I have decided to begin posting each week’s schedules. This is entirely for my benefit, firstly to keep me on the straight and narrow and secondly to show me exactly what I achieve each week so when I go through weeks/days/years of worrying how unproductive I am I have something to look at to reassure me.
Schedule for the Week Ahead (including goals)
Writing
B4 will be watching a video, either a Bible one or a phonics one
The older ones will spend this half an hour writing. Here are the writing assignments for this week:
Monday:
A7 will be doing some copywork
Olders: Section 1 of the IGCSE English paper we went through together last week. This will be done under timed, exam conditions and will be marked
Tuesday:
A7 will be doing some copywork
Olders: Watching lesson 8 of Essentials in Writing and completing worksheets 8A, 8B, and 8C
Wednesday:
A7 will be doing some copywork
Writing a descriptive five paragraph essay on the geography of Japan
Thursday:
A five paragraph essay comparing and contrasting the male and female reproductive systems focusing on structure, roles and hormones.
Friday:
A journal entry writing about their week this week. To include all they have enjoyed and all they have found hard.
Maths
Lesson Goals on Conquer Maths to complete:
- B4: 2 lessons on subtraction, 2 lessons on position, 1 lesson on time
- A7: 5 lessons on subtraction
- T14: Finish surds (9 lessons)
- L13: 3 lessons of fractions, and last equation lesson and topic test.
- C13: Finish fraction lesson and topic test, last percentage lesson and topic test
A7 will be at Mum’s most days. On the days she is at home I will have some maths games for her to complete on her own
B4 will have colour by number sheets; a black board to practice writing her numbers and letters; an ABC sticker colouring book with writing practice and an ABC puzzle, all of which she can do independently, so I am available to help the older ones with maths. If the older ones don’t need me (rare these days) then I will work on some phonics with her.
On a Tuesday at this time the little ones and I will be working on our South America project focusing on rain forests. This will include some time with T14. The older girls are helping out at our church for the local school assemblies.
On a Friday maths will be for half an hour only. The rest of the morning will be spent cleaning bedrooms, washing bed linen etc
Morning Meeting Basket
- Who am I? Apologia Bible Chapter 1
- Mystery of History (lesson 73, Lesson 74, lesson 75)
- Biology IGCSE – Reproduction: contraception and fertility treatment
- Japan Unit Study: Read 4 chapters over the week
On Tuesday T14 will be doing his maths here whilst I work with the littles for their Dinosaur unit study.
On Friday the morning will be spent cleaning bedrooms and washing bed linen.
Interest Led Learning
- T14 doing extra hour maths each day – his goal is to finish his GCSE curriculum by summer
- C13 doing singing, music theory and piano. She will also be working her way through a curriculum which will help her to write a six chapter book and get it published (Here to Help Learning)
- L13 doing half an hour of A & P, and half hour of jewellery making
- A7 does Puffer Fish unit study with me as well as a maths lesson each day (goal is to have finished 5 subtraction lessons)
- B4 at Granny’s house for phonics and read aloud for 40 mins then a maths lesson with me (goal is to do 2 lessons on subtraction, 2 lessons on position, 1 lesson on time)
On a Tuesday we will have our morning meeting at this time, once the girls have returned home from church.
On Friday the morning will be spent cleaning bedrooms and washing bed linen.
Lunch
Nature Walk/ Nature Study
Work Dependent on Day
Monday:
Work in the garden (no nature walk on Monday, instead three hours of ‘work for pay‘ labour). Gary is off every Monday afternoon and this is an opportunity for the children to earn some money to pay for clothes, tithes, activities and to save a bit for further education. It is up to the children if they do it, but there is no money forthcoming if they choose not to work! This week’s goal is to move all the compost to its new home.
Tuesday:
Japan history unit study for an hour (this will be more hands on activities with little to no academic work), this week we will focus on the geography of Japan and Japanese clothing. The older girls will then spend one hour researching for Friday’s project based learning with K13 (T completes any IGCSE Psychology and Business Studies for Friday with B14)
The littles will join in the Japanese related hands on activities and I will be doing some Astronomy with them during the second hour. We are currently in the first chapter of Apologia’s Astronomy course. We hope to complete one chapter each term.
Wednesday:
Reproduction (Biology IGCSE) with K12 and B14. First hour will be teaching using a variety of methods. This week I will be using a case study to teach them all about contraception and fertility treatments. We will break for half an hour and then the children will do a couple of questions from old IGCSE Biology Papers linked to whatever we have been learning. These will be timed and under exam conditions.
Lorna will do either dinosaur or astronomy related hands on, fun activities with the little ones. I already own some puzzles which they can do and which are useful for learning the names of the planets and dinosaurs. I am also hoping to have found a dinosaur related game which Lorna can play with them. B4 is the worst loser in the world so I figure it might help if she maybe gets used to it 🙂
Thursday:
Project Based Learning – Mesopotamia. The older children will continue with their project based learning, whilst I will do a small amount of learning through literature with the littles (my unit study I am writing for Beth) and the rest of the time will be project based learning (which, for them, is building a Mesopotamian city)
Friday:
Long term project based learning in a team for older girls/ IGCSE for older boys. B14 and T14 are working their way through the IGCSE Phychology and Business Studies each Friday afternoon. Meanwhile the girls (L13, C13 and K12) will be working on a very big and very special project (which I will share when things are more set in stone).
The Little ones will watch videos linked to their subjects: Dinosaurs, Astronomy, South America, Rain Forests, Nature Videos etc. These will be educational but also relaxing. By this time on a Friday the little ones are pretty tired!
Is the Essentials in Writing class that you mentioned the one from The Great Courses? If so, M15 is doing the same course. 🙂
D8 and I are looking at Japan this coming week too (with FIAR-Grandfather’s Journey) – it’ll be fun to see what you guys get up to as well!
I’m not sure. I bought it so that I knew they would have at least one year of grammar before they take their exams.
We’ll be looking at Grandfather’s journey as well <3
Sounds like you have a great week ahead. Looking forward to hear how things went.
Thanks Leslie 🙂
Wow, a five paragraph paper every day for the olders, quite impressive.
It is not that impressive. I don’t require much quality from them. This is to simply get them writing for half an hour each day. It has the added advantage of seeing if they have taken on board all they have been taught, but really I just want them to write, so T in particular begins to find it easier. Practice makes perfect!
Wow, I love the accountability yet I don’t think I can do it myself. It’ll cause me too much stress since we still love to wander in different directions. Good for you guys, Claire! I love the structure of it all, and really wish we can apply it here too, but my boy is a totally different kettle of fish…
I need this because I have things I want to finish which I should have finished last term but didn’t. We are not usually so rigid but for the next two weeks we will be so I can up productivity 🙂
Wow. That is a lot of work and a lot of structure. It explains how you are so productive each day 🙂 I miss being structured and productive.
We don’t usually structure stuff so rigidly, we have lots of stuff I want to finish in the next couple of weeks so I am pushing them a bit 🙂
I’m so impressed! We’re not nearly as organised, but then I’m not trying to educate 5 young people (I have no idea how I’d cope!). So lovely that you have your mum around. We had a pretty productive day today. One a week is good enough for me. 😀
I needed the accountability. I just really want to finish what we started last year before Easter. To be honest, I think I may be a tad pedantic 🙂
Wow. I am tired just reading how busy you all are. We do a lot of writing here, mostly history narrations. We are taking on a more formal approach, which has been quite an easy transition since they are so used to writing fairly long narrations. Some days I do long for those early education days. Hope your week is going well.