My daughter, Z, has a lot of interests. Since she was two, whenever she was asked what she wanted to be when she grows up, she would answer “A mommy, doctor, astronaut, singer, actor, spy and fairy princess.”

Z has many passions. Over the past four years she has taken classes in Shakespeare, musical theatre, astronaut training, microbiology, geology, Japanese, voice-overs, improv, piano, voice, gymnastics, dance, karate and more.

Her favorite subject to study is science, especially biology. Her favorite things to do are sing and act. She reads all the time (mostly non-fiction and fantasy novel) and truly enjoys and excels at sports.

How to I manage the time of a seven year old with a lot of interests? It is daunting sometimes. There are only so many hours in the day and she is still a rather young child.

I have always been aware that despite her passionate nature she still needs downtime to remain mentally healthy and outdoor physical time to run off some of that high energy.

To give her plenty of time to play, noisily with friends or quiet games of her own imagination we keep most of the afternoon free but we have a tight schedule of academics in the morning.

Our schedule looks like this:

8:30 - 9:00 - Math - This term we are working on division, fractions and geometry

9:00 - 9:20 - Japanese - homework from her lesson or Rosetta Stone

9:20 - 10:00 - Language Arts.

I am still trying to figure out my schedule for this subject. I use workbooks to teach grammar, vocabulary and writing. I also incorporate vocabulary and spelling words from her reading in other subjects. The subject can easily go over forty minutes so sometimes I just cut it short in the middle of a lesson, other times I go on.

10:00 - 10:30 - Social Studies

She is studying Shakespeare this term. Monday and Tuesday we do our reading and activities on the Bard, this includes a wonderful television series called Shakespeare The Animated Tales, biographies, a book of quotes, watching the plays, reading the plays and researching online.

Wednesday and Thursday she works on geography.

We also add to our historical timeline whenever she learns something pertinent.

10:30 - 11:00 - Science

This term we are starting on a book Z has had for awhile, “Q is for Quark”. It covers a lot of different topics. We work on one a week. Some of the topics covered are atoms, clones, gravity, Systeme International, jet propulsion and Occam's razor.

Monday and Tuesday - Read the chapter

Wednesday -  do a corresponding video and quiz from Brainpop and other related reading

Thursday - hands-on activity related to the theme that I design myself.

11:00 - 11:30 - Reading

Monday  - we take turns reading Shakespeare

Tuesday  - a fairy tale which goes with an art project

Wednesday - a biography

Thursday - poetry

11:30 - 12:00 is buffer time for lessons that ran over or free time

12:00 - 1:00 is lunch.

We watch television during lunch. My husband works from home and we all watch something educational together. Right now we are watching the Shakespeare - The Animated Tales

1:00 - 2:00 Enrichment

Monday - Cooking

Tuesday - Fairy Tale related craft

Wednesday - Art

Thursday - Homeschooling group

Friday - Field Trip

2:00 - 2:30 - Music

Z practices piano and voice everyday and has a class once a week

In March she will have a dance class in the afternoon and in April she will add two theatre classes - Acting for Stage and Musical Theatre.

She will still have most of the day open to play with friends. During the winter’s here in the north midwest most of the play in done indoors but come spring the kids are out in droves at the local park playing till dinner time.

We want to give our daughter a deep and well-rounded education as well as time to pursue her passions and time to  play and time for quiet.

In our home that special and important mix of time spent doesn’t happen without a plan and a schedule. Our daughter works well in a consistent framework. There are days for surprises and days of spontaneity and days where we just don’t feel like doing anything (ah, the joys of homeschooling)  but mostly I have found that to keep up with her passions and not let her get overwhelmed or behind we need to stick to our schedule.