(Makeshift) Homeschool Schedule
Welp, here we are. Every parent in America (and I know a lot elsewhere) thrown into being a pseudo homeschool parent. Funny because we actually did homeschooling for an entire year (emphasis on entire, lol) a couple years back. Moments of it were great - being together more, more intentional time, etc. But parts of it were really challenging - being together more and the fact that I’m a super task-oriented person who loves accomplishing things that are work related.
Anyhow, as this is being written March of 2020, schools are shut down state wide and almost nation-wide at this point. As parents, it’s up to us to take our kids’ education into our hands and make sure that our kids aren’t super behind in the upcoming school year.
This is not me in any way saying I’ve got it all together (spoiler alert: never have, never will) but rather just giving some thoughts and suggestions and what’s working for us in this moment.
My kids and I work well when we know what’s going on, have a schedule, but we also REALLY value flexibility and fun (I’m an enneagram 8 wing 7/ESTJ on the MBTI for reference).
Jason and I tried to come up with a schedule that would cover most everything my kids do in school but in a more relaxed way, as we are all trying to do the best we can having them home on such short notice.
We want our kids to stay up on school work and learning and our particular district hasn’t given us specific instruction on what do with the kids/lesson plans, etc. so we have to make it up ourselves other than utilizing a few websites and programs that they have recommended.
Our kids are in 4th (Landon), 3rd (Charlotte) and 1st (Aiden) grades for reference. We are also in the middle of home renovations (as seen in photo above) so why not just tack it all on, right? (insert crazy-face emoji here.)
Above is the homeschool schedule we’re following somewhat loosely. I say that because as the days go on, we want to be flexible and modify things as needed for all of us.
At the bottom of the notebook paper, you can see I labeled the weeks for spelling so I could stay on track with each of the kids’ spelling lists.
Here are some resources we’re using during this time:
SPELLING: www.k12reader.com (click on grade level on the left hand side of site. TIP: scroll to week of school you’re on (we’re in week 25 this week of March 16th). Click on ‘click to view/print worksheet’ then ALWAYS click on the link that says ‘Printing trouble? Open and print PDF directly here.’ Trust me on this. If you don’t print this way, each sheet prints wonky. Also, look carefully at each sheet, you only need to print (or copy pen to paper for your kids if you don’t have a printer or are out of ink!) about 75% of the sheets, as some are keys.
HISTORY: I just chose a subject that I wanted the kids to learn about and I myself am passionate about, so we are learning more about the civil rights movement. It’s important to me that my kids are compassionate, educated and play their part in racial reconciliation. We’ve found some good YouTube videos from channels like kids academy, GPB education, Emory university and TIME.
SCIENCE: National Geographic for kids is amazing! I’d never been to that site and I’m super impressed! Again for this subject I chose something that interests me so we’re learning more about space and the planets. The fun thing about homeschool is you can pick things that you want to learn about and interest you as well! We’ve also found the best YouTube videos on the regular National Geographic channel.
MATH: Prodigy is what the school does for a supplemental math time on computers and we can do it here at home as well! You can use the basic features, we did upgrade to a subscription for 2 of the kids on a month by month basis for however long they’re out of school.
READING: we are having the kids read in the mornings and when they get done early with any activities books that we have here at home or ones they’ve gotten from the library. If we go through all of those (which will be hard because we have a LOT of books) then I’ll head to Amazon and get more for them. The kids are dong the Lexia program which they also do a lot of in school and can continue on a computer, tablet or phone here at home.
WORKOUTS/GYM CLASS: when it’s nice, I have the kids go outside for at least a dedicated hour before lunch. They usually run around, play games or shoot baskets all on their own. Then we encourage them to get outside after dinner again and thankfully it’s been good weather! We also love doing some Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube or I’ll play one of my workouts from Beachbody on demand (my kids like the 21 Day Fix or P90X ones pretty good!)
Hopefully this gives you a few new ideas. Hang in there, mama’s! I truly believe we’re all doing the best we can with what we have. It’s my goal and hope to support women and encourage them that we’re not alone and in this together and I share a lot more of our daily life - the joys, struggles - you name it!- on Instagram @lifeasaloewen. Come say hi, hang out and tag me in an IG story if you try any of these things out!
XO,
Laura