What an amazing and inspiring group of women you all are! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and encouragement and support.
If you missed it, I can offer you a little taste of the awesomeness, but, alas, I cannot re-create for you the amazing synergy of the lovely group of women that was there. You'll just have to come to the next workshop for that.
But you can learn how to WOOP your summer like we did.
Remember last year when I went crazy with the Managers of Their Homes schedule planning system? I was high on pregnancy hormones and ready to take on the world. And I did. And it was awesome. And if you don’t have a baby or toddler to add spice to your life, I still highly recommend the exercise.
I knew even as I was doing it that it wouldn’t last. A tiny part of me dared to dream that this baby would be different, this baby would be predictable, this baby would take two predictable naps a day alone in her crib allowing us to keep a tidy little schedule where we do math at 10:05 every morning. But most of me knew better.
I thought about repeating the scheduling exercise this year because it really was so helpful last year. But I know myself well enough to know that it would only serve to discourage me. And so this year I’ve taken a different approach to planning our days.
Baby number four is just as predictably unpredictable as her three older siblings. But I have changed. I have embraced the flexibility afforded by a baby that doesn’t take a two hour nap at 1pm every day. She goes with the flow and so we can continue to flow – fieldtrips and playdates and visits to Grandmother’s house can continue without fear of upsetting the baby’s schedule.
But how in the world do I teach the other three when I never know when or if the baby will sleep for more than 20 minutes?
We have a system.
It’s a flexible system. It’s a system that requires everyone else to be flexible. But it’s working.
So what is it?
I teach when I can.
What? You wanted something more revolutionary? More helpful? Let me elaborate and see if it helps.
Here are the 5 steps I follow to “schedule” our days in order to make sure we do everything we need to do.
1) Plan lessons
Each week I create a weekly plan for assignments. I know that I want to read and when and I plan which pages I will read on which days. I am super realistic about this. I know that 2-3 pages is ideal and that 4 pages is the maximum number of pages we will realistically get through of any book. I’m okay with this because my goal is not to read words in a book while in the presence of my children – my goal is to help my children make a connection with interesting and important stories and information.
I write out which songs we will sing, which math facts we will drill, which math lessons will be taught and on which days. I look at the whole picture so that I’m not trying to do a long reading, teach a difficult math lesson, set up a difficult science experiment all on the same day.
2) Plan and write out individual assignments
This starts the night before, or, if I’m really on top of things, the weekend before. Each of my kids has a number of subjects that they can do independently. I make a list each day to remind them what they need to do on their own that day. It’s pretty much the same every day, but the checklist helps keep them on track and accountable. “
This checklist is available to them so that they can get up in the morning and get right to work without me. When I need to go attend to the baby, they can do their independent work.
3) Begin my daily teaching with Morning Time
When school starts for the day, we start with Morning Time. This is the work we all do together. You can see what’s in our Morning Basket here.
This is where things get flexible. Sometimes Morning Time is right after breakfast and the baby joins us. Sometimes, the baby needs to go down for a nap right after breakfast and the kids start their individual assignments while I nurse the baby down for a nap. Sometimes the baby plays on the floor while I teach. Sometimes she nurses. Sometimes she hangs out in the Ergo. Sometimes Morning Time is split into two parts because baby gets fussy in the middle of it. And sometimes we enjoy a nice leisurely morning time with extra read-alouds because she sleeps quietly upstairs for three hours.
I’ve given up trying to make my babies do anything like sleep on a regular schedule. If you’ve accomplished that, I applaud and envy you! But if your baby is like all of mine have been, just work around it. They’ll eventually move into a new phase that complicates your life in a different way.
4) Teach individual lessons when I can
This requires all of us to be flexible. I might call a child from his individual work to teach him a math lesson. Someone might have to step away from the Legos for a phonics lesson. It might be before lunch. It might be after lunch. My only rule about this is that mommy is done teaching school at 2pm. My kids have to have all of their school work done before they can have screen time at 4 o’clock, so if they’ve messed around and been uncooperative and need me to give them a spelling quiz at 3:45 so they can have screen time at 4pm, they’re out of luck.
5) Stick to the plan
This is really the meat of it. I made a plan. I was very realistic about it, so it should be doable. I left room for life with a baby. So long as nothing out of the ordinary happens, I should be able to check off everything on my list. This is where my discipline comes in. It’s hard to pull the kids away from an elaborate game they got going with while I was busy with the baby, but I made the plan for a reason. I went through a super involved, very intentional, prayer-led planning process to select the material I want to teach to my children. I need to stay true to that plan in order to stay true to my vocation. So even if the kids are all playing nicely and I could be free to read or blog, if the school work isn’t done for the day, I need to teach.
