Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Our school routine, May 2016

I thought I'd put this down here, so I can look back and see how far I've come....
Or maybe to solidify the habit I'm trying to make this!

At the table, when we're done eating breakfast: Leading little ones to God, or accompanying Scripture passage.
We practice singing one Psalm.
We do a memory verse (lately, we put a whole bunch together, in the Lord's Prayer).
We pray.
Then we do breakfast cleanup for 15 minutes.

 After breakfast: Explode the Code writing and reading; one page (less if it's frustrating to K, more if she's whizzing along and secretly does an extra page while I'm finishing the dishes!)
Mep math

Then we have chore time for 15 minutes, which I am including because it is an important habit that makes life easier.

After that, we head on over to the couch for some reading practice in actual books. I am very excited about this; K is reading books she hasn't learned all the phonics rules for! I had been very leery of memorization in learning to read because of a family history of dyslexia, but I haven't found that this has kept her from continuing to learn and understand the letter sounds and combinations in Explode the Code.

Outdoor time (or downstairs playtime, depending on the weather) comes next, and I have a chance to attack my to-do list, my honey-do list, make phone calls, and pay bills.
If all goes well, I get outside for a while with the children. But if that doesn't work out for me, they generally play well together outside for an hour or two until lunch.

After lunch, while at the table, we practice our French phrase of the week, read a selection from "The Story of the World," (I just read the good bits, not all the long explanations, because my goal for year 1 is that my children discover that history is awesome) and sing our folk song. We've actually run out of folk songs, having learned "Oh Canada," "Land of the Silver Birch," and "Something to Sing About." I'm going to have to hit up YouTube for some ideas! Who knew I knew so little!

That concludes our regular routine.
We're still finding a place for piano practice and lessons. We've almost dropped our Monday morning drawing time, so I'll have to figure that out. We are not faithful about our music and artist study, though the few times we have done it, I have been impressed by how much the girls remember when we pull out the picture the next week.

Sometimes, we read Winnie the Pooh at bedtime; we are about a 1/3 of the way through the complete collection.
We also read books at random times during the day, usually when someone is hurt, or needs a snuggle, or both.

I still have a stack of AO recommendations to get through, but they stay on the shelf. I think that a bedtime reading routine would be the best for those, but sometimes I just want to talk to Kevin!


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