I haven't written a post like this one in a long time, but I'm thrilled to do so and honestly I think it's going to be a regular post around here on Ali's Bookshelf. I've been wanting to share more of my life with you and this is going to be a way I can do just that. As most of you know I'm now a Homeschool Mom! My son is autistic and the public schools where I live aren't really open to him going to their schools enough for him to learn. (Yes, that's putting it lightly!) Anyway, I want to share how our day goes on a typical homeschool day with you, for now I'm going to share what a typical morning is like here at our house. Later on I'm going to do another post with our afternoon routine, but for now let's get to our morning.
When I say typical, that means a day where there aren't too many melt downs and we actually get all our work done. Because let's face it there are going to be those days where this doesn't actually happen and the way I would love our day to go doesn't go as planned. Anyway, it's time to walk you through our mornings.
After she's on her way to school, I have the rest of the early morning to get my day started. Normally I put away any dishes that were washed the night before and start making breakfast for my son. He usually wakes up around 8:30 AM and eats his food. We try start our school day normally around nine or nine thirty in the morning. Some days I'll be honest we don't start our day till around ten, another perk of homeschool.
We usually start off with the Pledge of Allegence. I'm really big on this, I think it's the way we should start off our day. Public schools don't really do this anymore, but here at our homeschool we do. I bought a small flag that sits on our kitchen table. As soon as that is done, we mark off our day of the year. We are doing a count down where we mark off our days that we have completed. As soon as all of that is done and he's ate his breakfast we start our Morning Basket work, which consists of a few weekly studies and our daily work. Below is what's on our list for this week.
Daily Growth Mindset Journal
President Study
Word of the Week
Element Study
State of the Week
Geography
Spelling Words (We just go over these in the morning)
After we get all of that done, my son usually needs about a 15 minute break. He's autistic so giving him breaks is a must. Another reason why homeschool really works for him. During those 15 minutes or so, I usually put a load of laundy into the washer and fold the load that's in the dryer. (The part of my day that I hate, but is a must. I try to do one load a day! Yep I said try...)As soon as those fifteen or so minutes are over we get back to work. Right now we are still trying to figure out our schedule, but we are getting closer to really honing in on it. We do use a loop schedule for certain subjects, but I'm thinking about changing it up a bit when the new year starts. Anyway, after our morning basket material, we do our daily reading and independent reading.
We are having a lot of fun reading together and right now we are reading The Indian in the Cupboard. One of my all time favorite books when I was his age. I must also add that while I'm reading, he's usually doing something fun with his hands. Either playing with his legos or coloring. This helps him listen to what I'm reading plus gives him something to do and keeps his mind from wondering. Then after we read a chapter or so in that book he picks a book from either our library books or a book off his own bookshelf to read himself in his room for about twenty minutes. Sometimes he also goes up to my Mom's house and picks a book to read to her. This helps build his reading confindence.
When he was in public school they told me several times that he couldn't read. This kid loves to read, but they weren't letting him read the type of books that he loves. Graphic novels are a great way to get younger boys to read and that's the type that my little man has always loved. His new favorite is the Sonic the Hedgehog ones we found at the library the other day. Speaking of the library we do go to the library once a week. It's usually on Mondays.
After reading, we take another ten to fifteen minute break, again it's something he needs. At this time I'm usually doing another chore that I need to finish for the day. Either answering emails, something from my Fly Lady list, or working on a blog post. Then after all of that, we do our daily chores. My son's major chore is to make sure his room is cleaned up. But right now we are re-doing his room, so mainly all he has to do is pick up his toys and make sure there isn't anything in the living room that belongs in his room. Pretty simple morning rountine if you ask me and that's exactly what we need. Simple is best when it comes to us.
If you would like to know in more detail about any of our Morning Basket, please let me know in the comments below. I would love to do a post about each of our items.
