A Schedule!?!

It has seemed that over the past few months it has been difficult to get done everything that I wanted to as far as homeschooling is concerned.  Madeline and Isabella do attend a French immersion program 3 hours a day during the week, and there has been some question about whether or not they would continue in it for the entire school year.  Madeline attended the program last year and despite some initial separation issues, really loved it and did quite well. Isabella was initially excited about going this year, but had some difficulties once the reality of it all set in.  It now looks as though the girls will remain in the program for the remainder of the year.  I think I was waiting for Isabella to start showing some excitement for what she was learning, which she is now beginning to do. Anyway, I think the uncertainty of whether or not they would stay in the program all year was preventing me from setting a schedule for homeschooling this year.    

Now that it looks as though they will remain in the program, I feel the need to think about setting a clear schedule.  I want to start out the morning with reading and writing.  I can alternate working with Madeline and Isabella on the ABeCeDarian Reading program.  While I work with one the other can be working on a computer reading program.  I still have Isabella working on the Headsprout Early Reading Program.  Madeline finished that program a while back, and has been working on the Clickn Read program.  I have found that the Clickn Read  program is a bit more rigorous.  It requires Madeline to actually recall the spelling of words and type them it. This has lead to better retention of of words.  

For writing, I was using Write Source with Madeline, and I think I will go back to that.  I also want to continue journal writing, and I picked up a book with lots of writing prompts in it. Actually, I picked up a couple of new resources for writing, I will post information about all of them in a separate post in the near future.   It is likely that I will actually have at least Madeline begin her day with journal writing and some independent language practice.

After reading and language I would like to work on math.  Madeline is still working on Singapore Math 1B and Isabella is working on the Early Bird Kindergarten Book A.  They are both doing well with these.  I do feel as though Isabella needs more one-on-one time in math.  I will try to get that in for her.  Hailey has begun working on the skills in the Early Bird Kindergarten book as well.  She is working on one-to-once correspondence as well as number recognition.

That will most likely take up our mornings.  Then Madeline and Isabella are at the French program in the afternoon.  After I pick them up seems to be a good time for science and social studies and/or the Moving Beyond the Page curriculum.  Also, Saturdays and Sundays seem to lend themselves well to these activities as well.  Saturday is a particularly good day for nature studies.  

More reading, both independent and read alouds are done after dinner and before bed. Directly after dinner also seems to be a good time for finishing up anything that was started in the afternoon but not finished.  

Hmmmm... writing it out seems to make it feel doable.  I think it is a plan.  Hopefully I am not forgetting anything!