One day earlier this week, I recorded my Kindergartner’s day. She is the youngest of my children so I’ve tended to fit her in around my older children’s schooling. Some days I did very little schooling with her. As a result this day hasn’t been a typical day for us much of this year, but I’m finally getting the swing of working with 3 kids and days like this are becoming the new normal. Some of our school days are on-the-go days, but this day is a day where we were home all day.
My daughter grew up around homeschooling and her playtime has almost always been right along side of us in the schoolroom. I highly value play and when my child becomes school age, I like to start with longer school days with a greater amount of informal (playish) schooling than formal schooling. I went through this day and added up the formal work (handwriting, math, phonics, Greek, and reading) and it totaled 60 minutes. I added up the more informal activities (science, Mandarin, Bible, Arabic, exercise) and it totaled 3 hours and 15 minutes. Next school year, there will be more time spent in formal work than this school year, but informal schooling will comprise most of her time spent in school.
8:30 Breakfast while watching Arabian Sinbad, an Arabic immersion DVD
9:15. After a little break, I put on four Youtube praise and worship songs for a meditation time. My daughter likes to sing along in her microphone.
10:00. Playing
10:15. Greek, singing the Greek alphabet while upside down in my arms and then one page in Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!.
10:20. Getting set up to practice Mandarin conversation with her toys
11:00 Finishing up Mandarin. We did a little with toys on and off while I was working on and off with her brother. Then we practiced some Mandarin action verbs. I called out the verb and she acted it out.
11:15. After a play break, she watched a Bible story cartoon on Youtube.
11:45. Phonics. 3 pages in Steck-Vaughn. This is mostly review from ETC so it only takes about 10 minutes.
12:00. Handwriting sheet from StartWrite Handwriting Software
12:15. Playing and pretending with her stuffed animals
12:50. Singapore Math. We do the text orally and she does the corresponding workbook pages….finishes at 1:15
1:15 Lunch while watching the Olympics. Play break until 2:00
2:00 Active play/exercise with siblings for 30 minutes.
2:30 Playtime
3:20. While playing in the schoolroom, she decided to join in on her brother’s spelling
4:00 After some more playtime, we started an experiment from Real Science-4-Kids on mixtures.
5:00 We went long today. Normally, we would be finished by 4:30, but the science experiment took longer than expected. We finished the science experiment around 4:45 then she played with the mixtures for a little while.
After school: She went outside to “help” me shovel the snow. That ended up changing into digging for treasure in the snowbank.
8:30. Reading a few pages just before bed from The Cat in the Hat.
There you have it. That was one day of my Kindergartner’s year.
