I have a confession. I actually like schedules. I like organization and routine. I like to know what is going to happen next. When I had my first baby, schedule was a very popular word. Of course, I was all over that. For years I ran a pretty tight ship, especially when it came to sleeping. I had nearly every moment of our day scheduled meticulously.
And then things changed. Our family got turned upside down and the schedule went out the window. For way too long, there was no organization, no order, and not one ounce of predictability. Some of that was my fault and some of that was out of our control. Through the journey, I learned to be very creative with getting our school time in. I learned to let the dishes stay in the sink and I learned to step over a few toys every now and then. Eventually our new life began to fall into chunks. Times became flexible, but routine was key. I taught the kids that certain things must happen in a certain order and I didn’t worry so much about what the clock said.
In creating a schedule based on chunks, it’s easy to get back on track at any point in the day. Even if we have an unexpected doctor’s appointment. We just jumped back in at the right chunk. Plus, without a bunch of set times to remember, it was much easier to keep up.
Good Morning Chunk (7:30am)
- tidy room
- breakfast
- morning chores
- Bible reading/quiet time
- memory work
School Chunk (9:00am)
- complete your assignments
- check off your sheet
- turn it in to mom
- free play
- Tues and Thursday… Classical Conversations and Community Bible Study
Lunch Chunk (12:00pm)
- help prepare food
- eat lunch
- listen to the read aloud
- help clean the kitchen
- free play
Afternoon Chunk (2:00 pm)
- quiet time (M,W,F)
- light school (T, TH)
Family Time Chunk (4:30 pm)
- family game (15-30 minutes)
- clean sweep the house
- help prepare dinner and set the table
- eat dinner
- help clean up the kitchen and do evening chores
- evening activities (bike ride, walk on the trail, Awana, etc)
Night Time Chunk (7:00-8:00 pm)
- Bath and Books
- Special time with mom
- Prayers and lights out
Of course, this is the list that hangs on the wall for everyone to see. It doesn’t include my routine. I couldn’t possibly list the 100′s of little things that I do each day, but here is a feeble attempt at the big stuff.
Pre-Breakfast Chunk (5:30am-7:30am)
- quiet time/prayer
- review the calendar and plan for the day
- work (usually I write posts in the morning when my mind is fresh, but I also do social media work)
- check emails
Good Morning Chunk (7:30 am)
I pretty much do exactly what the kids are doing during this time. I supervise and remind when needed, as well.
School Chunk (9:00 am)
With three kids in school and one toddler, I have to stay pretty actively involved during school time. I do take advantage of this time to chop veggies or do other simple prep for dinner sometimes. I also keep up with grading and organizing completed work so that we don’t have to worry about that later.
Lunch Chunk (12:00pm)
The older kids prepare lunch and I use this time check emails.
Afternoon Chunk (2:00 pm)
- quiet time (M,W,F) I use this time to work: write, brainstorm, make contacts, respond to comments, etc.
- light school (T, TH) School on these days is light enough that I am usually not required to supervise too much. I use the time to work.
Family Time Chunk (4:30 pm)
I participate in the family game time. Then take care of laundry and other chores during the clean sweep of the house. I supervise dinner prep or make it myself many days. While the older kids clean the kitchen, I try to play with my 2 year old one-on-one.
Night Time Chunk (7:00-8:00 pm)
The girls give the baby a bath and clean up the bathroom. Then they all read in their rooms. I use this time to work if needed, plan for the next school day, or tie up loose ends. At 8:00, the baby goes to bed and then the older kids take turns having one-on-one time with me until 8:30 (this usually involves a great book, as we do not have a tv).
After lights out, I work on maintenance stuff, contacts, and social media. I do a more in-depth Bible study, touch base with friends and try and empty out the ever growing email inbox (which is rarely under 50 unanswered emails). It is my goal to be in bed by 11, but in reality, it is more like 12 most of the time.
I’d love to hear about your day. Do you schedule to the minute? Do you use chunks? Routines? Do you fly by the seat of your pants? Please share your wisdom with us!
Linked with Raising Arrows, Better Mom, Hip Homeschool, Living and Learning at Home, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies
Kim Sorgius
Kim is just a girl, crazy in love with Jesus. She's a single mother of 4, a passionate homeschooler and life-long student. After teaching 8 years in public school, she traded her M.A. in Early Childhood for sippy cups and homeschool co-ops. Kim is the owner and editor of The Homeschool Village and Not Consumed where she encourages others to rest victoriously in the hands of God, rather than allowing life's difficult circumstances to consume.
Follow Me:
Last updated by at .
I was interested to see that you do WWE 3x per week. I am assuming that works well for you. Right now we do it Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday – getting the 4 days out of the way w/in a week. I read your blog a lot because I’m thinking very strongly about joining our local CC group! Thanks for all the great info!
Well, as you can see, I would recommend CC.
It is a great fit for our family, but, of course, not for everyone!
WWE works well 3 days a week. I could care less about extending a story over the weekend. Getting WWE “completed” is not the priority in our homeschool and with 3 kids in school, there is only so much mommy time. I do love WWE, but it requires my full attention for 15 minutes with each kid. Add reading, math and other things and I am out of time!
If you consider CC, WWE is highly recommended before Essentials. The parents who have gone through that program sing it’s praises as the best preparation for the Essentials program.
thanks for the advice. Yes, WWE takes up a good chunk of our time and right now it’s one of our “non negotiables” each day – but if I had more than 2 children I’m not sure I could keep up. The work load in Level 4 is taking me sometimes 30 minutes or more with my daughter. I can REALLY see its benefits, though – wow, she is getting to be a great writer!
