Our big annual homeschool schedule

It's almost time to get serious about our plans for 2011. Actually, I don't want to get too serious about it yet as the end of the year is so close and we're really looking forward to a break, but think about it we shall (a bit! *wink!*)

A question being discussed by the TOS Crew is Do you follow a traditional school day/time/schedule/year?, so I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts on the subject.

We actually don't run our days like traditional schools. Many years ago I did try (I guess that was the teacher training in me!), but it just didn't work. So much time is spent at school in assemblies, filing into the classroom, listening to the teacher, waiting for other students to settle and a whole lot of other activity that just doesn't happen here. So, because we can cut to the chase, our days aren't as long as that of most children attending school. In fact, schooling is really just part of our family lifestyle.

I am often asked "So, when do you start your day?" Well, as soon we're up, really. I do think that mastering chores is a part of our learning. Maestro has also been known to wake up early, so he'll start the day reading.

For a more structured answer, after breakfast and chores, we'll start bookwork while the children and I are still very fresh. It's amazing how well they work in the mornings! I've learnt that getting the Maths and Language Arts done first thing works best here, so it's now a part of our routine.  We have a nice, easy flow to the day established now, where the children move from one subject to another without too much prompting.  The only time we have to consider a time to do a particular subject is if there's preparation involved, such as the Science experiments.

Now, you probably want to know how long we school for each day? Well ... that can really vary! There are days we get it all done by lunchtime. Other times we take a moderate break for lunch and finish around 2:30ish. I can monitor how the children are responding and tailor each day as it comes, so a good day will see me giving them that bit extra to do, while another day I'm happy to back off if there's a need.

It needs to be realised that homeschooling isn't a 'log in', 'log off' scenario. It's recognising that you can fit learning into all the other things that happen in your family lifestyle. When we stop for morning tea, it may well be a time when we read together, or we'll go to a park for a run and play. And I've learnt from Mariposa that waiting for dinner to be ready can also be time to get tomorrow's maths done, lol!


The closest I've come to having a schedule is with the Sonlight Instructor Guides, and my diary. I own these as resources to help with the sequence of study and reference notes rather than a rigid 'must do each day' list. Appointments I must keep, but teaching needs to be more flexible to keep it fun and interesting. It needs to be pliable so I can mold the children in many more ways than just through bookwork. I especially like it if we find a practical activity that reinforces something we've recently learnt, like I did with my children a while ago when we did geometry using origami.

Just a few weeks ago, I had started checking out some high school schedules for Year 7, as Maestro is of official high school age next year. Wow, those timetables vary! One school does only 4 classes a day, spreading 9 subjects over a 2 week cycle. Another school does 7 classes a day (starting earlier and ending later, also) with 13 subjects spread over a 2 week cycle. I did this because I wondered how our homeschool would compare. Well, if we keep with the same routine that we've comfortably molded ourselves into, Maestro will still be covering all those subjects far more consistently each day.  We'll just have to accomodate for the out-of-home activities such as violin, dance and gymnastics (for Mariposa next year).

When it comes to how our year runs, we do have two types of schedules running here. It's based on my children's learning styles. Maestro likes to catch up with friends over term breaks, so he's opted to stick with the state's term dates. Mariposa, however, likes to let her creativity have a decent run, so she does her regular subjects for 3 weeks, then takes a week off to explore crafts, horseriding, and whatever else may come to mind. We've done a full year on this type of schedule, and I've found it's worked well. I worked it out so some of those breaks co-ordinated together, so we could have a complete break and either go away or do lots of visiting.

Now that I've written this up, it's very tempting to sit and plan out next year.  Granted, I do have most of our books ready, but I want to review a few more ideas and see how they'll fit into the flow nicely ... but, not today. I'll work on that over the next couple of weeks and share our plans in future posts.

I recommend reading Barbara Frank's blog post about taking care not to overschedule HERE.  I've actually started reading her book "The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling" and finding lots of supporting information and food for thought.  She talks a lot about techniques and various homeschooling challenges.

Don't forget to drop by the TOS Crew Blog Cruise to read what others have to say about scheduling, too.  These will be posted up from the 10th January, 2011.