One Main Lesson Subject a Day

So this week we're trying out the one subject a day approach. In the morning, they're starting out with practicing their musical instruments, then Color the Classics music/biography coloring time. Then they have a checklist of basic every day practice to get through: spelling, math drill (a multiplication table or skip counting), Latin vocabulary practice, and handwriting. I'm "scheduling" this for 9-9:45. Then it's snack, followed by half an hour of outdoor time (rollerskates, scooter, chalk, whatever). Then it's an hour and a half of the main lesson subject. Then lunch and read aloud, then more of the main lesson subject until we're done with the days assignments.
Yesterday was Math Day. So a week's worth of work for 6th grade was 31 pages. That did NOT happen. Got maybe 8 pages done, and that was 3 hours worth of work. We played math games (board game for 1st grade, then Chips for both kids). We did Line Art with colored pencils and rulers for art.
Today is Science Day. The kids are still busy with their basics checklist, then we're doing chemistry today, watching a science video about the Grand Canyon, having a Nature Walk, and finishing the travel portfolders about the Utah/Arizona trip.
We talked about the math thing yesterday and decided that breaking up the math into daily chunks was a good thing, and putting them into the daily math drill time would also be a good thing. Maybe still have math "day" where there would be more instruction and emphasis. 1st grade wasn't really a problem whipping through the 3 days of math with Making Math Meaningful. But the other 2 days a week she did Addition the Fun Way and there was no way we were going to sit down and do that, too. We reviewed those stories a little when we were playing the math games. And it was a fun math day. Absolutely! So maybe in that sense it was a success.

But I don't know. We have so much to do and so little time. I want them to have FUN, too, not be slaves to a schedule. But I think the one day a week thing is not going to work for us. I agree on paper that it makes sense that mornings should be the tough schedule, and then after lunch have read aloud, 15 minute clean up time, then History, Unit Study, Science or Art projects. But I don't want to! I'd like to start the day with art in the morning- it just seems like we'd spend to much time on it and math would still not get done. But it might help awaken the brain, destress, and just be fun. Which would help us get the work done in a timely fashion. So that'll probably be next week's experiment. First music, then art, then the "schedule". I want the freedom and flexibility of not having a "schedule", but we also have a lot of subjects we're studying and my fear is that we'll know a little bit of nothing about everything.
Still giving the "one subject a day" thing a try for the rest of this week. I'll let you know how today ended up.