How to Homeschool Your Child When You Feel Like You are Never Home

I am so thankful that 2017 is behind us.  My 7 year old son with Spina Bifida was burned by a space heater in January and needed two skin graft surgeries.  Then he had 4 scheduled surgeries in April.  He spent the rest of the year fighting infections due to complications with his April surgeries.  Since January, he has had 6 hospital stays, all lasting a week or more.  Homeschooling with a special needs child can be complicated.

A hospital stay won't stop this cool kid from dabbing

 

 

Even if you don't have a child with special needs, you may have ballet and piano lessons, orthodontist appointments,  Bible study, errands, library programs and a exercise class during the week.  Am I the only one who feels like homeschooling should be called On-The-Go-Schooling?

Many people have asked me how I schedule my school day around doctors appointments, therapy, and hospital stays.  Every year is a little different, but I have started viewing my homeschool schedule the way I treated scheduling in the classroom.  After I graduated from college, I taught second grade at a Christian school on the island of Saipan.  When I moved back to the states, I was a fourth grade teacher at a Christian school.  In both cases, I had to apply a chapel schedule to our Wednesdays because we spent 45 minutes or so with the rest of the school in a chapel program.  Also, we had several specials such as PE or Art.  Usually one day a week, we would have two specials.  If I hadn’t planned a 2 specials schedule, we could have lost a lot of valuable teaching time.  Teachers have to do this every year.  I really think that homeschooling is no different.  Let me give you some examples of how I rearrange my day and our homeschool priorities so that I can make sure my children are continually learning and progressing according to their needs.

First, let me tell you about a PERFECTLY scheduled day in which we have no interruptions or appointments. (As you well know, there is no such thing as a perfect day.)

I learned from Classical Conversations Foundations program the value of having Crisp Components.  The Crisp Components I use in our homeschool day are different than in the Foundations program.  This is our “Normal School Schedule.”  When Classical Conversations is finished for the year, we will have a different school schedule and will study some different things.

 Here are our 5 Crisp Components:

1. 7:45-8:30 Foundations Review

I don’t want to spend a lot of time explaining the Classical Conversations Foundations program right now, but basically each week for 24 weeks we have little tidbits of information to memorize in 7 subject areas- History, Science, Latin, Geography, Timeline, Math, English Grammar. 

I put on the Foundations Memory Work CD, and we listen to it as we wake up, get dressed, clean up the house, and get ready for the day. My son with special needs requires a little more help getting ready in the morning.  We sometimes play review games, but usually just listening to the CD daily is enough for the students to memorize the information. 

How I tailor Foundations Review when we have appointments: 

Everyday, we have to get up and get dressed, so I don’t usually skip the CD.  Some families spend a lot more time studying and reviewing, but I’m pretty happy with just listening to the CD.  For geography, we have started using Draw the USA. 

2. 8:30- 10:00 Morning Time

This looks a little different every day, and it is an area where I can tailor it to fit our day’s schedule.  During Morning Time, the children eat breakfast.  In a perfect world, I have already eaten mine.  I usually get a big latte mug of coffee (I’m a Harry and David’s Chocolate Cherry Decadence coffee fan!) While they are eating, I always start the day with Bible.  We are reading through Long Story Short, which goes through the Old Testament chronologically.  I really enjoy it because it always has one lesson a week that links the Old Testament story to Jesus.  After Bible, we enjoy poetry. I’m using How to TeachYour Child Shakespeare.  We have been studying Twelfth Night.  I love teaching Shakespeare to children! Are you familiar with the book Wonder?  I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I love the book!  The author, R.J. Palacio wrote another book called 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Brown’s Book of Precepts.  Each day, we read the precept that corresponds to the date and discuss the meaning.  The precept for January 3 is from Henry James: “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; the third is to be kind.” Then I read from The Story Book of Science, and A Child’s History of America.  This is the only formal Science and History that I do right now.  My children do a Science Project every week at CC.  The combination of CC History, CC Timeline, and what my daughter learns from her IEW History Based Writing is enough for us right now.  I also take this time to read a chapter or two from a read aloud book.  I used to try to read at night, and I was so tired that I didn’t make it a priority.  I have dyslexia.  Reading aloud when I am tired is not an easy feat. This year we have read The Secret Garden, The Tale of Despeareuax, Holes, Rush Revere books, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I end Morning Time with a chapter or two from my absolute favorite Math Curriculum: Life of Fred.  We are currently working through Life of Fred Farming.  If we have no commitments, here is what Morning Time looks like:

Coffee and My Stack of books: The Essentials of Morning Time

Bible

Poetry
Precepts
Science
History
Read Aloud
Life of Fred

 

Morning Time is the heart of our school day.  All three of my children and I sit around the table as we learn together.  It sets the tone for the rest of the day.  The students are allowed to color, play with Legos, paint, play with play dough, or other quiet activities while I read, as long as they are listening and participating.  I have gradually been adding things to Morning Time. A few things I would like to add are an Artist or Composer study, Greek Mythology, and some fairy tales from The Blue Fairy Book.

