Our School Day – version 3

When I started out this year I did what I think every homeschool mom does when they first start out.  I created a 6 or 7 subject day (version 1).  I was trying to cover all the subjects every day because that is how I learned when I was in school.  It was a struggle to get through the day with all school work done and the kids complained about the amount of work I was requiring. 

After Christmas I played with the schedule trying to reduce the amount of work but I continued the 6 subject day (version 2).  When I attended the homeschool convention I attended a class by a lady that had some great concepts.  She talked about how one of the problems with learning in school is that it promotes short term memory instead of long term retention.  They teach to the test and the kids only retain what they need for test and after forget what they had learned.  They don’t cover one subject long enough to create the long term retention.  She taught that you should do the 3 “R”s everyday (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and pick one subject to teach in a “unit study” style.  You cover that subject until you get through it, say a month, this promotes long term retention. 

The other thing I learned from her was A day, B day, and C day.  Her concept was this:

A day – in the morning you cover the 3 “R”s (reading, writing, and arithmetic), break for lunch and then after lunch you do your “unit study” on your one subject.

B day – this is the day where you can’t get everything done so you do your 3 “R”s and that is it.

C day – this is the day where everything goes wrong and you don’t think you are going to get anything done.  The day you have to go out of town or you have to leave the kids with someone.  She said to collect some workbooks for them to work out of, something that doesn’t require any prep work on your part. 

After listening to her I took some time to rethink what I am doing.  I decided to adopt her A, B or C day concept (our day version 3).  I was currently doing both Geography and Science, so I had to adjust her schedule just a bit.  But our “A day” is we start at 9am with math, reading, spelling and handwriting (all independent work) and then we break for lunch.  After lunch we do either science or geography.  On this schedule we spend about 2 hours in the morning and 1-2 hours in the afternoon.  The kids are more focused and they are retaining more.  Our “B day” is just the morning and no science or geography.  We haven’t had a “C day” yet but I am prepared for C day next year.  You can also do your “C day” as a craft or field trip day. 

The kids are getting up in the morning asking what “day” we are doing today.  This new schedule is working well for us and I have already started revamping my material for next year.  We are only a few weeks from finishing up our regular school year so my main focus is getting things ready for the fall.  I will share what I am planning on using and where I get my resources from.  I have found several wonderful websites and I know finding resources is half the battle of writing your curriculum.   I hope this will help you on your Homeschool Learning Curve journey.