We’re three weeks in and this system is working quite well for us. It gives me the flexibility I need to take care of the baby, and it also allows me the freedom to hit Jazzercise a couple of mornings a week, to invite a surprise visitor in for a few minutes, or to allow a leisurely breakfast. It takes advantage of the benefits of homeschooling without devolving into habit of never quite making it to that school stuff we meant to do.
So what’s working for you regarding schedules/routines right now? Are you finding you seek more or less structure than you did a year ago? What are the keys to making your day feel good? I love to hear from you!
So now that I know what I want to teach and how I’m going to structure my year. It’s time for me to choose the curriculum, books, and other materials I will use to facilitate our learning this year.
For a detailed list of the subjects and goals I’ve identified for each of my kids, see this post.
A detailed list of the books and curriculum I’m using will be in a future post.
This post is about the process I use to decide what materials I will use to teach the subjects and meet the goals I have planned for the year.
I will admit that I got stuck here for awhile. I am a big picture kind of girl. I love dreaming and I hate implementing. Because, as I mentioned before, I want to do it all. It is in this step that I start to face the reality of having to say no to some awesome things. I hate that.
As you know, there are an overwhelming number of curriculum options available to homeschoolers these days. Catalogs, websites, blogs, Pinterest, curriculum fairs, friend’s recommendations. They can leave me feeling like I’ll never find the perfect curriculum. Like I’m missing out on all kinds of great things. Like I’ll never teach everything I want to teach. Guess what? I won’t. There’s no such thing as the perfect curriculum, and I can’t possibly teach my kids everything I want to teach them. I don’t know if that makes you feel better or worse, but it’s the truth. And it’s true for you too.
So how do I narrow down the limitless possibilities to the few things I can realistically use?
Consider what I find appealing
When I start looking for resources to teach something, the first question I ask is “what appeals to me?” That’s right, me. I don’t first consider my kids’ preferences or learning styles or anything like that. I’ve learned that if I don’t like using the material, I won’t. If the curriculum never comes off the shelf, it’s not helping anyone learn anything.
Being able to identify material that is definitely not my style has been a huge help in getting clear about what will work best for me and my kids.
Consider what has (and hasn’t) worked in the past
Some of the best homeschooling advice I’ve received is this: When you find something that works, don’t change it! Every time a friend or a blogger or, yes, even an advertisement raves about how incredible a curriculum is I’m tempted to scrap what I’m doing and try something new. But each time I try something new I begin a new learning curve – for me and the kids. I’ve found that if something is working well enough, it’s best to just keep going with it. Again, there’s no such thing as perfect and I’ll make myself (and my kids) crazy looking for it. So I’ve learned to stick with what has worked well in the past.
By the same token, if something really was a bad fit for us, I will abandon it with no qualms.
Consider what is available for free or cheap
I start with my own bookshelves. I’m a homeschooler. I have loads of cool books and games and kits and manipulatives that I’ve collected at garage sales and thrift stores and used book sales over the years in the hopes that someday they’ll be just what I need to teach somebody something. I go through all of these resources and pull out the things that will meet the goals and subjects I’ve planned for this year. I also use this time to clean out stuff I’ve learned will most likely never get used.
Another source of free curriculum for us is our public school enrichment program. We are allowed (but not required) to borrow curriculum to use with our children each year. They have a wide variety of material to choose from. This is how I found Book Shark. This has been a huge blessing for us. I have always been drawn to a “living books” curriculum, and the folks at Book Shark have done a really good job of choosing great books and providing a schedule and format that feels really good to me.
I will add one caveat here. Sometimes it’s worth spending money on quality curricula and materials. I won’t use something just because it’s free or cheap. But I do consider those free and cheap resources before I shell out money for something I think I have to have. I’ve wasted a lot of money on curriculum that now gathers dust on my shelves.
Find out what others like
Once I’ve gotten clear about what I like, identified what’s worked in the past, and gone through what’s available free or cheap, I figure out what I still need to buy. This is when I start googling, searching blogs, and asking friends both online and “in real life.”
I have to be very careful here, because I can get sent back to Teach All The Things mode if I don’t practice extreme self control. I can easily get sidetracked by all of the wonderful things other people are doing. I have to work super hard to stay focused at this point. I remind myself that I’ve followed a solid process to select our goals for this year, and there’s always next year.
When it comes to choosing material, I’ve found that going with what’s popular is often a good choice. If it seems everyone is using it, it’s often because it’s high quality and user friendly. Not always, but often. If there seem to be a lot of good choices, I try to choose one that someone like me loves. So even if someone is absolutely raving about program, if it’s a curriculum that requires a ton of hands-on time or prep time or craft time I know it’s not the program for us.
Buy what I need
Once I’ve gone through the above process, I make a good list of what I need. I try to have this done before the annual conference I attend with an amazing used curriculum sale. What I can’t get there, I generally buy on Amazon or straight from the publisher. I also fill in with picture books from the library.
