Our Daily Rhythm
Grade one, Charlotte Mason style: formal lessons run 8:30 to 11:00, then the whole afternoon belongs to Pan. Here's the shape of our week this first quarter.
The morning, block by block
| Time | What we do |
|---|---|
| 8:30–9:00 | Morning Basket — Bible story, hymn, Bible memory, a Filipino folk song, and a poem, all together on the couch. Wednesdays add 10 minutes of picture study (Vermeer this term); Fridays add 10 minutes of composer study (Handel). |
| 9:00–9:10 | Math — one short Math Mammoth lesson. Ten minutes, then we stop, even mid-worksheet. Especially mid-worksheet. |
| 9:10–9:20 | Mental Math — Ray's Arithmetic, done out loud, no pencils. |
| 9:20–9:35 | Reading & Language — McGuffey's Primer daily; Mondays and Thursdays add a Grammarland lesson, where nouns and articles are characters on trial in Judge Grammar's court. |
| 9:35–9:50 | Break — snack, wiggle, run around. |
| 9:50–10:10 | Araling Panlipunan — story-based history and geography: ancient tales on Mondays, Philippine history on Wednesdays (Aetas and datos to Lapulapu and Legaspi), timeline and mapwork the other days. |
| 10:10–10:30 | Science — nature journaling Mondays, readings from Insect Life and Seed Babies Tuesdays, notebook narration Wednesdays, and a real nature walk every Thursday. |
| 10:30–10:50 | Filipino / English Literature — Filipino stories and copywork, Aesop's fables, read-aloud narration, and Shakespeare on Fridays (A Midsummer Night's Dream, gently retold). |
| 10:50–11:00 | PE — Tuesdays and Thursdays: ten minutes of movement games, from Simon Says to tightrope-walking with a pillow on her head. |
| Afternoon | Untimed — handicrafts, life skills, chores, and free reading. Tuesdays are for brushwork painting. |
Why so short?
Short lessons are a Charlotte Mason signature. A six-year-old gives you about ten honest minutes of attention per subject — so that's exactly what we schedule. Full attention for a short time beats half attention for an hour, and finishing before lunch leaves the afternoon for the learning that doesn't look like school: climbing, painting, helping cook, staring at ants.
How we track her work
Through the quarter, certain outputs are starred as ★ WW · Written Work ★ PT · Performance Task — these bank toward the portfolio our provider reviews each quarter. Week 9 is assessment week: quarterly exams, catch-up days, and assembling the portfolio together (plus a Messiah listening encore, because by then she'll have favorites).