It's Christmas Eve!!! Wow-I can't believe how fast it came. The "Slow as Christmas" phrase must be for the kids...not adults. Mark and I are going into Savannah today. We are done shopping (except for one item for Mark that I will get at Bass Pro Shop). We will probably take the kids into the Winter Wonderland there in the store-BTW, if you haven't been-it's great and FREE! Maybe I will get a better picture with Santa? Maybe not. I won't force it. I need an eye exam and new contacts, hopefully the eyedoc will be open!
Anyway, after we attempt to make it out of the mall alive, we plan on attending a Christmas Eve service. When my family lived in Savannah a few years ago, we attended a beautiful Christmas eve service at a methodist church, so we hope to do that again. Then see some Christmas lights (one of my favorite things to do-also FREE!) Then home to bake a few cookies for santa, and round up some carrots for the reindeer, then off to pretend sleep...then get up after the kids are asleep and wrap all of James and Bella's gifts!!! James asked for a bicycle this Christmas and I can't wait to see his face when he sees it. Yeah, I am getting so excited!!!
Well, my sis asked a few questions after my last post, and instead of answering them in a reply to the post, I figured I would answer them in my blog today.
What does a typical school day look like? Honestly, each day is completely different, and I try to be as flexible as possible, while trying to maintain some sort of basic routine. So you will see my "school day schedule" doesn't really have times assigned to each activity. This is because each day we wake up at different times, and Bella takes naps at different times...so anyway, I hope this gives you a gist of what we do.
OUR DAILY ROUTINE (on a good day!)
- Rise and Shine, put on a good music CD, get dressed/brush teeth and hair, etc
- I make breakfast..............James gets dressed, etc.
- Breakfast and Bible Curriculum (I read the Bible/lesson, while the kids finish eating, then color the related bible picture)
- Circle Time for James.........Bella with a toy/manipulative
Calendar
Weather
Songs (Days of week, months of year, and other fun kiddo songs here)
Pledge
- Extracurricular Activity:
Monday- Music and Movement (we do cd's and dance, do motions, etc...I also plan on teaching him beginning theory starting next year)
Tuesday-Arts and Crafts (unit study or Season/Holiday related)
Wednesday- Coop Classes and Church (too busy of a day to do anything else!)
Thursday- Library/Computer Games
Friday- Park/Grocery Store/ Help me bake treats for family night
- I prepare lunch with Bella "helping".... James helps pick up the room/TV on if he was good
- Lunch
- Bella nap....James school:
- Unit Study
- Math (workbook)
- Phonics (workbook, tablet practice writing)
- Unit Study Games/Activities
- Reading/Quiet Time (James rarely takes naps anymore, but he still has "quiettime")
- Science or Unit Study related Video optional
- Wakeup/Snacks
- Free play (outdoors if possible)
- Daddy's home-kids with daddy, I prepare dinner
- Dinner, family devo, bath, reading, kids bed.
Ok, well like I said, that is a good day...but of course we don't have good days every day! But that is my routine plan that I try to stick to!
Our Bible Curriculum has been different things throughout the year. Sometimes we just repeat the Bible lesson from Sunday School/Childrens Church. This month has been all about the Christmas story. We open the Bible and I show him where it the lesson is from. He isn't reading, but he knows letters and sounds, so he can recognize Luke for example. The way he learns verses is by repetition and route. I say the verse, he repeats it. We find songs with the verse, or just make up one, and sing it. Play games like the memory match...he repeats back the verse as I say it for him first. Pretty soon he just knows it. In January we will start using a separate Bible Curriculum called Foundations. It looks so great!
James and I spend about 30 minutes in the morning doing circle time activities, songs, etc. We can't do much with Bella awake, so after I put her down for a nap, then we start again.
Depending on James' focus (Ha!) we will spend anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours doing math, phonics, and our unit study. On a good day it only takes an hour to accomplish everything. You would be surprised how much of a school day in "real schools" are not really school stuff. (roll, Potty breaks, lining up, getting ready to line up, recess, lunch, packing up to get ready for home, etc.)
Usually after math/phonics, James has completely lost his focus-and I have lost my patience, so I try to incorporate a lot of "fun games or activities" that are unit study related or teach some math/phonics skill for the end of the school day . He has no idea he is still "doing school". Then we snuggle in bed and read books (-again still doing school...but he doesn't know it). Many of the books will be unit study related from the library, but he can choose anything he wants to read.
Depending on his behavior that day, he either has to stay in bed for quiet time after reading, or I let him watch TV or movie. I have a few science videos we watch every now and then too.
*I am still trying to decide what to do about a science curriculum. Most of the unit studies have a few suggestions to incorporate science, but I don't think that it will be enough in the long run...so I am still thinking on that one. Weather is science, so we are getting that in too.
Okay, so I hope that answered some of your questions. I know this was a long post, with not a single picture...but it was a lot of info to share!
Here's a peek at 