Whew. Once I finish this step I am finally ready to start planning lessons. I’ll talk about how I do that in an upcoming post. But first, I’m going to share the curriculum we’ll be using this year. I’m getting pretty excited about it!
I promised I would share the subjects I’ve chosen for my homeschool curriculum this year. I will be teaching a 5th grader, a 2nd grader, and a 4-year-old preschooler. I want to offer the disclaimer that this is in no way what I think you should be teaching your homeschooled 5th grader, 2nd grader, or 4-year-old preschooler. Your kids are not my kids. They know different things. They have different strengths and weaknesses and different interests. And you have different strengths, weaknesses, and talents than I do!
I’m sharing this because I always find it interesting, inspiring, and informative to know what others are doing. When I read or hear about a bunch of different people doing a bunch of different things, it helps me realize there’s no one right way and I feel a little less anxious about what I’m doing. If reading what I’m planning to teach is going to make you all angsty, skip it.
When I completed the process I described in this post I had the following list:
Henry (Grade 5)
Improve spelling
Write a solid paragraph
Complete Singapore 4A
Memorize all math facts
Improve handwriting
Work more independently
German (with dad)
Helen (Grade 2)
Sacramental preparation
Phonics
Addition/Subtraction fact memorization
Character virtues: responsibility and humility
Thomas (Age 4)
Become more “regular” with eating, sleeping, and daily rest periods
Improve mental flexibility, be less bratty and demanding
Learn to ride his bike
Scale back on screen time, limit exposure to Henry’s screen time
Share good picture books – including alphabet books
Expose to preschool fine motor opportunities such as playdough and drawing
Preschool field trips with mom and buddies on Fridays
All Children (Stuff we’ll do as a family)
Note: This is a sort of “inspire don’t require” time of our day. I’m hoping the content and material will excite and delight my kids. I’m going to try really hard not to force anyone to participate in this part of our day but rather to make it something they don’t want to miss out on.
Participate in daily family prayer time and catechesis
Gain an age appropriate understand of US History from Civil War to Present Day
Gain an age appropriate understanding of electricity and astronomy
Memorize some Shakespeare
Share good literature (favorite picture books and novels, history related literature)
Nature Study
Poetry
Folk Songs
Memorize Parts of the Mass in English and Latin
This comes pretty close to being All The Things. But there are some things I did leave out rather intentionally. For example, I won’t be studying grammar as a stand alone subject with any of my kids. I’m not adding handicrafts to the list of things I feel required to do. We’re not studying Latin as a stand alone subject this year. Picture Study didn’t make the final cut, though I long to make that happen at some point. I don’t have any specific, do-or-die reading or writing or math goals for my 4-year-old. (If you haven’t read my posts on a relaxed approach to the early years, check them out here.) There are times when I get all heart-poundy about leaving out these things. That’s why I’m being very intentional about setting my goals this year. It doesn’t mean we’ll never study grammar or Latin or handicrafts. It just means that this year, I’m not holding myself accountable for these things.
Also, there are a few things on this list that are a little aspirational. I really would like to do some sort of nature study this year, but I’ve never managed to make it happen in the past. I’m hoping to figure out a way to make it less overwhelming and more fun. I’ll share more thoughts on that later. Also, memorizing the parts of the Mass is something I see going out the window on all but the most perfect days. I’m hoping to figure out a schedule that makes sure that doesn’t happen.
In the next post, I’ll talk about my process for pulling together all the curriculum, books, and other resources I’ll use to teach these subjects.
So what are you excited about teaching this year? Anything you’re intentionally letting yourself off the hook for?
As homeschoolers, we have the freedom of structuring our year and planning our homeschool calendar any way we want to. In my state, so long as I provide 172 days of instruction, I am free to choose any 172 days I wish. Which means if I want to take a whole month off at Christmas I can. It’s totally up to me.
For the last several years, I’ve simply followed the local public school calendar. I didn’t do this blindly, but rather because my kids are good friends with the neighbor kids and I wanted them to have freedom when their friends were free. Also, having lived according to the traditional school calendar for much of the first two decades of my life, thinking in terms of two semesters felt natural to me.
The fly in the ointment for me was that it seems that public school kids around here have a lot of random days off – especially in the first half of the year. I found it really hard to get into a rhythm and to get my kids on board with a regular routine. Also, I hated letting someone else dictate my family’s schedule.
More recently, I’ve been noticing how other homeschoolers, mostly bloggers I respect, plan their homeschool calendar. This brought to my attention a number of intriguing possibilities for organizing our school year.
Sarah Mackenzie (I know, I I’m always talking about Sarah, but she really is that great) at Amongst Lovely Things organizes her year into two month terms. Her goal is to school for six weeks out of every two months leaving 2-3 weeks of break every term. She can take these breaks in a chunk, or simply take days off as wanted or needed.
