My School Monday: Schedules

Happy Monday! Today I'm writing about schedules. Scheduling is the most difficult part of homeschooling my family. The other two "big kids" go to two different public schools on two different schedules. They get different breaks, too. Brandon starts on the 10th. But Amy doesn't go back until the 15th. Later, Amy will have the whole month of November, and then March, off-track. And Brandon will have a longer break in December than she will. Kaitlyn can't take both kids' vacation schedules, so that means having to do school while one of her siblings is lounging around playing video games. And it usually rains on their parade because they can't come out and use the TV while I'm teaching Kait. Can you hear my weary sigh? It's no fun for mom to make one kid watch another enjoy something they can't.

If I didn't have these concerns, I think I'd try the Sabbath Week schedule. The Sabbath Week schedule basically has 6 weeks of school, then 1 week of rest, then you spread out your other weeks off however you want them. So perhaps 4 full weeks in December to really enjoy the holidays, a 2 week vacation with the family in there somewhere, and of course the usual week off at Easter, and a few weeks to use as "summer". I think the average school year is 36 weeks, so after the four annual Sabbath weeks you have 12 weeks to play with for vacationing! I love the idea of the 6 weeks at a time, but I'm not so sure how that would line up with the other kids' schedules. I may still give it a try but I expect some bumps in that road for my situation.

The micro scheduling is also on my mind this week. Our day-to-day. I want/need to fit so much in and I'm not sure how best to arrange our day. I would like to try blocking our time and doing certain subjects on certain days, but I"m not sure how much each subject needs. This is an area I'd love to hear from friends and readers about. I'm expecting we might have to do math every day. But if I could give her even one day off and fit our math into 4 days per week, I think she'd really respond to that. But here are the other subjects I want to cover (warning: it's a lot!)

Math
History
Science
Language Arts
Bible
P.E.
Typing
Health
Reading (actual time to read/discuss the books I'll assign)
French
Life Skills
*2 hr. classes 2x weekly through charter school. We're not signed up yet but classes usually offered are things like Art and Photography and I love to get her in on that. I include this as a time constraint on the above curriculum. Not to mention the very active toddler we contend with during school hours, too. Is it hopeless?

So what do you think? How long do you spend on each subject per day (or per week)? If you don't homeschool but still juggle several different tasks requiring time organization, I'd love a peek at your schedule too.

Have a blessed week--see ya Wednesday!