I" This way, my dd can easily visually see what is something she can do independently. I don't know that she will need to see it now that I am spelling out every single day for her now and the order but it is a habit. But - I also penciled in each box the amount of time each item should take. This way she could set the timer and see how she was doing compared to the timer. That was pretty helpful today. So Bible was first thing with dad before breakfast with all of the kids. After breakfast dd hung out with younger siblings. She did the Independent History Box first and she got that done in 20 minutes with oral narration. Science actually took a while today because it was A LOT of copy work. It took her 45 minutes. Ouch. But that is okay. With bathroom breaks and starting a little bit late, she got done at 10:05. She ate her snack while I read the Reading About History Box. Then she worked on the Research box alone to start. I have an iPad and she is good at looking things up in Safari and on Wikipedia. She did that while I listened to her siblings read out loud to me (yes - they can read out loud at the same time and remember their stories). They half way race each other and I quiz them when they are done to see if they remember and they actually do. Weird, I know. And sometimes even with them - they both read pretty well, I listen to half of what they read each and they rarely miss many words. I am doing both the emerging readers and the books listed in the back. They read pretty well so sometimes they read 2 days worth a time - we read for 15-20 minutes each. Then I gave the younger 2 their copy work - they do 4 lines a day. And they have pretty good handwriting and stamina. It takes them about 5-7 minutes to finish. While they finished their copy work I was able to help my dd finish her research (she struggled a little today) then we did story time. It was 11:05 and we made it out for our walk! We came back and ate lunch and read story time for the youngers. I started my teaching block with my oldest dd at about 12:30 - we did spelling, poetry, grammar, math instruction and DITHOR instruction. My youngers went outside and jumped on the trampoline while I was teaching my oldest. After this hour block, she took a break for 30 minutes or so and then got to work finishing math and DITHOR. And she was done for the day by 2:45! It was a great day! Now my youngers, once she started her break they both did spelling and then onto math. We had piano lessons today (the teacher comes to my house) so we had to take a break after those two subjects for the youngers. But once the piano teacher left, we completed History Reading and Rotating box (science today with 2 experiments) and poetry. This only took us another 40 minutes max and it was all more like playing than school anyway so no one complained. Even my older DD joined in and "played" with the youngers for their activities.
I know there will be days that things won't go perfectly but she really liked getting done much earlier. Plus, I made a desk top sign for her - Colossians 3:23, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." She really liked that too. I think this schedule really helps to spread me much better and provides some great opportunities for a solid amount of learning time and solid breaks. Thanks again.
Daneale
DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R
Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM