Planning Questions

Julie asks:

I have a question about schedules and individual reading time. In the schedules, I don't see listed a time allotted for the children reading to you. When do you have your children read to you? What do your other children do when you are working one-on-one with a child? My children are 9, 7, 5, 2, & 1. The 7 year old is not able to independently read yet, and he does not want to read to his older sister.

Julie,
I think this will look differently in every house, maybe even on every given day.Some of my children will read aloud to anyone, anywhere. Others need quiet and my undivided attention. I tweak the time and location to meet each need. Within my language arts and history blocks, there is time to hear my early readers read aloud. My older children are working on their own reading and narrations at that time. I also read to my little ones before naptime for a good chunk of time and then for at least an hour before bedtime. For a child who needs my undivided attention and perfect quiet, evening time is the best to hear them read for a short while. But frankly, I'm kind of a captive audience any time a child approaches with an open book in hand. If at all possible, I stop and listen to what they want to share.

A word about those schedules in general: While the schedules are detailed enough to give me a good idea of the rhythm of the day, they don't include every detail of every activity. That is unnecessary for my purposes--it's also ever-changing. Since I can't include all the details, I'm happy to answer a question like this one, but my house is different from another house. We have different needs and abilities. It all goes back to being intentional--think about what needs to happen in your home education environment. . And then play with it until you have a rough idea of how to make it work in your house. Then test it and tweak it until it's a rhythm you can live with. (Then have another baby and start all over again;-)