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Hi! For those of you in CTC up through the high school guides-what do you do on Day 5? I am looking for ideas.

Christy

Outside classes: Co-op, PE class, sports team practice, group Bible study with other homeschooled kids, dance, etc. Actually, we spread the guide out over 5 days because all of our outside activities do not fall on the same day.

I have done co-op every since my kids started school. For me, that is what I do with my day 5.

That being said, I wish I didn't do co-op! I would love to do absolutely nothing on day 5. You can save that day as a make up day, a field trip day or just a play day. Next year I am cutting co-op back to half a day so that I can get a half day of school done on that day. I plan to then be able to have another 1/2 day of school a 5th day to give us more flex in our schedules.

22 Friday's during the school year we have a fabulous Christian co-op that we go to. It is 10 weeks in the fall, and 12 weeks in the winter / spring.

Right now I am doing lite Fridays of Bible & math only. Afterwards we are enjoying getting all of the errands done before the weekend, and if we have time a park.

I actually find that we are more focused Monday thru Thursday if Fridays are a fun day like co-op, or lite.

Bible study for mom, clean house, play

The next day of school so that when we want to take breaks we can

We aren't there yet, but I am looking forward to it when we do get there! My husband works a 9-80 schedule, so should have every other Friday off. When he does have a Friday off, it is hard to get school work done for sure! Other Fridays we would use for field trips and other fun things.

We have used the day to catch up on anything we didn't get done & spend extra time on 1-2 subjects that my child is struggling with. If there is more time, I will sometimes have a particular learning or project based activity that I have come up with, or I allow my daughter to choose a project (usually life skills) that she'd like to learn or work on. She has done crocething, cooking, baking, sewing, extra reading, & art projects. Next year, I'll have 3 kids with friday free so I'm thinking of using the day to focus on Character traits with associated projects from Konos.

Cleaning, going to town, fun things with Friends....whatever needs to be done, sometimes it is school catch up. It really is great to have the extra day.

We do a very small co-op with my sister in-law and my sister. All together we currently have 10 kids ranging from PreK-8th grade. We pick a topic for each month at the beginning of the school year and each mom plans one day per month. We get together at our houses or sometimes a park/outdoor location. Some months we will do an outing or field trip on the extra Friday. We have been doing this for 3 years now and the kids love it. The other fun thing is that we all use HOD. We try to have the kids do a couple presentation/reports in front of each other each year. This year they each did a state and a pond animal presentation.

We sleep in a little later, have the cousins over for 2-3 hours to play together, do laundry, make bread and/or a fun dessert, play more outside, etc. If dh wants to take the boys fishing, etc., we move the day off to whatever day he wants. But usually, it is just a wonderful slower day at a home with the cousins over for board games, playing outside, sports outside, or movie/popcorn time. We've found it is healthy to just have some down time. It is also good for our kids to have some free time to manage on their own, and it is fun to see what they choose. Rather than spending money on outside the home activities, etc., we have spent money making our home the place to be. We usually buy one significant thing a year... a 3-wheeler, a swingset, an above ground pool, scooters, a basketball hoop, bases/baseballs/bats/mits, board games galore, movie DVDs, fire pit, erector kits, Thames and Kosmos kits, etc. By gradually saving money and buying these things, we have made our home a wonderful place to have free time. This is just one approach I know, but we have enjoyed it. I think our grandkids will enjoy it someday too, Lord willing.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks so much, everyone, for all of the great ideas! You have given me a lot to ponder over. I think my main problem is that I need to get over the idea that I have to school for 180 days. We are blessed to live in Texas where we don't have to complete a certain number. Just hard getting over that mindset.

Christy

christyg wrote:Thanks so much, everyone, for all of the great ideas! You have given me a lot to ponder over. I think my main problem is that I need to get over the idea that I have to school for 180 days. We are blessed to live in Texas where we don't have to complete a certain number. Just hard getting over that mindset.

Christy

We have to school 180 days in our state, but by law field trips and other types of learning such as life experience can count towards the 180 days. So I do count our Friday co-op and field trips any day of the week towards the 180 days. We also though school 10 months a year since 5 full days doesn't work well for us. I know from neighbors that the children in public school aren't doing a true 180 days at this point. They have so many half days and field trip days that it is closer to 160.

HTH

I just do the next day in the guide...keep plugging along.

twoxcell wrote:We do a very small co-op with my sister in-law and my sister. All together we currently have 10 kids ranging from PreK-8th grade. We pick a topic for each month at the beginning of the school year and each mom plans one day per month. We get together at our houses or sometimes a park/outdoor location. Some months we will do an outing or field trip on the extra Friday. We have been doing this for 3 years now and the kids love it. The other fun thing is that we all use HOD. We try to have the kids do a couple presentation/reports in front of each other each year. This year they each did a state and a pond animal presentation.

Woooooooow- that sounds like a dream! You do realize how blessed you are to be able to do this...! How wonderful! We have a big homeschool group in my area and I am the ONLY one who uses HOD.