Does anyone use a curriculum without a set schedule?

[oceanbaby]

Ds1 just turned 6yo, and we have been happily unschooling, for lack of a better term. However, I am feeling that I need to introduce something more into the picture. In the next year I foresee beginning something resembling a curriculum. The problem is that there's no way I could ever say "M W F we do phonics from 10-10:30." Everything kind of depends around here. Do we have the chance to see a friend? Is it a nice day to go to the beach? Do we just not feel like it? We are not a very scheduled family, for better or worse. (Some days better, and some days much worse!)

So, if any of you don't unschool, but don't have a set schedule, could you let me know how things look around your house? I'm feeling a bit lost about where to start.

[jsneuser]

Unforunately I don't have an answer but I'd like to see one from someone else. DD is only 3and a half but I'm already feeling that way. I don't want to get a curriculum but I feel like if I don't I won't know what she's "supposed" to be learning.

[mich]

We have a few "school work" type things. A handwriting and math curriculum, online phonic program. I try to get my oldest to do them 2 or 3 times a week. Usually on a day we don't have much planned. I will let him know I want him to do some home-work (this is what he calls it) and that it should be done before lunch.

Sometimes I will remind him, sometimes he does it on his own. Through trial and error, I have found that all goes smooth if I keep it to one or two subject, that can be done in 10 or 15 min. each, and we do it often enough (3 days a week) that it becomes an expected part of our day.

I will add that my oldest is very easy going. I'm not sure if this approach will work as well with ds2. But he does seems to be following along with what his older brother is doing. He will do a dot-to-dot or play with the Handwriting Without Tears slate, chalk and sponge at the table while ds1 is working.

[elizawill]

i have a schedule (not times assigned, but i schedule what i want to cover each day). but i had an idea that may work for you. instead of saying you need to do phonics M/W/F from 10-10:30....maybe you could just say, we do phonics 3 x a week (or even say...an hour and a half a week) and fit it in when your schedule permits, yk? you could make a weekly goal of what you want to cover and just check it off as it happens....this way you can keep up with your curriculum, but you don't need to assign specific times or even days as to when you will accomplish assignments. would this work perhaps? it's more of a routine than a schedule, yk?

[Kleine Hexe]

schedule? what's a schedule?

I like the sound of routine like elizawill posted.

I do think I'd linke to buy some curriculum. I just don't what.

[Callimom]

We do - sort of.
My kids are 9, 6, 6, and 3 (almost 4).
We have table time in the morning. I aim for 3 - 5 days a week but we are always willing to trade table time for an outing or to do table time later in the day (or skip it all together) if there is something else we need/want to do in the morning. Table time is when the kids will work on writing/reading and math. We use a math curriculum (Miqion and Challenge Math) and my 9 y/o is working through a grammar program. He also practises handwriting and spelling by copying or doing dictation of a couple of lines of a poem. This schedule came out of discussions about his educational goals. We skip around and supplement as things come up. We'll often do a catch-up or review week a couple of times a year to give me an idea of stuff that we need to cover or stuff we can skip because he's got it.

My middle two do reading and math (Miquon) at table time. One of them is struggling with very basic reading concepts (I'm beginning to suspect dyslexia) so we are pretty careful to practise some reading skills every day with her but we can do some of it on the go rather than at the table. I'm using a combo approach right now until I find something that really works for her. I can see us moving over time to a more structured schedule and program for her for reading.

Table time takes about 60 - 90 minutes of my time total - the kids each spend roughly 1/2 and hour - some with me and some on their own

After lunch (or later in the afternoon if we have been out) we have reading time which is when I read "school" related stuff - so right now we are talking about caves and archeology for example. I would read about those topics, a few math related books, and some historical fiction or a few chapters from the current read aloud. Again we are always willing to move this to bedtime, or skip it if we have something else on. I aim to read for about 45 minutes to an hour.

We also have table time w Dad after dinner. It's usually time for board games, science experiments (we're using a heavily supplemented RS4K as the basis for a loose co-op with friends) or history/geography projects (unit study based) - often hands-on and usually 2 times a week. It doesn't happen as much in the summer as we are out at sports 3/4 nights a week and often do outside stuff on the other days. Right now the kids are using this time to get DH to help them build their egg drop containers for our upcoming Humpty Dumpty night

In the fall we are adding in Latin (Minimus) and a French (co-op) and we will probably add time for both of those around table time in the morning and the kids want to add in Story of the World activities so we may pick an afternoon each week for focus on that.

I'm not a schedule type person and prefer to aim for a rhythm to our days/weeks.

HTH
Karen

[frogguruami]

This year we are going to more of a schedule but last year I did that. I had a certain amount I wanted to see done each week and each month. I broke everything down into 3 week blocks. The fourth week was an off week and if we didn't get something finished then we had a "make-up" week built in.

We are keeping that this year but assigning time blocks each day to certain subjects because I found that we were "goofing off" too much.

[mich]

On a side note. As a very relaxed homeschooler, I will often change our plans for a day. Or if we are under the weather we will not do book work for a week or more. I have finally figured out not to set up my routine as "We will be doing this book work 3 times a week"

I can't tell you how many times I have made this announcement to my kids, only to hear them weeks later telling grandma or a neighbor, "Yes, we homeschool, but my mom forgets to teach us a lot!":

I have finally learned my lesson and will be using a lesson grid instead. I read once about the idea of using a chalk board or dry erase board. Divide it into sections, and write a lesson or activity in each section. Then as you do a lesson you just mark it off.

