Finally Organized

Wow, after homeschooling for two years now, I finally have found a method and a schedule that works for our family.  Part of my absence on this blog is because I have struggled with keeping up with homeschooling.  In fact for the 2009-2010 school year, we ended up doing two semesters of work in the spring semester because I was not disciplined to have school every day.  Even in the fall of 2010 I struggled with a system, and while we did complete the fall semester, we were often doubling and tripling up days to get the work done.  Needless to say homeschooling by this method was miserable for everyone.

So, over Christmas break (while I waited for my fifth child to be born), I sat down with my lesson plan book and i wrote out each lesson/assignment for each of my three kids who are being schooled right now.  My lesson plan book is similar to the teachers lesson plan books where it has the days listed across the top of the page and a place for each subject down the side.  Instead of the subjects down the side, I listed each child's name.  And in the box for the day I wrote down each of the lessons and music practice that they needed to accomplish that day.  Since I have written out the lesson plans for the entire semester, I am forced to stay on top of things or I ruin my system :)

Another key thing that has helped is I have finally figured out how to have two kids working on different things at once.  While I do reading with Lydia and Andy, Kara does her piano and violin practice.  If she finishes those while I am still working with the other two, I can have her work on either her spelling assignment or her reading lesson.  We have also switched our History curriculum to the Mysteries of History.  I have handed over history to Daddy, and we do a lesson in the Mystery of History book three times a week in conjunction with our family devotions.  I am so excited about our new schedule because it has allowed me to finish schooling in 2-3 hours every day. 

In case you are curious about our current curriculum, it is as follows:

Andy and Lydia (Kindergarten) - How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons, Mysteries of History
Kara (1st/2nd grade) - 2nd Grade Bob Jones Spelling, Handwriting, and Science.  Christian Light Publications 1st Grade Math.  Shurley English 1st Grade, Mysteries of History. Suzuki Violin, and Piano lessons.

Even with a new baby born on December 29, we have already successfully completed four weeks of school.  They say it takes a month to set a habit, so I'm hoping that since we've been able to keep this schedule for a month that it wills stick.