After 3 weeks of school and reworking the schedule twice, I came up with a hybrid between a loop schedule and the @adelectableeducation scheduling cards, by stacking cards together in groups by time needed per lesson and by number of lessons per week.
Now I have a schedule that goes in the same order each day (much less overwhelming to me) yet allows the broad feast of lessons and still alternates activities by which part of the brain they use. 🎉🎉😊😊
our old copy of Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins was torn beyond mending, so I gave it new life decorating the schedule.
Questions:
Is this a weekly rotation ?
Both daily & weekly. The big words are the daily routine, Small next to them, I wrote how many minutes the lesson takes. Then the small words are the weekly loop, so when it is time for History, we do American, Ancient, American, World history or Geography, (I think I accidentally wrote government and need to change it) depending what we did yesterday. We just loop through the list. For reading, some days they have a specific book, so I wrote it to remind myself. Some days they can choose a book from a small stack of biographies and historical fiction that correspond to the time period in history that we are studying. I didn’t write that because I don’t have to remember it 🙂. Math and reading are on the same line because each student is taking turns reading or watching babies while I do math with someone.
Why make a poster instead of a checklist in a binder?
I need something big hanging on the wall that I can read from across the room. —for some reason I hate looking inside my binder to see what is next. I put the scheme on a dry erase poster for a week while I made sure it worked. Taking the time to make a pretty one was a gift to myself this weekend.
What kind of stuff is in the Afternoon Occupations category?
They have some required and then a list of optional that they must choose one from. This has to be completed to earn screen time for the day. Required afternoon occupations are: Piano practice, play with the twins for 30 min, play outside 1 hour (they can combine that with playing with the twins, win.win.) housecleaning chore, read 30 mins.
Choose one addl: make entry in nature journal, 30 min drawing, 30 min handicraft (right now it’s cross stitch) 15 min extra cleaning. I’m thinking of adding research project to the choice list
First “afternoon tea” of the year was a bit chaos and a bit beautiful. I loved it. Also, nilla wafers are pretty yummy alongside orange spice herbal tea #afternoontea #charlottemasonliving #poetryteatime #homeschoolrocks
Zeke
Sometimes the toddler activity is fun for older siblings —squishy giant tapioca pearls for the win.
Sometimes you just need to holler “Uncle!” and recognize that you need help.
My little birds singing, “Let it Go!”
You might be surprised at the help you can find.
Help I have Found:
**For about 2 months, a young woman from my church who was graduated from high school came and played with the babies for 3-4 hours twice a week while I did school. This was a stop gap for me while I tried to figure things out, because she was going to have her own baby soon, and would not be available after that.
**I had a piano student who wanted to trade work for lessons. I would give her a 20 minute piano lesson, and then she would watch the babies for me for about an hour and a half while I taught an art lesson or piano lessons to my own children.
**One of my dear friends would babysit for me for about 2-4 hours on a Friday once a month so I could think and plan for home school uninterrupted.
Getting help was a real sanity saver for me. It can be for you as well, if you will be humble enough to accept it!!
If you are a home schooling mother with twins or multiple toddlers, I want to share with you the things I tried that worked for us.
But first, the background story:
I have twin boys who are almost 3.
The year that the twins were 1-year-old, was a pretty good year, school-wise. It was our first year home schooling, so I gave myself permission to not be perfect.
The twins were happy to sit by me on the couch, drinking their milk, while we did sort of an extended morning time version of home school. I read aloud and my students narrated. It was a beautiful time. By May, as the twins reached 18 months and demanded more attention, school got harder and harder. With a sigh of relief, we took summer break, and I reassured myself that school would be easier in the fall. After all, I had done home school for a year now, and I had figured out what worked. Best of all, the twins would be a year older. Older is easier, I thought.
All y’all can stop laughing that an experienced mom like me would tell herself that 2-year-olds are easier than 1-year-olds. I was super sleep-deprived and stressed out from trying to keep two boys alive who could run and open doors, while still giving some attention to raising seven other children. Seriously, there were daily near-death experiences that May. I don’t think my fight-or-flight mode is ever going to shut off after the constant alert of that time. Living with toddler twins is like living with terrorists.
I told myself lies and blissfully planned for the new school year.
Excited and ready to go, we began school in August. The first week was so awful, I wanted to quit home schooling and send all my children back to public school. The twins and my 4-year-old constantly interrupted every lesson. I could not read aloud because they made so much noise that I couldn’t hear myself. Anytime we sat down to start school, one or more of them would start howling.
Homeschooling 4 older children while caring for 5 children age 4 and under. Spring 2018
I started making changes and trying new things. Now I’m fairly convinced that no matter how many years I home school, I will never have it all figured out. Each year as my children grow and our circumstances change, I’ll have to tweak things, move things around, and try new techniques. Children don’t stay the same, so school can’t stay the same.
If you are a home schooling mother with twins or several toddlers underfoot, I want to share with you the things I tried this past year that worked. Also, I want to give you hope. It will be hard, no matter what. If you accept that and give yourself permission to not be perfect and give your children permission to not be perfect, you can at least have a measure of peace as you move through your days.
Know also, that this too shall pass. Toddlers grow into preschoolers. It does get easier. You will have new challenges, but you won’t have the old challenges. For the most part, I’ve found that whatever the new challenge is, it is not quite as nerve shredding as the old challenge was. You can do this. You can do hard things.
If you are a home schooling mother with twins or multiple toddlers, I want to share with you the things I tried that worked for us.
But first, the background story:
I have twin boys who are almost 3.
The year that the twins were 1-year-old, was a pretty good year, school-wise. It was our first year home schooling, so I gave myself permission to not be perfect.
The twins were happy to sit by me on the couch, drinking their milk, while we did sort of an extended morning time version of home school. I read aloud and my students narrated. It was a beautiful time. By May, as the twins reached 18 months and demanded more attention, school got harder and harder. With a sigh of relief, we took summer break, and I reassured myself that school would be easier in the fall. After all, I…
If you are a home schooling mother with twins or multiple toddlers, I want to share with you the things I tried that worked for us.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 