Refocus!

As a homeschooler, I spend 10% of the time following the sch. I created in September when I had all the hopes that a blank canvas offers. I spend
40% of my time prepping for what should be an easy to follow, fun, educational experience and I spend 15% of time teaching Blaine and the rest of time wondering where on earth I put the work sheets for today and wanting to reprint because, trees and climate change.

Since schools are now closed I have had to restructure how I do things and how our days looks.

Our schedule is flexible but somethings don't change and it is 7 days a week!

Between 5:30 and 6:30am: Girls wake up. They are to play quietly in their room until 7:30. Quite never happens but I have faith one day it will.

Between 5:30 and 7:30am: The girls "quite" play wakes Blaine

8:00Am I start breakfast.
              -load/unload dishwasher
              -put laundry in
              -hand wash dishes
              -tidy main floor
              -start dinner
              -get kids dressed and hair done

9:00Am Journals (Each day I give them a topic to draw a picture of IE: What do you want to be when you grow up, What makes you happy, What is your favourite food)
               -Finish tidying
               -sweep
               -10 min break (this allows me to clean up that activity and start the next
               -workbooks
               -snack prep

10:00Am Snack
                 -Prep next activity
                 -Butterflies ( right now we are learning about butterflies it was a topic the middle girl picked to learn about)

11:00Am Outside/Free Play
               -Start Lunch
               -Answer clients
               -Check email
               -Walk

12:00Pm Lunch
               -Tidy
               -Prep next school topic
               -Math
               -Reading
               -Online learning
               - Puzzle (Each child has picked a puzzle to work on together they are 100 PCS puzzles that we will be gluing and framing)

1:00Pm Outside/Free Play
              -Tidy
              -Client orders
              -Snack prep

2:00Pm Snack
              -Free Play
              -I bleach one room (working my way through decluttering and bleach each room in the house)
          
3:00Pm Xbox/Tablet time
              -Client Orders
              -Dinner Prep

4:00Pm Dinner

5:00Pm Walk the Dogs

6:00Pm Start Bedtime routines
              -fold and put away laundry
              -School prep for the next day

8:30Pm My shower
             -client orders
              -meal prep
              -odds and ends left to tidy

10/11Pm BED



FYI the kids are normally done morning school by 10:30 and afternoon school by 1:30.
Schooling shouldn't take all day, nor should seated work be hours at a time. The things that take the longest are the butterfly part which is about 15mins and then in the afternoon, their math and reading are done one on one and it takes about 5-10mins per child. It takes me longer to set up and transition to the next task then it takes them to do it :)

To all the parents who are new to have the children home and having to teach them, YOU GOT THIS!!! Take a breath, don't force it, make it fun, follow their ideas and what they want to learn about. 

Summer Schedule

Ah summer!! The time of the year where you want to spend every minute outside soaking up as much sun as possible because we all know winter comes too soon and winter in Canada is cold and boring.

This year I wanted to pack as much as possible into summer for my son, he loves to explore and I didn't want him to be overly bored without preschool. Being that he is an only child life for him is spent playing with the dogs, playing alone with toys or playing with mommy/daddy. I am sure we are not as much fun as the other kids.

We plan to visit a new place every week. Such as Legoland. I am super excited about that one!

I run a small business at home so it allows me to set my own schedule. My child likes to start his day between 6am and 7am, I on the other hand would like to start mine around 8am.

This is a peek at our schedule!

Mondays
Library. Our has a little play center and he can pick his books out to read for the week. They also have arts and crafts in the one corner and other activities all summer long. We will spend the whole morning here because he loves it.
Lunch
After lunch is free play, my business partner brings her kids and they play while we work for a couple hours.
We eat early at about 4pm in the summer as I teach cardio kickboxing
After dinner it is park/outside play until bedtime


Tuesdays
Drop in. He loves drop and we used to go everyday. When he started preschool we stopped going but with summer here and lack of other kids to play with we will be attending again.
Lunch
After lunch is free play, my business partner brings her kids and they play while we work for a couple hours.
We eat early at about 4pm in the summer as I teach cardio kickboxing
After dinner it is park/outside play until bedtime

Wednesdays
I decided Wednesdays would be the best day for our day trips. It helps break up the day.

Thursdays
Its a full work day for us so the kids get to play together

Lunch

We eat early at about 4pm in the summer as I teach cardio kickboxing
After dinner it is park/outside play until bedtime

Fridays
Animal farm day! of we love the animal farm, so many animals to love up plus there is the parks, trails and beach right there too.
Lunch
After lunch is free play, my business partner brings her kids and they play while we work for a couple hours.
We eat early at about 4pm in the summer as I teach cardio kickboxing
After dinner it is park/outside play until bedtime


Saturdays/Sundays
Lazy days kind of.
Weekends are saved for business events, hiking, the market, and of course visits with his grandpa at "grandpas fishing house"

Through out the whole summer we are learning and exploring everything!

I created a list last year of everything he needed to know before he started Junior Kindergarten so we work on that each day. We read as many books as possible, visit as many parks as possible and of course walk the dogs.

We are very lucky to live in an area that is on the water so spending as much time near, on or at the water is a must.

Some parents are going "no schedule" this summer, I guess its the new trend. I look at things this way, does he need to be so scheduled he can't do anything else no, but a bored child is a child who gets into trouble!

What are your summer plans?