Brilliant ideas....

I have some truly *brilliant* ideas when it comes to homeschooling. Seriously. It's just putting those ideas into practice that is difficult.

I never did follow through on my last brilliant idea concerning history. We read one chapter of A Child's History of the World.. and were bored. And busy. My beautiful timeline is still empty. That was during the home renovation. (yuck) We did about a month's worth of good schooling while we lived in Kentucky, then finally I gave up and we were consistent only with math until we moved.

So now we're settled in our new house. We've been doing math, phonics/spelling, writing, and reading consistently for about a month, and I'm feeling ready to add in the fun stuff again.

(The secret to homeschooling is to add in subjects gradually, in order of most importance, to get used to the routine and not feel like your head is going to explode. That's how I work at least.)

So here's our schedule currently:

Breakfast at 7:30. We read the Book of Mormon at the table while we eat; kids take turns reading.

Math is next.

Charlotte is usually done with her math page before Savannah, so we'll work on her writing, which is either copywork or narration, depending on the day.

Savannah is usually still working on her math when Charlotte finishes writing (math is not Savannah's favorite subject), so then I'll go do a reading lesson with Charlotte, then drill her on her phonograms and practice writing the ones she is having trouble remembering. (Brag: Charlotte is doing ALL 1st grade curriculum now... and she's not even in Kindergarten yet! Savannah is well beyond her grade level as well, except in math she's right on.)

Then Savannah's turn for writing. It's either copywork, narration, or dictation.

Then I do phonics with Savannah: review the phonograms, then do a spelling test from yesterday's words, and then dictate her new list of words, which she marks using the Spalding method (underlines phonogram pairs, marks which sound each phonogram makes, marks the spelling rules used, etc.)

Then we practice piano. Savannah just started piano lessons last week and we have to practice every day. She loves it. She has a great teacher (and it's not me!!!! yay!!!)

THEN... I get all three girls together and we have devotional. It's usually about 10:30 by this time, and Zachy is taking a nap. For devotional we practice singing a primary song a few times, then have a prayer, then practice the scripture we're memorizing, then I either read them a story from the Friend or from the Scripture Readers. This has worked really well for us.

After that, the last two weeks we've been having "reverent time" because our children are monsters during sacrament meeting every Sunday. So they sit in their little chairs with their arms folded for 30 every day, and we either listen to a general conference talk or watch a church movie. Lately, we've been watching Finding Faith in Christ. I love watching their faces while they watch the movie. They have such a love for the Savior.

After that, we're done (and I'm exhausted). It's usually lunch time by then.

Later in the day, Savannah goes to my room to read for 30 min. She usually reads longer because she's into the book. I'm having her read the books that come in the Early American History package from Beautiful Feet. And I try to squeeze in another reading practice with Charlotte later in the day as well. Oh, and I practice phonograms with little Maddy too. During school I give her LOTS of coloring pages to color. She's calls it her "math".

Before bedtime I've been trying to get in about 30 min. of reading aloud books that are more on Maddy's level, but that they all three enjoy, if they get ready for bed in time.

Things that are changing, starting next week:

BEFORE breakfast, before the girls get out of bed, I'm going to read to them for 30 min. in their room. They will draw out of a jar which book will be read from. These are mostly books from Ambleside Online. They include: James Harriot Treasury for Children, Aesop, Book of Fairy Tales, Book of Virtues, Just So Stories, 50 Famous Stories, and Beatrix Potter.

Then, the rest of the day goes on as before, except instead of reverent time, we will have another reading time. Only during this reading time it is academic reading, but short 'n sweet. No more than 20 min. max.

Monday's reading will be from Story of the World (or I'll give A Child's History of the World another shot since SOTW will take years to finish at that rate. Not sure yet). They'll narrate back to me, then they'll color a picture having to do with the story (historical timeline figures on CD that I can print out any size, from homeschoolinthewoods.com), put it on a colored index card and place it on the timeline. The color of the index card has to do with the geographical location of the event. (This idea came from charlottemasonhelp.com, under history).

Tuesday's reading will be from Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. They'll narrate the reading, illustrate their science composition book and dictate/copy one thing they remember from the reading.

Wednesday's reading will be literature: alternating Daulaire's Greek Myths and Beautiful Tales from Shakespeare. We'll just read and talk about it.

Thursday's reading will be from This Country of Ours (a very un-PC American History narrative... includes words such as "savages" and "pale-face" *gasp*!) We're going to notebook our readings from it as well (illustrate, copywork). This idea also comes from charlottemasonhelp.com. It includes a few maps to mark as well.

And Friday will be our Artsy-Fartsy FUN DAY! No math, no reading, no writing, no phonics, no history, no science, no Shakespeare, and no Greek myths. We will keep piano and devotional though.

Friday Artsy-Fartsy Fun Day: my goal is to do a nature walk in the morning (there are lots of trails around here), bring something from nature home and draw it in our nature journals.
We'll listen to the composer we're studying, we'll look at a painting of the artist we're studying and add it to our art book, and we'll read from our poetry book while we eat a special yummy snack (poetry teatime: idea from bravewriter.com).

Then we'll do any science or history activities/experiments from the week's readings.

And then we'll relax and play.

I'm hoping my plan will work well and that it won't be too much for me. It shouldn't take much longer than my current schedule. I get tired being pregnant and having a Zachary to entertain. He is a go-and-do kid, and ALL BOY. I love him. And I love homeschooling my girls.