I was an early child education teacher for years before I became a mom, and scheduling was part of my life.  Even when Megan was a toddler, I had our day scheduled because I seemed to get more done that way.  I can remember tying up schedules with pictures next to the event (like a lunch box  lunch time, or a playground for outside play) … I guess I’m weird like that.  It worked for us though, and homeschooling is no different. I have an absolutely schedule and we stick to it as much, as possible.  YES, there are days where we blow off our schedule and do (what Meg calls) “crunch classes.”  This means that we put away the timer and just get her work done – we do this on days when I’m having company and need to clean the house (not to imply that if company is NOT coming the house is a mess, but you know what I mean, hopefully), or we have a playdate.  We do “crunch classes” sometimes on field trip days as well.

Here’s our 3rd grade schedule:

8am (10 min) Salute flag, weather & calendar (Meg is in charge of going online or watching the morning news and finding the weather.  We have a really cool interactive chart this year which she can use to log precipitation, track hurricanes, and keep weekly data in graph form).

8:10am (20 min) Current Events (We started this class last year with the election coverage, and have kept it up.  I also subscribe to 2 children’s news magazines – on secular and one Christian – comparing the two is interesting).

8:30am (45 min) History (We’re using Bob Jones Press curriculum which is a christian based curriculum.

9:15am ( 30 min) Math (We use Math U See.  In this program, she watches a DVD with Mr. Steve the math guy who teaches her the lesson after which she has workbook pages to complete.  After 6 workbook pages, she has a test page; if she scores well, she moves on, but if she scores poorly we review the lesson until she understands it.  I don’t pre-schedule this class in my lesson book, I just write in what she completes as she completes it, therefore she can move at her own pace.  After math class she takes a 5 minute break)

9:50am (30 min) Music / Spanish (M,W & F she has music class – again, we’re using Bob Jones.  In addition, she’s in dance class on Saturdays. On T & TH she has Spanish class.  I’m using a variety of materials for Spanish – nothing formal, I just want her to get comfortable with the language.)

10:20am (30 min) Art / Bible (M,W & F is art class – I’m using a book by Evan-Moor which teaches children many different forms of art, this year we’ll also incorporate trips to art museums too.  For Bible class, we’ll be going through each book of the Bible – this will take 2 years to complete.  Another 5 minute break follows this class).

11:40am (15 min) – Spelling (I’m using Evan – Moor grade 4 spelling workbook)

11:55am (25 minutes) – Reading (I’m using a reading curriculum used by the Baltimore County schools – we’ll see how it goes.  This class is followed by lunch which is 30 minutes long).

12:50pm (15 min) – writing (poetry, stories, letters, journal and so on).

1:05pm (15 min) – grammar (nouns, using proper punctuation and so on).

1:20pm (15 min) – penmanship (she’ll be copying Bible verses & poetry).

1:35pm (25 min)- Physical Education / Home Economics (for physical education she’s in soccer, and I have a homeschool physical education book that teaches her all kinds of different sports.  In home economics we’ll continue from last year our study in basic things around the house, such as cooking, sewing and so on.  In addition, I’ll use this class to go through a book about health and safety).

And there you have it – our daily schedule.