So if it takes us 1 month or 6 months, in the end we are doing our work. Then the next time someone asks my son maybe he will say "yes, and we are almost done the whole board!"

[HRC121799]

I posted on the structure thread also. We use curriculum, but we have not set daily schedule. He has all day, he can do it in whatever order he wants. He can get all of it done in the AM in less than 2 hours, or spread it out over the entire day. It works well for us, because we have a very varied schedule that changes every few months (both dh & I are in college, schedule is always changing every quarter.)

We use Math U See, Story of the World, NOEO Science and Handwriting Without Tears. We do not have a set time during the day for homeschool stuff. As long as it gets done.

[MyLittleWonders]

We use Enki and OM as our backbone curriculums, and use Singapore Math for supplementation and a chronological semi-Classical approach to history, but have no set schedule. The only exception to this will probably be on Wednesdays because my mom wants to come relearn Spanish with us, and we figured we'd just do that after we all roller skate in the morning. Otherwise, I try to establish a "rhythm" during the school year that fluctuates between focused time together (whether that be "school" type stuff or play stuff or errands) and free time to explore/play on their own.

[NoHiddenFees]

We have a weekly calendar, with subjects checked off for certain days. Formal schooling is done for a relatively short set time each day -- measured from when we start, not from a particular time. DD1 decides the order she wants to do the subjects, and this usually a pretty good indication of what she's most interested in that day. We tend to spend more time on the earlier subjects and less or none on the latter. The only things we make sure to do every day are math and Latin.

[oceanbaby]

These are all great ideas, thank you. I particularly like the chalkboard idea. I think I need something sitting out that I can see all the time.

Now I just have to figure out how to introduce the idea of "bookwork" to ds1. I'm not going to do it for awhile, but at the moment he would think I was crazy if I said "Let's sit down and work on handwriting."

[poisonedapple]

What you are describing sounds like us. I consider us to be in the middle of all the "types" of teaching there is. We go off of DD's interest, and we use real life events, and activities to learn and grow. At the same time there are things I want her to learn, or I want to share with her, that we do. I usually buy some curriculum or books to give me a hand at teaching, like this great book on science experiments, because I don't have that knowledge in my head, readily available.

We take a mix of what we do, and we do everything thus far by themes, picked by me or her. I picked the fairy tale theme, she didn't come up with it on her own, but I knew she'd love it, and she did. Some weeks we do more and others we do less. I wake up with the basic plan that we need to get as much of the "hard" stuff out of the way in the morning, DD does better, is more focused, and ready to go. And then we do the messy things, easier things, in the afternoon, when shes wired and just wants to play. I basically work off of her schedule, and what works best for her.

[homeschoolingmama]

We follow a curriculum without a schedule. I may decide to use a schedule as they get older by my oldest is 4.5 right now.
Our curriculum is Sonlight. A lot of stories. We read stories before bed usually.
If we are home then we will usually do a couple of subjects..if we are in the mood. We have Right Start Math that we do once in a while. We have BOB books. We try to read one a day. Hmm..what else? We have Le Francais Facile program for French. This has a lot of activities to do with it. Lapbooks and other creative things. We have Religion. That is reading a story out of the bible that corresponds with their activity book. We have a Religion CD that they like to dance to afterwards. We do Sign Language once in a while. So nothing too structured. I know that they are getting what I feel is important but doing it when they want to as well. I want them to have a love of learning and they absolutely LOVE when we do school here and there. We do this yr round so we don't fall "behind."

[annethcz]

We've done schedules/routines off and on over the years, but we never stick with anything too long. Most of the time, we don't have a set schedule.

We're not unschoolers, and most days I try to fit in curriculum/learning/whatever you want to call it. The operative word here is TRY. I'd say that we end up actually doing curriculum 50% of the time. Today was a good example. I had thought that we might do lesson time today. We were planning to meet friends at the park at 11am, which meant that we theoretically should have time in the morning or afternoon. In reality, we woke up, had breakfast- the boys played legos and Xbox, the girls drew pictures and watched TV, I checked my e-mail, started some laundry and made my grocery list. And before I knew it, it was time to leave for the park. We stayed longer than I anticipated, and when we got home at 3:30pm, the kids weren't interested in reading books. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow

[annethcz]

Replying to myself, because we actually did lesson stuff today (for the first time this week), and I thought I'd let you know what it looked like.

So we got up, kids hung around, had breakfast and played. I did a few things around the house, and then asked if the kids wanted to sit down and read some animal books (we're using Winter Promise Animals and their Worlds curriculum right now). All four kids sat down at the table. I got out Dover animal coloring books and crayons & colored pencils out. The kids colored pictures of the Africal savannah while I read a couple of different books about animals. Even though they were coloring, they were paying attention. I showed them pictures, and we discussed what we were reading about. Eventually, the kids moved on to working on drawings/handwriting they had started last week. Two of the kids started new drawings of birds. The kids also completed pages in their animal notebooks. As I finished reading, a couple of the kids went off to their bedroom to build legos. DD5 decided to stay at the table and put together a puzzle. DS7 asked if I would sit down on the couch with him and listen to him read me a story. After this, I made lunch. I will admit that the table didn't get cleaned up until it was time to set the table for lunch (kids were going back and forth between drawing, playing with toys, and running around outside).

So that's what relaxed homeschooling (using a curriculum in a relaxed manner) looked like at my house this morning.

[bwylde]

We have accelerated achievement and it's kind of a "hey, what do you want to do" kind of thing. I don't do schedules and I like how casual it can be (some people take it to the extreme and use it strictly, but I don't understand how).