That island in the center of the room is where we will be doing our "schooling" for a long time to come. :)
Someone on the Skribit asked me how I go about schooling multiple grades. It's not as hard as you would think because much of it we all do together. We use
My Father's World and are in the
2nd year this year. It is a 5 year cycle that begins by learning about other cultures and then starts at the beginning(of the world) the following year. So, this year we are learning about Creation(using the Bible) all the way to the Greeks. Next year we will be learning about
Rome to the Reformation. I love that the curriculum is chronological and completely Bible based.
Now, technically, the little one's aren't old enough for this "cycle" yet but they are having fun learning along with Sarah and it makes it MUCH easier for me. When I am doing Bible, History and Science, the triplets sit in on the lesson or reading right along with Sarah and are expected to tell me at least one piece of information that they learned. They are also expected to learn the Bible verse each week.
How we do things differs a little bit each day but this is a loose schedule of how it's done.
- Bible time- we read our Bible passage, review all of our verses along with the newest one and then read whatever "other" book too. We have a great book that goes with the curriculum that tells what things were like during the time in history we are studying about(right now we just began learning about Moses). The kids love it. It is called, "The Victor Journey Through the Bible".
- Next all of the kids are sent to do "table time". From here Sarah pretty much takes off on her own to do her penmanship,
math,
grammar, art and free reading.
The little kids start their daily
penmanship and
phonics and I pull each of them separately to do our
reading practice.
When they are done, they can go and play with Judah and Justus on the train track, Lego's or Lincoln logs.
Alana has additional reading that she has to do on her own from a reader.
- When they are done with all that I will sit down and do their
math together. Malakai does a different math workbook because he is not quite to the level that Isaiah and Alana are and was getting really frustrated. So, now he does really easy math that he is successful with and more in line with what a kindergartner does.
-During math time, I usually put on the
Leap Frog Letter Factory video for Judah and Justus. If you have little one's, this is the easiest and fastest way I have ever seen for them to learn their letter sounds. Alana knew hers at 16 months old, seriously.
- The triplets will then have a play break and I will do
spelling with Sarah and anything else that she needs help with.
- Once all seat work is done we again gather on the floor or couch and do the rest of the reading that needs to be done that day. This would be for history or science and is usually just a page or 2 of what we have been learning.
- The last thing we do is read-aloud. This can be done at anytime during the day and I never do it at the same time.
Our school day is usually over before lunch unless Sarah is having a hard time with math, which leaves the rest of the day for the kids to play outside or for us to run errands.
So, did I cover everything? :)
