How Kidschool Runs

Matt will have to give an update on how his school year has started out (I'll give you a hint: it's been good!) After a summer off from all my normal duties (cleaning, cooking, and child-rearing so that I could lay in bed and try not to feel nauseous) I was worried how I would survive taking care of the kids and the house when Matt went back to work. Well, it's been two weeks, and it's been going great!

I spent a lot of time preparing for kidschool this year; that is what we call home school around here. If you're curious what we're doing for school, read on. I thought I would share. If you're not curious, then you might want to stop reading now! I always enjoy reading other people's schedules so that's where I'll start.

I set my alarm for 7 am. Isn't that the best time to wake up in the morning? Not too early and not too late. I'm so blessed I get to wake up every day at 7. It's such a habit now that I wake up at that time even on the weekends. I have an hour to myself to let the chickens out of their coop, play fetch with our dog Storm a few times, eat breakfast by myself (I relish this), read my scriptures, start some laundry, get myself ready and tidy my room.

At 8 am if the kids aren't up already, I put on some quiet but uplifting music as their wake-up call. I open their doors and tell them, "It's time to wake up, sleepyhead!" After about 5 minutes, I turn on some dancing music which is the signal that it's chore time and time to get dressed. No more playing quietly, no more laying in bed, no more reading. It's time to start the day! Last week I chose "They Might Be Giants" (one of our faves). This week it was a CD my friend Emily made for me a couple years back with "I Want to Soak Up the Sun" and other fun songs to sing along with and dance to. The kids get their chores done, I help Felicity get ready and tidy the kitchen and make their breakfast and 20-30 minutes later they're at the breakfast table. Now the music in the background is their Suzuki piano CD which they're supposed to listen to daily. Throughout the day if there is extra time, they have it for themselves. It's downtime and I try not to pester them.

But by 9 am with teeth and hair brushed, we're ready for kidschool. They have their turn practicing piano and then we gather together for morning devotional where we begin with a prayer. We memorize poetry, a scripture of the month, and a Primary song of the month and we read a story about manners or a story from the Friend. We then do our spanish. We're learning spanish this year by repetitively listening to a recording of a short story in spanish or by learning songs in spanish. I've gotten some good selections from the library that are quite beautiful and catchy. They are learning, slowly but surely. It's great practice for me too.

By now it's about 10 am. Because it's technically still summertime and very hot, we go outside for P.E. in the morning. Probably in the autumn and winter, we'll do P.E. later in the day. The kids are the ones who asked for P.E. I got an awesome book at the library with suggestions of fun games to get the kids moving. So far we've played balloon volleyball, badminton, hopscotch and blanket toss (using a blanket like a parachute). I brought out a tennis racket of Matt's from years ago and showed the kids how to serve (it was hard for them!) But I was loving it. It totally made me want to play tennis again. Sometimes we weed the garden.

I have been so surprised at how little the kids want to play outside. Now that we have land to explore, I thought they'd be climbing trees and playing hide and seek all day long. I actually have to require an hour of outside time in order for them to go outside. It's so strange.

About 11 am, we come in for a snack and then we gather for an hour of kidschool. On different days of the week, we study different subjects. For example, on Monday we have an hour for American History and Geography. On Tuesday, we study our science. This year it is Zoology. On Wednesday, we learn World History and Biography (this semester it's Leonardo da Vinci!) Thursday is Art History/Art and Music Study. If the subjects don't take an hour, again, it's just free play time till I gather them around again.

Then we have an hour set aside for Kian and Abby to do English and Math. It doesn't really take an hour, though. I have never required so much of the kids before. If this seems like a lot, it did to me too but I just felt it was time to fill in some of Kian's holes (because I've been rather relaxed about school until recently) and it feels like the older two are ready for this level. I'm using an excellent english resource from Milestones Academy. Each day they write an entry in their Copybook. It might be a poem, a saying or some sentences. They get a little grammar lesson every now and then and also memorization. I really like it. For math, we're continuing using an old-fashioned math lesson book I found online that is free. Kian is working on memorizing multiplication facts and doing advanced multiplication. Abby finished simple addition and subtraction last year and is starting simple multiplication. Ella won't be left out of all of the fun so she has demanded math lessons too. She has learned to write her numbers 1-10 so far. Monday we do a math lesson. Tuesday they have 20 minutes to play math games on the computer. Wednesday we do a math lesson. Thursday we read picture books about mathematicians or with math as a subject. There are so many fun ones!

Whew! We did it! We've eaten lunch by now as well. Once all of the subjects are covered and the house is tidy again, we enter quiet time. This is when Felicity naps and I read and rest. Sometimes the kids can watch a movie. Kian usually uses the time to work on his computer (only allowed to play computer games if it's Monday). We usually start quiet time about 2 and end at 4:30 or 5. I just seem to need that much time by myself and Felicity usually cooperates with long naps.

We make dinner and eat dinner when Daddy comes home and the kids go wild and crazy wrestling with Daddy or running around the house getting some energy out. We spend time together, or sometimes apart, but gather again about 7 or 7:30 for reading time and scripture and prayer time. Currently this semester we are reading "Tales from Shakespeare" and "The Four Story Mistake." As a family we pray and we read a selection from the Old Testament.

The kids are in bed 8 to 8:30 pm. Matt and I can then do whatever we need to on our own to prepare for the next day, work on callings, or go to bed early. I usually read.

Fridays are different. After chore time and breakfast, we have our "Wild Day." We read a bit from some nature books and then go outside for a nature walk and snack. Starting September 10th, we'll be participating in a co-op on Friday afternoons where the kids will get to take a lot of extracurricular activities like art and gizmos and drama and whatever else they want.

That's what we're doing around here. It's been going so well, I'm very happy. We are all learning a lot. The kids are writing a lot which was a major deficiency last year. I think Kian is finding he can do well some of the things he hated to do before like writing and math. He is studying chemistry and computers on his own. Matt mentors him sporadically in those subjects.

Now, what will happen after Christmas? Well, I've taken the entire month of January off and then after that... I'm guessing we'll do a lot of the same subject-wise but I'll have Kian and Abby do the reading on their own and then we'll discuss together what they've read. Hopefully by then the habits will be in place and I'll be able to take a step back with the little ones (mainly, the baby) and the older ones can continue on their own.

Not having a car while Matt's at work has been a little difficult, but I have enough opportunities to run errands in the evening or go to game night with friends that I haven't felt isolated.

Overall, life has been going great!