Schooling with Littles :: Naptime School

I've been writing a series on Schooling with Littles.  I shared our Daily Schedule, and now I'm working through how I manage our three learning blocks: Morning Basket, Naptime School, and Independent Learning.

The second prong of our current school routine is Naptime School.  

I know that Quiet Time is a non-negotiable for most homeschooling mothers.  It's a time for everyone to get a breather, for little ones to nap, for big kids to rest and recharge, and for moms to decompress and refocus.  When my oldest children were young, naptime was my sanity.  As an introvert who is overwhelmed with the noise level here on a daily hourly basis, those pauses in my day were essential.  As much as I absolutely love the toddler stage, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only mother who has counted down the minutes until those toddlers head up to nap. ;)

But when my two oldest started Year 1, I thought about how to fit in even the small amount of schooling first grade entailed.  An hour a day sounds like so very little when it comes to schoolwork, yet it can seem like so much when you feel like every minute of the day is filled with just keeping small people fed, clean, and happy.  But my first-graders were definitely eager for a bit of formal schooling, and I wanted for them a full feast of learning daily.

I had two options:

:: Try to school when the littles were awake, then spend naptime enjoying a quiet break as usual.

:: Save school for when the littles were napping.

And despite my initial reluctance to let go of naptime as Quiet Time, the first option sounded like adding more chaos to my day, not preserving what little calm I had.  I imagined myself barking at the toddlers to Be Quiet! while I tried to read history or teach a math lesson.  My big kids would feel that stress and might resent the little ones for interrupting our school work.  The little kids would see that Mommy was constantly trying to keep them busy so I could handle the big kids.

So back to that second option: what if, instead, I gave that "Quiet Time" to my children and to our homeschooling relationship?

So that's what we have done, and I can't imagine doing it any other way now.  When the little kids are awake, we do our Morning Basket together, we do chores together, and I have time to get a few things done while they play with their older siblings.  (Another benefit of saving school for naptime--the big kids are free to play with their baby siblings when they're awake.  That time is precious.)

And then when my youngest three are settled in their beds and my preschooler takes a book and lies down for her rest time, it's my chance to sit down with just my two oldest.  I can read without raising my voice over a toddler tantrum.  I can use both hands (very rare around here!) to draw in my nature journal or pull down the atlas for some mapping.  We can have Grand Conversations without being interrupted.  We can spread our books or art supplies all over the table without little hands grabbing.  We can think.  It's still a calm time in our day.  It's not quiet, and I don't have it to myself, but I can really enjoy the children's learning in a more leisurely way than I could otherwise.

So contrary to what I thought a couple years ago, there are ways to forego Mommy's Quiet Time without losing my sanity. ;)

(Let me just add: I do get quiet at other times of the day.  We have worked at sleep routines, so my children all predictably go to bed by 8 and wake at around 6:45.  That leaves me two hours of time in the evening to work on projects and rest, which I might normally do during naptime.  I also have the early morning hours if I don't choose sleep or run instead, so I could always push up my wake-up time to get an early start.  If I were running on completely empty, I'd have to reassess and might choose otherwise.  Still, when school has to happen, I'd rather do it and enjoy it during the calm moments of the day and make that time up in another way.  But that's just how I operate.)

That's enough of the why--now on to what and how...

What Naptime School looks like for us, with two second graders and a preschooler who tags along at the end:

:: Scheduled Readings - these include the readings from our weekly assignment sheet that we do aloud together, along with accompanying narrations (daily)

:: Math Lesson - my sit-down time with each of the children to go over the day's assignment so they can work their problems on their own later on (daily)

:: Binder Work - includes copywork in both cursive and printing (daily), mapwork, timeline, map memory work (weekly)

:: Hands-on Activities - art projects, handcrafts, nature journal, drawing lesson (all weekly)

:: Italian - teaching new topics, conversation, playing games (daily)

:: Read-aloud or audiobook - from our free reading list (daily)

:: Finish Morning Basket work from the morning (as needed)

I have written these in order of priority--I try to have the readings and math done before my preschooler joins us, as she's very happy to sit in on the rest.  As I noted in the schedule, this block ends up being about two hours long, which is how long my babies nap for.  I usually get those first two tasks done in about an hour.  When we have a lighter day of assigned reading than usual, I pick one of our longer activities (an art project, for example) to follow or we listen to an extra chapter in our read-aloud.

