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.
