Month: December 2016

Daily Homeschool Schedule

Last Monday, I was thinking about our daily schedule when we homeschooled and how it changed over the years.  I’d like to share a few ideas with you that worked for us.

Have a “get up” time.  Doesn’t have to be 6:00 am, it can be 8:00 or even 10:30 or noon. Whatever works for your family.  That is one of the beauties of homeschooling.  You can work it around the work schedules of the parents, or even the grandparents.

At any rate, have a set time that everyone gets up by and gets the day started. Of course, anyone can get up earlier.  You may want to have the rule that they can go to the bathroom, but then back to their bedrooms until the appointed time. And they cannot wake up the others, either!

These are daily habits that you help your children develop. This will carry over to their teen and adult years.

  • Bathroom stuff
  • Grooming
  • Getting dressed
  • Making the bed
  • Simple breakfast

Next, “Morning Chores” to get our home in order.

  • Laundry washed & on the clothesline
  • Floors swept
  • Dishes washed
  • Stuff like that

When there were animals to take care of, that was done before the home was cared for.  Our family principle is that the animals (pets, farm, or 4-H/FFA) are captive and dependent on us.  We care for them first.  Of course, if you have animals to milk, then that schedule is paramount.

So, if “getting up” is at 8:00, the morning has progressed to about 10:00 or 10:30 by the time all of this is done.  Please don’t get discouraged by this.  As I’ve heard it said, “It isn’t the lack of a perfect math curriculum that puts kids back in school.  It is the frustrations of not being able to maintain some order in the home.”

You and the children work together to maintain some order in the home before the academics begin for the day.  Next week, we’ll talk about what & how to do the academics.

 

WELCOME

Welcome to The Old Timers blog!

Farmer Graybeard is the 7th generation on our family farm in WV.  He is now disabled from 40 years as a surface coal miner.  His mind & heart still want to farm.

Grandma Honey is the oldest of five, mother of seven, grandmother of eight, and now even a Great Grandmother!  “Bossy” is part of the job description.  Haha

We want to use the term “homesteading” as a catch-all term for all the things that happen on a mostly self-sufficient family farm.  We’ve raised beef cattle for market.  I guess it is called a cow-calf operation.  We just call it cattle farming.  We will share our methods with you.

In the years our children were growing, they had a variety of animals for 4-H and FFA.  We will share thoughts about raising those animals, too.

In addition, we’ve raised most of our own vegetables, put them up in jars, and stored them in our own cellar for use the rest of the year.  We’ll share our “once-a-year” cooking methods.

This lifestyle includes hunting, fishing, and foraging.  We will talk about those topics, too.

Add in homeschooling (which we’ve done since 1985) and Doctor Mom topics, and we hope to keep you entertained while educating you about this lifestyle we would do all over again, if possible.

Now that WE are The Old Timers, we will share wisdom and knowledge that we received from the people we called old timers!

Welcome!