Next time, I'll hit on our last learning block: Independent Work.

(Looking for the rest of the series?  Here it is!)

Wednesdays with Words :: Gentle and Patient

Taking inspiration in my parenting from Mother Mary Loyola's First Communion this week:

Our Lord's training of the Twelve was very gentle and patient.  We might have thought rebukes would have been incessant, so that it would be hard to live in His company. But it was not so. He bore with them, and though He reproved them, they were at their ease with Him.  They felt He reproved them because He loved them.  And His reproofs were sweetened by a Divine compassion and a wonderful patience.  He was among them as one of themselves.

Those who have lived with Saints have been afraid to appear before them with sin on their souls, because God has often shown to His Saints the secrets of hearts.  But our Lord's Apostles were not afraid of Him.  Though they knew he could read their hearts, they were not uncomfortable in His Presence.  They knew Him and loved Him as the best of Masters and the truest of Friends.  After three years in His School, hearing His instructions, living in His company, seeing His example, they were far from perfect.  Yet He did not lose patience with them.  He forgave them again and again, helped them in their efforts to do better and encouraged them to try and try again when they failed. 

And see how they repaid His teaching.  Except that poor Judas, for whom He could do nothing, who would not be taught or helped, all the rest came in the end to be what He wanted them to be, and one and all laid down their lives for Him at last. (174, emphasis mine)

The teaching style of Our Lord that Mother Loyola describes here sounds so similar to Charlotte Mason's suggestions on habit training with young children in Volume 1.  I'll share a small bit of her famous "shutting the door" example:

But the little fellow has really not much power to recollect, and the mother will have to adopt various little devices to remind him; but of two things she will be careful––that he never slips off without shutting the door, and that she never lets the matter be a cause of friction between herself and the child, taking the line of his friendly ally to help him against that bad memory of his. 

Habit training as a "friendly ally," "without friction," yet without letting one bad habit slip by.  Providing correction "sweetened by a Divine compassion and a wonderful patience" while still making children feel they can be "at their ease."  Sounds like just the kind of atmosphere I want to cultivate for habit training in our home.

Nature Study Outing :: Exploring the North Creekside

We spent the last two weeks' outings at our favorite spot, exploring parts of the park that we hadn't been to yet.  The creek runs north-south, and the entrance into the park hits at the middle of the creek.  We always head south from there, but this time, we decided to see what was northward.  We were surprised to find that the park extended father than we had thought--lots to see.

The first week, we walked north on the east side of the creek.  The next week we crossed the bridge and walked along the west side.

The creek itself has eroded much of its banks, leaving giant roots exposed on both sides.  They form a network of steps for climbing down to the creek--the kids think they look like huge spiderwebs.

The east side of the creek is flat.  Buckeyes, sycamores, and oaks dot a field that now has a thin green bed of new grass, clover, and the tell-tale leaves that promise wildflowers to come.

more lovely lichen

wildflowers on their way!

The west side of the creek involves a much more strenuous walk--the creek forks to the west, but the offshoot dries up shortly past that point.  So to follow the banks, we had to walk past the offshoot, then traverse the dry creek bed, then hike back up the other bank.  

The creek bank is low and wide, covered with large rocks and a very thick layer of sycamore leaves dropped by ancient trees like the one above.  It was a challenge to get through, at least for me--the kids kept asking if I needed a break as they bounded over the rocks with ease.  And I'm a runner!  It might have had something to do with the fact that I was carting a toddler on my back and a baby in my belly.  ;)  Our adventures included sighting a wild boar (thankfully, from afar), but we got back safe and sound.

going through the wide creek bed

After the hike, we parked at a picnic bench (Mommy needed a rest!), and the kids played "Laura Ingalls," collecting bark (salt pork), grass (vegetables), and sticks (firewood).  I fondly remember playing the same game when I was a child. :)

A pair of steller's jays came to visit, and we played bird calls on my phone that they echoed.  The children were amazed.

