It's an Oz-some life: How do you organize your day?

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is "How do you homeschool three kids at once and get everything that everyone needs done"?

I will admit that when I started homeschooling my first child it was tough because of the learning curve. But by the time I added on the second child I felt like it was easy peasy to do. Then came the third child and boy oh boy was that tough for me. It took a while before things got smoother. I know of other people who homeschool three children and they say similar things, so I thought I would share what seems to work well for us right now although by no means is this concrete. I have found that we are most successful when we are flexible with and open to changing things up if and when they no longer work. You'll also notice that the first thing we do is our Bible Lesson - pray first, then start your day- I can only tell you what works for us :) I am going to plug "One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms" by Jackie Wellwood one more time.....

So here is an example of today's "schedule"

K	A	L
Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson	Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson	Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson
Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion	Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion	Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion
Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print	Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print	Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print
Math ( Meet with me)	Reading ( Independent)	Reading ( Independent)
Reading ( Independent)	Math ( Meet with me)	Online: Multiplication.com
Math ( part 2- Independent)	Spelling	Math ( Meet with me)
Spelling	Online: Multiplication.com	Grammar( Meet with me)
Grammar ( Meet with me)	Grammar ( Meet with me)	Spelling

So, everything that is highlighted in green means that I taught that lesson. You will notice that that Bible, Science, and Latin are taught as a group.

Now, I know that some of you have super little ones and are trying to school with babies or toddlers. When my kids were that age I would have activities that they could do alone like puzzles, blocks, play-doh, chalk and chalkboard, coloring with crayons or markers, stringing beads( large ones), scooping cotton balls, rice, or macaroni with big spoons and transferring between bowls etc. If you have babies you can always school while they are napping or if they are content while they are playing quietly. The nice part about when they get a little older is that you can always let them work online doing games that reinforce previous lessons. If you scroll to the right of the blog page a tab with sites that we like to use will come up. I should also add that I recently found a site called KidZui which is a safe internet search site for kids. Lots of great topics they can look up including things like the Yellow River/ Huang in China, as well as funny little videos and songs with dogs and kittens etc. They are parent and teacher approved before they go on the site. I waited until we had been using it for several months before sharing it just to make sure there weren't any problems and so far so good. We have never come across anything inappropriate. While the site is safe, I will note that I do not allow them to surf any site without my supervision. I give my 10 year old a little space in that I am not sitting with her, but I am always in the room she is in listening and occasionally looking at her screen .

I also want to mention that many subjects can be taught outside on a back porch table while smaller brothers or sisters play in a sand box or on swings.

There are many more possibilities but those are a few that we employed and which worked well for us.

So, just a few pictures from today with sites that explain what we worked on before I go .....

This is the "coin craft" the kids worked on today that went along with our story " Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector"
The kids drew a picture of themselves on one side ( funny - none of my kids have red hair) and on the other side they drew a picture or wrote down how they were valuable to Jesus.