Our Daily Schedule for Homeschool...for Now

It is back to school time for us and with a new year comes a new schedule!

The boys are getting so big.  I cannot believe we do not have a single preschooler in the house...

I'm one of those crazy people who love schedules and yes, even the process of putting one together.

Any time I'm putting together a schedule of some sort, or planning anything really, I try to keep this in mind:

Planning is good stewardship; but always be prepared for God to throw a wrench in it.

God's wrenches are not always "good" from our perspective but are always for a great purpose.  His ideas are better than mine so it's important to stay flexible.

I came up with the following schedule a couple of weeks ago but Monday was the first day to plug it in. Right away (as in, when it was time to start) I realized us Rinnas probably need another half hour to get going in the morning so I had to adjust breakfast from 7:30 to 8:00 right off the bat!  That pushed our day back 30 minutes at first but we managed to catch back up by lunch.

It goes without saying that most of this schedule is out the window if we need to leave the house for some reason.  But that's why we homeschool - the flexibility; to be able to blow off the whole day for a great field trip or refocus the day if we're going through a particularly rough patch with autism or slow down if I need to take more time teaching in a certain area.

7:00 a.m.: Me: Quiet time/AM routine (mine is modified)
                    Boys: Play/TV time
8:00 a.m.: Breakfast
8:30 a.m.: Get Ready (get dressed, dirty clothes in hamper, brush teeth, make bed, morning chores)
9:00 a..m.: Start School (AM routine: prayer, pledge, review boys' schedule with them, memory time, Daily Learning Notebook, Group Work * Bible Study on Thursdays)
10:00 a.m.: Snack & Break
10:30 a.m.: Start 1-on-1 time and Workboxes *Library or Field Trip on Fridays
11:00 a.m.: 1-on-1 time and Workboxes
12:30 p.m.: Lunch
1:00 p.m.: Me: Rest time/Blog/weekly plan (cleaning stuff)
                 Boys: Rest time
2:00 p.m.: Me: continue blog/weekly plan
                  Boys: Free play/Outside time
3:00 p.m.: Afternoon Group Work/Catch up time for school work if needed
4:00 p.m.: Me: finish any weekly plan
                  Boys: Free play/Computer time
4:30 p.m.: Start Dinner (boys help & play)
5:00 p.m: "10 minute tidy" in living room & set table
5:30 p.m.: Dinner
6:00 p.m.: Me: Start PM Routine/Personal Commitments/Walk Dogs/Run Errands (Fridays)
                 Boys: Wind down play
7:00 p.m.: Start bedtime routine (clean up lego room and bedrooms, bath, bed)
8:00 p.m.: Finish PM routine, Hubby time, Personal time, Blog, Read, Shower, Drink some Sleepytime Tea, Stretch, etc.

Looks great on paper, right?  Believe me, it is a wonderful guideline to follow but certainly not set in stone.

This is what I have found in my (almost) seven years of parenting so far:

It is less important to be on the clock and more important to move with the rhythm of the day.

So we try to do that.  I am well aware that this will fluctuate day to day and have to be completely redone once Little Miss gets here in November :).

As for my sleep, besides my indulgent "rest period" which unfortunately doesn't always happen, I try (note, try) to get to bed before 11 each night and up by 6 or 6:30.  This wake up time is a good example of season of life thing.  I liken being woken up by an infant or toddler to being run over by a semi-truck.  It is absolutely essential for me to be up before them.  Now that they're older and wake up slow, they like to  snuggle with me on the couch or on the porch swing while I have my quiet time and they are much more independent. It's been great, but needless to say, come November, my wake up time will probably go back to 5:30 or so.

Tips for Scheduling...

Start with non-variables
Bedtime, rest time, meal times and scheduled events go in first.  I then plug in around them what else needs to be done.

Honor the seasons of life
I will not always be pregnant.  My boys will not always need as much 1-on-1 help with schoolwork.  But right now I am and they do.  It would be foolish for me to expect anything else and only frustrate me not to schedule accordingly.

Work in the nooks and crannies
I am flipping loads of laundry while the boys are doing math some days.  Just because every little detail isn't scheduled, don't forget to look for opportunities to get things done.  I even manage to find a few minutes of "sit down and drink hot chai" throughout the day!

Know yourself and your shortcomings
I am convinced I can get anywhere in 15 minutes, even if it's 40 miles away.  I am an "ish" kinda person.  As in, when I'm making plans I say "How about 3ish?..."  Translation: I am ALWAYS late as hard as I try to be on time...I mean, it's pitiful. So when I'm scheduling time, I know I'm prone to forget to leave time for transitions and I usually underestimate how long something takes to do.

Do not allow accomplishing the task to eclipse the point of the task
Oooh, I love to highlight my to do list.  I love to check the boxes and move through our day and that gives me a sense of accomplishment.  But the point of my task usually comes back to nurturing and helping mold my boys' hearts.  And am I really doing that if I allow "getting it done" to override the actual point of the lesson?

Scheduling will help you identify hot spots and patterns in your day
We had what I called "the witching hour" at our house for a long time between 3 & 5 p.m. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden the children lost their minds.  It was also during that time I was supposed to be cooking dinner but instead I was breaking up sibling rivalry fights.  Taking a look at our schedule, I saw there was too little structure in the afternoon and the boys could not handle it.  I added more structure during that time and we've had great results.

Having this schedule keeps me accountable to who I want to be.  There are goals I have for myself and my family and when I plug them into our day, I know we're at least working our way towards them.  For example, I want to be a woman who has a clean house...so I schedule time to do it.  And let's be honest, this schedule also keeps me from mindlessly ending up on Pinterest in the middle of the day instead of teaching my kids. :)