We’re in our 8th week of homeschool.  If you homeschool, you know that your week in school doesn’t necessarily correspond to the week of lesson plans you’re supposed to be in.

You see, one of the PROs of homeschooling is that your schedule will be dependent on the student’s strengths and weaknesses in every subject.

Since our homeschool style allows us to cater to our students, I’ve noticed that, essentially, there are 4 KINDS OF HOMESCHOOL SUBJECTS:

1. The Easy
2. The Guided
3. The Challenge
4. The Fillers

The Easy Work

Easy Work can be done everyday with very little time.  And the best part, they can be done about 90% independently. We are lucky that Spelling falls into this category for our family.  Both my girls are in the 3rd Quarter already.  That’s because they can do two-three spelling lessons every week.  Also, because my girls are advanced, voracious readers, in Vocabulary and Reading, they’re finishing the 2nd Quarter soon.  This also means that they are also ahead in Phonics, which they are almost done with 2nd quarter.

The Guided Work

Guided Work are the subjects that require half formal teaching, half independent time.  These subjects are usually the ones where the student already has some background knowledge that can be used to learn a new concept.  For us, Guided Work subjects are Religion, Mathematics, Literature, and English/Grammar.

The Challenge Work

Challenge Work requires one-on-one teaching more than 50% of the time.  These subjects usually offer completely new concepts, ideas, and/or skills to the student (and sometimes the teacher too)!  They also take the biggest chunk of time on our daily schedules.  Also, it’s normal for us to take more than one day to complete these lessons.  Oftentimes, we take an extra day or two to review before a test too!  For us, Challenge Work subjects are Latin (6th grade), Composition, History, Geography, and Science.

The Fillers

Finally, The Fillers are basically that, “fillers” of time.  Granted, they are still educational in nature and teach students something…but these subjects are awesome because they can be moved around within the day or week.  They offer teachers and students a buffer between tough workloads, and they let the teacher have time to drink coffee too!  If we’re pressed for time, we skip the Fillers and move it for later in the day or even, the next day.  Heck, if we’re really ambitious, we might save them for that evening or the weekend!  For us, Filler subjects are Handwriting, Computer, and P.E.

Our New Weekly Schedule

So, knowing which subjects fall into which category helped me to create a new schedule for my kids.  Instead of stuffing every, single subject in a day (like we did at the beginning of the year), I’ve spread them out.

You’ll notice that in all three schedules, we do Religion and Math everyday.  That’s because for us, those are our two most important subjects.

Then, for the rest of the subjects, I took into consideration a few things in creating the individualized schedules:

• Grade Level and expected “Core” curriculum from our Kolbe Academy Curriculum.
• Student’s attention span – this primarily affected the order of the subjects
• How long I know each student takes on a particular subject – I try to stagger easy and hard subjects to maximize learning time
• Finally, I considered each student’s developmental age – I know what they can handle and what will drive them to tears

Here’s a closer look of the subjects for our current grade levels.  So far, it’s doing wonders for our homeschool days!

6th Grade Weekly Subjects Schedule

I’ve decided that there are 5 subjects I want my 6th grader to do every day – Religion, Math, Grammar, Spelling, and Latin.  Religion and Math, I’ve already mentioned, are the two most important for us.  Grammar is our Guided Work.  Spelling is our Easy (buffer) Work.  Latin (our very first time with this Subject) is our Challenge Work!

The rest are sort of “partners” with some buffers in between days.  Science switches off with History/Geography, with Computer in between.  Vocabulary switches with Composition, with Handwriting in between.  Then there’s Phonics taking turns with Reading/Literature.  Finally, there’s P.E., which we try to do everyday, but doesn’t always happen.  (No worries, the kids do have Tae Kwon Do after school, everyday.)

1st Grade Weekly Subjects Schedule

Just like my eldest, I’ve decided there are 5 subjects I want my 1st grader to do daily.  I believe that these 5 are the most essential subjects that my student needs to do in order to excel in 1st grade.  Taking into account her advanced reading skills and the fact that she’s a fast learner, her must-do-daily subjects are Religion, Math, English, Spelling, and Vocabulary.

Again, there are partners and buffer subjects in between to even out the rest of the school day.

Pre-K Weekly Subjects Schedule

My little guy is 4 and is at the cusp of taking off in reading.  It is hard for him to sit still for longer than 5 minutes without complaining to the whole world that he is “tired” and needs a break.  He is loud and full of energy.  However, I need my little guy to do 5 important subjects, every day:  Religion, Math, Phonics (alphabet), Sight Words, and Reading.

I believe that these 5 subjects are his best bet for learning how to read well, develop proper number sense, and know the basics of our faith.  Computer, Extra Practice, and P.E. are optional for us every day – but usually it’s affected by his mood and attention span at the time.

Final Thoughts

I used to do this same strategy for creating a subjects schedule for my classroom when I taught at a “regular” school.  After the first month of school, when I’ve had a chance to get to know my students, I rearranged the schedule.  This meant that every year, the order of my subjects differed from one another because I tried to create schedules to suit my students.

In that regard, I’m trying to do the same thing to my kids for homeschool.  I know I can make it work, and in fact, we all seem to function much better this way.  I’ve posted a copy of each schedule by my kids’ work desks so that they know what to expect every day.  When kids know what’s expected, things move along much more smoothly in the day.

Whether or not you homeschool, I suggest creating a schedule like this (color-coded if you can) for your kids.  Put in the things you expect done every day, extracurricular activities, and maybe even prayers and chores.  The possibilities are endless!

The main point is that you will give your kids a sense of structure.  I bet you’ll be surprised at how much more efficiently your days will move along!