Schedule set up for home schoolers?

Question

I'm looking to make up a schedule. This is my first year setting one up for 2, although I'll eventually be setting it up for 6. My oldest is going into 5th grade and the next in line is starting 1st. I'm assuming I can combine subjects, other than math and reading/english? Are there any websites, charts, or any advice that might be helpful to me?

Answer 1

I belong to a yahoo group called homeschool loopers. It's relly interesting. They have a loop of subjects and work their way through spending 3 hours of focused time each day. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschool...

Try and read some articles by Joyce Swan. She has graduated several kids and she is very inspiring!

And Sonlight is great for combining kids for history and science.

Another good blog article is

http://www.homeschoolsecrets.blogspot.co...

Best of Luck to You!

jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com

Answer 2

Check out the A Beka website-somewhere on there they have a sample schedule.

I homeschool two, and my advice would be to go with a routine rather than a schedule.  It is the same thing, I suppose, other than the assigned time slots.  I find that schedules can cause anxiety if you are "running late" or what not.  

You can combine some subjects, and with others you can do lessons with one child while the other is doing their independent work.  It works out very well.

With a larger group of children, unit studies might be a better idea-the more advanced children just get in depth assignments, but they are all learning at the same time and it saves you time.

If you have younger ones, keep some crayons and paper in your school area, and some quiet toys that are for "school time" only to keep them occupied while you are teaching your older children.

I hope this helps, and I wish you the best!

Answer 3

Below I provided a couple links that I found helpful and useful. My daughter is older, so she is able to do more on her own, but the principles are the same.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy home schooling as I have! :)

Answer 4

The Well Trained Mind has info on how to add children into your schedule as you go along. It's for a neo-classical style, if that takes your fancy.

Answer 5

Since you mentioned you would like to combine some subjects, look into doing unit studies. Your kids study the same topics and you bring in the history, science, PE, health, etc via that topic. Some activities within that topic your kids do together and others your kids will do based on ability sich as one will write an essay  about Paul Rever while the other will dictate it to you and you write it for them.

To learn more, do a web search on unit studies.

The curriculum we used for many years when the kids were young was KONOS. It was a lot of fun and most of what we did really stuck with them. It is very hands-on and uses books from the library for content with the curriculum providing tons and tons of activity suggestions. Your kids will end the year with memories of fun instead of reams of worksheets. Highly recommended!