Jr. K. Scheduling

[cdoran]

Hi All,

I am going to be starting up my first year homeschooling with the Jr. K curriculum this Fall. It is set up for two days. Does anyone have any advice/past experience on splitting it up to cover 4 or 5 days? What subjects are good to cover daily and what needs to only happen once or a few times? I will be teaching my just turned 5 year old son and 3.5 year old daughter.

Thanks!

[pickandgrin]

Welcome!
You might want to have two days that are for working the curriculum (say Mon and Wed), then two other days for lots of reading aloud, working on the craft enrichment, and exploring nature/playing. The fifth day could be for a park/zoo/museum trip or errands. For the extra reading aloud, you can use the ideas of the week as a jumping point (Africa, monkeys, and zoos for Curious George, etc.) to select other books from the library.
A five year old boy is particularly going to thrive with plenty of time to run and play as well as with the short, structured lessons from MP.
Best wishes for a great year!

[CelticaDea]

I split it up last time into 4 days (I don't quite remember what I specifically did). I'm using it again this coming year. My loose schedule is to do the letters M/W and numbers T/Th. Read aloud 2-4 times a week (depends on her interest) and probably the letter project on Tues and story project on Friday. They tend to like calendar time so that's a daily. My older daughter really struggled with the recitation so I didn't end up stressing that too much (turns out she has some learning/memory issues and it's something we still struggle with). I don't think my younger dd will have the same problem. My younger dd is very excited to start and my older dd is very excited to have her sister in school with her

Enjoy your year. Don't stress about it being perfect. They're still little. My major rule at that age is that school books are for following directions and not for scribbling. They have plenty of coloring books for that. If paying attention just isn't in the cards that day, we put it away.

[KF2000]

Hi there! Great advice already....and I wanted to share that even with older siblings doing full weeks of school, I still keep my preK down to two days a week. Even though they are sponges, and are very very eager, I see a weariness creep in if I push them to do work for several days in a row. It does not seem like a lot of work, to have them do some every day, but whenever I have done that, they do not seem to do any better than if we take a break between school days. In fact, giving them a "breather" day in between seems to give the material a better chance to soak in. So we also use those off days to read a lot, do puzzles, bake, play outside, etc, and then they are so excited to pull the books out again. Keep in mind that a school year is a long time, and keeping them wanting to do more is a good way of staying on track the whole year. Just another suggestion!
AMDG,
Sarah

[CelticaDea]

Hi there! Great advice already....and I wanted to share that even with older siblings doing full weeks of school, I still keep my preK down to two days a week. Even though they are sponges, and are very very eager, I see a weariness creep in if I push them to do work for several days in a row. It does not seem like a lot of work, to have them do some every day, but whenever I have done that, they do not seem to do any better than if we take a break between school days. In fact, giving them a "breather" day in between seems to give the material a better chance to soak in. So we also use those off days to read a lot, do puzzles, bake, play outside, etc, and then they are so excited to pull the books out again. Keep in mind that a school year is a long time, and keeping them wanting to do more is a good way of staying on track the whole year. Just another suggestion!
AMDG,
Sarah

Great point on the burn out even with only a little each day. I was always scared off doing the whole thing in just 2. It seemed too long. If I run into resistance, I'll have to try that out.

Thanks, Sarah

Katie

[KF2000]

We have kind of long school days anyway...so the days we actually do the work, it is a come and go sort of thing....we go to Mass, then we work, then there is lunch, then she works a bit more, while I am working with others....so it is spread out and gets done in a trickle, but she feels a part of things because she has her work too. The fact that it may not get all done until afternoon with the rest of the kids really makes the next day a good one to take off. I do more with older kids, and she gets to revert a bit to just playing with the baby.

Having a first child preschooler is vastly different though....felt like we had loads of time to fill up!
AMDG,
Sarah