Schedule

I find as I go along with my research and my relaxed homeschooling year, I'm more of an eclectic homeschooler (kind of like how I decorate my house!:). At the moment, I use a combination of Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, and Classical methods and materials. I think the approaches complement one another very well.

I usually like to take field trips and include my children in a variety of life lessons. To that end, we live on a farm, raising chickens for eggs. My 16-year-old son Michael runs a small hobby kennel, keeping dogs on occasion, and my 10-year-old son Hunter helps take care of the chickens. I am a professional writer and journalist, so I like to include both of my sons when I am covering local stories. This offers them a living example of government and citizenship. Hunter particularly loves to visit the State Troopers at the Department of Public Safety.

As far as a schedule is concerned, I provide Michael with a list of things to do for the week, but he is now responsible for completing them on his own timetable. I do use a more structured schedule for Hunter, however, since he is still at the elementary level.

In our free afternoons, Hunter and I do he following activities, depending on our mood: nature walk, field trip, handwork, arts and crafts, cooking, music lesson or practice. Lately, we have been working in our vegetable garden (mainly weeding it!)

A sidenote: although both methods eschew workbooks, videos, and computer games, both my sons love these activities because they involve detailed problem solving. Hence, I use all three tools in a very relaxed manner, limiting their time on the computer and television.

Charlotte Mason Schedule

Waldorf Schedule