I thought it would be interesting to share my pre-homeschool schedule that I created last August. As you can see, I really worked hard to schedule every conceivable subject. I was also extremely naive optimistic.

8:00 Get Dressed/AM Chores
8:15 Breakfast
8:30 English
9:00 Handwriting
9:15 Math
9:45 Dinner Prep
10:00 Take Dog for Walk
10:30 Violin
11:00 Social Studies
11:30 Unit Study
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Free Time
2:00 Art
2:30 Science
3:00 Spelling
3:15 Computer Time
3:45 Rosetta Stone
4:00 Play Outside/Friends
5:30 Dinner
6:00 Dinner Cleanup
6:30 Straighten Up Rooms
7:00 PJs/Teeth/Outloud Stories
7:30 Reading on Own
8:00 Lights Out
In reality, a day in our life went more like:

Wake up sometime between 7:00 and 8:00
Breakfast/Get Dressed/Hair and Teeth Brushed between 8:00 and 9:00
Start Math at 9:00 and work until done with lesson–time depends on child’s willingness to learn and focus.
Read a social studies chapter out loud and discuss/read a science chapter out loud and discuss 10:30-11:30
Practice violin at some point in the afternoon (30 minutes)
Do some sort of Art of choice (5 minutes to 2 hours, depending on interest)
Read(anywhere from 1 hour to 1.5 hours)

Pretty loosey goosey. A bit more than I like, but it was a semester of adjustment and I am still trying to find my “voice”, as well as looking for a social network (and finding a great one. I love NICHE!). I think I have been more realistic this semester–I have things schedule for AM or PM instead of planning in half hour increments. Hopefully this will help keep us on track.

Why worry? You ask. In reality we did school more than the required 4 hours a day. So why try and fit in more?

Well, my husband and I discussed her progress over break. Was she happier? Yes. Was her learning adequate? Yes. We know she did more than she would’ve covered in school. Could she have learned more? Absolutely. Did she want to learn more? Yes. She is the kind of kid (right now) who needs direction and for you to put the learning in front of her. She’s more than happy to do it. But she doesn’t go in search of knowledge. Perhaps this is because of her 2 years in public school—she definitely had more of an inner desire to learn before Kindergarten.

I’ll let you know how these first 5 planned weeks go.