Mystie Winckler at Simply Convivial does something similar using six-week terms. She schools for six weeks and then takes a week off. She takes longer breaks at Christmas and in February (because February blues) and takes off the entire month of June. This differs from Sarah’s approach because Mystie pre-plans the weeks she will take off rather than using the days as she needs/wants them.
I know others who are less formal in their approach and just school year round without any need to break up the year into any official terms. These people tend to create their own curriculum or maybe lean toward unschooling, but for these families a school day is not all that different from a “day off.” They are always schooling and never schooling and truly integrate living with learning in a seamless sort of way. These people are probably not reading my planning posts. 🙂
Then there’s Melissa Wiley who coined the term “Tidal Home Schooling” to describe how her family tends “to ebb and flow between periods of ‘high tide’ times of structured learning . . . and ‘low tide,’ which looks a lot like unschooling.” Her words are beautiful and inspiring and worth a read.
Personally, I’m loving the idea of two-month terms with a focus for each term. We’ll start in August. August/September will be our easing in back-to-school term. October/November is our fall term with a full week off for Thanksgiving. December/January is our Advent/Christmas term. February/March is our Lent term with a full week off for Holy Week. April/May is our Easter/Spring term. June/July will be our summer term.
I’ll keep a simple calendar to mark off the days we do school and make sure we get in 6 weeks every two months. Our kids do an enrichment program one day a week making me responsible for 4 days a week of homeschooling. So I’ll need to make sure we do 24 days of school every two months. There are 43 weekdays in August/September. Taking out the Fridays (when the kids are in the enrichment program) leaves me with 35 days. Schooling for 24 out of 35 days. That seems doable.
Thinking of things this way gives me a lot of freedom to CHILL OUT when thinking of planning. Most homeschool curricula are based on a 36 week calendar. Many are based on 4 days a week leaving day 5 for co-ops and such. So this schedule allows me to finish any curriculum should I choose that route, while also allowing lots of freedom for field trips, play dates, movie days, sick days, snow days, and I-was-up-all-night-with-a-teething-baby days.
I’m the kind of person that functions best within a well-defined structure. But I also need lots of margin or I feel like I’m always behind, always failing. I am hoping that this approach to planning our year will help me feel simultaneously organized and relaxed.
In this installment of the planning series I discuss how I choose the subjects I will teach this year.
Is there anything more exciting than looking at all of the pretty curriculum catalogs and homeschool blogs and Pinterest boards and curriculum fair materials and thinking about all of the wonderful joyous time you’re going to spend with your cherubic children teaching them all the things?
That is, for the few brief moments before full blown panic sets in and you think “how in the world am I going to teach my little monsters anything at all let alone All The Things?”
Experiencing the bi-polar emotions of homeschool planning is one of the most challenging parts of homeschooling for me. I want to do it all. And I want to do it all in picture-perfect blog-worthy style filled with hot chocolate and hand-crafts and great living books while snuggled up with my precious children on the couch.
Sigh.
It happens.
It is in my personal nature to have the above picture-perfect homeschool fantasy, realize that that’s never going to happen (at least not on any sort of consistent basis), and decide if it can’t be perfect than I might as well not even try.
That’s not the holiest part of my personal nature.
Over the years I have learned from some wonderful homeschooling moms, both online and in-real-life, that doing a little every day, even if it’s not perfect and even if it’s not “all the things,” can build something truly wonderful in you homeschool and in your family.
We have had our moments through the years.
And so, as I enter the phase of my yearly planning where I choose the subjects, I take the advice I learned from the great Sarah Mackenzie in her book “Teaching from a State of Rest.”
It’s hard, oh so hard, to take that advice. Because I want to do picture study and composer study and nature study and Shakespeare and a rich science curriculum filled with hands-on projects and all the language arts – grammar, spelling, mechanics, essay composition, dictation, copywork – all of it! I want to fill the days with handcrafts and fine art and rich, deep history unit studies and amazing field trips and music lessons and daily mass and service projects. I want to do it all!
My husband is an economist so he’s always telling me that choosing one thing necessarily means not choosing something else that may be equally good. For him, this is simply applied logic. But to me it is THE great unfairness of the universe that makes me cry out to heaven, “But I want to do it all!!!!!”
Unfortunately, God in His wisdom has not seen fit to provide me with more than the 24 hours a day he has allotted to everyone else, and so I must learn to spend these precious hours wisely. I should not try to cram them with all the things. Nor should I allow them to simply fill up with crap because I failed to plan to fill them with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
And so, as I plan this year, I am prayerfully discerning what Major on the Majors means for each of my children. I decided to ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in making a list for each of my kiddos for the next year. I didn’t get all fancy about it, I just opened a google doc for each kid and started typing.
I was surprised at how quickly this distilled and clarified things for me. (Not sure why I am always surprised by the good things that come when I ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. I really should call on him more often!)
