Scheduling Our School Day

For the past five years of our homeschooling, we have mainly used a routine type schedule.  I would schedule things to be done within certain hours of our school day.  For instance, our daily schedule might have looked like this:  Eat breakfast and do school from 8:00 – 12:00, naps & quiet time from 1:00 – 3:00, prepare dinner & evening chores… and so forth.

One reason that I did this was to keep myself from becoming burdened by a schedule that said “so and so must be done at 9:30”.  Sometimes we would have those days when what should have been done at 9:30 AM might not be completed until 9:30 PM.  There are just days like that.  :)  This routine style scheduling worked for us for a few years until last year. 

Last school year was a tough year for us as we had 3 school aged children, one preschooler, and one toddler.  I discovered then that a routine was not going to work for us anymore.  Without a more structured schedule, my children didn’t know what they needed to do and neither did I!  So this year we have made a structured schedule and it is working very well for us. 

I’m going to share our schedule here but wanted to say some things that I’ve learned about scheduling a school day:

• Look at schedules of others for ideas but do what works for you and your family.

I love to see other schedules but I have made ours for our family.  History read alouds do not work in the mornings for us because my 2 year old can be too distracting.  So we do reading in the afternoons when he is asleep.

• Change what doesn’t work.

This is not the schedule that I set out with on week one of this school year.  This is actually probably more like the third or the fourth.  When something didn’t work, we changed it until we found what fit for us.

• Don’t let the schedule run you.  Use it as a guideline and stay flexible.

Like I mentioned above, there are days when I don’t get to spelling & grammar with the boys at 11:00.  I’ve learned that I must stay flexible.  Things happen…children get sick, household problems arise, etc.  This schedule is just to help make my days go smoothly and not to stress me out when the unexpected happens.  I have found that it also keeps me from having to figure out what to do next. 

Here is our schedule for the 2010 – 2011 school year:

(I should probably say that my children are in the following grades:  Bryce, 7th; Grant, 5th; Emma, 2nd; Abby, 4 year old preschool; and Evan is in 2 year old preschool.)

School Day Schedule2

Any areas marked in green are times that I am teaching.  The blue areas are computer times for math.  You may also notice that my preschoolers are being taught by either me or a sibling.  This is something new that we are trying this year and so far, it has been my sanity saver with homeschooling with little ones.  There will be a future post on that soon.