Every time I read it, I get so inspired by Managers of Their Homes (MOTH), try to piece every little detail of our days together, and then realize the same thing - while I LOVE the method of MOTH, and the structure a schedule provides, an extremely detailed "every minute filled" schedule just does not work for us. So I've been tweaking, and things are going much more smoothly and relaxed as we find our rhythm.
On another blog I read (I forget where, I apologize), this style was referred to as "Hard Stops". Certain things have to or just do happen at certain times of the day, such as meals, naps, etc. After putting those things into a set structure, everything else just sort of "flows" around them. For us, we just follow the general order of things, and whatever we accomplish is what we accomplish.
Some days go wonderfully, and alot gets done. Other days, there are interruptions everywhere, but we just pick up where we left off and "do the next thing". No worries about what gets missed, we'll just get it done another day. Its much less frantic and hectic, and much more peaceful!
My "hard stops" include school starting at 9am, lunch around 12:30pm, Nathan's nap from 1-3 pm, and dinner at 6:30 pm. And honestly, even those "hard stops" aren't terribly set in stone. ;-)
Here's how a basic day looks for us now:
In the morning, my current goal is to myself out of bed before 7:30. Judah went on a long sleep strike that has left me in a deficit. Not to mention the fact that it is darker and colder, which are all perfect conditions to stay in bed as long as possible! However, once I finally get some rest, I would like to resume waking earlier again.
8 am - Kids up, do their before breakfast routine
Breakfast
After breakfast chores
9 am - School begins!
Here's what our school routine looks like. Its not timed, because different subjects take different amounts of time on different days. So its just an "order of service" we follow:
- Bible, all of us together
- Geography (from ECC), all of us together
- Read-Aloud, all of us together
- Usually by this time we're ready for a snack and Judah takes a nap
- Isaac, Ezra, and Joel spend some time on handwriting - the two oldest copy their memory verse while Joel just works on tracing and writing whatever letter we're working on that week. While they do that, I spend some one-on-one preschool time with Nate.
- I have one-on-one time with Joel (we're working on Explode the Code, Book B!) and the big boys either do more of their independent work, or have time with Nate (they alternate turns)
- I then get Joel and Nate together to do some preschool Bible stories and coloring pages, while Isaac and Ezra work on independent work some more
- Joel and Nate get some playtime together, and I do spelling with Isaac and Ezra (they are loving Sequential Spelling, by the way! They think its alot of fun, and after only 5 lessons, I'm already seeing improvement!)
- The kids are released from school work while I check the independent work and make lunch - its usually around noon by now.
- Big-kid read aloud (longer chapter books)
- Science
- My one-on-one time with Isaac and Ezra, when we go over independent work. While I'm with one, the other is doing a preschool activity with Joel. Then we switch!
I find this routine so much easier than trying to cram a huge variety of activities in the day for everyone. While there are things that aren't being done that I would ideally like to have time for (for example, currently, Music and Spanish are off the list), it was just too stressful on everyone trying to squeeze everything in. Two of my main goals were to have one on one with each boy, as well as letting them have one on one time with eachother, and that is being accomplished.
I also happen to think that young boys need as much, if not more, time to run and play and explore, as time spent in "academics". So we have much more of that in this current schedule, and we're loving it.
How's the new school year going for everyone else? Any major changes since you started out this year?
Posts
1 comment:
i know what you mean- i always have these great intentions as we start the new year-overambitious, but great for my kids, right? then we find ourselves,screaming, crying, burnt out fast! we are having better luck with 20minute centers throughout the morning=more like "real" school but tailored for us. i rotate the centers to keep it fun but still meaty. They revolve around writing and reading only. we read a proverbs each morning, more or less, according to the day; math is done with dad; history is read on their own 2 x a week and narrated back. most of our focus lately has been on reading together, language arts and writing skills, spelling. i find 2-3 hours goes by so much quicker this way in the mornings! thanks f or sharing your day- enjoying skulking around on your site!
Post a Comment