I have a second grader who will be preparing for her first reconciliation and first holy communion this year. So that’s of prime importance. She also needs to continue to strengthen her reading skills – that’s goal number 2. For math, I want her to memorize all of the addition and subtraction facts. Sure, we’ll work on other stuff, but if she knows those facts cold by the end of the year, I’ll call it a success. Finally, I asked what character traits this child needs to concentrate on at this time. I didn’t think long. The answers were fairly clear to me – responsibility and humility.
So boom. There I have it. Four Majors for my second grader. Could I fill up our schedule and stress myself out over at least a dozen other subjects? Yes. And honestly, I probably will. But at least I have this list to come back to and say “if you’re doing this, you’re doing enough. Everything else is gravy.”
Also, now I know that even if I teach her how to knit a sweater and she memorizes all of the presidents in order and she learns to speak fluent Swahili, if I haven’t helped her to improve her reading or helped to teach her responsibility and humility, I haven’t done what the Holy Spirit asked me to do for her this year.
Once I’ve clarified the fundamental goals for each kid, I make a list of all of the subjects I want to teach or feel like I should teach. This includes stuff like science, history, Shakespeare, poetry. This list can end up being All The Things. At this stage of the game, I’m not ready to completely give up on that fantasy. But that’s ok. I’ll get more realistic in the next couple of steps, and I have my list of Majors to guide me.
If you’re interested in what this process yielded for me for this year, stay tuned! These first posts will talk about my process – then I’ll share with you the results.
In the next post I’ll share the process I use to decide how I will plan my year once I’ve decided the subjects I will teach.
In the mean time, tell me, how do you decide which subjects to teach each year?
List Links to other useful posts on this subject:
If you haven’t read Sarah Mackenzie’s posts on Simplifying the Curriculum or Planning to Teach from Rest go ahead and click on those right now. They’ll open in a new window and you can read them now or save them for later. They’re very good and they’ve inspired a lot of my thinking about this.
It’s July and my thoughts are deep in planning mode for our next school year. This is my favorite part of homeschooling because I get to reimagine a flawless future in which I teach All The Things and my appreciative, well-behaved children dutifully and joyfully soak up the amazing lessons I’ve prepared for them before heading off to spend the afternoon designing a device to help blind kids learn braille.
What? That’s not your favorite part of homeschooling?
I think of planning in three steps. First, is the research and discovery phase. That’s where I comb blogs, read books, search pinterest, visit curriculum vendors online, and add 203 books to my Amazon wishlist. At the end of this phase I want to know two things:
1) What subjects I want to teach and
2) How I want to organize my year.
The second phase is where I narrow down the curriculum/resources I want to use and map out my year according to the organizational structure I chose in Phase 1.
The third phase is where I get down to the nitty gritty of planning our weeks and days. It’s my least favorite phase because my fantasies of teaching All The Things to appreciative well-behaved children is replaced by the reality of needing to feed people, take care of the house, nurse a baby and still teach my sometimes reluctant, sometimes bratty children.
He’s totally going to do whatever I tell him to. Same with the little guy in the background.
But I’m still in Phase 1. Hooray! And here I will share some of the thoughts and resources I’m finding useful in case you want to fantasize – um, plan – along with me
I’m going to break Phase 1 into two posts – Choosing Subjects and Organizing the Year. Sit tight. There’s more to come!
We’ve been using our homeschool schedule now for about six weeks, and I want to highlight some of the things I’ve learned from the experience. For the most part, it is working as I hoped – sometimes even better. Here are the tips I would share with anyone else trying to make a major change like this.
Take baby steps One thing I’ve learned repeatedly is that if I try to change everything at once, I will fail. I will burn out, get discouraged, and give up. I took a good 4-6 weeks to plan this schedule, and another 4-6 weeks to implement it. When I began living the plan, I started with getting up early and going to Jazzercise 3 days a week. My next step was to start getting the kids up at 7:15. I then added the morning group school (what we call Morning Time). Once each piece became routine, I added a new piece. Because we were moving from an anything goes free-for-all to a day of expectations and requirements, I felt it was critical to go slowly. This helped me to feel successful instead of defeated.
Get up early I know. Everyone says this. And it makes me groan too. I have been dragging my butt out of bed 3 mornings a week at 5:30 so I can get to Jazzercise by 6am. Hard, but so worth it. I love having that workout out of the way, and it wakes me up and gets me ready to face the troops when I get back home at 7:15. On Tuesday and Thursday, I’m up at 6 for some office/quiet time. I spend 5-20 minutes of this time praying, depending on the day. This is one of my favorite times of the day. It’s all about nourishing my mind, body, and soul so that I can take care of others with a full tank.
I’m glad I started the schedule implementation by working on my own wake time. It was quite an adjustment, but what those all those annoyingly chipper bloggers say about getting up before your family is true. It really does make the day run more smoothly.
