My kids are K-3. Three different grades. All pretty much need me to read their material aloud. My baby sleeps...so far. But given at how many subjects there are and yada yada, three grades can get pretty complicated even when the youngest is only in kindergarten. I would say the secret is knowing what you can do together, and knowing what have to do one on one. Unfortunately, I can't give you a recipe for that. It's a personality thing, but I can tell you how I do it.
1. Start your day together.
We begin with a really short prayer "Jesus, bless our school day. Be with us and help us to be with you." Then I read the saint of the day aloud from the Saints for Young Readers book. For you Charlotte Mason lovers, I do have them each tell me something from the beginning, middle, and end of the story (for younger kids) and a fuller narration for the older kid. We go in order of youngest to oldest.
2. Bundle your memory work.
As a classically based school, we have things to recite. BORING. But now, this is my favorite time of day! Kindergartner just has a poem, personal info like address and birthday, and memory songs like Days of the Week. Second Grader has poetry, catechism, phonograms, and states and capitals. Third Grader has all that plus Latin and history dates and skip counting the multiplication tables. But, we do it TOGETHER. That means I don't ever have to "review" old material individually since they just said it with the little kid. And it's easier for the little kids to memorize later because they sat through it a hundred times.
3. Provide busy centers.
Each week, I have a shelf of busy stuff. It's only allowed during school (which makes the activities seem "special".) During Recitation, or anytime they're finished with their work, or are working and need to fidget, what-have-you...all the kids use it. My usually formula is...something to build with, something carpentry-like, something sewing-like, something puzzle-like, something sensory, something grody or cool. In a Montessori classroom, you might be able to leave all this out, but since my kids are older, I rotate frequently. They see something for one week every month or so unless it's a HUGE hit, and then we wear it out and put it away for longer.
4. Organize your individual sessions according to naughtiness.
Personality...I mean personality! After Recitation, we start our individual sessions. Each child has "with me" work and "alone" work. Usually just writing. I make them do their "alone" work while I do Kindergartener's work in my lap. (We're still all in the same room, now.) This is so that once he's done, he can play and has at least one older sibling to play with. Next, I work with Second Grader since if I let her get playing on something, she can't stop easily and throws a fit. Finally, I work with Third Grader, since he's my easy baby. He doesn't care if he's got a good game of Beyblades going. He comes when I call.
5. Limit your curriculum priorities.
We have the FIVE R'S: Recitation, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Religion. That's our core. Everything else is a side event. We recite together, we write together, by-enlarge our religion is together. math and reading are one on one. The last part of the individual work with me is "subject time." This is usually just for the Third Grader. A few times a week we need to read some science, history, or religion lessons. Then we are technically DONE. Well, there is one vestigal requirement for the day happens after dinner; the kids read easy readers aloud to us. M-TH, this is not optional. 15-30 minutes each for second and third grade. If it's too close to bed time, one reads to me and the other to hubby.
Yes, we have literature and natural history and geography reading and whatnot, but they are SECONDARY and I don't stress if we get behind in them. Yes, they're are actually my favorite subjects and the thing that makes me love homeschool and feel like I accomplished something beautiful, but I have to swallow that and identify the priorities.
6. Reserve a day for music, art, and worksheet time.
But where's the music and art and...and...and? It's called FRIDAY. All subjects are M-TH except math. Math is Friday and then all the art, music, worksheets, journaling, drawing lessons or anything else I like. Sprinkling those throughout the week just stresses me out. I can't keep up with what child does which on what day. And for music, we have Music Masters and matching coloring pages and picture books. We rotate through them a few times K-3. We listen to them on Friday and color or narrate, for the older children. Art, we use Mommy, It's a Renoir (according to age) and I give an individual drawing lesson from Draw Squad or the Montessori Inset lessons according to skill level. Any worksheets, like Hayes Music lessons or Abeka geography, or Seasons and Living things are all done on this day.
7. Bundle read-alouds at the end of the day.
At the end of each school day, we come together again for read-alouds. I try to read about 30 minutes. This is where all the literature happens. It's not divided by grade. I just have a master list and I rotate through it. And for you Charlotte Mason lovers, this is where all your stuff happens. I have a second layer of reading on top of the regular literature for living books in geography, natural history, liturgical year, and history stories. But remember, these are not the #1 priority. I got all that done in the morning. This is the fun part.
This is where you find Burgess, Holling C. Holling, and Baldwin. But again, I don't divide it by grade, just responsibility. If you're in kindergarten, you don't narrate and journal. You can play with the busy centers. If you're older, you have to tell it back to me. Any book that you weren't old enough to narrate the first time will likely come back around in third grade.
So here's the priority schedule:
Monday through Thursday
Religion: Prayer and saint story
Recitation
Kindergartener's 3R's, others WRite
Second grader's 2R's, others play
Third Grader's 2R's, others play
DONE (I usually read aloud for at least 30 minutes or dabble in their once-a-week subjects to lighten Friday)
*Evening easy reader practice after dinner (not optional)
Friday
Prayer and saint story
Math, Worksheets, Any once-a-week subjects we didn't do, Art, Narration Illustrations, and Music
DONE (But I might read aloud cause I love it.)
No comments:
Post a Comment