Lessons From The Classroom - The Dance

We are far from perfecting our daily school schedule,

but week one ended with success.

I've tweaked a few things,

cut out several others,

and am anxious to see how week two goes.

Our school routine feels kind of like a dance

as I shift between subjects and children.

It's not very graceful, but it works for us.

Instead of our usual wake-up time being 9am

we have begun to get the kids up between 8 and 8:30(ish)

The goal is to start the school day by 9:30.

As soon as we are all dressed and had our fill of breakfast,

which takes longer some mornings than others,

I set the timer (more for me than the kids),

and get everything in order.

As soon as the timer goes off the kids know it's time to go see "Mrs. T",

that me;)

I mentioned that I write out a week at a glance for Areyna.

That way she can get started on her own 

and get as much done as she can without my help.

This frees me up to get started on Preschool with Alethia and Cai.

They really do love school.

Cai's attention span is about 2 minutes right now:)

but I have confidence that it will only get better as we go.

Lots of times Areyna just wants to be where all the action is,

so we'll find her floating between her desk and the preschool room:)

Like I mentioned before, Zeke acts as my Teacher Assistant for the preschool.

Allowing him to review all that he has already learned.

This also allows me to have some one-on-one time after Alethia and Cai are done,

and while Zeke is still fresh:)

~I think Cai actually ate more of the "A" craft than glued it,

oh well!~

I felt like it was a bit chaotic at first.

So I began writing a "cheat card" with an abbreviation of all I need to teach for the day.

It helps me stay on track.

 I was continually getting distracted by telling Cai to get off his desk

and trying to save Alethia's triangles from being cut into smithereens, ha!

Next is Zeke's turn.

We usually do about 3 pages in his book,

which I try to include at least one page of math and one of letters.

Then we move on to his manipulatives.

He gets to choose two cards out of the activity stack.

Alethia and Cai usually stick around to watch Zeke hard at work,

which is really going to help them in the long run as well.

Usually Alethia and Cai want to join in Zeke's activity,
so after he has completed his activities I let him "teach" it to Alethia and Cai.
It really is good for ALL of them.

After Zeke is done I waltz on over to Rainy and sit with her until she is finished.

I begin checking her work and doing her one-on-one activities.

We've been finishing up around lunchtime,

although Areyna has been working hard into the night on those Science books:)

I think the highlight of the week is going to be Friday's
when Principal, Mr. F (for Fro), comes to help out.

Since Fridays are Josh's day off he is going to rotate between the 3 classrooms.
  Last week he helped out in the preschool room.

Here he is capturing the attention of the entire class
while teaching the color "red" with the clean laundry pile:)

So, this is our version of homeschooling.
And as long as it works, we're sticking with it, ha!