Alternative LearningAre you a homeschooling mama? or maybe you unschool... or maybe you are interested in another alternative learning style? or maybe you don't have any idea what i am referring to?? this forum might just be for you! share your thoughts and ideas
For those of us with more scheduled school days, what time do you start? We've always started at 9:30, but things will be more difficult this year for us with Bryce doing his developmental program and school work. I think we need to start earlier. I'm curious about what time everyone else starts...
We're generally up early (between 6:30 and 7:30), so we do breakfast from about 7 till 7:30, then get dressed/cleaned up (7:30-7:45), and then spend about an hour taking care of all our morning duties and chores. We plan to start with informal reading in the car around 9am while I drive my ds and another child that I babysit to preschool. Then we'll come home and spend about 2 hours on schoolwork (9:30-11:30 or so), take a break for lunch/cleaning up,etc. Then some more reading/recitation in the car (1:00-1:45) while we pick ds and other child up from preschool. Then we'll do about 2 more hours of work in the afternoon (2:00-4:00) while all the "little ones" take their afternoon naps.
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Jenn
homeschooling mama to my little brood...
~L (1997), M (2001), N (2004) and M (April 2007)~
rest of the day: cooking , chores, arts and crafts, play play and more play
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We have a natural connection with every living entity. One who sees everyone connected to God does not hate anyone, he loves everyone... and that love comes to the point where you consider other's pains and pleasures more important than your pains and pleasures.
We do all of our social activities in the morning, so we don't do any "school" type stuff until after lunch, around 1:00. My kids are still very little, though, so "school" consists of reading, playing a game, and doing some sort of art or open ended craft project, then usually they need a bath, LOL. We are very laid back, and I can't see us having a regimented schedule or an official "starting time" for several years at least.
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~Michelle
Christian homeschooling mama
to a Jumpin Bean (1/01)
and a Pumpkin Head (4/03)
DD starts at 10 am, breaks for an hour for lunch around noon. She continues to about 4 pm. If we have gymnastics, art class, etc of course we have to be more flexible.
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My boys
Amy, abuser of quotation marks and parentheses,
Mama to five sprites
We start school after our morning routine is finished, which winds up being anywhere between 8:15-9:15am. I don't have a set time because the kids occasionaly sleep in or breakfast takes longer than anticipated, so starting after our morning routine works better for us.
ok, those whose children sleep til late - I don't like you anymore. It's official! lol
I am so not a morning person. However - all but Nathan are usually up and into everything by 7. Sometimes Austin can keep the kids corraled in the livingroom - but not often. I am NOT a pleasant person in the morning - but these kids just don't seem to 'get' that.
We have always started with math right away as soon as we are fed. When I was trying ot get into a time schedule more, that was about 8-8:30. Then we just kind of flowed from one thing to the next. Austin is needing more structure time-wise, so we'll be doing that with him again when we start back up. Because of just flowing from one thing to the next, he has decided to not really pay attention to what he is doing - just do it fast and get it over with. Sooo... for him, I think I need to set a timer and say, ok, you will do math for 45 minutes - do your best work. Right now I would get math out and he would race through and get frustrated because he just wanted to get it done.
In my perfect world, I would have a very very relaxed homeschool and really do a lot more unschooling type activities. However, I think that we have made some compromises and have found what will be flexible enough for me, and structured enough for Austin. I thought the kids would NOT like reading about history, but I've been pleasantly surprised - and they have wanted to learn more about certain aspects as we have read through Story of the World and now Sonlight Early Am. History. I don't think I would have exposed them to those topics on my own... but they are really interested in them.
Now, if i could get my kids to sleep in until 8:30-9.... THAT would be an answer to prayer.
I wish Whitley would sleep that late! I am a night owl. She is up usually around 6:30 or 7, although occasionally she'll sleep in. This morning she slept until almost 9! I was in heaven. Melody sleeps until 10:30 or 11.
Anyway, my child is only barely 4 so "school" consists of about 30 minutes to an hour a few days a week. I don't know what I'll do when we have a more scheduled routine. I don't like mornings.
We don't have a set time. I tried doing that when we first started homeschooling and it just stressed me out.
We get up, eat, clean up the kitchen and read a book together.
Then we'll start researching things together (right now it's penguins. We're going to see March of the Penguins tomorrow. Whatever she's interested in at the moment.
Then we do 'school' work (math, spelling words, history). She's not fond of this time period but we're only at it about an hour so it's not a big deal.
The rest of the day we incorportate more reading and writing. She writes the grocery lists with me, we make the meal plan together, she sometimes even helps me when I'm writing out the bills (we talk about money, checkbooks, etc).
I guess we're a mixture of unschooling/schooling. I hate time restraints. If I want to go to the library in the middle of the morning, I'm going. If I want to do school after dinner, that's when we'll do it. If Sabreena doesn't feel like doing spelling one day, fine..skip it. If she doesn't want to read a book, cool. I know she gets her reading in during other parts of the day.
Military wife of a deployed soldier. 
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