I think it took until this last week of school for us to really get into our routine for the year, but it seems like now things are running pretty smoothly.

The first subject of the day is always religion. We start with Luther’s Morning Prayer and the Bible and commemoration readings from the Treasury of Daily Prayer for the day. We’re working our way up to a full prayer office in the morning, but we’re not quite there yet. After the readings, we sing our hymn of the week. On Monday, Turkey and Bunny also use that hymn as their copywork for the week, on Tuesday and Thursday, they read it out loud, alternating verses, on Wednesday, they write it as I dictate it, and on Friday, they write it out from memory. On Monday and Wednesday, Ladybug has her Bible story from A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories, and does the accompanying workbooks pages on Tuesday and Thursday.

Our second subject of the day is math. I get Turkey and Bunny started on their lesson, explaining any new concepts before they get to work, and then I help Ladybug with her lesson. There’s a lot of hand-holding in first grade, so I have to sit with her for almost all of the problems she has to do. Turkey and Bunny also work on their logic assignments during this time.

After math is out of the way, we get started on Language Arts. This is a very hectic time of day for me, because while Turkey and Bunny don’t need me to walk them through every assignment, there are so many different aspects of Language Arts that I’m constantly switching back and forth between students and sub-subjects. A lot of days, I still have the nagging feeling that I’ve forgotten something, but I think we manage to get to it all every day!

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, ancient history is the next thing on our schedule, and on Tuesday and Thursday, we learn about Greek mythology.  For history, I do the reading for the day on Monday and Wednesday while Turkey and Bunny take notes, and then all three children answer questions about it. We also do mapwork to go along with whatever country we’re learning about. On Friday, they have a history test, and we place all of the timeline figures that go with the readings for the week as a review. Mythology works in much the same way…I do the reading, they answer questions, and we do mapwork where applicable.

If we have time before lunch, the children have their book basket time. A lot of days, though, we go straight to lunch, so book basket has to wait until the afternoon. I also try to give them a little free time to relax sometime around lunch. We don’t have recess exactly, but they can just run around and have fun for a bit.

After reading, we move on to science. Some days, this means just textbook work, other days, we have a notebooking assignment, or, if we’re really lucky, and experiment. There’s a lot of flexibility with our science curriculum, so we don’t have specific things on certain days of the week. Some weeks, we take longer on a chapter, and others, we move through it pretty fast.

After science is our electives time. This includes Latin, music, art, and our elective read-aloud (we’re currently studying British history). Crafts and games are often also done at this time. In general, the afternoons are much more relaxed, and a time for all of the really “fun stuff.”

So, that’s our schedule. I’m sure I’ll mess with it as the year progresses, but I’m glad we’ve finally settled into a routine that works for everybody!