 

How I tailor Morning Time when we have appointments:

If we have a busy day, we will only do Bible and usually Life of Fred.  I am happy when if we do Science and History 3 days a week.  Do you see how easy this is to rearrange according to our needs?  

 

3. 10:00-10:30 Workbook Time

Teach Your Child to Read
in 100 Easy Lessons

My 9 year old and my 7 year old each have 3 workbooks that they can usually do somewhat independently.  We use Spelling You See, Kumon or Star Wars Math workbooks, and handwriting.  In a perfect world, they do their workbooks while I work with my five year old in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and RightStart Math B.

 

How I tailor Workbook Time when we have appointments:

Workbooks are easy to pack with us.  My 9 year old likes to do them in the car on the way, but my 7 year old would rather work on it in the waiting room.  If we have appointments, I sometimes do not work with my 5 year old.  He also enjoys doing his lessons at night.

 

4. 10:30-11:30 Reading Time

I like to hear each of my children read out loud for 15 minutes each day. This gives everyone a little bit of a break while I work one on one with each child.  While I’m reading with one child, the other children play with toys.  No electronics are allowed during the school day.

My five year old is not able to read yet, but he is part of our library’s 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program.  So far, I have read 400 picture books to him.  We hope to finish before the summer.

 From about 11:45-12:00 We also do our geography lesson during this time.  I know it has nothing to do with Reading, but I tend to group Geography and Reading together.  I love the  Draw the USA book.  It’s been a really great way to teach drawing as well as geography.

 

How I tailor Reading Time when we have appointments:

I have found that my children get a little embarrassed if I ask them to read aloud in public.  Instead, I will listen to my children read in the evening.  I love the flexibility of homeschooling.  We are usually finished with school by 2:30, but if we need to do some school in the evenings, it is not a big deal.

 

 

12:00-1:00 LUNCH.

We are usually ready for a lunch break after Reading Time.  We take about an hour for lunch to eat, clean up, and play.  This is a good time to go outside if it is a nice day.  My 9 year old usually fixes lunch while I attend to my 7 year old’s medical needs.

 

5. 1:00-2:30 Writing and Grammar. 

My daughter's Essentials Notebook

My 9 year old daughter is part of the Classical Conversations Essentials program for 4th-6th graders.  We study Grammar for about 15-30 minutes each day.  Then she works on a writing assignment in her History Based Writing: United States History from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).

 My 7 year old son works on his assignments from IEW’s Bible Heroes program.

 

Each week, both children write a paper and illustrate it.  At the end of the year, I want to take all their papers and illustrations and bind them into a book.

 

How I tailor Writing and Grammar Time when we have appointments:

My daughter has to turn in assignments each week.  I have found that she can usually get her assignment done in 3 days, so we can skip one day a week if necessary.  There have been times when we have to work on the writing assignment on the weekend to get it finished.  I don’t worry very much if my son doesn’t finish his lesson.  We just work on it the next week.  It may take him two years to finish Bible Heroes, and that is perfectly fine with me.

 

I use this schedule four days a week.  On Wednesdays we go to our Classical Conversations classes.  We school year round, so on days where we spend the entire day at the hospital, we take the day off.  We started this year in June, and even with all our interruptions and 3 weeks of hospital stays, we are on day 112 as of January 5.  In our state, we have to have 180 days of school.  As long as we don’t have any major surprises, we will finish in April this year.  Even if we do have some  surprises, we still have enough time to finish before June.  As I mentioned before, the above is our “Normal School Schedule.”  When Classical Conversations ends for the year, we will go to our “Summer School Schedule.”  We will not do as much CC memory work or writing, but will instead focus on Latin and Science. 

A Final Note:

Don't be afraid to make use of your car! We have listened to several audio books on our trips to the hospital and other appointments.

 

I know that every family is different.  Your “Crisp Components” will probably be different than mine.  What does your day look like?