New Routine

If you’ve been keeping up with our 2011 – 2012 school routines, you might want to back up a few posts.

Morning Routines

Sarah, Hannah, and Holly follow their own routines which include getting ready, one before breakfast chore, and practicing piano for Hannah.

Abby follows her routine, but stays on the same level as Mom.  Beret Anna learns her routine by staying with Mom and we clean the kitchen together when done with breakfast (and my coffee!).

So far we’ve all had breakfast near or at the same time, but this is a bit flexible as I will be going with the needs of the younger two and the older three are pretty much on their own routine for starting their school day.

Morning School Block

Sarah, Hannah, and Holly start independent work.

I put the youngest on the potty with a pile of books and go over Bible with Abby.  Then, I read our preschool Bible and read alouds to Beret Anna while Abby does piano.  Abby helps me with Beret Anna’s pre-twinkle time and then it’s time for the potty while Abby plays cello for me.  It’s lovely to have this time with them without feeling rushed.

We have our Family Enrichment time when I come downstairs with Abby and Beret Anna.  Sarah isn’t a fan of this term, but I’ve been calling it a ‘Planned Interruption.’  (She’s welcome to do better than that!)

Our Family Enrichement time includes a Creek Edge Press Recitation Handbook (not yet edited for publishing), Creek Edge Press Art and Music Task Cards done in alternation and as a group, and Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason.  Beret Anna does her Montessori shelves during this time and Abby starts her independent work while I do Spelling Wisdom with the older three.

When we’re done with that, I correct and assign Abby’s work in math and language arts, check Hannah’s math, have an oversight meeting with one of the older girls, and do a bit of school with Beret Anna.  It’s a busy catch-as-you-can time until we break for lunch at 11:30.  I’m not bothering with following a schedule during this block.  If we stay on task with something, we’ll accomplish plenty.  The older ones who like detailed schedules can continue to use them outside of their ‘Planned Interruptions,’ of course.

Afternoon Block

The older three finish their schoolwork and rotate through music practice.  I meet with Abby to go over her afternoon studies because she isn’t quite independent with her task card sets, but she’s getting there and I’m only needed to provide direction before she starts her work as she is a fluent reader now.  Yay!

I use the rest of their school time – until 2 pm or so – to tend to the house, dinner, prepare for lessons, fill orders, etc…  and then we have some down time until I teach.  It’s not a huge change from what we expected, but it’s one of those slight changes that has restored balance and ease.

Letting them Go, Keeping them Close

No, I’m not being sentimental (for now), but this somewhat lame title sums up our change in routine for this school year.  In the midst of our bumpy pre-Labor Day start to the school year I had a moment of clarity.  I already knew that it’s not a good idea for our family to start school without staggering, but construction and work on the launch of Creek Edge Press prevented an early start.  I also was well aware that it is never a great idea to go ahead with the start of school with illness in the house and a trip planned over Labor Day weekend.  Unfortunately, my moment of clarity didn’t revolve around listening to previously hard learned lessons, but it did move us toward a new schedule that is working very well.  What I realized is that I can let my older girls go and keep a slower pace with my youngers.  Yes, for some of us this is indeed rocket science!

With the addition of responsibilities related to owning a new business and doubling my piano and violin studio, I was concerned that my time with the girls would become all about correcting math or giving spelling tests – not the highlight of my day.  I also felt that Abby and Beret Anna needed to just be with me in a way that is similar to the pace I had with Sarah and Hannah between the ages of 3 and 8.  With help from some friends and a day to get my head on straight I decided to go with a routine that allows my olders to get right at their work in the morning.  They are no longer waiting for us to start our enrichment time together and, while they always waited patiently and without complaint, this is a huge relief for them.  I’m still keeping them close by holding a ‘Planned Interruption’ mid-morning when Abby, Beret Anna, and I join them downstairs after a civilized pace that allows time for coffee to enter my system and the two (oops three in two days) year old to sit on the potty and Abby to have the extra years of shadowing Mom that her personality requires.  Our Family Enrichment time works even better mid-morning because everyone’s needs are met.  I also took Latin off the routine for Hannah and Holly to be sure we have the downtime I need with them in the afternoons before I begin teaching.  Blessings abound!

I’ll post the bullet points of our new routine in a new post.

First Day of School (Sort Of)…

Well, we were all sick or getting sick and our tweak of last year’s schedule wasn’t spot on for this year, so…   The routine shown here was short lived and we started over again with healthy children and a new routine after Labor Day.

