Scheduling Without Actually Scheduling Part 2 - Daily To Do List

Last post was about how we schedule the outings in a week. Today is about how we do a daily to-do list. Here is a picture of a day's list (with The Kid's name removed):

This list is typically the more "academic" stuff I want to get done in a day - reading, math, spelling, science, fine motor skills. It does not include lots of other playing, but rest assured that plenty of off-list stuff happens every day! Some of the things are in a code of sorts - "number games" means RightStart Math and "Activity sheets" is a selection of Kumon fine motor skill sheets, Mad Libs, and Can You Find Me? sheets.

The list is in no particular order. If something needs to happen at a particular time, such as gymnastics, that is written on the board. Otherwise, The Kid can pick things in any order and we erase them as we finish. There is no requirement that everything be done and often the list is altered during the day. Sometimes she wakes up and declares she wants something added to or deleted from the board, which is fine. Sometimes we just get to the end of the day and didn't get to things, which is also fine. But the list manages to put a lot of control into the The Kid's hands regarding what she does when and keeps me on track for remembering to do something.

Scheduling Without Actually Scheduling Part 1 - Weekly Schedule

I like schedules and lists, but they don't really fit in with preschooling very well. I've had to adapt and meet somewhere in the middle. I use two large magnetic white boards, 2' x 3' each, to keep our schedules and lists in a child-friendly format.

Here's our weekly schedule:

I made this before my child could read, so it is done with picture magnets. I made the magnets by finding pictures online for all the places we normally go together - I preferred pictures rather than logos but used recognizable logos when needed. I then printed out the pictures and fed it all through my Xyron 900 to make them into laminated magnets. If you don't have a Xyron 900, I believe there is magnet paper that can be fed through a printer, you could take your pictures to an office store to have magnets made, or you could print the pictures out on stock paper and add self-stick magnets to the back.

This calendar is for outings and non-negotiable stuff like doctor's appointments. We also include bathtime on here because we were a little too prone to forget about it! When she was younger, it also included naptime so she could see whether events were planned for before or after nap. While I keep this simple and most of our day is free-flowing, you could include as much of your day as you wanted to.

We started this calendar around the time she turned two. At that time, everything was put on with no input from her. Now that she is older and there are more places to go than there is time, we talk every Sunday about what things she and I want to do for the coming week and choose what goes on the schedule together.

The Final Bob Books Reading Loop

I posted earlier about using Bob Books to learn reading with a kid that doesn't like to re-read anything. (I don't get that. I mean, she will ask me to read a new story 3-4 times in a row to her!) Here is the progression we ultimately ended up using:

Bob Books Set 1
Bob Books Set 2
Bob Books Sight Words Kindergarten
Bob Books Rhyming Words
Bob Books Set 1
Bob Books Sight Words Kindergarten
Bob Books Set 2
Bob Books Sight Words First Grade
Bob Books Set 3
Bob Books Sight Words First Grade
Bob Books Set 3
Bob Books Set 4
Started Progressive Phonics Intermediate level
Started easy readers - mostly Clifford, Little Critter, and Elephant and Piggie
Bob Books Set 5

Once I introduced her to Progressive Phonics and easy readers, she would choose which she wanted to do each time she wanted to read to me. We'll still go back and forth between easy readers and Progressive Phonics (which she calls the "read it together stories"). She can now handle easy readers at a beginning-of-first-grade level with just a bit of help with some of the words that are not phonetic.

If I were redesigning the sequence, I would put the Rhyming Words set and the Sight Words Kindergarten set before Set 2. They fit better there, but I wasn't sure where the non-numbered sets should go when I started. We may loop through Sets 4 and 5 again sometime in the future depending on whether she is interested and how she is doing with the easy readers.

At her request to learn spelling, I also introduced All About Spelling while we were going through Set 5. Since All About Spelling is a phonics-based spelling program, I'm expecting that it will also help bolster her reading skills. Right now, it is giving her further confidence because she is realizing she can already spell all the words in the first several lessons!

Homeschool Room (aka Playroom)

So many people posted their homeschool room about a month ago and I was envious of all the neatly organized spaces. Ours usually looks like it has been ransacked, possibly because our homeschool room is better know as "The Kid's Playroom". But I took advantage of a day without her in the house to organize, clean, and photograph!

This is the bookshelf for the current library books, the dress up bin, the ball bin, and the fabric bin. We use the couch seen in the background for a comfy reading space.

Next up is a map of the U.S., a dollhouse, a small whiteboard, a cash register, and the big wooden chest that currently is full of Duplo.

Last on that side of the room is the art station.Still probably the least "organized" section of the room because I know that it will never stay organized.

The shelves above hold "school supplies" and the cabinets below hold "toys", though there is admittedly a lot of overlap between these two categories. The first picture above is a shot of all of it. The large white board usually contains our to-do list for the day and there are letter magnets on the back of it.

The shelves in the second picture contains more art supplies (I keep the paints out of reach) and science experiment supplies. The last picture is the shelves with the reading books, sandpaper letters, and math manipulatives.

Bob Books With an Impatient Reader

Learning to read was definitely The Kid's idea. And she loves her Bob Books... most of the time. I've read many a blog post from people who spend a week on a Bob Book, delving into the reading rules and making whole lessons around them. That wouldn't work here. The Kid has no patience for repetition of something she has to work for. And she memorizes books after 2-3 readings, so it wouldn't take long before she was reciting the book instead of reading it.

We started Bob Books about 8 months ago. Through fits and starts, The Kid has now read Sets 1 and 2, the Kindergarten Sight Words Set, and the new Rhyming Words Set. She does really well with them, but gets frustrated easily. Set 3 reportedly takes a big leap in difficulty, so we decided not to move on quite yet.

Then the idea came to me - she surely wouldn't remember the stories she'd read once eight months ago, right? So we're starting over with Set 1. She is gaining some confidence and fluency in her reading. We will work our way back through the sets we have and then do either the First Grade Sight Words or Set 3. After that box, we will consider looping back through again. I expect that each loop will go faster than the first time through since she is certainly a stronger reader now than when she started!

Hello!

Hi! I'm Jackie. I live with my husband and daughter in Indiana. I last updated this "about me" page in February 2015.

My daughter is a wonderful, precocious four year old. Here she is:

You know all those cute pseudonyms people give their children online? Yeah, I couldn't come up with one. She's therefore just known as The Kid.

And here's me:

I recently left work to stay home full time with The Kid. My husband and I decided a while back that we will homeschool. We started out with preschool activities when she asked to learn how to read. When she turned 4 and several of her friends were getting ready to enter kindergarten, she announced she was starting kindergarten as well. We went along with that and are well into her kindergarten year now.