This is probably one of the most common questions people ask me about homeschooling.
What does your schedule look like? How do you teach multiple different levels at the same time?
The hard work you did yesterday in listing your priorities and creating your vision will vastly help you in thinking about your homeschool schedule. I am sharing my schedule with you here, but it’s important to remember that I don’t work. I have a lot of hobbies, and I make time for them most days, but I don’t have to build in time in our homeschool days for specific work hours. If you’re one of the many parents who is trying to figure out how to juggle working and homeschooling, I hope these tips can help you in thinking about your own schedule - but that list of priorities and your homeschool vision will be critical in making a schedule actually work for you.
Our Schedule
The honest truth is, we don’t really have a “schedule.” We do have a daily routine, but that routine remains flexible each day, and there’s a certain ebb and flow to it depending on what’s happening in our family on any given day. One of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is that none of us work very well on sticking to a certain time table, so we instead create a routine and have a checklist, and mark off the things we’ve done each day. If anything is left undone, we move it to the next day in the week. I try to leave one day a week for “catch up.”
Now - are you ready for a really big secret about how we create that routine in our house?
We do it around food. Because let’s be real … everyone has to eat - several times a day. Instead of using meal and snack times as breaks from lessons, we do the opposite - we use those times as launching times for our lessons. And I’m always amazed at how much more engaged my kids are if they’re snacking on something. Our day goes something like this:
Wake up, individual play
We have a slow morning. The girls wake up when they wake up - sometimes that’s 6:30, other times it’s 8:00. Occasionally it’s even earlier. They know that until I’ve had my coffee, they have time to do whatever they’d like.
First Breakfast
This is an easy bowl of cereal, that happens soon after they first wake up. Most mornings, they fix it themselves, and it gives me the flexibility I need to drink coffee, read a few pages of my book, or do a little bit of writing. Most times this ends up being individual reading time, because they’ve gotten into the habit of always having a book next to them as they eat their cereal. Now they mostly read chapter books, but even before they could read, they would grab stacks of picture books to look at as they eat.
Free time
Depending on how early they wake up, after they’ve finished their cereal they have an hour or two of time to do whatever they’d like. We have a closet that has various activities in it - lots of puzzles, games, legos, playdough, blocks, magnet dress up dolls, etc. They also have free reign to craft supplies, and bookshelves full of books. A few times a week I’ll try to leave a certain activity or stack of books on our coffee table the night before. This entices them to explore it after their breakfast time, and it’s a way I sneak in some learning connected to other themes for the day or week.
Morning Chores
Around 9:00 every morning, it’s time to “Get Ready for the Day.” Several years ago we made a chore chart as part of one of our lessons, and it’s something they still use when thinking about what they need to do in the morning. We all use this time to get dressed, brush hair and teeth, make our beds, clean up our dirty clothes, start a load of laundry, tidy up our bedrooms, and then head back down the stairs for the start of our lessons. We’re working on shortening the amount of time this takes - sometimes they do it fairly quickly. Other times it takes an inordinate amount of time, and I have to entice them to finish up by promising them something to eat when they’re done. See? Food is the secret.
Morning Tea Time/Second Breakfast
This is the start of large chunk of together learning. I make them a second breakfast - usually it’s omelettes, scrambled eggs, cheese grits, or oatmeal. Something hearty that will fill their bellies so we can move on to a big chunk of learning for the day. As they are eating, I begin our read alouds for the day. Sometimes we listen to an audiobook, other times I read to them. Each lessons is short - most lessons last between 10-15 minutes, and no lesson is longer than 20 minutes at a time. If I can tell they’re getting antsy, we end sooner and move on to a different type of lesson. During this chunk of time, we do our main subjects together - Fables/Hero Tales, History, Geography, Literature, Natural History/Nature Study, Foreign Language, Bible, Music, Art Study, Composer Study. We don’t do every single subject every day. We typically do 3-4 subjects each morning - with each subject happening 2-3 times each week.