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2011 – 2012 School Routine

6:00 – 7:30 Breakfast, Piano Practice (3 girls), and Chore Rotation

7:30 – 8:00 Bible for Older Girls, Preschool Read Aloud and Suzuki Violin for Mom and Beret Anna

8:00 – 8:30 Family Time:

- Creek Edge Press Art and Music Task Card Sets (alternating art and music two days a week)

- Creek Edge Press Recitation Handbook Year 2 (don’t look in the web store as it isn’t available yet)

- Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom for older three (Beret Anna does Montessori shelves and Abby starts Independet Work

8:30 – 11:30 Morning School Block (Older three begin independent work unless it’s their meeting day.  I meet with Holly on Tuesday, Hannah on Wednesday, and Sarah on Thursday.  I use meeting times to check in on their daily work, tutor them in writing, and history or literature discussion.  Most of them use a looping routine of some sort for their school work.  Expectations are clear and they are given freedom to manage their time.)

Abby’s School Meeting - This occurs daily, first thing on Monday, and after big girls’ meetings on T, W, Th.  I check her independent work, listen to her read aloud, correct previous day’s math and language arts, and give her new assignments.

Beret Anna’s School Meeting - This is hit or miss with my 3 year olds.  I’m happy if we do reading aloud and their violin.  I’m guessing she’ll want more though as she wanted daily Jolly Phonics last year.  We’ll probably do some daily things together and alternate hands on phonics with hands on math.

Abby, Cello with Mom

Holly, Violin (ten minutes or so with Mom)

11:30 - 12:00 Lunch

12:00 Afternoon School (older girls begin independent work)

Beret Anna, nap

Abby – Minimus and History/Science Investigations

Hannah and Sarah – cello and violin practice

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The girls have decided to rotate through doing art while I teach in the afternoons.  We use a modified routine on Fridays.  I hand out Tapestry reading assignments on Friday, so they can start reading over the weekend.  I don’t do any meetings on Friday, and the girls do a truncated schedule so they can help clean the house and have a break with afternoon tea or a movie.

Two School Days

Beret Anna is enjoying being two.  She had a rough transition from summer days to school days, but now she’s thriving on her new routine. 

We did her day in pictures a week or so ago and it was fun to look back at them and see the exact times we were doing things.  I’m not much of a clock watcher outside of meal times as we work in larger school blocks.  Our littles generally fit into our day, but I check on their routine somewhat frequently to be sure it’s meeting their needs as well. 

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7:08 Breakfast

7:39 Playing in the Toyhouse

7:47 Bible, Prayer, and some wild play time in the school room

8:19 Independent time with her Montessori style shelves

9:11 Floor time with Mom

9:15 – 9:20 Jolly Phonics

9:25 Play legos with her baby

9:30 Dollhouse on main floor with books and her baby (during Abby’s music)

9:53 Legos in music room with her baby (near Mom during someone’s music)

10:10 Play with Abby (no picture – during Holly’s violin time with me)

11:00 Lunch, including a meltdown (no picture of that!)

11:30 Kipper

Before nap diaper change and books.  Nap. Family Time.  Shower.  Daddy Time Outside.  Bed at 8:15.

Scheduling Four Levels of Tapestry of Grace

I’ve had a stream of questions recently.  Dan is out of town, the little one is sleeping, and the big ones are too deep in history reading to watch a movie with me so I’m all yours. 

This question was about discussion times and whether I ever combine my dialectic and rhetoric students?  I haven’t.  Usually, the LG or UG is piping in with the answer if my older girls aren’t quite on their toes. 

Let me show you how discussion fits into our week.  Our Tapestry schedule varies by the day.  Here’s a review of it for context:

• Fridays – We stagger.  Sarah and Hannah start their evaluation right away while I give an introduction to the other girls, prepare reading assignments, oversee Holly hand out mapwork and SAPs, and help Abby empty and refill her workboxes.  When that’s done I correct their evaluations and reserve new library books while books are taken up to bedrooms for the weekend. 
• Mondays – I spend 20 minutes or so with my LG student reading aloud and taking down narrations during her afternoon school block.  The rest work independently.
• Tuesdays – I have a meeting with my UG student.  We go through her revisions of summaries, check her SAPs, and go over her new Writing Aids assignment.  This takes roughly 15 minutes per week.
• Wednesdays – I meet with my Dialectic student in the same manner, but we add discussion.  I’ll share more about how I do discussion in a bit.  This takes about (approximate!) 30 minutes each week.  I also have another block with my LG in the afternoon. 
• Thursdays – I meet with my Rhetoric student in the same manner as Dialectic with the addition of Philosophy.  This takes close to an hour. 

I purposefully take Monday mornings off from Tapestry meetings as, well, Mondays are Mondays.  I start with my UG on Tuesday because she’s likely to be done with her reading by then and if she isn’t it won’t affect her time with me.  I give my Rhetoric student the most time to complete reading and written assignments because she needs it the most. 

