2014-2015 School Year: 5/6 Year Old Schedule

Right now we are all working together for our Native American unit study but after Christmas things will be changing a bit as I move into using more curriculum than I ever have before.  The schedule described below is the schedule I will be using from January onwards, although some of it is in place right now.

A6 has had formal phonics, maths and handwriting for the past year.  She finds maths very easy, but seemed to struggle with reading and writing for a long time.  Just over the past few months she has shown her first real interest in the written word as she tries to sound out the words she sees.  Likewise, having shown absolutely no interest in hand writing for a long time she has suddenly started asking how to write this or that sentence.  I just know this year is going to be her year.  I am certain she will be reading fluently at the end of it, as well as writing fairly well.  She has asked for more schooling this year and I really do think she might be ready for more.

Concentration has always been her biggest struggle to getting anything done.  She gets distracted very, very easily.  I keep lessons short and try to change the type of concentration required from her so, for example, I split her reading with some number work in between.  She usually does two pages of maths but only writes the second page herself, I do the first with her telling me what I need to write down. Without further ado, here is her schedule for this year:

Session One: 9-930am

A6 will be spending her first session with her older sister.  L11 loves to be in the kitchen and I think it is likely that she will work through some simple recipes with A6, maybe one to go with the letter of the week little B3 would be studying?  Ideas are given with the actual letter of the week curriculum or All About Reading also do an alphabet based snack.  I may have L11 research what she wants to do with A6, write a list, costing it and shopping for it.  To keep costs at a minimum, they will likely do the same snack for one week.  This will also help A6 gain more and more independence as the week progresses, with the goal that she is able to do the snack completely by herself by the end of the week.

Session Two: 930-10am

During her second lesson A6 will be with me working on some of her basic reading, writing and arithmetic.  We will be using All About Reading Level Two for reading along with other readers I have left over from the older ones: I will be using a few different maths Curriculum – Mathusee Alpha, Life of Fred Apples and New Heinemann maths for Year one.  This is to keep her interest and also to slow her down a bit: To help her master her handwriting in a way that is interesting to her, I will be using StartWrite.  I am still trying to master it and have been using with her alongside her Mr Men work.  During this time I will have her do some copy work of the bible or whatever current book we are studying together.

Session Three: 10-11am

This will be our morning meeting which we have had for forever.  I am scheduling it a bit later to fit in better with mid morning snack time.  I have found that having a snack encourages the meeting to flow with fewer interruptions.  I will bring in the little one’s table and chairs and after their snack they will have the option of pallet painting (letter of week colouring sheets), do a dot stickers (again letter of the week) or play dough.  I will probably photocopy extra letter of the weeks colouring sheets to laminate and use for play dough modelling.  All these tray activities are 100% independent and fairly quiet, which will allow me to read aloud and chat with the older ones. The last thing to do during the morning meeting is bible time.  We are currently using Apologia Who is God? curriculum.  I have purchased the colouring in book for B3 and she will sit and colour whilst I read aloud the Who is God? chapters:

Session Four: 11-1130am

During this time B3 will join her for half an hour of science.  I am still working out the finer details but it will be one of the few things this year that I will be researching and putting together.  And I am very excited!  I will be writing a more detailed post tomorrow.

Session Five: 1130-12 noon

This will be A6’s catch up time.  Some times her concentration is truly horrendous and what would usually take us 10 minutes takes the whole half an hour.  This session will be for her to catch up on her morning 1-2-1 school with me, ensuring that the three R’s are done every day. I am also hoping that the lure of B3’s dvd will help her to concentrate more during her 1-2-1 session earlier on in the day.  If she manages to finish all her school work in that first half an hour she can relax with B3 during this half an hour and either watch the dvd or play some educational games on her computer:

Lunch and Quiet Time

We always eat lunch, do kitchen chores and all of us (me included) head into quiet time.  For A6 and her older siblings, this is a time to catch up on bible study.  I will expound more on what the older ones have been reading during this time in a later post.  A6 can simply choose from our vast selection of bible picture books.

Afternoon Lessons

Activities in the afternoon will change each day and will be done with B3 and sometimes the rest of the family.  I will be doing a separate post on them.

Extra Curricular Activities

A6 is a very busy girl.  She attends Sunday school on a Sunday morning and the evening service Sunday night.  On a Tuesday she sings in a children’s choir.  Wednesday afternoons she does gymnastics for an hour and a half, with a swimming lesson on Thursday afternoon.  On Saturday she goes swimming with Gary during the fun inflatable time.  She also goes to the soft play area in the leisure centre most days: All my children thrive on being busy, but A5 probably most of all.  She is my most easily bored child and will play up if she does not have something she deems interesting enough to do.  Because of this, I have included her in almost all of her scheduling, and it is she who came up with the idea for our science program (post coming tomorrow).