Awhile ago I reviewed Catholic Heritage Curricula’s First Grade Lesson Plans. In my review, I mentioned briefly that the lesson plans have built in “flex days,” something I wanted to talk about a bit more.
I’ll be honest, at first I wasn’t too sure about this whole flex day thing. The idea is to have an “unplanned” day every week (in this case, Wednesdays) to have field trips, doctor appointments, in-depth projects, etc. The best part is, it counts as a school day! But while it sounded great and made sense, the slacker in me was concerned that we’d end up spending every Wednesday zoning out in our pajamas in front of the TV.
But it’s really amazing how much learning happens without much effort! Cooking and baking, household chores, grocery shopping- all are real-life learning experiences. It didn’t take long for me to quit feeling guilty marking our flex day down as a school day on our attendance records. And on the occasion we did spend the day in our pj’s watching movies, I just reminded myself that hey, kids in public school get movie days, too!
This year our flex day does have a bit more structure. First of all, every other Thursday we have our homeschool co-op (starting next week). So on that week, we will do Thursday’s scheduled work on Wednesday, and make Thursday our flex day instead. This will keep me from having to cram too much stuff into one day and losing my mind. On our regular week, we read some in our history book and then do math and Latin drills. This doesn’t take much time, so we have plenty open to add in more things if we’d like.
Do you have a “flex day?” Why or why not, and what do you usually do with it?
Katie lives in Indiana with her husband and three daughters and can be found blogging at Just Another Catholic Mom.
Photo courtesy of iheartlinen
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a really good idea. I fear I won't get my history and science done though. We often have a slower day per week for projects but having one day a week to plan all the extras like doctor appts and mid week runs to the store makes so much sense.
I am putting our fall schedule on paper this week…thanks for something new to consider :o)
[Reply]
Thank you so much for this post! I needed it. I needed a word for it! :) This is our first year HSing (1st grade) and although we take every other Friday "off", we still may do crafts, activities, cooking, etc. in which they are still learning. I have not counted these days as "school", but now I really think I should. Flex days. I like it. THanks! :)
[Reply]
Our flex day is usually on Friday. My kids other parent lives 100 miles away, so every other Friday I drive there and he brings them home on Sunday. We use the driving time to listen to books on tape, stop at thrift stores and go to Panera Bread.
[Reply]
We schedule Thursday as a flex day. This works well for me so I can catch up on some things and it brings the variety of experiences into learning that homeschooling is so good for.
Every other week we visit the library, and any stores we need to hit. (groceries, etc.)
Then on alternate Thursdays, we can have field trips, baking with mom, cleaning, games, or other projects to work on.
[Reply]
Every other Friday I have down as Catch Up day. That is the day for catching up if we have fallen behind in schoolwork, and also the day for science projects, fun games and other stuff. What's great about it is more of a mental thing than anything else, since in my mind it's a free day and we can either do something productive or take the day off. Oddly, having the option of a day off often means we get more done than if I had scheduled a bunch of stuff.
[Reply]
I started using CHC's lesson plans when I had two children doing formal lessons and needed more structure. One of the reasons was the flex day since I had been labelling Fridays as only-fun-things-for-school days (unless we needed to catch up) and this way I wouldn't have to change it.
This year I'm planning to do a fun early music program for the younger children on our fun things day, it's very nice to feel like I have the time to do something special for the one and three year olds :-) . We'll see how it goes.
[Reply]
Love your cool fabric calendar, as well as your post about flex days…as far as our schedule, we have flew afternoons, as we do all of our schoolwork in the morning. We start early, usually b/t 6 and 7 and go until 12:30…then, we have the afternoons to do whatever needs to be done outside of the home.
We usually reserve Fridays as field trip Fridays, we usually do errands and such on Tuesdays, but it is very flexible in the afternoons.
[Reply]
Oh, I wish the cool fabric calendar was mine! But it was in the flickr creative commons search :)
[Reply]
We have also implemented a "flex day." Our co-op classes are on Wednesdays. Although the kids take some pretty great courses on these days, including their supplemental science, it's a day that we just accomplish a lot less at home. I'm learning to be okay with that.
We work on Wednesday mornings for 3 hours at home, then have co-op and that's all for the day. I get plenty of cooking and craft time in during the late afternoon! :-)
[Reply]