Go to bed early I had been in the bad habit of staying up later and later each night because it was the only free time I had. The problem was, it was never really “free.” I was too damn tired from the day to do much of anything except maybe fold a load of laundry while staring blearily at a mild-amusing sitcom streaming on my Roku. Or I was taking care of a few last minute details for the next day. Or I was tucking naughty kids back into bed for the 457th time.
We’ve been getting the kids tucked in by 8 the last few days and it’s heavenly. I still have just enough energy to have a conversation with my husband, or read a little, or fold that laundry and enjoy a sitcom. And then I can go to bed at 9, be asleep by 9:30 and still get in 8 hours before my 5:30 Jazzercise alarm.
I will say that if you are a night owl and can truly use your night hours in a way that recharges you and still get up and face your family when you need to, then by all means ignore this. I will add though, my best friend, a consummate night owl, is the one who finally convinced me that getting up early is the way to go. She started doing it and talking about how great it is. This from the girl who cursed at the morning radio show host when my clock radio alarm would go off at 8 o’clock when we were in the dorms together.
Discipline and consistency are key
To really make this work, I’ve seen that I absolutely must stick to the schedule every day. When the kids know that this is what’s happening at this time and there’s no getting out of it, they’re much more likely to get with the program. They have all tested me. Because I’ve given up and thrown in the towel on things like this so many times in the past, I think they’ve all expected this to be one more thing they could get out of if they made it unpleasant enough for me. After a few weeks, they’re all getting the message that this is the way we do things now, and there’s no since in fighting it. An incentive program for my oldest has been especially helpful. Also, consistent expectations for my three year old during school time.
One of the things I changed after realizing this is we now do our Morning Time routine at the kitchen table 3 mornings a week. I had planned to do school in the car on the way to my parent’s house once a week, but I found that doing at least an abbreviated version at home before we leave makes more sense.
Discipline applies to me as well. If I don’t get up early and do what I’m supposed to, the day doesn’t run as smoothly. If I don’t plan meals or start dinner on time, bed time is a mess. The more I follow the plan, the more smoothly things run and the more fun and free time I have.
Plan ahead and be prepared
I’m using several curriculum resources that spell out exactly what and when to do things, and so I thought I could get away with just doing the next thing each morning without any planning ahead. However, I have found that the day runs much more smoothly if I write out exactly what I want to cover each day and put it all in one place. I’ve resisted lesson plans for 4 years, but now find them necessary. Sometimes I want to do more or less of something than is assigned for that day. Sometimes I forget some small but critical piece (like handwriting). Making a written lesson plan helps me feel more in control and less scattered. It also keeps me from just blowing something off for the day.
Screen time during school hours is a Bad Idea At least in our family. Our original schedule had bits of screen time scattered throughout the day for each of the kids. I’ve done away with that. The new rule is that, unless it’s been specifically assigned for school, you may not use a screen before 4pm. I found that it was too easy for the kids to stretch the screen time – and for me to let them because it was easy for me. Then there would be fights about turning it off, and it made transitioning through our day too contentious. What was screen time for each kid is now free time. Once 4pm rolls around, they can pretty much glut themselves until about 6 when I ask them to do some chores before dinner.
For the most part, I’m super pleased with the way things are going, and I’m happy I stuck with the bumps that came with making a big change. I feel much better about the way we spend our days, and my kids seem happier too.
You have now seen my schedule, my 4th grader’s schedule, and my preschooler’s schedule. Because she’s involved in most of our schedules most of the day, you’ve also seen the bulk of my 1st grader’s schedule, but I’ll share it here on it’s own.
I want to note that in preparing each of these schedules I carefully considered my kids’ unique personalities. Helen is my most patient but also my most extroverted child. I knew I had to include time for her to play with her neighborhood friends which means that she has to be done with the majority of her stuff by the time they can play after school. It also means that I need to try to keep her busy when her friends are in school.
This is Helen’s first year of school with me. I didn’t do formal school with Henry at this age. I don’t think it’s necessary to have scheduled school time with a 1st grader, but Helen is begging for it. It also gives us a format for interaction that we both enjoy. Our one-on-one school time has become a highlight of the day for both of us.
I just don’t want anyone to read this and think that their 1st grader needs to have a bunch of formal school time scheduled into their day. I still stand by my relaxed approach. Henry was unschooled at this age. You know your kid. If they don’t delight in sitting down to do math and phonics for an hour a day, don’t force it!
You’ll see that much of her day is still free time, though I provide a little structure to keep boredom away. Most of the activities (like science box time and sensory time) are open ended and optional. If she has a better way to spend her time, for the most part, she can do what she likes.
7:15-8:15
Wake, dress, brush teeth, eat breakfast
8:15-9:15
Group School
This has been happening at the breakfast table for the most part. I read aloud from Life of Fred, our science reading for the day, and our history reading for the day. The kids can color or draw or play quietly on the floor.
