A Peek Into Our Weekly Homeschool Kindergarten Routine
I was reading this post by Shirley Solis earlier this week which started me thinking about our homeschool routine. {Go check that post out! It has tips on how to make your homeschooling days more effective. It’s good for those new to homeschooling and those veterans of the movement.}ย So I thought that I would share a peek into our weekly homeschool kindergarten routine with you all.
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What does our weekly homeschool kindergarten routine look like?
First, know that this post is referring to book work. We do other things during the day that help Seth and Cameron to learn and hopefully retain knowledge. I’ll share some of those in the future.
Second our days usually look like this but there are some where Seth is crying and I get frustrated. On those days we usually try book work for five to ten minutes before putting it away. {Cause I can’t handle all the crying right now. We could blame that on pregnancy but it could also be an overall short fuse on my part.} But really, who learns well when they are crying or pitching a fit the whole time anyways?
Okay, let’s get started.
Sometimes we do school right away, but most mornings I like to get the house cleaned up, devotions done {remember I only do ten to fifteen minutes of daily quiet time right now} and maybe work in a short workout before sitting down to book work.
We are using Horizons Kindergarten curriculum for Math and Phonics/Reading and a 1st Grade LifePac for Bible.
Seth is usually in costume and prefers to either sit on the couch or lay on the floor rather than sit in a chair at the table while he does his school work.
Seth loves his Math and will do as much as I let him but I usually stop him at three lessons. I pick and choose what questions he does because a lot of this curriculum is repetitive. We flip back and forth between lessons depending on what we are doing and how well Seth is retaining the concepts.
{Seth actually set a math goal for the year and that is to catch up to his uncle J (he is only eighteen months older than Seth) so that he has some bragging rights with the older uncles. Sometimes I use that to my advantage. Usually on those crying and fit throwing days.}
We try to do three to four book work days during the week. Other days we do lots of reading and outdoor play. Without their outdoor time, my boys go CRAZY, which makes the cold weather months a little harder at times than the warm weather months.
Why does our weekly homeschool kindergarten routine include three to four days of book work?
So why are we hitting it so hard? I have two reasons. One, I’m not sure how much schooling we will do after BabyT#3 arrives in October and two, Seth needs something during his summer days to work at. It definitely keeps those “I’m bored” excuses to a minimum. That is one of the beauties of schooling at home, we can arrange our school year any way we need to that will best suit us and our situation at the time.
Coloring, cutting, stickers and tape keep Cameron occupied while Seth does his kindergarten work.
Potty breaks mean our twenty to thirty minutes of homeschool gets stretched a little longer as well as giving little brains and legs a break. Both boys have been playing a game lately where there is a race to the bathroom when one of them finally decides to go…then one is left dancing around yelling about how bad he has to go, while the other laughs and congratulates himself on getting to the comode first.
Cameron lost this race.
If I have been able to work out first I’ll leave Seth with a short assignment to work on while I take a speedy shower. It is usually a copy work assignment, either numbers or a short sentence. Then the games come out.
Usually it is every game they can grab, dump out, and play with for 12.3 seconds before deciding they need another one.
With potty breaks, questions, costume changes, and my shower, our weekly homeschool kidergarten routine time usually jumps to one hour.
What about you and your kindergartners? How long is your homeschool day? What is your schedule like?
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dirtandnoise says
We don’t homeschool, so it’s interesting to see how you do it .I’m thinking of starting something for the twins this fall .
Rebekah says
It really is super easy at their young ages right now. For preschool for Seth we went to the dollar store and found some little workbooks about colors, shapes, numbers and letters, Grandma gave us a couple different flashcard sets as well and that is all we used.
We read a LOT. Both picture books and chapter books, fiction and non fiction.
Melissande says
We usually take the summer off. I agree with you on arranging your school year to fit what is going on with life though! That is what I love most about homeschooling. I can always school into the summer if I need to, or start early in the year. I can take two weeks off and then double up on lessons with the kids – which honestly they’re usually happy to do if it means they get a vacation. The flexibility of homeschooling is amazing.
Rebekah says
Isn’t it! Growing up we only did four school days per week and then just stretched our school year out a little. In high school I went through the summer every year because I was working almost full time. Love the experience and I’m so thankful my parents choose to school me at home!
Alyssa Hertzig (@alyssahertzig) says
so interesting getting this little glimpse of your day. very impressive, too. you guys get so much done!
Rebekah says
Thank you. We try to have a good balance between fun and schoolwork. ๐
Moriah Steiner says
Love this! I especially like how they race to the bathroom for potty break! ๐ We don’t go for terribly long either. An hour is probably what we do (Gracie who is 3 more than Lillie who is 1 though). Sometimes it goes longer if we have special art activities or do online Reading Rainbow books.
Rebekah says
There are a lot of things that could count for school that we do that I don’t add into the book time, like reading, crafts and outside activities, if I added all that up it would probably be closer to a full hour of school. But I don’t want my oldest to think of those things as school I just want them to be normal life things. ๐