Despite the fact that we homeschool year round, I still find myself needing to refocus our household schedule every year. (ok, maybe several times a year)
Because I know I’m not the only one, I wanted to share with you a past series on how I do this.
I need to start getting up a little bit earlier (that is part of the Prepared section of my list from my post The Mom I Want to Be List) and I need to make sure bedtime is enforced so everyone is getting adequate sleep.
I need to plan my meals out better than I have in the past few months (pretty much due to morning sickness) and start teaching some more kitchen skills to the oldest 3 children as I am beginning to see where some weaknesses are in the area of cooking.
It’s time to slip piano lessons and Scouts back into the schedule and I want to make some time for sewing and scrapbooking (I’ll share more about both of these at a later date).
So, what things are you changing about your household schedule? Are you adding anything? Deleting anything? I hope you have a wonderful upcoming year!
Stephanie says
I have always thought of myself as an organized person who likes to follow a routine. I have learned this week after taking in 2 foster children how important and necessary a schedule is! So the 2 new kids have brought our kid total to 5- ages 9, 7, 4, 3, 2! I started with making bedtime routine at an exact time and the same every night and then moved to making sure meals and snacks are at the same time. Now this week we will work on filling in the rest of the time…I have to figure out how to clean and do laundry with all these kids! Oh yeah…and homeschool my older two! It overwhelms me if I think about it. Just have to take it a day at a time! Look forward to to reading more about your schedule and routines this year!
Amy says
One day (and sometimes one moment) at a time is often our very best. Just keep giving it to the Lord!
Jamie @ Love Bakes Good Cakes says
Thank you for hosting, Amy. I think we are constantly revising our homeschool schedule! 🙂 Have a great week!
rachel @ finding joy says
Love your refocused schedule. I also like how your adding piano back into the schedule.
Thank you for this link up on Monday, my friend!
Rachel
Charity says
We are revisiting our schedule as well. Currently I am 45 minutes behind so I am not sure how to say it is going. However, I have started to do the house cleaning before homeschool work and teach the boys their chores in the process. Our home is much less stressful this way and I think after we work out a few kinks it will work great. I was not raised to know housekeeping skills and that has been a liability for me, but I am working to correct this. Our new schedule seems to be helping. We get everything else done much better and faster when the house is cleaner. So even though our homeschool day is not much different (except that household lifeskills are much more consistent) we like our changes.
Holly says
I’ve also found out how critical it is to maintain our before bed and morning routines! Also, don’t expect, INSPECT! IOW, I check behind my kiddos to make sure they are actually doing their jobs. (For some reason, this is hard for me. Busyness, I suppose.) Maintaining our home is actually less stress on everyone, not just Mama. Besides, doing what we know we ought to do is a blessing to our souls! It sure makes my children happier. :~)
Amy says
Yes, I have found the children thrive on knowing what their day will look like!
CathiW says
This is a good question! This is my 1st year to home school, so this year will be very interesting. First, we are a very spontaneous family, so a schedule is a scary, yet very needed in our new adventure. Today marks the first day we started Kindergarten officially, and we had it down in less then 2 hours as far as the lessons go according to the A Beka K5 Curriculum. Secondly, I have always had an issue with organization -even in my scrapbook/craft room as I am a very messy creator. My heart though has been pricked and this year will be learning by trail and error to strive toward excellence in all I do. I have one who is a sophomore in high school involved in Marching Band and JROTC, both carrying a hefty schedule for the first few months. Also, I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old. We start gymnastics on Monday mornings, Awana’s on Wednesdays, MDO Wed/Fri, Games Friday nights, competitions Saturday’s and that’s just the first few months. A meal plan WILL be used just to keep sanity! lol Prayers are appreciated as we make this transition!
kelly says
I would love to hear your list of cooking skills that you want to teach your kids 9or have taught them). =0)
Amy says
Sounds like a great post idea! 🙂
kelly says
lol, that is what I was thinking!
By the way, we just started our homeschooling schedule 2 weeks ago and one of the things we changed in our schedule was a tip of yours: to school your youngest kids first. (at least I think it was yours!) Anyway, that one little changes has been going amazing!! It is helping me to help the younger boys with the things they are learning while the older ones are doing more independent lessons. This is helping them to have some ownership and responsibility for their work.
The best think is that I know that this is the plan God has for us whether it is a smooth day or not, we are obeying. =0)
Looking forward to your list of cooking skills to teach. =0)
Amy says
Oh yes! As soon as we started schooling the littles first, things went so much smoother!
Karyn says
Our family is working on memorizing some of the beautiful Catholic prayers. I’m trying to do this by reciting them at set times throughout the day – before and after breakfast, before schoolwork, before lunch, and before and after dinner. However, I keep forgetting one or two each day 🙁 Hopefully we’ll get in a better groove and, besides, no prayer is a wasted prayer!
Whitney Lowry says
We’re enforcing bedtime, especially for me! All the LO’s need to be in bed by 8, and our 7th grader and I have to be down by 10. We are both up at 6, and the LO’s are up at 7:30-8.
Tracy says
Love how you share your heart. We have made many changes to our routine. First we have changed almost everything about our homeschool. We have 3 boys 16,9 and 4 so they are all at different stages and no one is ever doing the same thing. We are now taking a much slower approach to our day and working more on character with our middle man. We have also changed to Unit Studies and lapbooks so we can really soak in what we are learning through out the day,week and even the month is needed. We are leaving teaching text books behind and are only using living books and a much more charlotte mason approach, except for Math. We too will now be adding in outside activities but will only allow 1 at a time, again with 3 boys in different things it was just too much. We are in the process of having someone from our church come to our home to teach music lessons that way we dont have to “run” out. Praying this slower pace will be the change we really need. We felt really lead by GOD to slow down and just have a more relaxed tone in our home.
Amy says
I truly believe you will be blessed by a slower approach. 🙂
Tami @ Around the Table with Tami says
Changes to this household include #3 of 4 leaving for college, so just #4 still home…well…except that #2 came home with grandbaby #1 to stay while hubby is deployed in Afghanistan. So…that’s a wonderful change! adding a third generation to the home {smiling very big}
When 1-4 were homeschooled I could very much relate to the meal planning needs!
http://www.aroundthetablewithtami.com/2012/08/dinner-time-decisions-week-3_26.html
Carrie says
I *always* need to get up earlier. Always. Good luck.
Angela Squires says
My recent schedule changes are very similar to yours! We’ve all been getting up earlier and going to bed earlier. I’ve been doing a better job of thinking ahead about meals. And, we are getting ready to add some activities–soccer for Abel and gymnastics for Amariah–into the mix!
Anita says
Yep, I find myself refocusing particularly 3-4 months into a pregnancy and 3-4 months after a birth! Finally I have energy and/or time to do more than the bare essentials and so I start making massive amounts of to-do lists. I usually lose them before I finish them, but it helps me get somewhere anyway! 😀