We are only in level 2 now. We have about 3 weeks left before we start level 3 and 2 (again with the younger daughter). Does level 4 still require as much parent involvement? Surely they should be moving them toward more independent learning by that point, right? (Spoken from a momma who is a big fan of independent learning.)
You only get 5 and a half hours of sleep!? I might collapse.
Hehe. Yeah, I do best with 6.5, hence the need to try and get in bed at 11.
It does happen a few nights a week. Right now I am working very hard to produce income. Once that is a little more stable, I should be able to step back a bit.
I also find that if I sleep more than 7, I feel groggy. Even when I need to catch up on sleep.
I understand all about life getting crazy and turning you upside down. Glad to hear you were still able to find something that worked.
I like the “chunks,” Kim. That’s a good description of what we basically do too, although not quite as organized (it’s a work in progress). I’ve found that having a loose plan does help our days go smoother, and I am not so tempted to get distracted by upmteen other things could grab my attention to be done. I also pray I will be open to the Lord changing what I think are my “plans” any day of the week;)
Yes! I find that God changes my plans a lot. Like say today when we should have been doing school but had a situation that landed us running some not so fun errands.
Fortunately, our school chunk is shorter right now since CC hasn’t started and we are still on track today!
Your day is quite similar to ours. I love how you wrote it out in chunks of time. That is more like our schedule, even though I wrote it out with times. I’m glad to hear you guys are keeping up your routine. Praying for a blessed year for you!
I really enjoyed reading your post! I can completely relate with your liking of schedules and organization I am the same. I also went through a period when that all went out the window, but I am ever so glad things are coming back together again. I just wanted you know I appreciated your sharing your simple schedule breakdown!
Thanks Kim for sharing your “daily life” in this post. I was just praying today about better time management and having a better routine/schedule to our day. I like the “chunk” approach. I will incorporate that into my thinking about our day.
I love the way you did chucks of time, I called mine “blocks” of time. It seems much simpler written down that way. Sometimes when we write it all down it’s overwhelming. Love your site following now.
Kim,
When we were in the throes of homeschooling, I was so tempted to just jump out of bed (ok, crawl out of bed) and immediately start my day. Those were usually less than stellar days. Sheer desperation led me to prioritize my quiet time with the Lord and spend time at his feet first. As I did, I would submit “my” day and plan to him, asking him to change anything about it that was different from his good plan for us. By doing this, I found I handled “interruptions” less like inconveniences and more l like God’s divine intervention. God is so good to guide us when we surrender to his good and perfect plans. God bless you as you homeschool. Visiting from Be Not Weary today.
I’m glad you wrote on this subject. I have been finding it hard to stay on task and just decided to make sure that I stayed on track the best I could.
I tried to write out our schedule in times for my blog today, but “chunks” would more accurately reflect what we do as well
Blessings to you!
I really like how you chunk your days. As a former teacher, I’m trying to do a school schedule at home and we end up schooling until late at night without any breaks. Needless to say, I’m frustrated and so is my 3rd grade daughter. Rethinking today how to fit it all in during the week without doing so much during a day!
People say that it should be easier to homeschool if you were a classroom teacher, but it is far harder in my opinion. The biggest problem? We try and mimic the classroom! Honestly, you should be able to do third grade with one student in less than 2 hours.
Resist the urge!
I’m a “chunker” too. ::laugh:: We have Morning Time (Wake-up until 9:00am), School Time (9:00am-1:00pm), Afternoon Time (1:00pm-3:00pm), Activity, Free and Dinner Time (3:00pm-8:00pm depending on the day), Bed Time (8:00pm-10:00pm). It just seems to flow better this way for us! No one gets stressed about specific times.
I have a first grader in public school so stuck out to me (because I wouldn’t do the rest) was the bible study and quiet time. Do you tell them what scripture to read? How do you decide what you should read yourself?
My kids are part of CBS which is a Bible study for both adults and kids. We all have homework daily from that. It takes my kids about 15-20 minutes and it takes me 20-30. For the kids, CBS is the bulk of what they do during that Bible study time. For me, my evening Bible study time is spent with the CBS material and the morning time varies greatly. I study passages or books that I think will help me with a particular problem or I study along with the Hello Mornings Challenge. Right now we are doing 1 Peter. The study encourages you to dig deeper in the word and teaches tips for doing so. I love the studies that are written by Katie and Lara, two moms who love God fully and are real life friends. Here is a link to that study…http://www.amazon.com/Kept-Secure-Whatever-Quench-ebook/dp/B008V264C2
Thanks for taking the time to write all of this out! I homeschool my 2 oldest and have a 16 month that provides plenty of entertainment all the while…! We’ve been trying to find our “groove” and I like the idea of breaking the day into chunks – it makes logical sense and doesn’t seem as stressful as scheduling to 15 min increments! I NEED organization, but never seem to have it! thanks for a great post – love your blog!
Routine girl checking in here. I can’t do a schedule it makes me crazy.
I love all the “chunks!” Even though it’s a little funny seeing it written so many times =) I’m one who needs a schedule. I often write it down to the minute, but am completely ok with it not going that way =) I just need to know what’s coming up like you said. Thanks for linking this up with us at Trivium Tuesdays!
Hi
Im in south africa and im married to a rev. I have four wonderful childern who i homeschool . I really love your site and to tell you the truth it is hard to homeschool even if you are married. I love it and am blessed.