9:15-9:45
Outside Time
All three of the kids go outside while I clean up the kitchen and such.
9:45-10:15
Free Time
This was initially read alone/book time while I do school with Thomas, but in practice it’s been free time while I finish up chores or play with Thomas if he’s interested.
10:15-10:45
Morning School
Here is more read alouds or picture study, composer study, or nature study a la Charlotte Mason. This is still developing.
10:45-11:30
School with Mom
We’re working through the Primary Arts of Language phonics/reading program. We’re also starting Ray’s Arithmetic. Phonics takes priority. If we have time, interest, and attention, we do a little math.
11:30-12:00
Time with Thomas
They can choose to do whatever they want as long as they leave Henry and I alone to work. The science box materials are still out. I also plan to have a planned sensory or craft activity available during this time. Or they can play with dolls or trucks or whatever. Again, as long as they let Henry and I work, it’s all good.
12:00-12:30
School Alone
Yes, 1st grade is young for independent work, but the idea is that she’ll work on her phonics games and worksheets at the kitchen counter while I prep lunch.
12:30-1:00
Lunch
1:00-1:30
Spanish with Henry
I don’t know if this is going to work, but I’d like to have them do some sort of Spanish at this time. We have Power Glide Spanish, but we may switch to Spanish videos or something.This time has two goals in addition to learning a little Spanish. 1) Henry and Helen spend time together doing something constructive. 2) They leave me alone to do some prayer and reflection.
1:30-2:00
Screen Time
This is first (of three) 30 minute screen times. During this time, Thomas is resting in my bed with me, and Henry is working on his independent work.
2:00-2:30
Rest Time
Quiet play in her room, preferably resting on her bed. She can listen to audio books, look at books, or play quietly alone with her dolls and such.
2:30-3:00
Time with Mom
This is for us to do whatever it is she wants to do with me. Often it’s playing with dolls.
3:00-4:00
Outside Time
Free time outside. I’m available at this time to supervise, but I’m reading or making phone calls or doing yard work.
4:00-4:30
Afternoon Chores
Making sure everything is picked up from the day and straightening up her room.
5:00-6:00
Outside Time
As soon as afternoon chores are done, they’re free to play outside with the neighbor kids.
6:00-6:30
Screen Time
6:30-7:00
Dinner and Clean up
7:00-7:30
Screen Time or Free Play
Sometimes she heads downstairs for more TV after dinner, sometimes she spins around in the living room for a half an hour.
As I’ve posted some of my thinking about schedules and shared the schedule for my preschooler and 4th grader, I’ve received some questions about my own schedule. So here it is in all it’s glory.
When I read Managers of Their Homes, one of the things that most attracted me to using a schedule was Terri Maxwell’s personal schedule. She had scheduled time to sew, time to rest, time to read and pray, and time alone with each of her kids. How in the world did she do this? Housework was a bit different for her because she has grown children living at home that do much of the housework. So that was part of the answer. But it wasn’t the whole answer.
When I filled out the Mom’s Activity worksheet that came with the book and wrote out all of my activities with the time it would take to accomplish them, I thought I was being extravagant. I included a nap time, reading time, project time, time with each kid, time for school, time for housework, 8 hours for sleep, 1.5 hours to exercise (to allow time to travel to my beloved Jazzercise class). I expected it to total something ridiculous like 40 hours. It didn’t. It totaled 23.5 hours.
Huh.
So maybe I DO have enough time in my day.
I did the math over and over and I was really excited to see that maybe I could actually fit everything in. Maybe I could actually take a nap every day, do some writing, keep my house reasonably clean, educate my children, and even play with them. Maybe.
It took some puzzling. It took a willingness to commit to going to bed early (my preference anyway) and getting up early. I don’t mind getting up as early as 6 am. But in order to get to the 6am Jazzercise class, I need to get up no later than 5:30. Yikes. That seemed nearly impossible. But I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks now and I love it. I go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On the other days, I use that early morning time to pray and write. And I LOVE it. I’ve never been much use after 9pm, so making myself go to bed early and get up when my brain works has been really good for me.
So here’s what my day looks like.
5:15-6:00
Wake, pray, eat, travel
Or sleep in a bit if it’s not a jazzercise day.
6:00-7:15
Jazzercise
Or prayer and office time. This is a good time for me to write, pay bills, do some planning, get copies made for the day. Or just sit and read. It’s my time. It’s good time. If a kid wakes up at this time (happening less and less these days), they can have screen time or snuggle with me as long as they’re quiet.
7:15-8:15
Shower, dress, breakfast
I’m working on this, honestly. I truly need to streamline breakfast. I feel like an hour should be more than enough time to do these things, but breakfast always runs long.
