The second installment in this series will deal with the second part of the day. We left off with the mid-morning break after Bible study. If you have little ones, ideally it could be timed with their morning nap.

The time right after the snack in the morning, is the best time to tackle your child’s most challenging subject. Different kids will grasp things at different speeds. One child may be a prodigious speller – but may resist long division. If you are schooling more than one child at the same time – give each one their toughest subject at this time. If you have the space, have them sit as far apart as possible, but not so far as to make it difficult for you to see them at all times. In this way, you can move between them, giving assistance where needed.

The curriculum we used from A Beka,  had plenty of “seatwork,” which I gave to each one to work on independently while teaching another one. This seatwork had to be completed every day, before any free time.

6. Present and assign most challenging subject to each child. Start to finish, this could take 30 – 45 minutes.

7. Take a stand up and stretch, jumping jacks, bathroom break. Depending on age, some nappers may be up now too.

8. Now would be the time for the second most challenging subject – depending once again, on the individual child. I always gave preschoolers a coloring page at this time, so they could “do school” too. This could take around 20 – 30 minutes.

9. Lunch! I always felt celebratory at this point in the day. Conquering their tough stuff first – made them feel good too. Lunch usually takes 30 – 45 minutes including cleanup.

10. Free play time. Only during the very worst weather did they stay inside. This varied, from 30 – 45 minutes. 

Yes,that’s a crock-pot! This single device is a home-school helper extraordinaire! It can be loaded up in the morning and started before the kids wake up, or there is my method. At night, I would put everything in the crock-pot (even meatloaf) and then put the crock into the refrigerator overnight, to be started in the morning. It made the mornings a lot less hectic. Sometimes I actually started it at night, in the case of baked beans, which  cook all night.   Using the crock-pot was, and is, a life saver, seriously! Because of the crock-pot, I was able to do some things I like to do in the late afternoon, like playing the piano.

Fool proof crock pot brown rice:

• 10 cups water
• 4 cups brown rice (rinsed)
• 1 Tbs. butter
• 4 tsp. salt

Spray inside of crock with cooking spray.  Put all the ingredients into crock, give it a stir and turn on high for approximately 3 hours. 

This recipe makes a ginormous pot of brown rice, which is eaten hot as a side dish, with cheese and re-fried beans for lunch, stirred into pancake batter and muffin batter,  and remade in the crock pot in the form of rice pudding.  This method will even give good results to some of those “tough” rice mixes, containing wild and red rices, that never seem to cook by ordinary methods. 

Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31:25

Next week we look at the third part of the day, and in upcoming posts are the goodies like pets and field trips!