Organizing Your Day for Homeschooling

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I believe your schedule and the way you manage your home are the two KEY components to your success as a home teacher.

Often times we start our year out with a wonderful curriculum ( I 💜 Curriculum) and by the end of the week…we are exhausted and frustrated…and eventually, overwhelmed. 😔

I wouldn’t be able to write about this topic if I didn’t experience it myself.

I have experienced all the emotions of: I’m not qualified, I can’t do this, this job is too hard…

GOOD NEWS

The good news is…you really CAN homeschool and have positive days with commitment and organization. You can stay on task with your curriculum and have planned field trips. You can have all your laundry done and dinner on the table. All of those things…are homeschooling.

I started this website to help you with all of those things. So many times websites are only focused on curriculum, but I have found without the crucial home management piece, many moms give up.

FIRST COMMITMENT YOU NEED TO MAKE

The first commitment you need to make is…embracing and acknowledging your role as a home manager and CEO. As a manager, you are on time, organized, and committed to your job. This will take a conscious decision to be in charge of your home and children rather than allowing them to be in charge of us.

At any place of employment, the manager has to show up ready and with a plan. As a homeschool mom, your job description changes when you add “teacher” to your role. It is critical that you protect your time at home and also think of yourself as the teacher of your own private school.

Definition: HOMEMAKER: (noun) a person, especially a housewife, who manages a home.

The Rhythms of Your Day

As home managers, our day not only includes us…but our entire family.

What time should meals take place? What day should we grocery shop and plan meals? What about paying bills? Driving to ballet? Reading aloud? Taking time to train our children?

All of these tasks will be part of the rhythms of your day.

You can call it a schedule, routine, rhythm…whatever you choose but the most important thing is: You have focus throughout your day.

“Nothing gets dynamic until it gets specific”

Have you heard this quote? This one little line of 7 words changed the way I managed my home and school. As home managers, we have to care about the specifics of our home AND school.

Please don’t get the notion that I am asking you to replicate a “school” at home…I’m not. I believe your home is the perfect place for education. We will talk more about that later.

Scheduling is a written plan of how the order of your day will go.

Just as nature has a rhythm, our homes will function with a schedule for hygiene, meals, chores, academics, music practice, physical fitness, paperwork…etc.

A Morning Routine…

If you have no schedule right now…I suggest starting with a good morning routine. Our current schedule is as follows: MONDAY-THURSDAY ( FRIDAY IS NATURE DAY)

5:00 AM-6:00 AM – I wake up before anyone else. Pray and read my Bible or devotion. This is the time of day that is quiet for me. After I pray and worship the Lord. I get dressed completely and tidy up my bathroom after I leave. I usually put one load of laundry in or have it set to start on it’s own.

6:00 AM- 7:00 AM-Thinking time for me. I usually work on my business, check and reply to emails, go outside, and check on our livestock. Usually during this time I aim to stay in an attitude of prayer and enjoy the silence in the house. Around this time my teenagers are getting up at 6:30 or earlier. They have morning chores they do before breakfast even begins. ( feeding sheep, folding clothes, feeding chickens, watering plants…) The house remains quiet until 7.

7:00 AM- 8:00 AM- Wake up the little ones and help them get dressed, oversee them make their beds, and tidy bedrooms. Breakfast at 7:30. Our breakfasts are simple are having a routine of their own. I rarely buy cereal but instead, make lots of oatmeal and eggs. 7:45 one teenager loads the breakfast dishes with I help my toddler brush her teeth and go potty.

8:00 AM- 9:30 AM- “Bible time” at 8:00. During this time we pray as a family and are currently working through a series on character training. Bible time ends at 8:30, then I begin our morning time. (Art appreciation, music, poetry, devotions)

9:30 AM -10:30 AM-Preschool and Kindergarten time. I follow “The Enchanted Kindergarten” this program only takes me about 1 hour or less per day

During this time my older children all have their own chores and independent school work that is completed. Those subjects are: Math ( we have a math tutor that gives the children homework) and Spelling. The chores take less than 20 minutes.

10:30 AM- 11:30 AM-We listen to history/complete our writing. My younger children are free to play with specific toys and crafts but have to put them away and cannot move on to another activity without putting away the first item (s).

11:30 AM- 12:30 -The children watch a video in Latin as I get lunch prepared. Lunch is at 12, then someone has to put the dishes in the dishwasher and everyone cleans their “zone” until 12:30.

12:30- 1:00 PM- Play outside time

1:00 – 2:30 Quiet time. Little ones nap, older children read. Our day is never complete without reading.

That is my morning routine. Please note: I have older teenagers that are enrolled one day per week in a co-school. They have their own schedules and classes to attend via ZOOM. They are very independent, make their own weekly schedules, and maintain excellent grades.

Your morning routine WILL set the stage for the rest of the day. I have kept track of the days that I have no focus and days that I have kept our routine ☝ above. Those days are dramatically different in productivity.

The key is: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”..

Does our routine always go off exactly as planned? Nope. We have distractions every hour that I have to tend to. However, I always have my “map” to fall back on.

⏰I do not take phone calls during school time.

⏰I hardly ever teach with my phone in my hand.

⏰I use a timer consistently to work on habit training. I have had to learn the hard way to keep these rules for myself.

A disciplined mom will have disciplined children.

By nature, I am NOT drawn to routines. I love being a free bird and just floating about my day..however, if I live that way…without intention and focus, nothing will be accomplished. There is a reward in diligently working. Also, within our schedule, we have much freedom! Those hours scheduled for Math or History mean we can basically do whatever we want that promotes education in those areas. One year we took a full 6 months to study vaccines for Science. We were amazed ( and still are ) to have learned so much about the history of Medicine. Just like we budget our money, we budget our time…and there is freedom in that. I have planned field trips and fun days, too! We generally take the full month of December for a light school schedule ( older children) and no formal school schedule for the little ones.

Afternoons…

As a Charlotte Mason home educator, we do not have homework for children under age 13 in our home. Instead, afternoons are spent playing outside, working on hobbies, playing instruments, research, handicrafts, writing letters, chores, animal care, and much more.

I rest for 30 minutes in the afternoon before I begin making dinner. Just a few minutes of “mother culture” is all I need. I will read or make some tea and just sit somewhere.

To help moms I have created a course specifically for creating a rhythm in your home. This method has been LIFE changing for our home!!! I have mentored so many mothers and the consistent theme of struggle is ” I don’t have time to do it all!” Daily Rhythms gives you the framework needed for your success! Your home will be transformed and productive!