Our Schedule

From Ambleside online I get our weekly schedule. Our school year has three terms, each 12 weeks long. Here is how I divided up the work into a daily schedule:

Monday:
Bible reading
Math
Copywork
Spelling (a spelling, reading, penmanship curriculum)
Music: Hymn (this month's hymn is Praise To The Lord, The Almighty)
History
Outside
Literature (Poetry: this term's poet is Walter de la Mare)
Free reading
Spanish (a children's Spanish class at the library)


Tuesday:
Bible reading
Math
Copywork
Spelling
Music: Classical (this term's composer is Mozart)
History: history of England
Outside
Literature (Historical Fiction)
Free Reading

Wednesday:
Bible reading
Math
Copywork
Spelling
Music: Folksong (this term's folksong is Cockles and Mussels)
History: world history
Outside
Literature (Pilgrim's Progress)
Free Reading

Thursday:
Bible reading
Math
Copywork
Spelling
Art (this term's painter is Pieter Brueghel)
Geography
Literature (Pilgrim's Progress)
Free Reading

Friday:
Bible reading
Math
Copywork
Spelling
Handicraft/Lifeskill
Nature Study outside (this term's focus is insects)
Literature (Nature Study through literature)
Free Reading

To this we add daily swimming and, soon, the boys will resume tae kwon do. In the spring the boys play baseball with a city league.

The above schedule is for our 9-year-old son. Our 6-year-old son follows the schedule doing only Bible reading, math, spelling, music, copywork, outdoor nature study, and, as he is able, handicraft. Our first handicraft lesson is how to tie five different knots. A skill every boy should know, as long as they don't practice on each other. Our 3-year-old daughter joins in the Bible reading and music. She also has time scheduled in the day for me to read books just for her, practice her counting, simply color with her, play a game with her, etc.

The 6-year-old, 3-year-old, and 16-month-old sit in on other readings as they desire. Sometimes they are content to color while I read or sometimes they would rather play. By next year my 9-year-old should be doing many of the assigned readings on his own. Right now I make him read a paragraph or two aloud while I read the rest. His reading skills will never improve if I don't make him do it, no matter how much he complains!