Rearranging My Days

As you can see, I haven't had as much time for blogging this week. I knew it was coming; I just failed to warn you.

Yesterday, I began homeschooling our girls. I knew that I would need to be focused in order to accomplish my homeschooling objectives, so I created a schedule which I am doing my best to follow. That schedule only allows me one hour of computer time - I'm definitely going to have to be efficient and make the most of my time! Though it may be a crunch, I know that my girls' education takes priority over my blogging and design work.

For Pookie Bear, I am using the Letter of the Week curriculum from Brightly Beaming Resources; for Miss Muffet and Baby Bear, I am using the Preparatory curriculum. All three girls have enjoyed themselves these past two days. I hope the trend continues!

"What are they learning?" you ask. That's a good question. Pookie Bear's lessons focus on letter sounds, while Miss Muffet and Baby Bear will be learning letter names. Since they are all together, I expect that the younger ones will learn from Pookie's lessons as well.

So far we have covered the following:

Pookie Bear -

• Writing upper and lowercase A
• A says a (short sound) as in apple
• Theme words that begin with the short a sound: astronaut, apple, animal, alligator, ambulance
• Poem - "Ten Red Apples" (memory work) and Alligator Pie
  
• Story - Ten Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss
• Color - aquamarine
• Science - antelope (similar to a deer, has hollow horns, eats plants, has four stomachs, runs fast and jumps straight up when surprised, lions like to eat them)
• Bible - Adam and Eve (creation story and today we talked about how they sinned and had to leave the Garden of Eden)
• Math - simple addition using the snack, animal crackers
• Song - The Ants Go Marching
• Supplementary work - letter practice in an alphabet workbook

Miss Muffet and Baby Bear -

• Theme - cow
• Vocabulary word - calf
• Letter - uppercase A (coloring page; write with finger in a bowl of salt)
  
• Story - "The Humongous Brown Cow"
• Poems - "The Purple Cow" and "Little Calf"
• Shape - square (find squares around the house)
  
• Songs - "Old MacDonald" and "The Cow"
• Gross motor skill - move like a cow

I know it has only been two days, but I think that our schedule is going to work well. Here's a look:

• 7:00-7:30 a.m. Fix breakfast
• 7:30-8:00 a.m. Eat
• 8:00-9:00 a.m. Dishes; make beds; clean bathrooms; start laundry; complete any other cleaning for which there is time
• 9:00-10:00 a.m. Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies - We start out with prayer followed by the pledges to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible, and then we sing the first verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner." After opening exercises, we go through Miss Muffet and Baby Bear's lesson for the day. Both days, that has taken about 25 minutes. By that time, the two younger ones have lost interest, and we move on to Pookie Bear's Language Arts, Science or Social Studies, and Math lessons. By the time we complete that, the remaining scheduled 30 minutes have passed.
• 10:00-11:00 a.m. Free time
• 11:00-11:15 a.m. Snack time
• 11:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Play outside
• 12:00-12:30 p.m. Prepare lunch
• 12:30-1:00 p.m. Eat lunch
• 1:00-2:00 p.m. Bible, Art, Music, Story Time
• 2:00-4:00 p.m. Nap time; I have 30 minutes for personal devotions here (I never make it up early enough in the morning to have them before I start my day), followed by one hour for computer work and thirty minutes to complete my daily chores (mopping, dusting, vacuuming, etc.)
• 4:00-5:30 p.m. Prepare supper (this is rather flexible)
• 5:30-6:30 p.m. Eat supper (again, this is flexible; it certainly doesn't take that long to eat)
• 6:30-7:00 p.m. Clean up table; wash dishes
• 7:00-7:30 p.m. Family Bible reading and prayer time
• 7:30-8:00 p.m. Family play time!
• 8:00 Girls clean up and go to bed - whew! I'm always exhausted by this point!

How do you schedule your days ? (I'm asking everybody, not just those who homeschool.)