So I’ve been thinking about changing things up a bit. Actually the beginnings of thoughts of changing things up is what prompted my last post about how with homeschool there is no on time.
Everything I have read or heard talks about how children are the most eager and willing to learn in the mornings so that is the best time to have your official schooling. So that’s what I have been doing.
Homeschool is going well as usual, but our afternoons aren’t nearly as pleasant as our mornings. We rush and rush to get our chores done in the mornings and then have school before lunch. Then it’s quiet time, and after quiet time the girls go out and play until dinner. It all sounds good, but it’s actually kind of disjointed.
My sister recently went to BYU Women’s Conference and posted several wonderful quotes. One of them was (and I don’t know who said it, Megan maybe you can say who said it)
The “swing shift” is that afternoon time. It is the most important shift of the day. Influence and power is lost when we overspend elsewhere and have nothing left for the afternoon. At that time, people are tired, hungry, and cranky, but they are also teachable.
After reading that, I thought our family might benefit from spreading our “official” schooling through our whole day rather than only in the mornings.
So today, when Lucy’s friend knocked on our door at 11am (apparently no school today), I decided that today was the day to change it up. We had already had a nice relaxing morning doing our chores without rushing and they were half way through their reading stuff when the knock came. They finished their workbooks (amazing how quickly Emma will do it when she knows she can go out and play afterwards) and took off.
I played with Spencer. He has finally mastered his colors! Well, the basic colors anyway.
They came in for lunch, went up for quiet time and then came down for the rest of school. Lucy started working on a family history binder. It’s an activity that came with “The Story of the World Activity Book”, which I was hesitant to get but am SO glad that I did. We read out of the regular book all last week. This week we are going to do the activities. There are so many to choose from. I’m excited for Thursday when I’m planning on having them build a nomadic shelter in our back yard. I’ll give them some old blankets and treking polls and see what they can do 🙂
