What we do and how we do it.

One of my wonderful commenters asked about what we do and how we do it.

We've tried everything in our 3 years of homeschooling and this year, we seemed to have settled into something that works for us reasonably well. It's not perfect. Flexibility is the key. I'd like to get up every morning, gently clean my already spotless home, fix a nutitrious breakfast for my eager-to-learn, whine-free children and begin studies, during which we learn 3 foreign languages, make great works of art and advance science 100 years into the future, but that's not what happens.

On Mondays I print lists for everyone for the week. Youngest son's is something like this.
Morning.
1. Eat breakfast/breakfast dishes to sink.
2. Brush teeth.
3. Exercise. (30 push ups, 30 sit ups, 30 leg lifts etc.)
4. Shower.
5. Chores.

Afternoon:
1. Unit study/notebooking (all 4 of us together. We're working from my oldest son's 9th grade American History textbook and supplementing it a lot. That way he gets a credit for the work and we get something to all do together which we enjoy.)
2. Math. (younger 2 kids and me together. At this point oldest son goes off to do the rest of his high school work.)
3. Spelling.
4. Writing.
5. Reading. (At this point, my daughter goes off to do her own reading and extra assignments while I work on reading with the youngest.)

In the mornings, I work on medical transcription, exercise (hopefully), clean the house (what little it gets), shower, do my blog and get printouts and things ready for the unit study and afternoon activities while the kids do their lists on their own. (Dad is usually home in the mornings and can oversee them a bit.) I don't cook breakfast. The kids are on their own. They generally have cereal or toast. We do lunch between the morning and the afternoon lists. I sometimes cook lunch and sometimes we have sandwiches or leftovers. The two younger kids are in the same spelling curriculum and the same math curriculum. They're at different levels in the spelling, but the same level in the math. It makes it easier.

When school is over, that's when we run errands, usually about 4:00 p.m., although occasionally, we do stay home during this time. The kids participate in our homeschool group for field trips and park day (usually on Mondays), Awana, skate nights and game night at the library.

So anyway, this is what we do and how we do it. I started with easier lists for the kids in August and this month, I've added some more chores. I plan to add to the list a little through the year and get in more art and more science. I use the internet a lot for printables and notebooking (more on that in another post) and use Netflix sometimes for DVDs that are related to our studies. We also use a lot of library books and do read-alouds every night before bed.