First two days of the new schedule

I am pleased to report the schedule has worked so far.

I have only had to make two changes, bumping our first session of Directed Play to 8am and cutting the Read Aloud time which follows to 30min rather than 45. I just can't get a load of washing on and myself through the shower in 15 mins. As I have three different Read Aloud times scheduled, though (one specifically for science), I'm not too fussed. And I love getting to 10am and sending the kids outside with a piece of fruit for the rest of the morning.

We have had difficulty with me teaching reading and writing to both kids at the same time and I am setting Anna to her writing while Joshua reads aloud and then they swap. The only problem comes when Anna has finished her writing and Joshua has not yet finished his reading. This happened today and I set him to writing while Anna read and he complained and complained until finally she was finished her book and he could read his aloud to me before going back, with a better attitude, to completing his writing. It will continue to be a fine balance, I think, but I don't want to have to teach them these things at separate times because that means I'll have to teach one of them either while the others are all playing or while the littlies are napping. That time is already scheduled for maths, science, Class Time and Mummy Time Out. Not giving the latter up! I'll just have to keep up with things and I think they'll settle down once they know what to expect.

I have also decided that on the mornings when they will be doing narrations from literature (once a week, I think), I will get them to do it while the others are having Individual Play Time (just before the reading/writing lesson). That way, I can take them one at a time to the study so I can type what they narrate, to print out for their folders. Then they can go back to IPT while another kid narrates. And the narrations will be printed ready for them to copy their first sentence when it comes to their writing lesson. It seemed to work today, anyway.

I have put together a double-page spread planner to photocopy and have spiral-bound at the local office supply store. I hope to get there Thursday night during late night shopping, or even tomorrow while Sam is in child care. It depends what we do with our last Wed excursion morning before BSF goes back next week. I am toying with the idea of heading to SciTech. I have also had time to set up a blank page for narrations with space for me to type at the bottom and three ruled lines at the top, one smaller (for me to write the exemplar) and two thicker (for the kids to copy their sentences). And another with space for their illustration above the same three line set for a caption. I hope to post pics tomorrow but for the moment I am not sure how to get the scanner going (still learning the finicky bits of having a Mac).