Into Term 2

Well, Term 1 is over, fall break is through, and have almost 2 weeks behind us for Term 2.  It has been a few weeks since my last post because I actually took the time and relaxed (at least more than usual) during this break.  Usually, I am always planning for the next round of lessons, but I decided to just take a break.  I made sure the gist of my plans for the first week were already completed before fall break started. I wanted to take the time to evaluate our progress/feelings about the home school calendar change so far.

First off, as for the idea of having the longer breaks...it is/was wonderful!  I asked the kids how they liked the new 9-week straight terms with longer breaks in between and here are their responses:

Savannah said, "I loved it.  It was much easier.  I needed the break."

JJ's response was "You feel more refreshed and relaxed because you have one big long break."

Jason and I both agree that the year long method of scheduling is a great improvement.  Some of the advantages that I have found so far are:

1. We can actually finish units and not be interrupted by shortened weeks. When we were trying to follow the regular local school year calendar, it seemed like we had shortened weeks constantly.  The public school gets off for holidays as well as teacher meetings so every time we turned around, we had a day off.  I am not complaining about the days off because believe me I look forward to days off just as much as the kiddos, but it seemed to really disrupt our normal flow of school because the random days off were constant.  
2. We had something to look forward to....we knew that we would be working really hard for 9 weeks and that the hard work would be rewarded with a relaxing extended break.
3. We are also able to fit our schedule more along the lines of my husbands job.  As a handyman, it is really hard for Jason to schedule time off in the warmer summer months.  With this schedule we will be planning our winter break as an extended break during one of Jason's less busy times...the holiday season. We will have a full week off at Thanksgiving (instead of the traditional Thursday and Friday),and we will take 3 weeks during the December/New Year time frame.  
4. Many subjects/lesson ideas are just better taught in a full week session.  Maybe it is just old habit of a traditional 5 day a week lesson plan, but (for example) spelling lessons fit a lot better when you have a full week to complete it.  When it comes to spelling, we have an order of doing things.  We introduce our words on Monday with a "pretest" to see what words they know and what words they need to practice.  We practice the missed words that day.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, their spelling book provides an activity for extra practice.  We do another review-practice test on Thursday and have the final test on Friday.  Even as a public school elementary teacher, it was always frustrating to have the week shortened by losing a Monday or a Friday to break.  You end up either shortening the lesson for the spelling unit in order to get it done, or you have to extend the unit into 2 weeks.  Of course, the problem with extending the unit is that there are typically 34-36 units in a spelling book which accounts for the exact number of school weeks in a school year. As for shortening the lessons, if there are words that the kids are having trouble spelling, they need that extra day to practice and prepare before being tested.

I will stop there for now with advantages.  As for disadvantages to our new calendar, the one biggie that I noticed was the "getting back into the swing of things" lag.  I knew that it would be a possibility and was actually expecting it.  While I was excited to get back to work, the kids were thoroughly enjoying their free time.  Part of it is that we had finally had some relief from the extreme heat and drought that was happening here in Oklahoma.  (We actually had rain!) The back to school lag was not bad and would be compared to coming back to school after a 3 day weekend...getting used to getting up earlier and going to bed earlier...those kinds of things.  So, the one idea that we have of trying to combat it is to have the first week a shortened Wednesday to Friday week and add the missing 2 days to the end of the session.  It is a promising proposal because that would give us 2 days at the end that would strictly be for wrapping up the lessons.  I am still working out the logistics of it, but it is a promising possibility for Term 3.  

In a nutshell, I am really pleased with the change so far.  I am sure that as time goes on and new changes and scenarios arise we will be forced to adjust, but that helps make home schooling more interesting and fun!  

1st Quarter Down!...3 more to go!

Yeah!  Our first quarter is winding up and a good long break is here!

This year we decided to change up our family home school yearly calendar and tried a new tactic.  First a little background...This summer turned out to be a dreadfully hot, unbearably long summer.  It was actually too hot to even go swimming.  Oklahoma set a new record for days over 100 degrees...I am not sure exactly how many we ended up with because lost track after we broke the previous record of 50 days form back in 1985.  It was big news on the stations around here.  Every day the news anchors would come up with some way to let us know that is was really hot..."We are one more day closer to breaking that record," " Only ___ more days to go before we break that record for number of days over 100 degrees," etc.  The worst part was that we had absolutely NO RAIN.

I have never experienced a summer like this one.  The fields around our area were bear where there were usually vast amounts of cattle grazing vegetation.  Even the ponds were close to drying up or were dry.  (Fortunately, the 2 ponds in our fields kept enough water to keep the fish alive.)  However, as you travel around the region, you see the toll the hot, dry summer has played on the ponds that are empty and the grounds that are cracked.  Our own yard is practically barren of grass and only has a few remaining weeds that are hanging on the for green look!  We have sunken areas that were not there before and long breaks/cracks that run through our yard.  That HOT, DRY summer is what helped us make the decision to draw up our new home school calendar.

Oklahoma City public schools adopted a new school calendar this year.  They decided to go to the year-long school calendar that would spread the number of school days out throughout the year.  It has less focus on a long summer break and has more extended breaks during the year.

