Our Homeschool Routine

I almost didn’t want to post on this one since we cannot follow a schedule – at least not a specific time slot schedule.  We’ve tried it before and the children didn’t like it, couldn’t understand why they had to stop in the middle of something and move on to the next thing, and it all reminded me a bit too much like the conditioning ring of the school bell.   I visited a few other HM members, though, and saw that they didn’t have schedules either.   So, okay, maybe I can do this.

Our Homeschooling Routine is as follows:  (Very Loosely!)

• I try to get up an hour or two before the children do so that I can have my quiet time in the morning
• Between 7 and 8 a.m. I wake up the children.  They usually have 30-45 minutes to wake up, shower/dress, and have breakfast before I call them to the table to get started on their work.
• During the course of the day they work on Math, Handwriting, Science, Reading, & Bible.
• At some point during the morning, we’ll all sit on the couch together and do our Bible reading, memorization, & singing followed by our History read-alouds.
• Break for lunch and chores
• In the afternoon, continue with their schooling
• Sometimes we’ll have more reading in the afternoons, but not too often because I tend to fall asleep if I sit on the couch after lunch!!
• One day a week I’ll do spelling with each child (2s+1d), and an English lesson with my sons
• When they’ve done work in each area of their assignment sheet for the day, then they are free to do what they like, get started on afternoon pick-up (before Dad gets home), or work on something extra.

This is all how it has been.  Starting next week everything will be different and I’m not sure what we’re going to do about it. 

Can I take a moment to whine?  Just a little?  I’ll do it softly, I promise.   See, here’s how it all works out: 

1. For the summer, friends and I started gathering for a P.E. day for our older sons.  Since we were meeting anyway, we decided to go ahead and do a Bible study together.   I thought it was only going to be for the summer, but now it isn’t and so that is one afternoon of my week not at home. Tuesday.
2. Older son is taking a Biology class this year and for some reason it is meeting twice a week for an hour and half.  Can’t it meet once a week for three hours??  Two afternoons of my week not at home.  Monday/Wednesday.
3. Because of Biology, we had to chage the day of our piano lessons.  I guess I was not clear with the teacher and when she was making up her fall schedule, she scheduled us for Thursday.  Now a fourth afternoon that I am not at home.
4. I’ve been wanting to do something with daughter for some time now, even trying over a year ago to get a small needleworking group together for mothers and daughters.  Well, guess what?  Another mom is getting one together, and it looks like it is actually going to happen.   It IS only an hour, and it IS fairly close to home, but it IS on Friday – the last day of the week that I had free.

So, if this is what our year is actually going to look like, then we will be doing schoolwork only in the morning hours.   (just had a dramatic demonstration of this on the chalkboard – Monday after 12:00 – GONE.  Tuesday after 12:00 – GONE.  Wednesday after 12:00 – GONE.  Thursday after 12:00 – GONE.  Friday after 12:00 GONE.)

If anyone wants to offer some advice, hints, tips, suggestions, sanity savers, etc. please DO!!

Otherwise it looks like we’ll all be starting our day EARLY!

This post was originally published @ Homeschoolblogger.com/ButterandHoney as an assignment from Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009