Weekly meal & routine schedules, we all know about them. They are either our saving grace, completely unpractical, or maybe they are a bit of both. For my family, they are definitely a huge help but I believe that’s because I know when to break them. I do not stress over following a strict schedule. Rather than that I just use it as a basic guide to each day. You all know that your girl is a list making, schedule drafting, over planning fool. Organizing my thoughts onto paper has been a way of life for me since I could write. Journaling. Blogging. List making. Planning. Scheduling. All of it is my jam. It makes me feel like I have my life together haha. I love it. However, as a mom of five strict schedules simply do not always work out. Sick kids happen. Grumpy moments happen. Lazy days happen. Late nights that turn into late mornings happen. With that said, it is super nice to have a game plan for the typical days. It is also important to me to have some kind of structure in regards to school days. It helps teach the kids a routine that can transfer in to their working adult life. It helps us make sure that even though we are flexible with WHERE we school, we are covering all of the important things in our curriculum.
I do not have more than 3 hours of focused schooling a day. We have two types of schooling. I call it book work/focused schooling and experience/ritual schooling. With our Latin and review time it’s very light hearted. I do not consider this time ‘focused school time’ or book work schooling. Nor is nature studies, animal science, fine arts, music, poetry, literature, ect. It’s relaxed and playful. I also keep our intro to morning basket playful. We open with prayer, sing a kid’s hymn, and go over that weeks bible lesson before we start working. The concept of a Morning basket is a practice that has been used in the homeschool community for over 30 years and I will be doing a blog post next week that goes into details about exactly what a morning basket is/what’s in ours but for now I’m going to stick to talking about our schedule as a school house of 4 plus a cute bonus 7 month old.
After our opening bible lessons are done we start our school curriculum. A lot of the time we school on the go so I toss our morning basket in a tote bag. In the barn, by the creek, on the trampoline, when we are traveling in different states, by the pool, in the car, on the living room floor or couch, at the bar, at the shaved ice stand in town, at our feed store on days when we go to work with my husband, etc. We are always super flexible with schooling locations and I absolutely love that. We don’t school at our kitchen table full time despite it being our school house space. It’s a lovely home base but it’s just not always fitting with our active, adventuring family. Despite where we school at we do the first part of morning basket together. This usually takes an hour or so and is where I go over the basics of that day’s teachings. Once we’ve gotten the over all lessons out of the way I start focusing one on one with the kids to make sure that they are each understanding the curriculum. Depending on the subject different kids need more or less assistance. I also am very flexible with breaks. We don’t do 3 hours straight of schooling. We take breathers as needed each day.
Monday & Thursday:
7 am - Brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, & eat breakfast
8:30 am - Morning Basket: Bible Lesson & Prayers, Presentations for Community Day on Tuesday’s, Read a Loud, Memory Work/Mathematics, Geography, & Science
11:30 am - Lunch & music time
12:30 pm - Quite time (naps, bible verse studies, or reading in separate bedrooms || no electronics)
1:30 pm - Review daily teachings and work on Latin
2:00 pm - Fine arts (crafts)
Tuesday:
6:30 am - Brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, & eat breakfast
9 am to 1 pm- Foundations in Siloam Springs
Wednesday & Friday
7 am - Brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, & eat breakfast
8:30 am - Morning Basket: Bible Lesson, Prayers, Read a Loud, Memory Work/English, Language Arts, History, & Timeline
11:30 am - Lunch & Music time
12:30 pm - Quite time (naps, bible verse studies, or reading in separate bedrooms || no electronics)
1:30 pm - Review daily teachings and work on Latin
2: 00 pm - Nature Studies
Of course, what works for us may not work for anyone else but this is the routine that I’ve found to be the best for our family. It took some trial and error to get a perfect rhythm so hopefully this helps some of you in drafting your own schedules.
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