School Routine - Take 2

Maybe it's the beautiful sunshine outside, but today feels like such a great day.  We have yet again established a new routine.  Not too far off of the old one really, but with a few new additions.

8 a.m. - We sit down to the table for breakfast and the start of school.  We start with our Circle time (calendar and weather) and go into the first few Mother Goose Time lessons.  From there I do a quick clean up and work with Lachlan to finish the few extras we add on to his day.

Heather at Only Passionate Curiosity really helped me refine our schedule with her home school to do lists.  I just downloaded the free one but for $2.00 you can get 13 to choose from.  I wanted to try the free one first, but now that I know it works for us, I might buy the whole kit and kabootle.

Lachlan marked things off all by himself today.

Today, Lachlan sat at his desk.  I grabbed his drawer out of the 10 drawer organizer, and we got to work crossing things off.  When I sat down and filled in the chart I made it pretty generic.  I listed Math, Spelling, MGT (Mother Goose Time), Writing, 100 chart and so on.  In the grid you can fill in the squares for any days they don't need to do a certain subject.  So I alternated the different subjects and have him do some things three days a week and some things two.

Math Time.

We finished our school stuff pretty quick.  He doesn't get any screen time until he is done, so he is motivated.

10:30 am - Next we have been heading outside for recess/P.E.  Lachlan got a new scooter for his birthday.  I was talking to my sister about it and she made a comment that she loved scooters.  They can't go quite as fast, so you can keep up, they can do it all on their own and it really tires them out.  It's funny because I have been checking prices on all sorts of physical activity around town, sports, swimming lesson etc.  Everything is so expensive.  But I really needed to find a way to burn up some of their energy.

Well it finally dawned on my that Lachlan and Peter are getting old enough now to where they know the rules and stay on the sidewalk.  They are good at riding back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house.  So why not use this as their physical activity?  Duh?  (I say that to myself, so it's not rude.)

Almost everyday, we have been going outside around 10:30 or so.  Lachlan goes through the garage and unlocks the door.  Then we all go out the front door together.  Usually Peter doesn't get himself dressed when I ask him to and only feels the need to get dressed when we are heading out.  I don't want to make Lachlan wait for him so I have been letting him go out on his own to get started.  He has really been desiring more independence, so this fulfills that for him.

I load up Adam in the jogging stroller and I jog back and forth right along with them.  I have been racking my brain for months trying to figure out how to fit exercise into my routine.  This works perfectly.  I strive for 20 minutes and take a little more if I can.  I don't put in that many miles because I have to stop here and there to help a child or race a child.  But my heart rate is up for a bit and it's better than nothing.

Did I mention I listen to praise music on Pandora as I run?  So nice!

12:00 p.m. - Lunch.  Most of the time just simply sitting down together is a trigger for us to learn about something.  Lunch is a free for all.  In my head, my plan is to do an Experience God lesson, or scripture memorization at lunch.  But I forgot today and we did a rhyming lesson from MGT instead. 

1:30 p.m. - When the boys take their quiet time at 1:30 or so, I get to spend some time reading the Bible.  I am following the One Year Bible reading plan and reading along with a group of 150 women from across the country, brought together by Facebook.

I have to say, this new routine and these new healthy habits are so refreshing. My soul and my body are thrilled.  

Pray we can keep it up!

An InLinkz Link-up