Home school

Warning: If you aren't interested in home schooling, skip this post! It is a record of our day.

I had been having a hard time lately trying to mesh together everyones school schedules. I have tried various curriculum and methods over the years, but always go back to the classical method of schooling. I like this method because among other things it gives the childs (and the parents) brain, a real work out every day. Learning is challenging and rewarding. You are not going to develop a hunger for learning by filling out a bunch of workbook pages, kwim?
This is how we do it:

We start out the day together at the dining room table, after breakfast and chores-(chore charts are working great!). We have prayer, say all the books of the Bible (Jack and Savannah are still working on these), and then we do a Bible reading. We have a memory verse each week that is written down in their notebooks. Then we read from Vos's Bible Story Book, and the Childrens Bible Handbook. Can't say enough good things about these books together! After this and usually some discussion, we go over memory work. Currently, we are learning all of the Kings/Queens of England. The older two write these out for their notebooks. At this point in the day, we split up.

Savannah works on a spelling/language arts workbook, handwriting, and Spanish. Austin works on his spelling/lang. arts workbook, Spanish, and then goes over his Latin vocabulary. I work with Jackson on phonics, reading, and math. My youngest has the attention span of a grasshopper, so this really doesn't drag.

After this, it's math for the older two. We use Math-u-see, so while I go over the video and the lesson with one, the other one works on flash cards and waits their turn. Jackson runs free like a banchee at this point. While the older two work on their math lessons, Jackson will be lassoed and tied to his chair ;-) to work on his spelling/lang. arts workbook and handwriting.

After this I go over the Latin lesson with Austin via DVD.

At this point it is usually lunch time. During lunch we listen to The Story of the World dvd for history. We are on the Middle Ages. Everyone loves listening to this, as it is history in story form chronologically. The older two write a summary/ outline on what they heard. Jackson does a narration that I write down. These all go in their notebooks. We do summary/outline on Monday. On Tuesdays we do map work for the period in history, place dates on a timeline, and Jack usually likes to do a coloring page for that subject for his notebook.

After lunch they run free like wild indians again for a bit.

After lunch Jack still has Spanish to do, then he is free.
Savannah will finish grammar and reading (King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table right now) .
Austin will have reading (just finished Animal Farm by Orwell,(a new favorite) and is moving on to King Arthur), finish up any work from the morning, and then he and I do Logic together (probably his favorite subject right now). They must write summaries on all of their literature reading as well. And lest you think that we don't do any science....we do. Mondays and Tuesdays are history, Thursdays and Fridays are science (mostly reading and summaries at this point).
The older two are both avid readers and always have titles that they are reading on their own in addition to what they read for school. Jack is well on his way, and LOVES books. We fit in several read-a-louds throughout the day from our library pile, and he goes to bed at night listening to a book on tape (Chronicles of Narnia right now).
So, that's how it goes. And that's the ONLY way that it goes. In between subjects, I do laundry, pay bills, do meals etc. What do you think? It has been difficult to try to work Jack in with the other two, but this system seems to be working well. If you have read this far, thanks! I'd love to hear opinions and any suggestions (except "put your kids in school woman!") you might have!

Have a great day!
Melissa
Oh-and yeah, 24 was awesome last night!!!!!!!!!!