We also noticed a few more "firsts" of the season: 

:: The first yellow wood sorrel. My daughter found one lone sorrel flower while on one of her "hunting expeditions" and couldn't wait to share the news!  We remember seeing them all over this park last summer.

:: The first arroyo willow leaves.  These leaves joined the buckeyes and sycamores for earliest leafers in our area.  We'll be awaiting their caterpillar-like catkins over the summer too.

Those went straight into our Calendar of Firsts when we got home.  I feel like our frequent visits to this park are allowing us to get a truly week-by-week record of seasonal change.  I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store!

The Living Page :: Copybooks

The second chapter of Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page can be broken roughly into three parts: nature journals, copybooks, and history notebooks.  Last week, we talked about nature journals, and today, I'm focusing on that second category: copybooks.

Copybooks for my children:

Most of the suggestions she makes here are for older children--notebooks for keeping snatches of music, lab research, Scripture passages.  I was wowed by the Music Notebook, inspired by the Fortitude Journal, and happy to see a Foreign Language Notebook, which I already keep for us (on Evernote).  But I was most interested in the books geared toward younger learners, and I'm going to highlight those here.

A copybook is essentially a housing place for copywork.  But in calling it copywork, I do not mean for it to seem mundane.  In fact, Miss Mason envisions it as quite an inspiring activity.  As Bestvater explains, the key factor in a copybook is that the Keeper has a connection to the passages selected: "Students would still be instructed by the slow copying of beautiful lines but, characteristic of Mason, the words would be the ones that spoke to their hearts, or at least be words with a context--coming from their readings." (28)

So the child progresses in penmanship from practicing strokes on a chalkboard; then to perhaps individual letters on lined paper; then to working through a sentence slowly, word by word.  And at that point, copybooks can be introduced.  Ms. Bestvater mentions several that might be suitable for this age, for example:

:: A Poetry Book, where the child keeps favorite lines or stanzas: "But a book of their own made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure" (quoting Mason, 29).

:: A Motto Book of favorite literary selections, organized by theme, perhaps choosing one motto for each day of the year: "What an incentive to a good day it would be to read in the morning as a motto of our very own choice and selection" (29).

Our penmanship time currently is divided between printing and cursive.  For the former, my kids tell me what they'd like to use for copywork, and I print a Startwrite page for them with the passage at the top and blank lines underneath.  Once it's completed, it goes into their school pile, which gets sorted at the end of the school year.  For cursive, they're still working on letter formation.  (That photo above shows our currrent copywork layout.)

We'll be sticking to Startwrite pages for beginning cursive, but I think they would love to move on to something more "special" for their printing, and I have a stack of Bare Books that would be the perfect start for such a project.  My only concern is that the permanence of the copybook might create some difficulty.  I have been hesitant because my perfectionist daughter struggles to complete her copywork to her satisfaction (her writing is fine for her age).  The only way she gets through her penmanship calmly right now is by my constantly reminding her it is writing practice--she should try her best, but it isn't always going to be perfect because she's still learning.  If it were in a bound book, I can imagine the frustration that might ensue!  On the other hand, she is the one that is always finding little snatches of poems to fall in love with and repeat to herself for days afterward.  I'm sure she would adore the culling process and having her very own Poetry Book to keep.  So we may continue what we're doing for now and revisit the copybook for next year?  I'll be thinking on this.  (Suggestions welcomed!)

Copybooks for me:

I have already mentioned that I don't think a Nature Journal or Book of Centuries lend themselves to a digital approach, but I think various kinds of copybooks could, depending on how they're conceived of, organized, and managed.  I'm not sure Bestvater would agree, but I'm going to chat about it anyway. ;)

First, I'm going to split up these copybooks into a couple categories.  There are some that I think would quite easily lend themselves to a typed format: a Household Book, a Parent Year-Book, a Travel Diary, a Reading Log.  These are more practical in their purpose.  But she mentions a second category of notebook in which the process of copying is meant to have a meditative effect that is formative to the soul.  Those kinds of notebooks are a far more tenuous match for a digital approach.

