PrincipledMom™

Things are hopping around here. We are painting, laying wood floors and making various repairs here at Casa Hawthorne. Please pray that I will recover from the soreness and general fatigue quickly, and that we will get things back in order ASAP so the kids will have their home back. So in the midst of that we are still trying to have fun and get something done.

The plan is to get back in the groove next week. I'm still working on the Benjamin West unit and will post more on that soon. I thought I'd talk a moment about what week looks like, in a general way. this is not always the order we do things, but it will give you an idea of what we cover in a week.

Monday

• Bible
• Math: intro to lesson and assessment,
• English: give spelling list, read McGuffey story, diagram sentences from the story, Daily Grams page
• Literature

Tuesday

• Bible
• English: Daily Grams, vocabulary from the story, penmanship
• Math: define terms, apply method
• History/Geography
• Botany

Wednesday

• Bible
• Literature
• English: Daily Gram, spelling test, continue vocab. if needed, penmanship
• Art: lesson on an element
• Math: review lesson, activity

Thursday

• Bible
• English: write a paragraph related to the story
• math: performance
• History/Geog
• Botany

Friday

• Bible
• English: retest if needed, finish paragraph, penmanship
• Math: test/review
• Literature
• Art: project

Many home educating families don't follow a strict schedule or even a routine. That doesn't work well for us. (God is a God of order--see the days of creation, the times and seasons and his plan for church government, for example.) When I don't plan our day, we seem to waste a lot of time doing things that are unproductive. We like to keep to a schedule as a tool to help us get done all the stuff we need (and want) to do. So, the way we approach our lessons may look a bit like a traditional school, but our approach to learning is not.
Basically we have Bible, math and English every day. This may change as she gets older but to me these are important enough to cover daily. Science is twice weekly and history, geog. and literature are integrated as much as possible.

Someone asked me if I keep the subjects separate or if I integrate them. The answer is yes to both. I celebrate each subject's individuality (See how common God's Principle of Individuality is!) and demonstrate their connections as they naturally occur. This works well for us, and we are enjoying our lessons more and more. Feel free to share your school schedule (or whatever you call it).
Well I must get back to painting and planning. I cannot wait to share about Benjamin West and Dr. Hooker and...vegetarianism!