7/25/2005 >>/What sort of daily/weekly schedule do you use for your young children?

Does anyone do any math/ language activities or do you wait until year1? Ruth, It is wonderful that you heard about CM while your little one is so young! Charlotte Mason herself did not believe in schedules for little ones, and I've been thinking about. You see, at the end of last 'school year' (we still do light school during the summer), I had formally scheduled time to spend with my then 4 yo. It was a blessing for me and for her. So I've been pondering why it is important for me to schedule things with my little ones if Miss Mason didn't recommend it. This is my thinking to date: 1) Miss Mason thought of 'school aged children' being enrolled in a PNEU school or being tended to by the governess. This left mommy time that some of us don't have (we have 16 yo ds, almost 10 yo ds, almost 8 yo ds, and almost 5 yo dd). So, how does a homeschool mom tend to the needs of little ones without a schedule? Not the way that Miss Mason's 'moms' were able to. Little ones' needs can be shoved out the back door with the 'important' needs of 'homeschool'. I haven't found a solid way without a schedule yet. At least a schedule works. However, there is room for concern with a schedule. 2) I believe that when a mother is not 'scheduled' so much, that it is easier to be spontaneous. When I have been spontaneous regularly, life is filled with more 'grace'. I think little ones need a greater deal of this 'grace'. Sooooooo, to make up for the spontaneity that diminishes in a 'schedule setting', a) I try to have at least one 'spontaneous' moment with my daughter each and every day (coloring together for a little while, dancing together for a brief moment, giving a mini-happy-gasp each time we see a bird flit through the trees for a minute or two, splashing each other with water, watching the bubble form at the top of the water stream as it comes out of the faucet for a minute or two, etc., and/or one of the more 'academic spontaneous' things listed next). I fall short at times, but it's one of my goals, and that helps it happen a lot more often. b) When I have 'scheduled' things to do with my daughter, I try to have an 'air of spontaneity'. If it is time for me to read with her....or at least time to see if she's ready to read. Yes, that's a better way of saying it, to see if she's ready to read. Anyway when I think it is time for ME to read to her, then I wander over to the books and ask her if something looks special to her, OR ask her which of her books is the most specialist book, or something. OR, I pull out a blanket to read on the floor with pillows OR on rare occasions we read under the table or something. I DON'T do the super fluffy stuff every day, because I don't want reading to be 'entertainment'. I want reading to be a love of sharing the beauty of written form, but when our life seems to need added graciousness, I try even harder to add a nurturing touch.

c) After school is another opportunity for spontaneity, if I just put my mind to it (even in the car if necessary, though we don't try to hyper schedule ourselves). Lots of options here........ 3) So, I have actually written out a hairy schedule of things to do for my own personal use (17 categories!). When I read through a PNEU schedule, and realized that **Yr-1** foreign language entailed 3 - 10 minute lessons each week, and a 5 minute session singing a folk song, this seemed much more possible to me. I'm thinking 3 - 5 minute lessons and a 3 minute session singing a folk song and etc. I've based it on AO's Yr-0, but I think it could be used for younger children, with a different, even more 'spontaneous atmosphere'. The schedule is awful looking, but I'll tweak it and prioritize it when I try to work my goals into a daily routine of sorts. Most of the kinds of things I'm ****trying**** (*grin*) to schedule in are nice things to explore with preschoolers anyway: a) Bible (with the family, but I will be celebrating creation with her throughout her Yr-0 'studies', Lord willing. Our tentative syllabus for these hymns, crafts, and snacks is at my journal site, AmbleLore, a read only yahoo group) b) History (this could be done during reading time, but we'll probably use audio tapes that we have while traveling about time) c) Poetry (at tea time and bedtime) d) Lit (this is simply reading together during the day, and at bedtime mostly AO Yr-0 books) e) Recitation (mostly by repeatedly reading something to my daughter while she plays) f) letter play / then when she's ready word building (CM felt that it was even fine for toddlers to learn their letters by playing with the common toy letters of her day, 'ivory letters') g) foreign language (little verb games 2-3 x's a week, foreign language folk song for a few minutes a week, very short foreign language Bible verse sometimes, a new little saying in the target foreign language some weeks, after a while, some Berlitz style question and answers, etc., Hebrew letter matching card game a couple times each week) h) math, (little playful activities, living books, games: at AmbleLore, the yahoogroup I mentioned above, I do have a very loose syllabus in the files section and lots of links in the math portion of the links section for what we are doing with our 4 children at my journal spot. Our syllabus has ideas by subject, a chart for keeping track of progress, since it's not necessary to follow a 'scope and sequence' using this approach) probably 1-20 minutes each day....like, right now, we are teaching our daughter simply to 'give me five' for math each day right now, but we use our thumb to do this, because the thumb represents '5' all by itself in Chisanbop, which is a hand abacus, and that just takes 5 seconds each day, but then, we are also playing Go Fish to work on numerals and counting some too, as well as clicking on balloons in a little ecard activity that I found for her) i) nature walks, physics explorations (the basic philosophy/method for the physics explorations can be found in the messages at AmbleLore) j) singing (children's songs, folk songs, hymns, along with the little foreign language folk song each week) k) piano (we use a system a lot like Keyboard Capers for introducing rhythm, and Marilyn Lowe's piano activities for little ones - 5 minutes 3x's/week) l) violin: learn how to bow (bau), how to stand properly, and as much bowing/fingering as she can take in via the Suzuki method in 5 minute lessons, which can grow to 10 minutes when she is ready (3x's/week) m) composer and artist studies with her brothers

n) very brief Monart activities for drawing sense o) ballet and folksongs (I was a dancer, and have figured out how to teach little things in very brief little lessons, she also has a ballet book that she drags out, and tries to imitate....little stretches with well place torso and arms) we often do this just before she gets into bed, but not every day p) handicrafting (we have some ideas at AmbleLore in the links section, and have helped her with finger crochet, hand crochet, but will try to grow from there) q) life skills (learning to ask questions and direction, answer the telephone properly, a few simple chores about the house, and etc., we want her to have her own pet this year, but haven't really set other goals for this yet) HTH, Lorraine