I'm going to take the traditional Commonplace Book as an example.  The Commonplace is a collection of quotes culled by the Keeper from her reading and learning.  When working through this section, I looked for what Bestvater noted as the essential aspects of a Commonplace Book and whether an e-Commonplace could meet these standards.

So, from Bestvater's descriptions, we might say that a Commonplace Book should be:

:: Inspiring.  The main goal of a Commonplace is to inspire the learner, and a "habit of noticing passages" around a selected theme or virtue can be "deeply inspiring and formative" (31). Can we notice inspiring quotes through e-Keeping?  Yes, surely.

:: Freely chosen.  The Commonplace Book should always be a collection of what the Keeper wants to include.  To insist otherwise is in direct contradiction to the purpose of the book: "The possibilities for abuse in this idea are apparent; a teacher or parent identifying a character trait a child needs to 'fix' and assigning a notebook on the topic is an impertinent project" (32).  It's not enough that the subject matter is inspiring; it must also be chosen freely, or the effect falls flat no matter how objectively inspiring the content.  Certainly this requirement can be met no matter what the format.

:: Culled from learning.  Bestvater herself notes that Miss Mason's instructions for notebooks were not particularly regimented, "allowing copybook principles to be upheld with creativity and variety.  Mason feels that moral impetus has to come from an idea striking the child and that 'the culling' is the most important and personal feature of the activity." (29)  The ideas should be taken from the context of one's own learning but can take a variety of forms, depending on one's preference.  Might digital culling fall under this category?  I think so.

:: A faithful companion.  The Keeping of a Commonplace is meant to be constant and lifelong, "a daily posture of reception and response" (31).  She calls the Commonplace "a personalized notebook that crossed subjects and was meant to go with them everywhere as a dear companion and a record of their reading/learning" (33).  Can e-notebooks be a daily habit, no matter where or what age we are?  Yes.

:: A form of narration.  Part of a Commonplace's purpose is to remember what we have learned: "We never forget the book that we have made extracts from, and of which we have taken the trouble to write a short review" (33).  And as Bestvater notes, "The practice of noticing and narrating is again more important than the specific notebook chosen" (34).  Can we narrate digitally?  Oral, written, typed--all are sufficient styles of narration.

:: Meditative.  This is where Bestvater is most forceful: "As an idea is spiritual, it needs a place to intersect with the student's own spirit, in this case, in the slowly emerging text of the meditative copy work ... taking time to write by hand slows us down and allows the truth to seep in" (30).

And that's the stickler. :)  She definitely sees the writing process itself as essential to the Keeping of a Commonplace, which comes as no surprise since she hinted as much in the first chapter.  I'll be thinking more about this as we move through the rest of the book, and as a model to my children, I plan to start a physical Commonplace soon.  I'm wondering whether that experience will convince me of writing's meditative effects.  Right now, writing doesn't feel all that meditative to me, perhaps because I often have little hands grabbing at the page. ;)  But I'll be the first to admit that I could use a little "slowing down"!

What did you all think of this chapter?  I thought I might find the discussion of so many different kinds of notebooks to be overwhelming, but I found instead that it inspired me to think creatively and branch out in the kinds of Keeping I have been doing.

Nature Study Outing :: Early Leafing

We have had some fun this mid-winter watching as the buds on the early-blooming trees start to open in our area.

A few weeks ago we brought home a bud and forced it inside the house to watch the changes.  After I noticed it starting to open one evening before bed, I took a quick photo--sorry for the terrible lighting in those first two, but after a few days of no signs of blooming at all, it took me by surprise!  The second photo was from about twelve hours later, when we woke up.  And then I took pictures once a day in a bit better light to document the ongoing changes.

