{ HOMESCHOOL SCHEDULE SLIDES // ... }
every year I try something new to add to our schedule/routine and hope it helps. managing expectations with three different kids feels like a juggling act for sure and any things that support how we make out way through the days is welcome here.
this year I decided to create a few digital slides in the hopes of having somewhat of a virtual checklist that was easy for me to update and display as the weeks move along. I wanted to be able to provide instruction in a more dynamic way. like separating church from state, anything that assist me in separating mom from teacher is help wanted in our unschool days.
I used the keynotes app in the apple suite to build our collection of slides that mimic the different parts of our day. adding titles to each of the slides indicating the time of day or subject that we are on starting with our morning meeting and ending with our end of day meeting.
the great thing about this digital life is that syncing throughout devices is everything. while it does take a bit of techie-ness and patience in ‘figuring it all out’, it is certainly all worth it in the end. keeping it digital make it so easy to adjust the plan whenever necessary. the kids can access them directly on thier devices, I can stream them through airplay on any screen in our house, I can pull them up on the go with my iPad, computer or iPhone when we are out on adventures. I can change the order of our day or make the day a bit shorter to make room for other things. its like having a digital unschool schedule bestie and I love it. the only rule in creating the slides and making sure they are as effective as possible is to consider our needs and try my hardest to streamline and keep it simple… in a world where y’all know I like to make things ‘extra’, lol.
our schedule always tends to be split into two parts. focused subject study and checkins and/or breaks.
checkins/breaks: morning meeting, morning walk, am work, quiet reading time, snack/tea-time, lunch time, quiet writing/real aloud, end-of-day meetings
focused subject study: language arts, mathematics, history, science, specials (art, engineering, music, culinary arts) and projects (writing lab, geography, science lab, history lab)
I include a back ground image and a few graphic elements that fit our fallcofamily brand and like to add a ‘next up’ section at the bottom right hand corner of each slide and a checkmark that appears as they click through each section of their routine.
it is important to note that we use these slide most heavily throughout the first few months of establishing a newer routine and will expect them to become more second nature as the days move on in unschool life. our goal is to use them as a tool and never to let them control the flow of our studies/ our day.
when necessary I break the slide up into three boxes/sections in order to add any specific instructions or references to the kids individually as I am able to add hyperlinks, link/ embed videos, create voice memos and even stream live videos to the slides to help them along the way. while you will clearly see that I am not a tutorialist be any means, I did try my hand at walking you through a bit of the keynote platform and explaining a little of how I pulled together the slides in this video. please give your girl a little grace knowing that I tried my best just for you, lol.
I hope this post helps to give you a bit more insight on how/why we like to live our best digital lives.
with all the love,
Syreena