8:15-9:15
Group School
On the days we leave for co-ops or my parents’ house, this is a “load and leave” time. On the drive to my parents’ we do school in the car with audio books or our Classical Conversations memory work.
9:15-9:45
Chore Time
While the kids play outside I do some chores. I more or less follow the FlyLady plan, so this is when I finish up my “morning routine” and check the zone missions for the day. (If you’re not familiar with FlyLady, take a few minutes and check her out. She’s really helped with my housekeeping.)
On Fridays I will use this time to hang in the coffee room at our enrichment program.
9:45-10:15
Preschool Time with Thomas
So far, he’s usually engaged in his own thing during this time, so I’m just following him around and giving him my attention. I plan to get the Flowering Baby curriculum to use with him on days we’re looking for inspiration.
On Fridays, this is time for grocery shopping and errands.
10:15-10:45
Morning Time School
More read alouds with the kids to finish up what we didn’t get to during Group School.
Or, on Fridays, grocery shopping and errands.
10:45-11:30
School with Helen
This is Science Box time for the boys and one-on-one time for Helen and me. This is when we do our Primary Arts of Language phonics work and a math lesson. This is one of my favorite parts of the day.
Fridays: finishing up groceries and errands.
11:30-12:15
School with Henry
Sensory/craft/free playtime for Helen and Thomas and one-on-one time for Henry and me. We work on math, handwriting, and writing. This is one of the most challenging parts of my day.
Fridays: lunch with Thomas.
12:15-1:00
Lunch/Clean up
A quick clean up from the morning, lunch prep, and lunch.
Fridays: House cleaning.
1:00-1:30
Prayer and Reflection
Henry and Helen do Power Glide Spanish while Thomas and I hang out in my bed. Thomas can play on the Kindle while I pray and read.
Fridays: More house cleaning.
1:30-2:00
Nap time
Everyone is supposed to have quiet time during this half hour. Helen is supposed to read alone, Henry is supposed to do independent schoolwork, and Thomas stays in bed with me. He can keep playing on the Kindle. I really do lie down and sleep most days.
Fridays: More house cleaning.
2:00-2:30
Time with Thomas
Thomas needs my attention to leave the screen behind. This is our time to play trains or draw pictures or whatever it is he wants to do with me.
Fridays: Finish up housecleaning
2:30-3:00
Time with Helen
This is Helen’s time to do whatever she wants to do with me.
Fridays: Rest with a cup of coffee and get ready to go get kids.
3:00-3:30
Ryan Time
Ryan is my husband. This is a block in my day to do whatever it is he’s asked me to do. Often this is nothing. Sometimes I water the garden or call plumbers. This is also a good time for me to make phone calls to schedule appointments. The kids are playing outside, and I am outside to supervise if I need to be.
Fridays: School pickup.
3:30-4:00
Reading Time
Kids are still outside. I’m reading outside to keep an eye on things.
Fridays: Visit on the playground after school if weather is nice, or just come home.
4:00-4:30
Time with Henry
This is Henry’s time to do whatever he wants to do with me. This usually involves learning something new about Minecraft.
Fridays: settle in at home, clean out car.
4:30-5:00
Laundry Time/Chore Time
The kids have some afternoon chores that need my supervision at this time. I’ve put in this time just for laundry so I don’t have to do it at night. I’m remembering that it’s almost impossible to fold laundry with a toddler around, so this will have to change at some point. Right now it’s great (when I’m actually disciplined enough to do it!) to have this time to actually fold and put away laundry.
Fridays: Schedule resumes it’s normal routine at this point.
5:00-5:30
Project Time
It’s only half an hour, but this is my time to work on whatever little project has caught my fancy. I might spray paint a lamp, or put up some curtains, or write some more, or organize a closet. Whatever seems most satisfying to me that day is what I spend this time on.
5:30-6:30
Kitchen Time
Dinner prep, baking projects, kitchen cleaning. I find that if I don’t try to multi-task by being on the computer during dinner-prep time I can actually get quite a bit done in there in this hour.
6:30-7:30
Dinner and Kitchen Clean up
7:30-8:30
Kids Bathed and Bedded
I also use this time to do some chores upstairs – a quick wipe down of the kids’ bathroom, a quicky tidy of Thomas’s room or my bedroom. This is also when I get myself ready for bed.
8:30-9:30
Time with Ryan
We are working hard to train the kids not to come out of their rooms during this time.Anyone got any advice on that one?
9:30
Light’s Out
I’ve implemented most of this at this point. We’re still easing into school, but the rest of it is going pretty well. It does take discipline. It’s easy to sit with Henry on the computer for another half hour rather than stop to do chores. It’s also easy to let everyone sleep while I write a little more rather than get going at 7:15. But we’ll figure it out. Just the fact that I’ve been able to write so much more has motivated me to keep working to get it all implemented.
What motivates you to stick to your routines and schedules? Where do you get “stuck” in your day?