It ended up being a buckeye, as you can see from the palmate leaves.  And it now sits happily blooming by my kitchen sink--like a cheerful bit of spring indoors. :)

Then last week, we noticed a tree with buds in different stages of opening during our nature study outing:

Yep, another California buckeye!  No surprise, as they're one of the earliest-leafing trees in our area (and one of the most common).  We found the same thing this past week at another park:

The kids had a great time scouring each tree to find good examples of the different stages these little buds go through.  It's so nice to see that green amid the browns and grays of the rest of the winter landscape.  And we'll be looking for flowers on these buckeyes in just a few short months!

{In a Week}

sorting her art cards

notes on worms, gleaned from a favorite book, scribbled before heading outside to set up a worm farm

still working through bob books

more dice bingo -- in italiano

a few new books for a new term

all chess, all the time -- seriously, they're obsessed!

The Living Page :: Nature Journals

Last week we talked about the first chapter of Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page, and earlier this week I raved a bit about a favorite part of mine from the second chapter.  (Don't those Natural History Clubs sound amazing?)  Now I'm back to think a bit more about this second section, in which Ms. Bestvater discusses Nature Journals.  

Jen invited us to share excerpts and photos from our own nature journals, and I'm planning to do so.  One of the most delightful parts of my week is Friday afternoon, when I sit down with my oldest three, our drawing supplies, our notebooks, and our nature tray and spend an hour or two capturing on paper the discoveries from our outing that morning.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that nature study takes up a good chunk of my writing space here.  So I had lots of examples to pore through that I have posted here before, and I've chosen just a few to re-share.

Before I do that, I want to chat a bit about this chapter.  Last time I focused on the idea of whether e-notebooks can provide the same benefits of Keeping that Miss Mason promises.  I still can't answer that. ;) 

But I can say that I don't really think there is a digital comparison for a nature journal.  One can take lots of nature photos and arrange those photos into a useful record, the kind of record that the students in Miss Mason's schools were keeping for sightings of birds, wildflowers, and other signs of changing seasons.  Those photos can also be useful for identifying and for drawing from (we do this often).  One can keep narrative notes of one's nature walks in digital form and I don't think much is lost.  But photos and typed notes are distinct from drawings, which are a component of Miss Mason's nature notebook and require of the Keeper a different kind of observation and attention.  One also cannot keep pressed flowers or leaves in digital form, as Bestvater includes under nature scrapbooks in this section.  So a digital Nature Journal, though perhaps more useful and complete than a hand-Kept one in some ways, would not meet the full intentions that this category of Keeping carries.  (Or am I mistaken?  Let me know.  It's so valuable thinking all this through with others.)

~~~~

Now on to some examples from these labors of love in our home:

I love viewing my son and daughter's narrations of the same outing side by side.  It's so interesting to see the differences in what they focus on and how they process their discoveries.

And from a more recent outing:

A few from Mommy's nature journal:

And one from my preschooler's--her drawings are just darling and she is so very serious about getting things just as she sees them:

I was not a nature-lover as a child, nor have I ever considered myself a draw-er.  I determined, however, to get over my inhibitions and start a nature journal alongside my children when they started their formal schooling.  Since then, it has become a favorite hobby.  And my children, seeing me excited and inspired, have eagerly taken up the habit as well.  Even my preschooler loves to join in, drawing next to Mommy, looking up finds in field guides, and asking me to write down the nature walks she spontaneously narrates to me as the older children record their own observations in both word and drawing on the other side of the table.  Nature study is one of the highlights of our home education (something I never thought I would say a few years ago!).  And if there is hope for me, a girl born and living still in the midst of Silicon Valley suburbia, there is hope for you and your family as well. ;)

Wednesdays with Words :: A Natural History Club

I have been reading through Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page slowly, thinking over her suggestions there and the wonderful snippets from the PNEU, the HEO, and Charlotte Mason herself in regards to the various notebooks Miss Mason recommended her students (and teachers) keep.  At one point, she provides the following quote from an article published in The Parents' Review called "Observation and Acquaintance with Nature," which in turn quotes a pamphlet from one of the PNEU's Natural History clubs:

The Union possesses a natural history club, from which each branch can receive pamphlets and books treating on nature lore and natural history.  Some branches have their own natural history clubs, the work of which has proved very satisfactory.  The club arranges rambles and exursions for its members on a systematic plan.  It edits a journal called The Children's Quarterly. 

Every year, in May, during the annual conference, there is an exhibition of the works made by young members of the club, which consist in collections of dried plants, drawings of flowers, plants and insects, which are often accompanied by personal descriptions, remarks and observations of the young explorer.  Furthermore, it guides amateurs in giving Nature lessons, and recommends suitable text-books bearing on each section of natural history that is being taken up.  Let me read to you, from one of the Natural History Club pamphlets, some suggestions for children's work, Spring, 1899. 

For Members over ten years--
"No. 1--Make a list of the flowers in your garden, and another of the flowers you see in the hedges."
"No. 2--Watch the leaf buds as they open from day to day, and make notes of anything that strikes you in their various methods of opening."
"No. 3--Make a list of the dates when the fruit trees blossom."
"No. 4--Chryalises collected in autumn should be placed in dry moss in suitable breeding cages.  Drawings should be made of them, and notes taken of their colour, structure, etc.  Draw and describe the butterflies and moths that emerge."
For the children under ten the "suggestion" is:--
"Make sketches of six different kinds of spring flowers, and tell where you found the flower and when.  Don't forget the leaves." (quoted in Bestvater, page 24-5)

This is not your traditional inspiring-quote fare, but ever since I read this passage last week, I have quite inspired.  The way the club is described here shows careful direction on the part of the parents involved while still requiring real, intellectual work on the part of the children.  It's a delicate balance.  And  I love how, as Bestvater points out, the whole project belies "intentional practices that go far beyond simply providing students a notebook and some paints." (25)  These are the times I do wish I had a local community of like-minded families with which to put such a thought into practice.

Schooling with Littles :: Our Morning Basket

Like I mentioned last time, I'm working through a little series on Schooling with Littles.  Yesterday, I posted an overview of our daily schedule.

Our schooling routine basically has three blocks: Morning Basket, Naptime School, and Independent Work. Today I want to talk about Morning Basket, our version of Circle Time. I've written about it in bits and pieces over the past couple years, but the Morning Basket is what I call our family work.  Although it starts in the morning, it usually continues into the afternoon.  And it's not actually kept in a basket--more like a half-shelf on the bookcase by the dining table.  But I borrowed the name years ago from the always-inspiring Jen, when my oldest two were preschoolers and it actually was done in the morning, out of a basket.

I'm only teaching one grade formally (my two oldest are in second grade, and my next won't start kindergarten until fall), so ours is quite simple to put together; I don't have to juggle a large age range yet. My goal during this learning time is to hit some of my second graders' scheduled assignments while involving the littles as well.

Some of our Morning Basket stays the same year in and out. Some of it changes by term. And some is month-to-month, as the liturgical calendar changes or as we switch out learned memory work for new selections. So it's in constant flux, but the rhythm remains the same.

Since we do this work while the littles are alongside, I have a few requirements before I schedule an activity for the Morning Basket:
:: it must be able to be done with a little background noise from the toddlers
:: it shouldn't require lots of sitting-still or hands-off time (and if I can do it with a baby on my lap, even better!)
:: it should be naturally interesting to my little ones
:: it shouldn't involve narrations (I don't like for my children to be interrupted while they're narrating)
:: it must be able to be paused at a moment's notice

That last one is important. We begin our Morning Basket work during breakfast (pro tip: read while they're eating!), get as far as we can, and finish up the rest in the afternoon. Some days baby is happy with breakfast in her high chair and we get through it all without interruption. Most days I stop halfway, send the kids outside to play, and then I finish up later on while the littlest is napping.

Here's a snapshot of our Morning Basket plans for this month:

Religion (daily)
:: Seasonal Reading - February is traditionally the month of the Holy Family, so we're focusing on the litany of St. Joseph.  At the end of the month, we'll start our Lenten readings--more on that as the season approaches.

:: Feast Day Reading - from our two-volume set of Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year, which helpfully follows the traditional calendar (as we do)

:: Scheduled Reading - one page weekly from Robert Hugh Benson's Old Testament Rhymes (our other scheduled religion readings are more involved, so I save them for later on in the day, but these are short so we can do them all together)

Calendar Work in English and Italian (daily)

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as our current selections:
:: Hymn - "Pange Lingua Gloriosi"
:: Folk Song - "California, Here I Come" and "I Love You, California"
:: Bible - the Nunc Dimittis and the Magnificat
:: Poetry - Christina Rossetti's "Rushes in a Watery Place," "Hurt No Living Thing," "Fly Away Fly Away," and "What Do the Stars Do"

Italian (daily) - We cover new concepts, games, and conversation later in the day, but we do our Italian memory work with the littles:
:: Rhymes - "Batti, batti le manine," "Questo e l'occhio bello," and "Capra capretta" from Filastrocche Italiane
:: Songs - "Testa, spalle, ginocchie, i piedi" and "Sei papere" from Teach Me Everyday Italian
:: Series - "I Get Ready to Go."

Poetry (daily)
One or more poems from Christina Rossetti's Fly Away Fly Away Over the Sea

Art Study (weekly)
Albrecht Durer's"Self Portrait in a Fur Coat" and "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

Music Study (weekly)
Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and "Symphony No. 9"

And bonus: my next daughter will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and I think the Morning Basket work (which she already joins us for) plus a bit of math and reading practice now and then will make for a perfectly lovely kindergarten year.

Next week, I'll talk a bit about Naptime School.  (ETA: Here it is!)

Schooling with Littles :: Our Daily Schedule

This will be the first of a few posts about homeschooling with lots of littles in the house.  I have had several emails recently on this topic that motivated me to add more details here about how it looks in our family.  Right now, I am homeschooling only one grade (second) but have four other little ones to care for at the same time (ages 5, 3, 2, and 1), with another baby due in May.  I think that in many ways, it's much more difficult to juggle many different grades at once than it is to juggle many littles underfoot!  But having a house full of small people does have its own challenges, and I hope to share a bit about my experiences here on that topic.  I'm no expert, but I am in the trenches...and let's hope that I'm getting something out of my time there! ;)

two of my current toddlers in all their adorableness

Today, I simply want to share our daily schedule as an example of one way school can happen when there are littles involved.  In the next week or so, I'll go into a bit more detail about the core parts of our schooling schedule: Morning Basket and Naptime School.  I also hope to hit a few other topics, including how to take steps toward a routine and how to "keep toddlers busy," so if there's anything you'd like me to talk about, please let me know--share a comment or email me. :)

Before I get to the nitty-gritty, a few caveats:

:: A "daily schedule" is a bit misleading in that several days we don't follow this schedule at all: one day we're out all morning on our nature outing, another afternoon we're gone for piano lessons, etc.  As I have mentioned before, I schedule our school on a weekly basis.  So we have daily subjects that I aim to hit four days a week, and then we pick and choose on a daily basis from our weekly assignments.  By the end of the (perfect) week, everything on the checklist should be checked off

