How We Do Fridays

Many homeschoolers choose to do a 4 day per week school schedule. That leaves 1 week day open every week for field trips, errands and chores (totally counts as "life skills" education), or self-directed or delight-directed relaxed learning.

I have my own version of that idea.

I feel like I push my kids really hard academically Monday through Thursday. I think I have high expectations of them and have to try hard to make sure that I'm keeping things for them in balance. I worry sometimes that my expectations and requirements of them are too high and we need to have more down time or unschoolish type education. It's very normal for me as a mom, and especially as a homeschool mom, to constantly second guess myself.

However, I digress...

My goal is for every kid to be done with their weekly assignments by Thursday. (If that means that they work longer on Thursdays because they slacked off earlier in the week, then so be it.) That way Friday is open for other pursuits. The following is what we are doing this semester. Not every semester or school year is identical!

Fridays start with group scripture and song memorization and family prayer, followed by personal scripture study time (same as every school day.)

After that, I read aloud from a biography of a classical composer. We're using these books. (Great Musicians Series from Zeezok Publishing.) They come with CDs of music to go along with it, but I find it easier to just make a Youtube playlist of songs from the particular composer and then listen to it with my tablet while I read and while we do our school work during the week. Also, while I read, the kids are free to play in the same room as me. It's usually things like Legos or Pattern Blocks. I tell them to find something that will keep their hands busy and their mouths quiet so that they can listen. It's been taking us two Fridays to get through each book.

Next, the girls will do a spelling lesson with me (All About Spelling) while Tertius does some free reading of non-fiction books. (I set out a basket of books on a particular topic such as animals, space, or American history and the books get switched out for a new topic every other week.) When the girls are done with their lesson, then they get to read while Tertius does spelling. Meanwhile, Quartus just does whatever he wants. He might look at the books or he might play with toys. I don't mind either way. Kindergartners get more freedom!

After that, we get to spend time with my friend and the kids' "adopted" Grandma. We might do a fun art or food project. We might do an activity from a science kit. Or we might just hang out (outside when the weather is nice), relax, play with toys, and enjoy each others' company. Lately Grandma's been spending all her free time on painting rocks, big and small. They're beautiful and she's so talented! So some weeks she teaches us how to paint rocks and the kids have come up with some really fun designs.

We always look forward to our Fridays. I'm hoping the way I have our week structured is teaching the kids that we need to do the hard work first and then fun can happen later. A useful life lesson!