Monday, January 16, 2012

school & 8 kids.



After running into a few obstacles in the way we've been having school time, my hubby and I had to figure out what wasn't working and what changes we could make to fix the problems.

Some of the existing problems were: kids goofing off during chore time, workbooks and tests not being turned in to be corrected, kids skipping certain elements of their daily school routine, and school taking far longer than it should due to unproductiveness.

With home schooling, I think that things never have to be set in stone. Yes, we do things a certain way and have a routine that works well for our family, but having 4 children in school and 4 little ones who are not, we can always made adjustments and improvements.

What worked a few months ago or maybe last year might not be the way for us to do it right now at this time.

So with a few tears and a few prayers and a lot of communicating, we decided it would be best to have the two oldest (Parker & Ethan) do their arithmetic lessons right after their morning prayer time which usually ends around 7am.

That gets a big part of schooling out of the way and Daddy hasn't even left for work yet.

It's great when he's around to just give that little bit of extra help.

By about 7:30, everyone is up and chore time gets underway, followed by breakfast and clean up.

We don't all start school together again until 10am when Daddy is back home during his morning break. When he leaves, it's time to go outside and have fun until the babies go down for their 2pm nap after lunch.

This is the major change in our new schedule: a 4 hour block of play time sandwiched in the middle of schooling.

When all is quiet again, school is finished up and the little ones don't usually wake up until daddy comes home for the day. I love this new schedule. I love having the kids outside playing during the best part of the day.

And we seem to be wasting less time sitting at desks or at the table daydreaming.

Growing Home


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cannot imagine home school four with four not being school due to age. I am home schooling one fourth grader and it takes up four to five hours a day.

I hope your new schedule works well for you.

Leanne said...

I love the versatility of homeschooling! I love being able to set the schedule and to change it if need be!

Thanks for sharing your new schedule. It helps to know some areas that we might need to look into to change too!

Eleanor Pace said...

I don't think it's easy to home school children. My daughter attends the local primary school and we only do the homework together. I was a primary school teacher but now I'm a stay at home mum for a few years, until little Miguel starts school too. Good luck with your children! And a big well done for your blog too!

Treasures from a shoebox said...

Glad to meet you! I'm a homeschooling mom of 10 (nine still at home) ages 27- 2 years and grandma to (almost) 3. Just found your blog today through Growing Home.