We need to have strict rules and set times for 'school' and to get us all into a routine, I believe now is the best time to start, so we all get used to the idea!
I have told everyone that from September 16th, we will have school every morning, Monday to Friday. I know some homeschoolers learn as and when, or 'unschool', some only do a couple of days a week, some follow school terms, some do their own thing. This is what we have decided will work for us:
- We will have school from 8am to 12pm (4 hours) Monday to Friday. This will give us time for a full work cycle, as well as scripture study and a possible nap for Addie. This time will be fully Montessori, structured in the way that is appropriate for her plane of development (I will explain this later for those of you who are not aware of these). I think that having a set time is good because it gives boundaries, encourages timekeeping, creates a solid routine for all of us (which is really good for Addie's development of order). It is also something that our families will also learn - before 12pm (unless for a very good reason) we are not available, and school comes first. A friend also does this and I think it seems to work well.
I feel that 4 hours a day is plenty of time to cover school stuff, and we will maintain this number of school hours until age 12 at least... If you think that kids are normally at school for 6 hours anyway, with about 90 minutes of breaks, and also hardly any of the classroom time is spent 1 to 1 with children, then 4 hours will be enough to cover what we need, and Addie will get complete 1 to 1 attention. We will have lunch from 12 to 1, when Daddy will join us, and then in the afternoon we will either go out, visit family, or do something else. If Addie wants to carry on any class work, then it is always there for her to use, so in essence, learning will take place after school hours anyway.
Check out my post on work cycles which will follow soon after this post, to see what we will be doing in the 4 hours of school.
- We will start school in September (the Monday closest to the 15th). I want us to be able to follow very loosely the school year, but we believe as a family, and also in our church, that education is an ongoing process that happens all the time. For that reason, we won't be having half terms and terms. What we will do instead is the following:
- We will have 5 periods of learning which will be strict school periods. Each will be 7 weeks long, and in each one we will study a specific topic (obviously the depth of that study will depend on how old the kids are!)
- Between September and Christmas will be 14 weeks of study, so we will cover 2 different topics. We won't have a half term, because we will be at home anyway, and only doing school for half days. There is a lot of room for rest, fun, play anyway. Obviously we will see how things go, but this is the plan.
- We will have 2 weeks off over the Christmas period, and will focus on the meaning of Christmas and our goals for the new year.
- We will start back in early January, probably around the same time as schools will. We will have 2 more periods of 7 weeks of study, and in 2014, I think this works out so that we finish in time for Easter. If, when Easter is early, school is still in session, we will have the Friday and Monday off to celebrate Easter and carry on around it.
- After these 14 weeks, we will have a week to go to the Temple, and to visit some places of interest.
- Then it is back to school for another 7 weeks for the final 'session'. This means we should finish in early June, and when Addie is older, we will look to add a week of practising to take exams and tests, because we feel this is an important skill she needs to develop, but not straight away, maybe when she is 8 or 9...
- We will then have 14 weeks over the summer to be more relaxed about learning (although learning will still take place). We can take advantage of holidaying outside of school holidays, and save some money! These 14 weeks over the summer will probably be just keeping up reading, writing and maths skills when she is older, and a broad topic or 2, like 'the beach' or 'America' if we happen to go there etc!
- If we happen to want to go on holiday during the school sessions, we will just take school with us! And travelling is an education in itself anyway - so it is good we have that flexibility!
- Record keeping will be a big part of our homeschool, because it is in Montessori anyway. I have actually also read a little about how documentation is used in Reggio, and I think I have always mixed the two anyway, but we will probably do this. At the end of every school year, we will produce a year book with examples of work, progress, photos, etc. We will also use either our own spreadsheets to keep records, or Montessori Workspace which is free and seems to be a good resource. I haven't decided fully yet, but either way I need to enter all the curriculum into a computer anyway!
- We will study 5 school session topics and 2 summer session topics a year. Later on, this will fit in well with the study of the Five Great Lessons taught in Montessori. Until Addie is ready for those (we may expose to the topics anyway earlier than normal) we will do topics we feel will be relevant to her at the time. So, for the 2103/14 academic year, our topics are (specific areas of study in brackets):
- Animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, other invertebrates) - we will visit a farm, an aviary, a reptile centre, the local aquarium, etc.
- Light (fireworks at Bonfire night, candles, torches, shadows, colouring light, Christmas lights)
- All about me (Me, my family, what I can do, Going to nursery, Birthdays, Valentines Day, Photos)
- Plants (looking at plants, digging a garden, planting a garden, fruit, vegetables, flowers, trees)
- Transportation (planes, cars, bus, train, boat, bicycle, walking - all with experiences of these and we are planning to fly to Greece in June)
- Summer - The outdoors (parks, beaches, beaches, forest, farms, zoo, beach - all with visits!)
- Summer - Water (lakes, land & water forms, sink & float, water fun, the Airshow, Rivers, Solid & Liquid)
These are mainly our plans. Daddy and I also have plans for running the house, including who's washing to do on what day, how we need to do stuff to make sure the house is ready for school every morning, but also ready for home stuff, like dinner etc when we need it, etc... It is all trial and error for the first year or 2, but we shall see how these go....
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