We rearranged most of the living areas the other day. I knew our new school year would be starting shortly after I got it organized. So, here we are, starting our new year, with new chores, new books (along with some uncompleted work from last year), new schedules, and a brand new room to work in. There’s a lot to cover here so I’m going to break it down into several posts where I discuss their daily routine chores, their rotating extra chores, and even their curriculum for the new year. I’ll start with TheOldest who’s now 10. He is starting the 5th grade. All of my forms are from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. They release a huge amazing planner each year and I’m still using the forms from last year.
Here is my 5th grader’s curriculum (minus his main Language Arts curriculum: still debating this Lord of the Rings curriculum or the Learning Language Arts Through Literature).
This is the 10 year old’s master list of school work. It is broken down by day and subject. I put the forms inside a plastic sheet protector so that he can mark off with a wipe off marker each day as he finishes each subject and chore.
A couple of things to note. One is we are moving to a 4 day schedule for the most part. I missed our unit studies, I had a hard time incorporating a big art mess into our regular school days, and I greatly increased the amount of writing and thinking skills my 3 older ones have. So considering all of those things I kept all of our Language Arts (grammar, spelling, reading, and writing), Math, Science (except for experiments), History, and Bible (Character Studies) for Monday through Thursday. On Fridays we’ll have Art and Unit Studies. We’ll also plan any science experiments for the weekend to do with Daddy.
Our Art is composed of directed lesson plans with a worksheet and guided teaching. They will complete one sheet each Friday. Then they will have complete access to all of our craft supplies. I want them to complete on project each Friday. They can use ideas from any of our many artsy craftsy books or create something of their own using only their imaginations. Fridays will also be reserved for Unit Studies. They will each choose their own unit study with my guidance and they will work on it each week. I plan to use lapbooks for this. And I still adore Homeschool Share for our free ones.
The other thing to note on the master list above is the small checklist at the bottom left corner. This is what I expect my 10 year old to do daily. This little list actually breaks down into 3 other lists, one of which is the schoolwork list you see above. By “pick up your belongings” I intend for him to systematically go through the house collecting all of his own belongings and any he has gotten out to play with and I announce the time of day that they are all to do “Pick Up Time”.
Laundry is one of the 2 biggest changes to this year’s chore list. I have handed off most of the laundry duties to him. He does it well, he’s been training with me for years, and for the most part he doesn’t hate it. *wink, wink* He is to start the laundry (that others have the responsibility to bring to the laundry room each day), switch the laundry, and sort it into baskets (we still generally use this same laundry sorting system from before). I come in behind him and hang up the go-to-town clothes. He does not do all of the laundry, but he does have the bulk of it now.
The other big change is I’ve added “Extra Chores” to the daily list. These rotate daily and with the other 1-2 older kids. That separate list is seen below.
And if by chance you’re interested in the Book Report and Current Events report I require daily and weekly (respectively) from him on the School List above. Here are the forms (also from the The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Planner).
On the Current Events form I will have him watch some of the news and discuss it with us each week (he’s been doing this anyway for some time). Then on Friday he will think back to all the news (world and US) and discuss it with me to refresh his memory. He’ll pick one noteworthy thing and fill out the form on it. He’ll keep these for the year in a folder.
This is the Book Report form I’ll require him to fill out daily. It’s not extensive by any means. It is for his reading book that he is required to read one story per day and fill out this form afterward. I only want him at this point to get used to thinking through each of the story elements and recording them. This is how I’ve adapted this book without ordering the workbook. I like the stories and want him to think about them.
That’s my 5th grader’s daily chore and school responsibilities. We’ll see how this pans out daily. So far, less than a week in, so good.
