Our Daily Schedule

The past 2 weeks were Spring Break for the 2 half days of classes Alexandra usually takes. During this time, I figured out a new daily schedule "system" that seems to be really working for us.

Each night or in the morning, I make a list of the things I want to cover for the next day. I'm actually doing this by emailing myself - it is just really easy that way as I don't have to open up another program or anything.

I do it day by day because I know how busy we are that day (for example, we needed to take my husband to the car dealership & airport today AND Alexandra had her "extra" classes). Then, I make the list, email it to myself, and print it off. I usually let Alexandra pick what order we'll do things, though I usually have us do Bible & Bible verse first. And, occasionally, I add something on the list with "IF we have time" - that item has to be saved until last. As we do each item, she crosses it off. When we're done, we're done!

Here's what one day's schedule might look like:

• Bible Story - We're using Student Discovery Bible: A Journey Through God's Word. It contains actual scripture passages and also some background information. I like that it is walking us fairly slowly through the Bible using kid-friendly stories, but real Bible scriptures.
• Bible Verse - All year, we've been memorizing fairly long passages. Right now, we are working on Phil. 2:3-11.
• Timed Math - We're working through Calculadders and I can see a big improvement in speed.
• Singapore Lesson - I actually highlight in her book what problems she needs to do that day. We might do several problems from several different lessons.
• Key to Decimals 2 pages - This is our 2nd of these books, and we're enjoying them, too.
• Read 15 minutes Bambi. We actually finished Bambi yesterday. It was a long book with wonderful descriptive passages and some very sad scenes. Quite different from the Disney version.
• Copywork - taken from whatever current literature we are reading
• Cursive - I make up a short page for her to copy.
• Language Arts - various - sometimes computer games, sometimes some workbook pages
• Piano - practice 15 minutes
• Piano worksheet
• Lapbook - this week we've been working on 1 section (like science) per day

So, that's how we're doing things! We both enjoy knowing exactly what we need to get done that day. And, Alexandra enjoys choosing what we do next. She picks the more "fun" things first, like the lapbook. I used to think this wasn't a good idea, but we also used to often "burn out" in the day before getting to the fun stuff. Now, if the "fun stuff" is done, I do have the energy to "make her" finish the rest of her subjects. And, when occassionally we don't get it all done, it carries over. :-)
On another note... several of you have commented about the chicken ear lobes. Even though I'd read that fact on 2 different websites, I started to doubt it. So, I looked up chicken anatomy, and they do have ear lobes! You can look here. :-)

One last thing... at Alexandra's "school" today, I was sitting in a field of white clover taking photos of bees when the kids came out. A lot of them were curious as to what I was doing. I told them and 2 of the kids wanted to take pictures, too. The photo above was taken by a 7 year old boy! You'll have to enlarge it, but it is really good if not kind of off-centered. And, while talking with the kids, I found out that one of them has some bee hives and they are getting ready to get more! I went over and talked to her mom and was fascinated that they are raising bees. Now, I want to move to the country and have my own hives. :-)