What our days look like so far

I cant believe we are starting our 5th week of kindergarten!  It seriously feels like I was just planning our 1st week a few days ago.  I'm not sure where time goes.  Any who, a lot has changed since my last homeschool blog which can be found HERE. After the first week, I realized the curriculum we picked at first was not for us.  Marleigh was slightly bored because we did a lot of what it wanted in preschool last year so she felt like we were just repeating the year all over again.  We ended up switching to Oak Meadow curriculum which can be found HERE. I will forever sing the praises of this curriculum!  It is the perfect fit for our family.  Its challenging enough for Marleigh to keep her excited each day for what we will be learning and is easy for me to keep up with & plan.  However, the days are not planned out to a T in the curriculum so I did struggle with this for the first couple of weeks.  I feel like Im finally finding my groove with it and I love the flexibility it offers us.  We follow it pretty closely, but also add in our own ideas too.  We are finally finding our daily rhythm, but Im sure as time goes on we will change and adjust more and more to our new adventure.

Right now our days look like this:
We start school around 9am once everyone is dressed and ready (some times we skip the getting dressed part).  We gather around for circle time which I love because Maddox can get involved with this too.  We start with lighting our circle time candle, say our morning verse, do finger plays and sing songs, discuss what we are doing that day, say our closing verse and the kids love to blow out the candle.  We then start with our morning main lesson.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we do language arts.  Tuesdays & Thursdays are Math.  This lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on what we are doing for the day.  After this they have an hour for creative play which is where they can mimic me doing house hold chores or they can play creatively on their own or we go on a field trip. We set up shelves up stairs that are organized with things for them to do on their own such as crafts, puzzles, games, etc...There's absolutely no TV allowed to fill in this space.


We then gather again for lunch.  After lunch we have an afternoon hour of school.  On Mondays and Thursdays are science.  Tuesdays are arts, crafts & baking day.  Wed is music & play date day.  Friday is health & hiking day. 



After this they are free to go do more creative play and then Marleigh helps prep for dinner.  Her job is to set the table, help cook, and she helps clean up.  After dinner and baths Maddox plays quietly in his room and I give Marleigh some kind of handwork to do to wind down for bed like finger knitting, embroidery, bees wax molding, etc...We then start our bed time routine and end with a story and start all over again the next day!

Its a lot of work, but I have enjoyed it so much!  Its been so great for me as Im now getting further away from the social media scene and Im really putting all of my focus in to my children.  They are happier because they have more of my attention and Im happy because they are so great!  When they have all of my attention on our school days their behavior is so wonderful.  Im not just saying that.  When you are there, body, mind, and heart, your kids will sense it and they will not act out for attention.  I especially love during the creative play hours and Marleigh chooses to help me around the house instead of playing.  We bond during that time and I then see her treating her brother in the way I treat her.  Maddox is picking up on our rhythm and loves to help clean.  Even tonight before bed he wouldn't go to sleep until we picked up all of his toys.  Its amazing how when we, as moms, turn these chores into a positive thing how it can change the outlook on it for our children.  And I like to think they will grow up into have great work aspects and will be able to maintain a clean and healthy home when they are on their own.
 

When we run errands I try to keep some sort of school structure.  For example, this past week we were working on the letter C & the number 2.  So while at the store Marleigh had to see how many she could find on the products.  If we need to grocery shop I make her a list too with pictures + words that I draw and she matches it to what she finds on the shelf.  This takes patience, but can be very beneficial.  I want her to learn real life lessons in the real world so this is a great first step that she can handle.  When we are out doing things like this she  is also out interacting with people of all ages and walks of life.  I hate that stereotypical comment about homeschool children being socially awkward.  When in life, besides in a classroom, are you stuck in a room with people all of the exact same age?  My bet is never.  At least not for me.



So there's a bit of a rundown on our schedule right now. Ill be blogging more of what our days look like soon!
xo