William Wallace Denslow’s illustrations for Little Jack Horner, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy New Year! Aside from being the first day of 2010, this was also the very first working day of BAYS House of Learning. I did up an official looking program (for the registration process) but we are kind of flexible.

Here’s the “official” program:
6.30am – 7am Breakfast
7am – 7.30am – Independent Living Skills
7.30am – 9.30am – Free Time
9.30am – 10am – Morning Tea
10am – 10.30am – Free Time (Yasmine), English (Storm)
10.30am – 11am – Free Time (Yasmine), Maths (Storm)
11am – 11.30am – English (Yasmine), Free Time (Storm)
11.30am – 12pm – Maths (Yasmine), Free Time (Storm)
12pm – 2pm – Lunch & Play Time
2pm – 3pm – SOSE*
3pm – 5pm – Afternoon Tea & TV (Except weekends, when 3-4 is Religion & Philosophy)
5pm – 6pm – Free Time
6pm – 7pm – Dinner
7pm – 8pm – Independent Living Skills

*The 2-3pm timeslot is different every day:
Monday – Technology (Yasmine), The Arts (Storm)
Tuesday – Health & Physical Education
Wednesday – Science
Thursday – Technology (Storm), The Arts (Yasmine)
Friday – SOSE
Saturday & Sunday – LOTE

Here’s what actually happened lol:
I was woken by the phone at about 9am (well it is New Years!) and the kids were already up and fed. I was on the phone until about 9.30am, then Storm & I did a little bit of geography (SOSE). Storm wore his lion suit and we talked about where lion’s live. We looked at the Atlas to see where Africa is in relation to Rockhampton. We talked about how Australia is one country & Africa is lots of different countries. We learned the names of various countries and looked up their flags.

At around 10, we had chocolate muffins for morning tea then Earth & I did last nights dishes. After the dishes were done I sat down with the children to do some Maths & English. First Storm, then Yasmine.

For Maths we used worksheets to learn about the number 1. We recited ‘Little Miss Muffet’ & ‘Little Jack Horner’ and talked about instances of 1 (1 girl, 1 bowl of curds & whey, 1 spider, 1 plum, 1 pie). We sang songs involving counting forwards (One, Two, Three, Four Five, Once I Caught A Fish Alive…) & backwards (Five little speckled frogs sat on a hollow log…)[this could also count as Music].

For English with Storm, we used worksheets to practice letter sounds. Read nursery rhymes while singing along to the words [Music]. We read ‘Scruffy Teddy Goes to the Farm’ together. I read the words with Storm repeating the words after me. For Yasmine’s English, we used worksheets to practice the sound of letters. We read nursery rhymes while singing along to the words [Music]. We read ‘Toy Story 2′ together, with Yasmine repeating the words after me.

We finished by 11.43am, so the children had some more free time before lunch. We had lunch at around 12.30pm. We all had a sausage sizzle for lunch. This involved fine motor skills (opening the sauces) and gross motor skills (learning to pick up sausages with the grippers). Yasmine & Storm coloured in their worksheets from this morning [Art].

We had free time until about 3pm, when we did about 20 minutes of SOSE. Storm, Annie, Yasmine & I talked about New Year’s Day, what that means & what year it is now. We named the months & found our birthdays. We recited ’30 Days hath September’ & replaced the calendars. When we finished the kids gleefully switched on ABC Kids. They watched this for a while then went outside to play. They didn’t come back in until Malcolm in the Middle started.

Oh, I forgot about Independent Living Skills. This is just a fancy name for chores. Yasmine, Annie & Storm cleared the table after breakfast. Yasmine cleaned the table. Annie swept the floor and Storm used the dustpan to put the dust in the bin. Yasmine & Annie cleared and cleaned the table after morning tea.

It is now around 7.30pm and we still haven’t had dinner because everyone is still full from lunch. This is way more fun than I expected!

Related articles

• Ten Useful Skills You Might Find Yourself Developing As a Homeschooling Mom (tutoringtoexcellence.blogspot.com)
• Math Troubles…You Are Not Alone (yahuahshomemaker.wordpress.com)

Categories: Blogs

Tags: ABC Kids, Arts, homeschool, Little Jack Horner, Little Miss Muffet, Math, mathematics, New Year's Day