In my latest blog post, I shared our 3rd grade and Kindergarten curriculum and resources. A few of you reached out to me and said, “I’m so inspired, but also overwhelmed!” First, I want to say this: you will always be overwhelmed if you are doing something that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have for YOUR specific homeschool. You are only graced for what He has for YOU. If this overwhelms you in any way, just stop reading. The greatest thing I hope you take from reading any of my content is to SEEK THE LORD for your homeschool blueprint. If He cares to know the hairs on your head and His thoughts for you outnumber every granule of sand on the earth, surely He has ideas about how to disciple (home educate) your children. I cannot be convinced otherwise!
Maranatha Mornings
Before the children wake, I am hoping to get up early and have my Bible time and potentially take a walk/run in my neighborhood. Upon the children waking, they will have breakfast and then do their morning chores (make their bed, get dressed, and brush their teeth). They can then have play time until around 8:30 am, when we start our Maranatha Mornings. Since our homeschool is called Maranatha Academy, this is just out way of saying “Morning Time.” For Morning Time, we are using A Gentle Feast Morning Time, Cycle 1. Our schedule looks like this for Morning Time:
- Mondays- Torah Reading (starting in Genesis), Hymn Study and Hymn Singing
- Tuesdays- New Testament Reading (starting in Matthew), Picture or Composer Study
- Wednesday- Psalms Reading, Fables
- Thursday- Proverbs Reading (starting in the first chapter), Poet Study
- Friday- Church History with The Story of Jesus’ Church, Poetry Recitation
We will also be doing about 5 minutes of Spanish practice, and 5 minutes of Scripture memory practice. Overall, Morning Time should take around 20 minutes. The key is Bible and ONE additional beauty subject per day. The Spanish and Memory Work are all oral and move quickly.
After this, we have a group Bible study with the family we’re living with at 9am. Right now, we’re doing the Peacemaker Study from Not Consumed. We’ve all been learning about being peacemakers, putting others first, and taming our tongues. Since there are currently 10 of us under one roof, this Bible Study has been particularly impactful. We will continue with various studies from Not Consumed after this one is complete. After our Morning Time is finished, I let the kids play until 10am (usually about 30 minutes to play.)
Individual Work
At 10am, we start our individual work, based on level and stage. Lavender my 3rd grader, will be doing her Math Lesson and then running off to do about 15 minutes of independent reading. She is also doing Sequential Spelling, Level 1 twice a week. My Kindergartner will do a Math lesson and then work on reading aloud her Dash Into Reading books with me. Individual work usually takes about an hour for my 3rd grader and 20 minutes for my Kindergartner.
Read Aloud + Lunch
After individual work, I usually take the kids outside or to the sofa to do our read-aloud. I try to read a chapter, although sometimes the children only have the capacity for a few pages. Right after reading, the kids take a play break while I make lunch. After we eat lunch, the kids play more until 1pm. That’s our hard cut-off time. At 1pm, we begin our Subject of the Day.
Subject of the Day
The Subject of the Day is more of our daily Family Lesson, where we can all come together and learn from the same book(s). My kindergartner and preschooler are welcome to join us, though not obligated. Our Subjects of the Day are as followed:
- Mondays- Nature Lore 1, The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
- Tuesdays- Early American History
- Wednesdays- U.S. Geography
- Thursdays- Nature Lore 2, Birds of the Air by Arabella Buckley (once that book is finished, we will use A Child’s Introduction to the Night Sky by Michael Driscoll)
- Fridays- Exploring Nature with Children and The Organic Studies
For all subjects, we are reading a book or books, and then notebooking. Even on Fridays, we do a nature walk, followed by books, followed by nature journaling. My 3rd grader will be required to do at least two notebooking pages per week and one nature journal entry per week. There are also a few other things that come up depending on the subject. For Geography, we will be doing quite a bit of mapwork. For History, we will record any important dates in our Book of Centuries. After we’ve recorded our learning in our notebooks, we have completed our subject of the day. This time to take about 45 minutes or so, with the reading taking no more than 15 minutes and then the notebooking taking around 30. This may be much shorter for other families, but my 3rd grader gets extremely meticulous with her artwork and writing.
As an aside, the one day that will look quite different than the rest are Mondays. The children are at my Mom’s house on Mondays, and she will be homeschooling them. Because of this, her total day with them will look like: Morning Time, Burgess Animal Book, Handcrafts (Hand-sewing) and Mail Monday (where they write letters to loved ones and friends.) This day is the exception. Writing letters will take the place of notebooking, while still giving them the same spelling/grammar/handwriting practice.
After our Subject of the Day is complete, the children can play outdoors or around the house. We can meet with friends, run errands, go visit Stephan at work, go grab icecream, whatever!
Instrument Practice
The only thing to do after Subject of the Day is instrument practice! Lavender can choose to practice the piano anytime before bed. She plays the piano for about 20 minutes. We also do online singing lessons, and that takes the place of piano once a week. We all join in for that, because the songs are so silly and fun.
We will have play time with Dad once he gets home, dinner, bath, and then our family time before bed. We recite Scripture, say what we are grateful for and then pray as a family. Sometimes, we read a story. Lights will be out around 8pm.
In Conclusion
When I look at this daily/weekly rhythm, it’s life-giving to me. I really poured over this, analyzing what would feel doable and rich for my children and I. I realize that my homeschool will look nothing like anyone else’s, and isn’t that the beauty of home education? Take any nuggets of wisdom here that would bless your home, and leave the rest. I’m praying that we all have a school year full of connection, wonder and goodness.
Blessings, friends!
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