Rambling on About School Scheduling

Caucasian Businesswoman Writing in Day Planner with Pen

Well, I have most of our schoolwork (at least a few weeks worth) entered into Homeschool Tracker.

I have printed out the needed worksheets/notebook pages and put them in order.

I printed out the Tapestry of Grace Unit One Lapbook (times 3 of course, because we wouldn't want to leave anybody out of the fun!)

I have received most of our curriculum in the mail. I still need to order Horizons Phonics and Reading for Lexie. I am waiting for my Parent Designed Course to be approved so that I know I will get my money back from the school. They had preschool options, but they were all WAY too easy for her (ie. learning letters, colors, and numbers). She is already reading and starting to write, so I didn't want to hold her back any. She will be starting Kindergarten this year instead of Preschool.

The office is semi-clean, but could sure use a good mopping. It could use a good "scraping" also. Does anyone else's kids end up putting stickers/tape on everything? Our school room table and floor seem to be covered with decaying stickers. I really need to pull out some sort of a scraper and get them off. I'll put it on my mile long list of things to do....

Now, I'm down to trying to put together a feasible schedule. I have put together schedules in the past, but they weren't realistic. I am going to try to use MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) and will see what I come up with.

I have to decide if I want to teach each subject at once to all the kids (ie. Math all at the same time at 3 levels) or individual time with each kid while the others work independently on something different.

It is becoming more challenging as I have more kids that I am teaching. Luckily, Ellie is such a good reader that she does most things independently anyway. Kate's reading has improved immensely over the summer also. She is now able to read all of her math instructions etc. on her own which makes life much easier for me.

Also, what to do with the toddler and infant?

Tori of course will just hang out with us. She's pretty happy-go-lucky anyway. But, I need to take into consideration that I will have to feed and change her during the school day.

I need to schedule some activities for Nick this year. I need to have something to keep him busy throughout the day - probably changing activities every 15 minutes or so to keep him interested. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time keeping him out of trouble and that definitely slows us down. I'm thinking, play-doh, puzzles, trains, coloring, legos etc.

Of course, I don't see us being able to implement a schedule until Andy deploys. Are we going to want to stick to it and do science at the scheduled time if he comes home early from work? I think we will just need to be very flexible for the first few weeks.

At least that will give me a chance to see how much time I actually need to schedule for each subject. Do we need 30 minutes or an hour for math? How long will it take us to do our history? I can guess, but I will probably guess wrong as I have in the past...

I also need to schedule time for house cleaning, all of the kids' various classes, cooking, shopping, time on my treadmill (I sure need it!), and some special alone time with each of the kids.

This seems so complicated to me!! I will have to give it a lot of thought and probably make it work through trial and error.

Well, I have been rambling long enough. I'm off to the dreaded dentist. Wish me luck :)