Friday, August 21, 2009

Our family schedule

When we visited some friends that homeschool earlier this month, we saw their schedule in the kitchen. She basically wrote down from the time the children woke up until bedtime what their routine was including which child had school and which child had computer time etc. I thought this was a great idea. Lamb 1 loves routine and I think homeschooling him will go better if we have a schedule. It was important to me to schedule in time for MY things. Here's what I came up with. It's pretty detailed. I know that we won't follow this schedule every day, but here is the goal for days that we are home. This will be the schedule Monday-Saturday so we are free to take a day off each week to travel with Ram to visit someone or go shopping out of town, etc.

8-8:30 Ewe read, Lambs play
8:30-9 Morning prayer, calendar, breakfast, get dressed
9-9:30 Math
9:30-10 Five in a Row story and activity, read aloud one My Book House story
10-10:30 Lamb 1 Handwriting (probably won't take the whole 1/2 hour)
10:30-11 Ewe computer time (FINALLY!), Lambs play
11-11:30 Go to post office, outside time if weather ok
11:30-12:30 Make lunch, family devotions, eat lunch, vitamins and cod liver oil for Lambs, clean up
12:30-? Lamb 3 nap
12:30-1 Reading/Phonics
1-1:30 Memory (Bible, Catechism, hymn), Bible story
1:30-2 Lamb chore time, Ewe housework, Lambs get ready for rest time
2-3 Lamb 2 rest time, Lamb 1 quiet time and listen to books on CD, Ewe declutter house time
3-3:30 Snack, Latin
3:30-4 M,W,F Music, T,R Art
4-5 Lambs play, Ewe nap?
5-6 Make supper, eat, clean up
6-6:30 Lambs play, Ewe housework
6:30-7 Clean up
7-7:30 Story-one their choice, MWF one Science, TR one History
7:30-8 Get ready for bed, T,Sat bath, prayers
8-9 Lambs in bed, Ewe correspondence time (pay bills, write letters, etc.)
9-10 Ewe computer time
10-11 Ram and Ewe Compline and Together Time
11PM-8AM Everyone sleeps!

I've already started to follow parts of this schedule. I will try harder to stick to the schedule once we begin homeschooling Lamb 1 in Kindergarten in September. Getting Lamb 3 closer to this schedule has really helped both of us sleep better. Ram and I have enjoyed doing Compline together. We haven't spent the whole hour together every night, but having it scheduled makes it easier for us to both take a break from computer or work or whatever. Some nights we have had wine and cheese or other snacks. Most nights it's just nice to take a break and talk to each other. I wish I would have thought of Together Time a long time ago! I haven't followed my computer times strictly, but this will also help that Ram will know when I want the computer plus I won't waste ALL day on e-mail and blogs! And I haven't made it to bed at 11pm every night yet, but that will be better to get to bed earlier and get up earlier too. I'm sure we'll make changes as we try it, but overall I'm very happy with my plan.

3 comments:

Glenda said...

Scheduling always helps us as well. I'm working on what to do for this year, except it sort of has to wait till I hear when piano lessons will be. Until then, I'll go by last year's to start and then adapt.

If you're doing FIAR check out homeschoolshare.com. They have lots of free lapbook ideas for many of the books. My friend Amy did these with her 7 yr old the past two years (K &1) and she really enjoyed them.

Esther said...

I like the idea of doing Compline together every night. Great schedule--I'm excited for my boys to go back to school and get a schedule of our own!

Erin said...

Cod liver oil? Please explain.

We started drinking raw milk recently. I need to find a vitamin D supplement, and I have heard that CLO is the best. How do you get your kids to take it?