Daily routine

[MelindaT]

What is your daily routine like for school?

[ellebelle]

I have 3 children ages 13, 10, 6. We used to have pretty much a child-led learning project until the third child came along and I found that I needed more structure to make sure that anything got done and that each child got some face-time with mom.

When I am not in the throes of my SAD, where we pretty much partially unschool for about 8 weeks in the middle of winter, here is our routine (times are just estimates - They are my goals, but we rarely stick strictly to them.):

6:30 - I am up, kissing dh goodbye, taking meds, exercising, showering, taking some quiet time for myself for prayer and/or bible reading.
7:30 - make sure kids get up and do morning routine - breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth, hair, making beds and doing morning chores like wiping down a bathroom, sweeping the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher. I have breakfast during this time.
8:30 - meet on the couch for family prayer time, bible reading, discussing plans for the day
8:50 - short exercise time and stretching (one son has certain exercise things on his therapy program so we all do them.)
9:00 - ds13 reads to dd6 or does a reading lesson with her while I do some therapy with ds10.
9:30 - ds13 and ds10 do independent work (I do a weekly plan with daily assignments) while I work with dd6.

In the next couple hours, I spend time bopping from one child to the next, either checking in or helping with an assignment.
11:30 - noonish - lunch break
After lunch, we do a few more chores, kids spend some time outside if possible while I take a phone or computer break. Then I do more therapy with ds10.
After that, we either go to our afternoon activities (science club or rock climbing 2 afternoons a week) or complete any work left to do, continuing the bopping from one child to the next and trying to add a phone call or chore in between.
We try to be completely done by 3 on days where we don't have early afternoon activities. (Okay, that is MY goal. My 13ds doesn't exactly see it that way, LOL)

This is our perfect world plan. When I get step one done, the rest works out pretty well. If I don't do step one, we have a more difficult time and I feel like I am drowning.

Ellen

[white_feather]

Oh Ellen! Your schedule almost gives me a stroke! Granted, I'm only homeschooling a kindergartener right now, but I can't seem to get the balance down right and feel SO overwhelmed much of the time. It's so hard to imagine going from here to where you are!

I have a mental schedule, which includes getting up, dressed, breakfast, taking a walk, and doing about 45 minutes of lessons. Playdates and such are scheduled in the afternoon. But life really gets in the way, and there's always something going on that interrupts this very simple plan, and I'm not sure how to bring more predictability to it. I do enjoy reading about other people's schedules though in the hopes it will help me sort my own out!

[ellebelle]

Daily routine

Originally Posted by white_feather

Oh Ellen! Your schedule almost gives me a stroke! Granted, I'm only homeschooling a kindergartener right now, but I can't seem to get the balance down right and feel SO overwhelmed much of the time. It's so hard to imagine going from here to where you are!

When my oldest was a kindergartener, what I have on paper would have given me a stroke, too. Like I said, we were very unstructured when my kids were younger. We floundered terribly when I had my third child because I was too overwhelmed to be fun, spontaneous mom. I had to start implementing structure just to get out of my PJ's, LOL.

With a kindergartener, you don't really need to do much. Read, read, read. Play with playdough. Go for walks. Lay on the floor and let your children play "off-roading SUV's" on you - that is how I got my micro-naps, lol. Get your sanity breaks with other moms. Go on field trips. You are doing great.

BTW, I am not the greatest housekeeper in the world. the house is relatively clean (I have trained my kids how to sweep and do dishes), but I do have some messy areas. I guess I will tackle them after I send my oldest off to college in 6 years. It will be my therapy

Ellen
Homeschooling mom to 13yob, 10yob, 6yod

[genifer]

Subbing.

We only started homeschooling in april and have had to do some serious deschooling time. We've tried to get something like a routine going before november but we had my mom visit from the states (I hadnt seen her in 6years!) and the routine we had going went. It wasnt a daily routine either more like a weekly thing that looking back didnt feel right. We were experimenting with Charlotte Mason. So I feel its early on enough to do the trial and error thing. We've taken the whole of December off. Im glad we did too. Its been wonderful. We are still learning how to work as a family, learning about each other and for the first time in a very long time I am getting to really know my kids. So we really dont have a daily routine going. I still dont know if we'll do the unschooling thing or have more structure. Two of them have said they dont want me to 'teach' them anything , one of them wants me to help her learn to read better. My ds only just turned 6 so Im not stressing about him. Anyway. We spend time reading, they play on the computer (a game called world explorer), Some days we talk about math, theres house work to do. Winter is hard for me sometimes, I think I get a bit of the SAD going to. We take walks when the weather permits (even when it doesnt, lol!). Again things are going to change in the new year with a group of us locally starting a new hs group. We're really excited about that. Like I said, I think we are still in the deschooling/trial and error stage: .

I know this isnt what you asked for but this is what its like for us. I think Im no good at doing daily routines, I think we are more 'respecting our rhythm' type of people. We are very spontaneous, going to museums, walks, etc. Take a rest when we need it. Ill just go on and on if someone doesnt stop me....

[genifer]

Im a goober, I forgot to sub

[moominmamma]

I'm here to offer a glimpse of the other end of the spectrum from Ellen.

I get up when I wake up ... somewhere between 7 and 9. Kids get up when they're well-rested too, somewhere between 8 and noon (usually around 9 for the younger three, around noon for the eldest).

Sometime during the day we usually have an out-of-home activity. Today it's violin/viola lessons for the younger three and an orchestra concert in the evening. We'll fit those things in.

During the day we work and play at whatever we want and need to do. That might mean computer programming, computer games, board games, imaginary play, cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, snowplowing, yoga, painting, drawing, writing stories, reading novels or non-fiction, watching a documentary, tidying, cleaning, laundry.

Normally right after supper my kids practice their instruments. With lessons and concert today, the younger three may not today, but my elder will fit in her piano and violin practicing near supper-time.

In the mid-evening I'll offer to help anyone who wants with math or anything similar they'd like to do. Generally one or two kids will take me up on it, and we might do 15 or 20 minutes of workbooky type stuff.

Then I read aloud from whatever novel we're in the midst of. And sometimes some non-fiction too. Right now it's music history and a fantasy novel.

We go to bed when we're tired. Lately, because of all the holiday-time musical performances, we're night-owls, heading to bed sometime around midnight or 1 a.m..

Miranda

[LovemyBoo]

Right now only ds is being "schooled".

7-8am - Both kids get up and have breakfast.

8-9am - Kids play, Mom cleans and gets laundry started. Ds may choose to start lessons early, otherwise.....

9am - Ds starts lessons. He has 3-5 "subjects" per day, 4 days a week. He does each lesson, taking a break inbetween if he wants to. It takes him anywhere from an hour to 4-5 hours to finish. It depends on his breaks and if we have anything else to do that day.

During that time I keep cleaning, get on the computer, play/read with dd. Dd plays by herself. I help ds when he needs it. Once a week or every other week we have homeschool group in the morning. I usually schedule fewer lessons that day and they are done before or after group.

His lessons include math (either a Singapore page, practicing times tables, or a worksheet from the internet), reading (I read aloud from either our fiction novel or non-fiction/historical fiction book), writing (writing a letter to family, a journal entry, creative writing of his choosing, or cursive practice), and grammar/spelling (workbooks once a week), and Spanish (dvd's or reading aloud).

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

I get up when I wake up ... somewhere between 7 and 9. Kids get up when they're well-rested too, somewhere between 8 and noon (usually around 9 for the younger three, around noon for the eldest).

This is the most common scenario I've seen among homeschoolers I know - it was always that way for my own family as well. Teens especially need a differrent kind of sleep. Here's an article that the National Home Education Network have linked to in their site:
adolescent sleep


Lillian

[dharmamama]

Here's our routine for my oldest, who is 12:

She gets up, gets dressed, brushes her hair, has breakfast, brushes her teeth, and takes her medicine.

Then she starts her three daily chores. They change based on the day but usually include unloading the dishwasher and folder/putting away her laundry. The rest of us (me, dd4, and ds3) work on our chores at the same time.

I read to the kids for 15 minutes, and then dd12 starts her schoolwork.

She does phonics and language arts (Spectrum), Singapore math (1A), and reading (The Reading Lesson + an easy reader of her choice). Mondays and Fridays we do social studies, which generally consists of me reading to her from the DK First Atlas or a book about American symbols.

We are usually done by 10:30 or 11.

In January I will be adding American History three days a week, which will consist of me reading to her from both historical fiction and children's nonfiction books about key times in American history.

Namaste!

[MaWhit]

We don't really "do school" but we do have a basic routine. My kids are almost 7, 4.5, and 3.

• Breakfast
• Childcare (at the gym: 2 hours if I'm the childcare worker, 1 hour if I'm exercising)
• Story Time (we read books of their choice, sing songs, on Weds we do the library storytime)
• Lunch
• Table Time--crafts, puzzles, 1-on-1 lessons of their choice, whatever. Anyone who wants 1-on-1 time from me get sit, but they often choose to do group activities
• Play Time--free play, sometimes individual and unstructured, sometimes a game at the table extended from Table Time, whatever. Anything goes.
• Quiet Time--they lay down (sometimes falling asleep) and listen to an audiobook or music, or watch a rare video, and I piddle around on the comouter, do housework, study, or nap with the little one.
• Pet Time--we feed and water the cats and guinea pigs and make sure everyone gets some lovin'
• Dinner Prep and Dinner
• Childcare (work or exercise) OR classes (swimming twice a week) OR family time
• Bedtime

[jessicaSAR]

My girls are young, ages 3 and 6, but for anyone who has young ones here is our daily rhythm:

Everyone is up by 7am (the 3yo and I are usually up by 6:15, my older dd wakes up about 7)

7-9am - breakfast, clean-up and daily chores
9-9:30 - guitar practice (dd#1 is in the suzuki guitar program)
9:30-10 - circle time and preschool story and snack
10-11 - first grade main lesson (we are just starting first grade in Jan so we will have to see how this goes), dd#2 has free play
11-12:15 - daily project (monday baking, tuesday coloring, wed painting)
12:30 - walk (we live on campus at a boarding school so we walk to lunch everyday)
12:50 - lunch
1:30-2:30 - rest for everyone
2:30-5 - free play (some outside if the weather is at all tolerable)
5:30 - dinner
6:30 - baths
7pm - dd#2 goes to bed
8pm - dd #1 goes to bed

We stick to this Mon-Wed. We have a waldorf coop on Thursdays and dd#1 does ballet Thurday afternoons. On Fridays we have a preschool/kindy coop and guitar lessons in the afternoon.

[AngelBee]

:

[catgirl]

Well, this is the plan, but it doesn't always work out this way.

7-7.30ish I get up, wash face etc., start getting breakfast

Usually ds (7) wakes up around the same time. If he's up first he plays with his trains and so on. If he sleeps later I usually just wait for him, unless there's some activity we have to get to. If he seems really asleep I'll go exercise before breakfast.

8.30-9ish we start schooly activities. Usually we do some kind of langauge arts stuff for 45 minutes or so - he just finished a 12-week homeschool writing class and that was taking up most of this time. Now I want to get back to doing more poetry (which he really enjoys), and critical thinking stuff. At some point we take a 10-15 minute break - he might just play around on his own, or ask me to play a game with him (like Set or something similar that's lying around), or we might dance to music. Then we do math (his favorite thing) for 30-40 minutes, followed by 1-2 minutes of Hebrew reading practice. On Fridays instead of language/math we do history and read the week's torah portion together.

Sometime between 10 and 11 he and my Mom (who lives with us) and I might go out for a walk, or he'll bike while I run, or he and I will play outside.

I try and get piano done before lunch, because it's pretty intense - piano is his big thing, he's very serious about it, and he's at a stage where there's quite a lot of practice to do. Often we break in the middle and have a crawling race (good for the brain!) or play tag, to get our energy up.

We eat lunch about 1pm, then in the afternoon we might run errands, do a science experiment, or a playdate, or he has gymnastics twice a week (at a gym where a lot of our HSing friends go, so that's cool!). He also has vision exercises that take about 15 minutes but to be honest they don't always happen. I work part-time some afternoons and evenings, and all day Sunday.

As I said, it doesn't always work out! Sometimes we get a late start; sometimes we have a field trip or group activity; sometimes we have a lazy day if I sense one or both of us need it. I've found it works better if we have some structure - better for him because paradoxically it gives him a sense of control knowing what's planned, and better for me because given that I also have to work and practice (I'm a musician) I'm really stretched tight and I have to be organized or I'd go more insane that I'm going already. : I really wish I didn't have to work, actually!