Weekly Homeschooling Schedule

 
A typical week in our homeschool is very busy as in many others out there. We aim to have our daily school completed by lunch-time and reserve the afternoon for field trips, sports, hobbies and friends. When we first began homeschooling we participated in many field trips and quickly became overwhelmed with activities which made it difficult to fit in "school". This general plan helps tremendously.

Last year we attempted to finish school by lunch, but rarely did. This year a few changes made all the difference. First of all there is a rule that the kids need to start school for the day as soon as they wake-up. Last year they always waited for me. After preparing breakfast, starting the laundry and everything else we usually didn't get started until around 9:00. Starting school upon waking works well since they both have activities they do on their own, with each other and with me. Now some days they are finished by 10:30 am depending on how early they rise.
Each kid has their own weekly to-do list. The items listed in blue they can do either together or mostly on their own. Here is what a typical week looks like.

3rd Grader

Minutes Days per Week Subject
15 5 Read to Mom
15 5 Listen to Mom Read
30 2 Silent Reading Books
15 5 Writing
15 5 Spelling
15 5 Mother goose
30 5 Math
30 2 Science Experiment
30 2 German Kids Television
30 3 Rosetta Stone - German
15 2 Silent Reading - German Book
30 5 Spanish Kids Television
15 3 Piano
15 3 Geography Puzzle
60 1 Finish missed work or special movie

5th Grader

Time Days per Week Subject
15 5 Read to Mom
15 5 Listen to Mom Read
30 2 Silent Reading Books
15 5 Writing
15 5 Spelling
15 5 Poetry
30 5 Math
30 2 Science Experiment
30 2 German Kids Television
15 5 Write a Sentence in German
15 2 Silent Reading - German Book
30 5 Spanish Kids Television
15 3 Violin
15 3 Piano
60 1 Finish missed work or special movie

In addition to the items listed above the children play outside daily a minimum of 20 minutes per day. During this time they like to play monkey-in-the-middle, or other very physical games with my husband if he is available, or play in the creek behind our house and explore nature. We listen to folk songs and classical music in the car and during meals. Finally, famous works of art are displayed every two weeks following a short discussion of the piece.


Afternoons
Monday - history, crafts and socialization with our weekly History Co-op Group
Tuesday - music lessons
Wednesday - sports, free-time and socialization
Thursday - sports, free-time and socialization
Friday - sports, free-time and socialization

 

I am linking this post to The Homeschooling Hearts and Mind Blog which is hosting a virtual curriculum fair. Here is the list of posts from other blogging homeschooling families and how they schedule their time.

Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Weekly Homeschooling Schedule by Julie @ HighHill Homeschool

Virtual Curriculum Fair: Week 5: The Nuts & Bolts: Pulling it all Together by Leah @ The Courtney Six Homeschool

Our Schedule's Working! by Eunora @ All Things NoriLynn

Homeschooling: How do I do it all? by Debbie @ Debbie's Digest

Virtual Curriculum Fair--- Wrap-up Angie @ Petra School

Virtual Curriculum Fair: 5 Ways to Use an iPad in Your Homeschool by Pam @ Everyday Snapshots

A Peek Into Our School Day by Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

A Day in the Life... by Nicole @ Schooling in the Sun

Homeschool and Life: How we get it done by Jen @ Forever, For Always, No Matter What

Homeschooling at My House by Jessica @ Modest Mama

Getting a Grip on Things by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Making Home School a part of LIFE by Cindy @ For One Another

Now Where's That Pencil Again? by Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Something About Homeschooling I Really Didn't See Coming by Letha @ justpitchingmytent

Curriculum, Kids, and a Frazzled Homeschool Mama leads to Controlled Chaos! by Laura O from AK @ Day by Day in Our World

The Virtual Curriculum Fair – Nuts and Bolts by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Staying on Top of Everything by Brenda Emmett @ Garden of Learning

How Does This Homeschooling Thing Actually Work? Fitting it all Together by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Nuts & Bolts: Pulling it all together by Christa Darr @ Fairfield Corner Academy

Viking History Co-op. Books

We participate in a weekly homeschool history co-op which involves many hands-on crafts and activities. In conjunction with our Viking History Co-op we read many wonderful living books. Here are our favorite Viking Books in order of easiest to most difficult.



Magnus the Viking (The Adventures of Magnus the Viking) is a story about the Viking discovery of America.

From Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla we learned a lot about the Viking way of life.

Leif the Lucky taught us about the Viking discoveries of Greenland and America.

D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths is filled with delightful stories of Norse Gods and their Adventures.

Viking Tales by Jeannie Hall is written in two parts. Viking Tales is also available free on the internet. From the first part we learned about Harold Fairhair and some Norwegian History, the second part was another story of the Vikings discovery of Greenland and America.

We really enjoyed reading these books and hope you will too!


To read more about our homeschool history co-op activities click on Homeschool History under Homeschooling Topics on the right-hand side of the blog, or one of the cultures below.

Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China

Shibley Smiles

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

Cribbage - Addition Game

Most of the games we play also have a learning element and many of them are math oriented. Cribbage is a wonderful card game to re-enforce or learn addition facts. 

In addition to learning addition, this game is fun, involves strategy and allows parents to spend quality time with their children. I have many fond memories of playing this game with my father while growing-up, and now he plays with the kids when he comes to visit.

Here are the rules.

Tic-Tac-Toe - Handmade Gift



I was so impressed with this handmade gift. It is a tic-tac-toe game constructed from a quilted square and painted wooden disks. A friend of mine's entire family participated in making this gift to give to my daughter for her birthday. Her son cut the disks from dowels, one of the girls painted them and the other girl along with the help of her mother made the quilted square for the board.



One Artsy Mama I'm topsy turvy tuesdays NightOwlCrafting Clip With Purpose

Beaded Socks - Great Gift Idea

My youngest daughter received a pair of beaded socks for her birthday. My oldest daughter took one look at them and made a pair for herself. She used a small crochet hook and made a single crochet chain around the edges and added beads every few links.
 

NightOwlCrafting Clip With Purpose

Dragons Forever



Before moving to Germany we were members of a homeschooling group in the States. I chatted away at many park days with one friend in particular before realizing she was a writer. Now she has authored two books.

Dragons Forever - Born to Be a Dragon and Dragons Forever - Blink of a Dragon are two new fantasy books for ages 8-12.  Both books have excellent reviews on amazon and appeal to both boys and girls. It is so cool to have interesting talented friends.

 

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children. 

Scythian History Co-op. Week 1: Cookie Maps

Week 1: We made cookie maps.

The Scythians were a group of people that lived north of the Black and Caspian Seas in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Today their land is known as the Ukraine, part of Russia and Kazakhstan. 

They were nomadic people who relied heavily on horses. They were traders and fought their enemies on horseback using bows and arrows. Since they left no written record modern people learn about them through artifacts and writing by others.

The history co-op always starts with a map of some sort showing where the people lived. For the Scythians the map was constructed from sugar cookie dough.
The children began with a paper map. They colored area seas and mountains and then covered their map with a sheet of wax paper.

Cookie dough colored blue for water and green for land was placed on-top of the wax paper in appropriate locations.

After the maps were baked they were painted with food coloring to add mountains and rivers.

Then of course they were eaten.

To read more about our history activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China




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