Scheduling the extras?

[Leanne]

How do you schedule in extra things like art, music, home ec and nature studies?

This is my schedule for the school year;

8am Morning Chores
9am Breakfast
9.30 Bible
10am Language Arts
11am Math
12pm Lunch & Walk Dog
1.30pm Preparing Hearts History and Science
3.30pm -
5.30pm Chores
7pm Dinner & Dishes
8pm PJ’s & Story
9pm Kids Bedtime & My Study Time

We really only have two hours of 'free time' in the afternoons which I really don't want to give up & Fridays we go to homeschool group, and I can't think of where to add these things without overloading both me and the kids.

[mamaloves4]

I am kind of in the same boat! I don't want to give up our afternoon free time, but I want those things woven into our lives. So....here are some ideas I had. Use breakfast time for music, pick a composer and play his works during breakfast for....however long you wish--a week, two weeks, etc. Use breakfast time for picture study with an artist--look at his/her work, maybe read about the artist. I am woefully neglectful about home ec--it is so much easier to do it myself, but I try to have a helper a few times a week (it doesn't always happen!). And for nature study---we watched/observed a robins nest in the spring and took pictures and made a lap book.

none of that is very scheduled and I could definitely improve on consistency, but it does work for us without overwhelming me or the kids. I am sure you will get some better ideas along the way--the ladies here are super helpful!

Jess

[pjdobro]

Do you do a full hour of math and a full hour of LA each day? We don't usually end up with that much time on math each day, but I guess it depends on the age of the child. I was thinking you might be able to squeeze a little time out of that 10-12 slot. I like the idea of adding things in over breakfast or lunch. Another idea might be to take one afternoon per week to be your extra things day. Then use that afternoon each week to do an extra thing. One week do music study, one art study, one nature study, home ec, etc. That way you would be adding in each extra subject once a month. I am doing an art program this year with my dc called Meet the Masters. It is an online based program that is intended to be done once a month for a couple of hours each setting. It's been fun and it is low key doing it one afternoon a month. Perhaps you could try a week or two taking one afternoon to try something extra and see how it works. If it feels like it is pressing you for time too much, then rest assured that your normal schedule is enough.

[water2wine]

Perhaps when you actually run your schedule you will find a half an hour some place where you could rotate your extras throughout the week similar to how HOD does in the guide. That is a thought. But an all day co-op is already quite and extra to have so finding time along with that I think is going to require sneaking it in here and there as it fits. We are really enjoying having Fridays. I think if I chose to have a co-op on that day I would trim down my extras a bit if I could. I do understand wanting it all. I am that kind too. Not really with co-ops but just in general. I am finding I can have what I want I just can't have it all every week and that actually works out fine for us. One thing I did that really helped is I ran my schedule a couple of different ways the first week and tried things in different orders to see what worked best timing everything. I found for us some order things did not matter but some did. So that helped me to find hidden time. You might find the same when you actually run your schedule.

[Tansy]

doesn't Charlotte Mason say do math first? because that is when the brain is most focused. just a thought..

If it was me I'd do the kids chores once in a while to give them an extra. but that is me.

[my3sons]

Hi Leanne! Well, I used to be an "extras" girl and have happily stopped because doing 3 HOD programs is just right for us. Plus, I've figured out we get to it all eventually anyway. But, when we weren't as busy, I enjoyed rotating nature journal, composer study, art study, and critical thinking. We had a 30 minute time slot, and a day assigned to each (i.e. Monday - nature journal, Tuesday - composer study, etc.). This worked well. I think if you give your schedule a month, you'll see a 30 minute time emerge somewhere. Otherwise, one year we did these on Fridays. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[pamh]

What I've done in the past with the boys was left some of the reading for either bath or bed time. Sometimes, I would even read to the boys on a car trip when I plan ahead and my husband is driving! Car trips are even great for listening to the music portion. For my household, if I let my son do the "fun" things in the morning such as the extras and field trips then he gets upset in the afternoon when he sees his little brother playing and doesn't want to do school work.

Pam

[my3sons]

Pam makes a good point - I've done those so long I forget to think of them as extras, but they kind of are. We listen to "Patch the Pirate" or a book on audio tape/CD during lunch. Since we finish school by lunch time, our afternoon looks like this right now:
12:30-1:00 Outdoor recess or Exercise Video
1-2 PM Creative Time (playdough, writing stories, painting - anything artistic, tape recording themselves reading books, erector sets, videotaping an experiment, handicrafts, making things out of cardboard, etc.)
2-3 PM Playtime in playroom
3-4 PM Watch Liberty's Kids or Educational video
4-4:30 PM Book time in rooms (my oldest has a tub of books I expect him to read through within the year)
4:30-5 PM Board Games or Puzzle (we always do a 500 piece puzzle about this time of year)
5-5:30 PM Educational Computer Game or Outside playtime
Supper
Family Time (outdoors with Dad if he's home)
Quiet time in rooms from 8-9 PM - they usually "create" during this time or read books.

I guess we do some types of "extras" during this time, if these count as extras. I like to leave lots of choice in what they do, but still give them some structure. If the day is nice, they play outside a lot more than this, but as winter comes here, it's nice to have some other plans in place in case of bad weather. They are growing into making good decisions with their free time while still just enjoying playing. Carrie's kids are always creating the most amazing things, and I asked how she gets them to do it. She said she's just given them "Creative Time" forever, and it's mushroomed into some pretty amazing things they've made or done (I'm lucky enough to see them since I'm the aunt ). Anyway, it got me thinking I need to have some time of Creative Time where a "product" of some sort is made of their own creation. My kids started off having a rough time with it, but are growing to love it and coming up with better and better ideas each day. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie