Lori Seaborg

An Early Morning

There are streusel-topped muffins in the oven (this time from a box) so I can only stay a minute.  I've been gone from you for a while because my FreeHomeschool idea (a group to share homeschool items for free) just took right off! There are 535 members and more added daily.   Every day there have been offers for free homeschool items, but the list has gotten really slow in the past few days and yesterday there was just one offer.  For a while there, I was approving at least a dozen offer posts each time I logged on!  I'm a little sad that it's gotten so slow - I think there are many we could still help - but I'll let the list do what the list will do!

I got up at 5am this morning; it's 7 and the family is still sound asleep!  I'm a born-natural night owl, so getting up is very tough for me.  I set my alarm for 6:30am, but somehow woke up much earlier.  You can sure get a lot done in the morning when you get up early!  I've already gone on a 1.2 mile walk, pet the cat, washed a pan, washed and dried a load of laundry, read my Bible, wrote in a prayer journal, checked my email, checked the bank accounts, and wrote down a to-do list for this week.  I need to get up early more often!!  Usually, by now I'm only just getting up (if even that) and haven't done anything.

If you want to get up early in the morning, read some of Laine's Letters. That girl is inspiring!

Better get those muffins out of the oven!

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Just Checking In

Sorry to keep leaving you all!  I know it's frustrating to visit a blog and find it not updated.  Obviously, you've not given up (since you're reading this), and I thank you for that!

I've just been spending time getting things nailed down for our new school year. It scares me spitless to have an 11 year old!  For some reason, having one that old makes me realize that we can't just play all day.  We need to do at least a little academics, wouldn't you think?  :)

My schedule (last entry) has been working fairly well, and I like it, but I am not fitting everything in because we keep spending too much time on math.  Hopefully that will change as we keep rolling. For now, I'm not going to change it, but in the future I might need to do so.

When I'm not teaching school (it seems that I always am), I'm working on the house, doing more decluttering and even a bit of decorating.  I'd like to start a few websites that have been tickling my brain, but feel that I need to get the house and the schooling running smoothly first. 

I hope to visit with you again soon!

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Our Current Schoolday Schedule

I recently tweaked our schedule, so thought I would share it with you.  I have been using one version or another of my schedule for about a year and a half now, so it works well for us.  Your schedule will likely look much different.  I have noticed that among homeschooling moms.  Some would go absolutely crazy at my lack of exact clock times, but for me, I shut down if I have missed the clock time, and then we do not do school at all, so it works better for me to just have time goals, or benchmarks in my day.

 

6-7am  Somewhere in there, I get up, the earlier the better.  I walk up the hill to see the farmer’s cows and pray for my family while walking.  I come back to read my Bible in what is still hopefully a quiet and sleeping house.

 

Around 7:30 or so, I start being noisy (laundry, dishes, making breakfast, playing music), so the kids will wake up.

 

By 8, I hope to see everyone up and moving.  In this hour, I want the children (ages 11, 9, 6, 3 – boy, girl, boy, girl) dressed, eating breakfast, teeth brushed, and morning routines done.  Meanwhile, I work on breakfast, getting the toddler dressed and ready, and my own morning routine.

 

By 9, I want us in the school room, ready.

 

1. Personal Journals, Copywork (a verse or quote I have ready on the chalkboard), and Math.   Phonics with the 6yo (sometimes I teach him; sometimes his older siblings teach him). I help them with math one by one, as the others write.
2. Heart of Wisdom unit study (currently Creation). We read from the unit study, from the Bible, a selected book, and sometimes do an activity. 
3. Scripture reading.  We are reading through the Bible together.  After the reading, I select a verse to put on the chalkboard. The children copy a related verse in their Bible Journals, and then draw a picture or write about what we read.
4. Hebrew:  we aim to learn 6 new words per day.
5. Memory Work:  we all say the poetry, Scripture, quote, etc. out loud that we are attempting to memorize.

 

After all of this, the children sit on stools at the bar in the kitchen and have a laid-out snack while I read a literature selection at an younger level.

 

Around 11ish, we concentrate on:

            Mondays:  Practical Skills

            Tuesdays:  Art, Music, and Shakespeare

            Wednesdays:  Nature Studies and Poetry

            Thursdays:  Science (and Library Day)

            Fridays:  Independent Research Day (a.k.a. Notebooking from selections picked up at the library on topic of choice)

 

Just before lunch and while I am making it, the children learn 6 new words of Spanish and review old ones.

 

Lunch:  always something easy and quick.  During lunch, I read a literature selection from an older level.

 

Quick pickup of the house, especially the school room.

 

1pm or so, Quiet Time :  an hour of absolute quiet (this hour is vital to my sanity!).  For the older two, quiet time needs to include reading from an assigned book.  I usually assign 1 chapter or several pages; not too much. 

 

Quiet time choices (even for me.  NO chores allowed!):

            Nap

            Write

            Art (nothing messy)

            Read

            Notebooking

 

2pm or so, Quiet Time is over (but may be continued alone) and free play is allowed.  No electronics (t.v. or computer) yet.  Afternoon activity choices:

            Playing with friends

            Free play

            Swimming and fishing

            Science experiments

            Nature walk

            Play with the animals

            Art

            Family business

            Crafting

            Gardening

 

Ideally, around 4pm, I would like to have a Tea Time for character training and etiquette.  We are usually too wrapped up in our projects to do Tea Time, but I hope to add it.

 

4:45pm  I get myself into the kitchen to start dinner or we will eat tooooo late again.  I always encourage the children to help in the kitchen. I hope to train myself out of a job.  The children are naturally drawn to the kitchen to watch me make supper, so I also have this time written down as Musical Instrument Practice time. 

 

And then is dinner, evening routines, and an hour of Family Time (games, projects, movie, or a time to show Daddy what we’ve learned through a play or a mini concert). 

 

At bedtime, my husband or I read again to the children.  (Yes, I do quite a lot of reading aloud but I love books!)

 

by Lori Seaborg 2006