Works For Me Wednesday

As a homeschooling family with three children Kindergarten and younger it can be difficult to have uninterrupted teaching time with my older students. Here are some ways I've found to make the most of our school day.

First, have a routine or schedule. We strive for a regular routine instead of a schedule that way if the baby is really fussy it isn't such a big deal. We also have regular snack times to keep all children happy.

Second, know what's crucial to your school day. For us I want to cover Bible, math, phonics/English, and preschool time. If I have done all of those subjects and anything else it has been a successful day!

I always included my youngers in our school day until this year. Our three year old is a major distraction at times and now that the baby is crawling I need to know where she is at all times. There have been many days when I have wanted to pull my hair out and flag down the big yellow bus!! Finally, I decided I needed to plan for real activities for my youngest "students". My plan is to use activity boxes for 30 minutes at a time and then switch to other activities. We have water table, sand table, and play dough time. The more quiet boxes are sewing cards and felt boards, wooden blocks, and mega blocks. Add in some preschool activities and the older kids alternating between educational computer games, art, and Wii time it should be a stress free month. I am also going to enforce a 30 minute quiet time each afternoon when the afternoon grumpies come.

I also just purchased the New Testament on cd so I'll be playing this every meal time throughout the day along with our classical music. Our final task before "free unscheduled" time is afternoon clean up. Then it's free time or scheduled activities like church, scouts, or 4-H.

Check out other works for me Wednesday posts for more great ideas!