As you can see, we don’t get close to the one to two hour (or more?!?!?!?) discussions Tapestry outlines in the Teacher’s pages.  This is an overview of a Dialectic or Rhetoric week including discussion.  When I hand out their SAPs on Friday I highlight the geography section, cross out the fine arts section (almost always), mark something they should read, note a research chart or literature sheet that should go with a particular book, and take a quick peak at their TQs and AQs (and Church History, Philosophy, and Government Questions if they have them).  I expect brief answers to all of these, but I circle one to three that I want them to highlight in their studies and response.  That means I expect a list or paragraph on that item.  When I have their meeting I am handed a stack of papers – Writing Aids graphic organizers or rough drafts, TQ, AQ, Church History, Government, etc… answers, literature responses, and charts.  I usually start with their charts.  I note if more specificity was needed or if they were specific when a theme was needed (sometimes it’s hard to know ahead of time and I’m trying to help them find those clues).  Then, I go over their responses to all of those question sets.  I do this with their papers and the discussion outline side by side on my lap.  I choose one or two areas to discuss aloud (only!).  We are two people.  We are not a classroom.  They’ve already done the work in written form and, while I want to be sure they can express themselves verbally, it feels pointless to have them say everything they spent the week writing!  I do try to be thorough, but thorough is relative with this curriculum.  Be thorough in one or two areas of discussion and be sure their written work is to a high standard and move along…   I usually hit the big compare and contrast points or the big defining characteristics.  I also spend a good deal of time on literature.  After that, we discuss the philosophy pageant that she reads on her own.  Then we move on to choosing the next writing assignment and finding the correct graphic organizer. 

It took me a couple of weeks to fall into a routine with my Rhetoric student and it took her another week or two to settle into the pace, but I’m very happy with our Rhetoric plan now.  I’ve also found that our current staggered meeting system combined with templates for the middle grades and workboxes for my youngest has allowed all of them to do their thing at their level without putting me anywhere near the need to pull out my hair. 

I’d love to hear how other Tapestry moms are using all levels of the curriculum.

Friday’s Schedule 2010-2011

Friday is a bit of a break day for me.  Well, it’s not really a break, but I do change it up a bit.  The older four receive or assign themselves double on Thursday so that Friday is a very minimal school day for me.  I practice with the girls on Friday, but we don’t do any review.  I hear a bit of technique and we work on their new pieces only.  This allows me a bit of a brain break and allows them to finish school early enough to allow for art and/or nature study.  Tuesday afternoon is another time when we can do art or nature study if we prefer, but sometimes it’s a nice way to wrap up a week.  We also clean the house on Friday. 

The schedule never flows as written.  Everything generally takes less time, except when it takes more.    I find that writing it out like this helps me see the possibilities for fitting things together though, so it’s a help. 

Fall Schedule For Fridays 2010

6:00-7:30 Morning Routines

 7:30 – 8:30 Tapestry of Grace

Evaluation for Sarah/Introduction and book assignments for others

Collect Assignments from all

Pageant of Philosophy

 8:30 – 9:30 

Abby’s Cello and Piano/Others Independent Work

Holly’s Violin

Art with Abby and Holly

Hannah, Cello

 11:00 Lunch

  Cleaning

Nature Challenge

Violin for Sarah

 Mom’s List:

Morning R.

Give Sarah Evaluation, Do Intro.& Reading Assingments with Others

Collect Assignments Due from All (Save to correct on their Mom Day for Tapestry)

Philosophy with Sarah

Abby’s Cello and Piano

Holly’s Violin and Piano Lesson

Lunch

Clean

Nature Challenge

Sarah:

Evaluations

Hand in Assignments

Philosophy with Mom

Math

Science

Lunch

Clean

Nature Challenge

Violin

Hannah:

Introduction

Hand in Assignments

Math

Science

Cello

Lunch

Cleaning

Nature Challenge

Holly:

Introduction

Hand in Assignments

Math

English

Music

Lunch

Cleaning

Nature Challenge

 Abby:

Introduction

Hand in Assignments

Music

Play with Beret Anna

Lunch

Clean

Nature Challenge

 Beret Anna:

School Table

Toy Room

Music Room

Play with Abby

Video (or toddler art)

Lunch

Nap

2010-2011 School Schedule

6:00 – 7:30 Morning Routines

Individual Chorepacks or Lists for getting ready, possible chore, piano rotation for Hannah and Holly, breakfast and kitchen clean up.  (Beret Anna is my shadow during this time). 

7:30 Family School

Bible, Memory Work (Beret Anna is at the table with us)

Dictation for the older three while Abby does her Workbox #1 (Beret Anna is down and starts exploring her Montessori shelves or playing with her cash register)

8:00 (or so…) Morning School Block

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – Tapestry Meetings with Holly, Hannah, and Sarah (one girl per day)

Sarah and Hannah start independent work while I start Holly’s school meeting.