:: I'm assigning times to our routine, but there are only a few items that actually have a set time here: wake up, naptime, quiet time, dinner, bedtime.  The rest depends on daily tasks, moods, and so on.

:: This is what works for us.  I'm not suggesting it's the only way to do things nor am I suggesting you try duplicating this approach.  Take this post in the spirit of one homeschooling mom offering up her schedule as one way of organizing a school day.  .

:: As you're reading, feel free to sprinkle this record liberally with "break up squabbles," "get children in and out of time out," and "spend time dealing with a tantrum."  I think it would be hard to find a home dealing with so many personalities that doesn't devote time to child-training on a daily basis.  But I don't actually schedule those kinds of events. ;)

:: I'm sharing our complete daily routine rather than just our "school" schedule because as you'll see, school happens in bits all day at our house. 

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So what a school day looks like here:

6:45am - Children up!  Kids read books together--bigs often read picture books to littles.  They often trade off 20 minutes of piano practice during this time.  Breakfast, prayer, morning chores, and computer time for me.

8am - Morning prayers with the children.

8:15am - Breakfast for the kids.  I start Morning Basket work: calendar, memory work, poetry, a bit of Italian.

8:45am - Breakfast clean-up.

9:15am - Kids head out back to play.  I keep the baby entertained indoors for a couple hours while doing chores, school planning, household tasks, computer time.

11:15am - Kids come inside and get washed up.  Big kids start on their math warm-up while I read a few picture books to the littles and give the baby her naptime bottle.  Tidy up.

11:30am - Naptime School.  Naps for my youngest three (ages 1, 2, 3) and rest time for my preschooler (age 5).  Big kids and I sit down with some of our weekly books and see what we get through in 45 minutes.  For example, we might read and narrate a chapter from Our Island Story, half a chapter from Mother Mary Loyola's First Communion, and two short chapters from The Kirbys' The World at Home.  Then I might read a few pages from Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales, one of our free reads.  My preschooler looks at her own book lying down next to us or listens in, as she prefers.

12:15pm - We go back to our math.  I set up one child at the dining table and one at the kitchen table.  After teaching each his or her lesson, I go between the two while I eat lunch and they work.

12:30pm - My preschooler joins us.  She draws while we finish up math.

 12:45pm - We go back to the rest of our Morning Basket work if we didn't finish it in the morning.  For example, we might have a bit more memory work to finish and artist study to do.  We also do "binder work" (copywork daily, mapwork and timeline weekly).  We play Italian games and do a bit of conversation practice, listen to a chapter of our current audio book, and do another weekly assignment if we have time--maybe a drawing lesson.  My preschooler joins us for all of this.

1:45pm - Babies are up from naps.  I send my preschooler up to entertain them while the big kids and I finish up any other schoolwork, put things away, and make lunch.

2pm - Youngest three come down from nap.  Lunch and drawing at the kitchen table.  Baby has lunch and her afternoon bottle.  I get dinner started.

2:45pm - Tidy up, then "Quiet Time," which is actually anything but quiet (we should probably change the name of it now that it has morphed into its current iteration).  All the children head into the living room.  Littles play together.  Big kids read a couple of their school assignments for the week and come to me in turns to narrate while I make dinner, handle kitchen chores, etc.  For example, they might read a chapter each from The Burgess Book of Animals, Children's History of the World, and Heroes of God's Church, stopping between each to run in and narrate to me in the other room.  They also keep an eye on the littles, including the baby.  When they're done with any school reading, they can choose from their free reading selections.

4:00pm - Playtime for all in the living room.  Big kids trade off practicing piano if they didn't have time in the morning.    

4:30pm - Clean up and dinner time.  Then the kids do their after-dinner chores.

5:30pm - I finish the dishes, clean the kitchen, and then putter around with my own projects while my husband either gives the kids their baths or plays a board game, bocce ball, or wrestling.  You know, Daddy stuff. ;)

6:30pm - Back downstairs for Family Rosary.

6:45pm - Tidy the house and head up for the bedtime routine (brushing teeth, evening devotions, a couple picture books if there is time).

7:30pm - Bedtime for all the children.

My husband and I spend the rest of the evening however we please: watching a show or movie, reading, writing a blog post, working on crossword puzzles.  I luxuriate in the all-kids-are-asleep quiet. :)  I have a strict 10:00 bedtime that I always usually follow.

So that's how we fit school in our day.  My main principle is to have a basic family routine with a couple daily learning blocks, and we do what we have time for day by day.  This kind of flexibility has allowed us to stay on schedule with no trouble at all for the past couple years.  And as my children get older and their schoolwork encompasses more of their time, I hope to move them toward a high degree of independence.

Tomorrow, I'll be back to share a bit more about our Morning Basket work!  (Update: Here it is!)