Saturday, February 16, 2013

How Our Days Roll


We are Eclectic Homeschoolers meaning we learn from several different methods and use what works for us. For HH that consists of a little Unschooling, some Charlotte Mason, a few workbooks,  worksheets from the Internet, some actual book work from random textbooks, Lapbooks, using movies and documentaries, verbal learning, and some hands on learning as well through Field Trips and Nature Study.

I use to aim for four hours a day of "schoolwork" but honestly decided there is no reason to put some kind of time limit on our day. I finally realized I want him to be learning ALL the time so why try to fit into a block of time?

Here is an example of what our Weekly Schedule might look like:

Monday- Reading, Language Arts, Math, Geography, and P.E.
Tuesday- Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Art/Music, P.E., and a small amount of Science
Wednesday- Reading, Language Arts, Math, Geography, and P.E.
Thursday- Reading, Language ArtsScience, Foreign Language, a small amount of Social Studies, and P.E. at our Weekly Park Day
Friday- Reading, Language Arts, Math, Geography, P.E., and anything we didn't cover during the week

I also use an idea I found on Pinterest where you use a colored folder for each day and put their work in those. So now we have five colored folders with each one assigned to a different day of the week. We have been doing this for a little over a month now and it has been very helpful so far. I usually just put his Math worksheets in there, his P.E. index card for the day, any articles I might want him to read for Science or Social Studies, and anything else that might be a part of our learning  for that day. I HIGHLY recommend this for any other parents with Adult ADD and their kids!

As far as "socializing" goes we have no worries there either. Here's an example of all the great activities we enjoy:

Sunday- AWANAs (even though we're not Christian he goes with a friend)
Mondays- Usually open
Tuesdays- Plays at the Theatre on the UNM campus
Wednesdays- Open
Thursdays- Weekly HS Group Park Day
Fridays- Field Trips with an area Homeschool Group
Saturdays- Biweekly Lowe's Kids Workshops with his father, Biweekly Pottery Lessons at the local Art Gallery, and Monthly Lego Club at the Library

Other things we have that have no set usual day are Various Playdates with friends and we visit the local Museums as much as we can as well as the BioPark. We also go out on our own to do Random Acts of Kindness several times throughout the year which not only teaches HH good lessons but also makes others feel good too.

Hyper Heathen has also learned to stop trying to explain to people that he's not in a certain grade. Many people will ask him, "What grade are you in?" and this use to either confuse him or he would go into this big long speech about how he's at this level for Reading and that level for Math which would make people's eyes glaze over. Now he has learned to either say. "Fourth grade" or "I don't have a grade" thus avoiding some of the blank stares. I will never understand why naming a grade is so important to our society. Even in Public School were any of us ever really ONLY at our grade level on everything? I know I wasn't so why would our children be? Just some food for thought.

So that's our "schedule" in a nutshell and I will go into more detail about what exactly we do each day so that hopefully it will help make someone else's life a little easier too. To be honest though, with my Adult ADD we're lucky if we can follow the schedule half the time but I made it to give us a little structure in the chaos that is Hyper Heathen and I.


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