Holly begins independent work while I do school with Abby.  (Beret Anna is with us throughout – looking at books, continuing with items on her shelves, asking to nurse, and she has a bit of time with just me while Abby works independently on things.  We do her Jolly Phonics, some counting, and maybe some color matching most days). 

Independent work continues.  I do cello and piano with Abby.  Then, I do Holly’s violin.  (Beret Anna gets a slice of cheese before Abby’s music practice.  Then, she’s in the playpen for a bit.  She plays with Abby nearby while Holly practices.  Sometimes they listen to story tapes).

11:00 – 11:30 Lunch and Read Aloud

11:30 – 2:00 Afternoon Block of School

Sarah starts independent work.  Abby starts workboxes #2-5.  I do Lively Latin with H. and H.

(Beret Anna is in the play room area during this time.  It’s a possible video break for her once I know she won’t fall asleep!)

Sarah, Hannah, and Holly complete independent work for the day while I put Beret Anna down for a nap and do Abby’s Latin and either History or Science.  (Nap)

Holly and Abby are done and go to independent reading or play.  Before Hannah starts cello, I check her work for the day and we discuss areas of correction or do anything that needs done orally.  While she practices cello I go over Sarah’s work for the day in a similar manner.  Sarah starts violin near 2:00.  (Nap continues)

I thought this schedule wouldn’t work in reality, but it’s been flowing well so far.

The Trees

The specifics that make up the broader view…

Rich Soil:

A High School Book and Project List that includes a summer reading component.  The summer reading and projects will fulfill Home Ec, Health, and Personal Finance credits in an engaging way without adding another subject to already full school days. 

Memory Work – Sarah will continue participating in this family endeavor as we’ll be using new materials. 

Logic – Sarah and I are going to go through Traditional Logic (Memoria Press) together camp-style in August after her sisters are in bed.  This should be a good experience for us to share and it will lighten her daily load in the fall. 

Art – I’m planning an afternoon of sketching or other art project on Wednesdays when we are activity free. 

Nature – We’ll be using the Outdoor Hour Challenges on Fridays. 

Language – I found a French curriculum that I think (hope!) will be engaging and refreshing.  Finishing the day with this course should be a joy (Francais Interactif).  I am excited about the possibilities that exist given the pairing of our first born and French cuisine. 

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Her M – Th schedule will likely be the following:

6-7:30 Morning Routine

7:30 Bible (M and W Doctrine, T and Th Other)

8:00 Memory Work as a Family, Start Tapestry and continue until 9:30

9:30 Math

10:30 Vocabulary from Classical Roots

11:00 Lunch

11:30 Apologia Biology

12:30 French

1:20 Music Theory,  Go over work with Mom two days a week

Tea, Independent Reading, Violin Practice 

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Fridays will be a bit different.  Moring Routine will be followed by Tapestry Evaluation and Philosophy, Math, and Science.  We will clean after lunch and do Nature Study in the afternoon. 

 

Current Routine That’s Working

I can’t recall if this is the same as what I posted earlier this year, but here’s the current routine!

Morning Routines 6-7:30

Get Ready, Set Upstairs

Rotate Piano Practice with Breakfast

Clean Kitchen while Mom Reads Aloud

Morning School 7:30 – 11:00

Music with Abby, Older girls do Bible nearby

Together Time – memory work, dictation

Tapestry of Grace individual meetings or daily tasks

Independent work alternated with school meetings for older three

Independent work for older three while I do school with Abby

11:00 Break

Lunch, Kitchen Clean Up, Read Aloud Time

11:30 or so

Rotate music practice with school finishing (I start with Holly and Hannah.  Then, I move on to daily tasks while Beret naps and Sarah practices violin).

If my back is cooperating I exercise during Beret’s nap and the middle girls read or listen to stories on their i-pods while playing quietly for a bit. On days when I teach, the girls divide up and take over an area of the house for a project or fun.  On other days we have lessons or do a bit of extra baking in the late afternoon. 

4:30 or so

Dinner Prep and House Straightening happen at the same time

We eat around 5:00 and do another round of reading aloud during kitchen clean up. 

Evenings are Daddy time, if he’s home, or are taken up with orchestra or ballet or… 

Bedtime for kiddos is early, 7 pm during the school year, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. In truth, this means more time to unwind and read with plenty of time to think their own thoughts or have visits from Mom and Dad in turn for prayers and goodnights.  The younger three have lights out at 8 and the older two have lights out at 9 or 10 depending on their schedule.  Special nacho nights are sometimes had by the older girls after late rehearsals too and that is always fun, but shhh!, the younger ones are still not yet aware this fun awaits them.