Morning Snack
Typically an hour and a half or so after they’ve eaten their second breakfast, they begin complaining about being hungry again, so we take a quick break between lessons and I put together a snack of fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, or anything else I can find in my fridge. This is a quick grab and go snack - one that doesn’t take a lot of time. As they are munching on it, we move on to individual subjects. This is the only time that the girls are separated for their own levels. We do Math, Handwriting Instruction for the younger, Language Arts for the older (Handwriting practice, grammar, spelling), and Individual Reading Practice. I work with each of them directly for Math, and have differing levels of interaction with them for the other subjects during this time. These are subjects that happen daily, 4-5 times a week.
Free Time/Lunch/Quiet Time
When they finish their morning lessons, they have free time until lunch. Most days our lessons go right up to lunch time - but occasionally we finish and they have time to do whatever they’d like. Most days, I send them outside at this time until I get lunch prepared. If the weather is nice, I’ll bring lunch outside. After lunch they have more outside play time. Many days I’ll make them have a quiet time - a time when they have some down time in their rooms. Time when I say “I don’t want to see you for an hour, unless there’s an emergency.” As they get older, when the weather is nice outside, this quiet time is really more like outside free time. In the colder months, it’s mostly indoor quiet time, where they can listen to an audiobook, read a book, or play quietly in their room. I’ve found this hour or two to be crucial for my own wellbeing. It’s the time I use to do my own things - some days that’s cleaning, some days it’s writing or sewing, or doing some other hobby.
Afternoon Tea Time
Sometime Mid-Afternoon, we come back together for Afternoon Tea Time. The time of this changes based on what other afternoon activities we have going on that day. It typically happens 3-4 times a week - or at least that’s my goal! “Tea Time” doesn’t always mean we’ll have tea … it’s simply a fancy name for Snack Time. This chunk of time includes the lessons they do Virtually - Piano, Art (We use Chalk Pastels with Nana - more about that tomorrow), Typing, and various other apps or online games. Many days we’ll do Handicrafts during this block of time - especially in the colder or rainier months.
Afternoon Activities
Typically by 3:30 every day, our main day winds down and we start to get ready for extracurricular activities. Sometimes we do late afternoon playdates or nature walks. Some days we have nothing on the calendar and this time is simply free time. We try to not overschedule our late afternoons - I’ve found that we ideally need 2-3 days where there’s nothing on the calendar. As the girls get older and into more things, this gets harder to do - but we try to be intentional about creating open space in their days. I’ve found that the more open space I can give them, the more creative they tend to be - and the more individual learning I see happening.
Some Helpful Hints About Scheduling:
Don’t overschedule yourself.
It’s better to do less things and do them well than it is to cram too much into one day. Remember - you aren’t going to screw up your child’s education if you don’t get to every subject every day. They are going to learn and grow and excel. Be intentional in your scheduling and give yourself space.
Don’t be afraid of boredom.
Boredom Sparks Creativity. As parents we have a great desire to engage our children and make sure they’re always learning something - but the reality is, sometimes the best learning comes from an insane amount of free time. Think of your lessons as a way to spark imagination, and then give them lots of time to process and think on those lessons in their own way. I’m always so encouraged by watching my kids in their free time - so often they are busy creating something new, or imagining themselves in far away lands or historical times that we’ve been reading about. It’s absolutely okay for your kids to be bored. Build in time every day for that to happen. It may be hard at first, as they get used to it - especially for older kids - but in time, they’ll learn how to use that free time to create.
Be Flexible.
This is the ultimate rule in creating your schedule. The schedule I’ve shared with you here is my ideal schedule. It’s what our ideal day looks like. There are many days that look just like this. But there are also many days when we don’t get through the things I’d hoped we’d get through. Days when Morning Chores take an inordinate amount of time and it’s lunch time before we’ve even tackled Math and Reading. Days when we skip all morning lessons and move straight to individual lessons and free time, simply because someone didn’t sleep well and everyone feels off kilter. Days when we ditch the lessons to go play in the yard, because the weather is glorious and it’s been raining (or snowing) for weeks on end. Flexibility is key when everyone is at home all day every day. Your home is your safe space - it should be a place where everyone feels loved and comforted. Keep that in mind as you go through your days, and give yourself the grace and flexibility to not get it all done every single day.
Don’t let your schedule be the master of you, but instead, use it as a tool to help you create calm and beautiful days with each other.