(from 2008)
The first hour of our home school day is divided into 3 20-minute sections, give or take a few minutes here or there. My aim is for school to start at 8:00. That doesn't always happen, but if we can get close to 8, our day runs much more smoothly.
The first segment is something we have always called Family School, although I have heard other families call it circle time or group time, among other things. Family School is a really terrific way to add in all the little things that don't seem to fit in anywhere else, and probably would get skipped otherwise. As soon as breakfast kitchen chores are finished, everyone comes to the table, even (or especially!) the preschoolers. The baby sits in his high chair either eating breakfast or with a couple of small toys. We have done different things during this time, but right now this is what we are covering:
Pledge of Allegiance
Patriotic song practice
Prayers (for school, children, Daddy, America, other countries)
Lord's Prayer
Hymn singing practice (using our church hymnal)
Memory verses (excellent resource here
Catechism (Spurgeon's Puritan Catechism)
Character reading (Book of Virtues)
Apologetics reading (By Divine Design)
Poetry reading (this term, Tennyson)
After Family School, the children do their penmanship practice. The oldest children read the chapter of Proverbs that matches the date (for example, chapter 12 if it's the 12th), pick one verse they particularly like, and write it their composition books. My older son has been working on George Washington's Rules of Civility for a while, so he does that. My 5 year old copies some poetry I have already written in her book (I write a line and leave a blank line for her). My 2 year old draws a picture in her book and tells me something about it, which I write on the lines and read back to her (the two little girls use primary composition books which have lines and a space for a picture). The one year old is playing in the living room adjacent to the dining area where I can see him during this time. I have different toy "sets" assigned to each day. For example, Monday is Fisher-Price Little People, Tuesday is cars, Wednesday is doll house and castle, and so forth.
The first hour of our home school day is divided into 3 20-minute sections, give or take a few minutes here or there. My aim is for school to start at 8:00. That doesn't always happen, but if we can get close to 8, our day runs much more smoothly.
The first segment is something we have always called Family School, although I have heard other families call it circle time or group time, among other things. Family School is a really terrific way to add in all the little things that don't seem to fit in anywhere else, and probably would get skipped otherwise. As soon as breakfast kitchen chores are finished, everyone comes to the table, even (or especially!) the preschoolers. The baby sits in his high chair either eating breakfast or with a couple of small toys. We have done different things during this time, but right now this is what we are covering:
Pledge of Allegiance
Patriotic song practice
Prayers (for school, children, Daddy, America, other countries)
Lord's Prayer
Hymn singing practice (using our church hymnal)
Memory verses (excellent resource here
Catechism (Spurgeon's Puritan Catechism)
Character reading (Book of Virtues)
Apologetics reading (By Divine Design)
Poetry reading (this term, Tennyson)
After Family School, the children do their penmanship practice. The oldest children read the chapter of Proverbs that matches the date (for example, chapter 12 if it's the 12th), pick one verse they particularly like, and write it their composition books. My older son has been working on George Washington's Rules of Civility for a while, so he does that. My 5 year old copies some poetry I have already written in her book (I write a line and leave a blank line for her). My 2 year old draws a picture in her book and tells me something about it, which I write on the lines and read back to her (the two little girls use primary composition books which have lines and a space for a picture). The one year old is playing in the living room adjacent to the dining area where I can see him during this time. I have different toy "sets" assigned to each day. For example, Monday is Fisher-Price Little People, Tuesday is cars, Wednesday is doll house and castle, and so forth.
After 20 minutes or so of penmanship, we have our spelling lesson. I use
Spelling Power (although a much older edition than that one!). Last year, we did it the way the program is described in the book, which worked really well for everyone except one child who, honestly, is an atrocious speller. This year, since I have a beginning reader, and for the sake of said atrocious speller, I have adjusted it a little and it seems to be working. So, on Monday we go over the spelling rule (we do this everyday) and have a pretest, correcting as needed. The program is set up so I can have everyone on the same spelling rule, even though their levels and words are different. The 12 year old has much harder words than the 8 year old. On Tuesday, we rewrite the list in alphabetical order, breaking each word into syllables. Wednesday, we write or look up a sentence for each word we had a problem with on Monday. Thursday, we play a word game or do an activity from the Spelling Power cards (homemade from the book). Friday, we retest. This is working well for everyone, as my better spellers get a review of the spelling rules, and my beginner and not-so-terrific speller are learning them.
During this time, the 1 year old is back in his high chair with some toys or an activity from the table time box (another post). The 2 year old is working with the "glue box," an ingenious idea I originally got on the MOMYS Digest. It is a box of old magazines, interesting junk mail, stickers, bits of wrapping paper, etc. It also has a pair of preschool scissors and a glue stick. She has a binder full of various kinds of paper: colored, lined, white, some old worksheets, whatever I have laying around. She is free to cut, glue, color, draw, write. That's it. At the end of spelling time, I just brush all her mess back into the box for tomorrow. It's several activities rolled into one. We love it!
That concludes the first hour of our home school day. Tomorrow, I hope to tell you about our Math and Latin.
Warm regards,
Shannon
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