Since the hot summer kept us sort of house bound this year, the kids were bored and that was when we opted to start school on July 18th and begin our quest of the year-long school calendar. Our first quarter which ends Tuesday was from July 18th to September 27th.  It was a straight 9-week quarter with the exception of a Friday and Monday off for Labor Day.  We will now have a little less than 3 weeks off.

The rest of the school year will look like this:

Quarter 2: October 24 to December 23 with one week off for Thanksgiving
Winter Break: December 24 to January 22 (3 week break)
Quarter 3: January 16 to March 16
Spring Break: March 17 to April 15
Quarter 4: April 16 to June 15
Summer Break: June 16 to July 29
Then we will start our school year (2012-2013) after the 6-week summer break on July 30th.

At first, the kids were not crazy about the idea of "losing" their summer break.  We took the time to have a "family discussion" about the positive and negatives of the new calendar.  Once they realized that they would have a long break after only one quarter, they decided that it was as great idea.  They would be able to take their first break when the weather was nicer and camping out was more of an option,

Well...the first break is here. Just a bit more odds and ends to tie up in the first session, and we are done! The weather has finally cooled, and we even had a couple of inches of rain this week. The kiddos are looking forward to setting up the tent in the yard.  Of course, we are still on a "burn-ban" so there are no camp fires allowed which they are a little bummed about. I have to say that I am looking forward to the break, too.  (Maybe even more than the kids!) While I love home schooling, I certainly like the relaxed days of no scheduled expectations.  Just good ol' sweatshirt wearin', coffee drinkin' mornings to laze around before the day really begins.  Look out break....here we come!

2nd and 5th Grade Combined Home School Schedule

One of the things that I am always searching for is a way to schedule my school day that will incorporate 2 different grade levels.  As an elementary school teacher in a public school classroom, you only have one grade to schedule at a time.  You teach all your children at the same time and have somewhat of a schedule already set for you with all the "extra" classes and recesses that are scheduled by grade level.  However, one of the most difficult things for me in scheduling our school day is trying to schedule both of my kids during the day so that I can help them and teach them the necessary classes without one child's learning interfering with the other.  

I have personally searched online for sample schedules to use or at least base our schedule off.  I have found some schedules from other home schoolers, but I have never really found any that specifically fit our needs or have come even close.  I realize different families have different age groups, different subjects, different focuses, etc.  I just wanted to find another example from some one of a schedule that worked for them.

This past week, I spent a lot of time working on and developing a written schedule for us to follow.  It allows me to work with each child during their more oral based teaching lessons while the other child is doing their written work.  It gives us a set time to know what we are to do and what is expected.  After trying it out on day one and adjusting the times accordingly, the following is what we have decided works best for us:

5th Grade Home School Schedule

Here is Savannah's Schedule:

TIME	Subject
7:15	Rise and Shine!
	Get dressed, Make bed, Pick up Room
7:45-8:15	Breakfast and Teeth Brushed
8:25-8:50	MWF - Bible with Dad
8:50-9:00	T-Th - Personal Study Calendar
9:00-9:30	Intermediate Language Lessons
9:30-10:00	MWF - Typer Island
	T-TH Writing Book
10:00-10:15	Language Workbook
10:15-10:30	Break
10:30-11:00	History with Mom
11:00-12:00	Math with Mom
12:00-1:00	Lunch
1:00-1:40	Reading
1:40-2:00	Spelling
2:00-2:30	Science
2:30-3:00	M - Cleaning Day
	T - Physical Education
	W - Music
	Th - Art
	F - Free Time

2nd Grade Home School Schedule

Here is JJ's Schedule(Same early schedule 7:15-9:00):

9:00-9:30	Math with Mom
9:30-9:50	Science
9:50:10:15	Spelling
10:15-10:30	Break
10:30-11:00	History with Mom
11:00-12:00	Language Arts, Oral Phonics, Handwriting,
12:00-1:00	Explode the Code Lunch
1:00-1:30	Reading with Mom
1:30-2:00	Typer Island
2:00-2:30	Complete Daily Work and Learning at Home
2:30-3:00	M - Cleaning Day
	T - Physical Education
	W - Music
	Th - Art
	F - Free Time

When we first presented the schedule the first thing JJ read was... "Hmm... Break... uh.... lunch .... breakfast."  Those are his favorite times!

Of course, these are just sample schedules.  This is what we will aim for each day.  There are definitely days that will require change and variation...like tomorrow morning's dentist appointment.  Some days it will take us more time, some days it will take less.  However, the great thing about our schedule is that it seems the days are already running smoother after only 4 days.  

For a while, I tried to have a more relaxed schedule, but that is when it seemed that things became more difficult in our classroom.  I thrive on a schedule and a prepared day, and my children seem to work better, too!  I need the structure and so do my chidlren. That is not to say that we will not have our off days, rather it helps me know that as long as I am doing my part as a teacher and providing an environment conducive to learning and the kids are doing their part by working to the best of their ability, everyone is happier in the long run!