Daily Schedule for our Home and School

I spent several years ‘spying’ on other people’s homes through books, magazines and websites. Yes, I admit it. I was trying to find the ‘perfect’ daily home and school schedule. Well, I finally found one that worked for us. I took a little bit of this and a little bit of that from here and there and stirred it all together. Of course, I change it every year a wee bit since we have to work around pregnancies, toddlers and traveling across the globe. But this general plan works well for our family and I am posting it for all the other home school spies still looking for the perfect plan. Maybe you will get a new idea to add to your mix. (By the way, this is our best case scenario. Usually our days don't go this perfect, but it does help us to stay on track. On late nights we just start everything one hour later:)

6:30am Dad rises and starts the coal stove downstairs so the family can wake up to a warm home.

7:00am Mom rises, dresses, makes bed, makes coffee, starts breakfast and has a devotional time alone or with Dad. Usually we eat together.

7:30am Children rise and have personal devotions under the covers since the coal fires have gone out upstairs, quickly make beds and dress, swish and swipe the bathrooms and run downstairs to get by the warm fire.

8:00am Eat breakfast and cleanup, brush teeth, feed dog, get coal etc… before lessons.

8:30am Older girls begin lessons on their own. Younger children rise later and are still eating breakfast. They play from 9 until 10am together.

9:00am Mom puts a load of laundry in and tidies upstairs, then has computer time (and prayer/personal devotions if missed it earlier)

10:00am Mom teaches the younger children. The toddler sometimes listens in. When he gets bored an older girl is assigned to watch him for about 40 minutes then switches with her sister. They still do schoolwork but choose their ‘minimal thinking’ subjects to do during this time.

11:00am Break and snack for 30 minutes. In the spring, the kids go outside. During the winter, we have our Charlotte Mason drill time together- basically we exercise to music. Right now we are into Windsor Pilates.

11:30am Resume lessons until 12:30 or 1pm depending on if we were slow or interrupted.

1:00pm Lunch and clean up. Mom listens to oral narrations. Each of the older children who had independent work narrate. The younger children already narrated to mom earlier after each subject studied together.

1:30pm Home blessing or Zone chores (flylady.com) for 30 minutes all together as a family.

2:00pm Quiet time for one hour. Toddler sleeps. Every one must be in their rooms reading free choice literature or journaling. Mom gets one hour of peace and quiet. Ahhh….

3:00pm Kids play, play, play—usually outside. I try to keep them outside as much as possible as Charlotte Mason advised. During this time I get any planning or work done that I have scheduled for the week. I do a different thing each day-plan meals, grade papers, visit neighbor, correspondence, mend and fix. In the spring, I am outside if I can at all fit it in.

4:30pm Piano practice for one child while the other children fold clothes. Then the other older daughter practices piano at 5pm while the one who practiced earlier helps me make supper.

5:00pm Mom makes supper with one child helper.

6:30pm Dad comes home, we eat supper, children clean kitchen.

7:30pm Playtime, baths, etc…

9:00pm. All children in bed and may read quietly.

9:30pm. Lights out

10:30pm Mom and Dad go to bed.

On Thursday nights we have family fun night. We play games, watch a family movie, have our Skopeo Literary Society meeting, roast chestnuts or popcorn, etc…

On Fridays, we do not follow the schedule exactly. It is our group day. I will detail what we do on that day in a separate post.

If you have a schedule that works for you, please feel free to post and share it!