Help with Daily Schedule!

My kids are similar ages (just turned 6, 3.75 and 1.75). I am there with ya! I try to have my oldest do helpful stuff like wipe down the bathrooms and empty the dishwasher. I also have my middle one do some easier stuff like put the recycling out and fold undies. I get myself up about 6:30 and the kids at 7:30. We eat breakfast around 8, do some tidying up (each has their own responsibility except the 1 yo plays of course). We try to start school around 8:45-9. We start all together for Bible, poem, spanish, and science/art/music. Then there are variations of who is with me and who is playing through the morning. Mostly my 1 yo goes between each sibling and by herself.

I think starting school at 8 IS unrealistic! You shouldn’t need to be spending that long doing school at this age. Try to figure out the best time of day for your DS. If he needs some playtime after chores before doing some schoolwork, then go with it! I have all 3 of mine do “roomtime” in their rooms (LO is in her crib) which gives me a chance to get some housework done. If it’s better to get it out of the way first, then leave the rest of the day for play and rest.

For laundry I start a load when I go downstairs to prep breakfast (7:15), switch it during our after breakfast tidying, and try to fold and deliver while the kids are doing roomtime. It does end up sitting outside the girls’ room (my younger 2) until bath night when I try to put it away while DH does the bathing.

You’ve gotten good advice. What I’ve learned over our years homeschooling and having lots of little ones is summed up easily:

– Make the schedule fit your family. If that means you start at 8am, great. If you’re starting at 1pm that’s great too. My family IS usually doing school by 8am. My sister’s family usually does school in the afternoon instead. There is no one right schedule!

– Include the children in the chores. Yes, until they learn well they just slow everything down, I get that. But they won’t just wake up one morning knowing how to do chores well and quickly, it takes years of learning and improving. Start now. (I’m so passionate about this topic I’ve done a whole blog series about chores: http://ourbusyhomeschool.com/operation-chore-training/ )

A thought for getting dressed – what about choosing clothing the night before? We do this Saturday night to prepare for Church on Sunday. It works great!

Yes, it is harder when you only have younger children but don’t wish away their little years. Mine are 12, 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1, and 2 months old and I swear the 12 year old was little not so long ago. It seems impossible she is in 7th grade, can cook, clean, and run the house in my absence, and is a young lady now.

I have a few thoughts that I hope may help. First, don’t blame yourself. Your systems aren’t set up to work for you right now but with a little work you can get that straightened out.

1) Sleep. Your right about this one. Sleep is so vital and so easily ignored. With young children I guess you may still be awakened a lot at night. Aim for at least 7 but preferably 8 or even 8.5 hours of sleep time. If your sleep is interrupted, set the higher numbers as your goal. Being well rested helps your WHOLE day – patience, energy, clear thought, better food choices, health, even weight. You owe it to yourself and your family.

2) After making many schedules that seemed wonderful, then many more that seemed reasonable, I realize the best place for me to start with a schedule is right where we already are. I used to put subjects I really hoped to get to on the schedule but now I realize that putting it on the schedule doesn’t make it happen, it only makes me feel badly about it not happening. Once we get really good at our simple schedule I’ll add a few more things in. But until the top priority items are done regularly and it feels like we have open time, I’m not fretting about other things. Right now we do learning to read, math, instrument practice and history regularly. We never do science. I’m really excited to add it (along with a dozen other things!) but until I feel we’re really doing well with these top 4 items I won’t. So if 8am isn’t working for you, make your schedule start at 8:30 or 9. Or 10, if that is where you are now. It seems with such young children you don’t need much time to get things done and 9 is a perfectly reasonable time to start your homeschooling day.

3) Develop a very solid morning routine! My personal morning routine sets us up for success before the day even starts. I exercise (3d./wk), shower, do kitchen (put away clean dishes, set it back to totally clean after breakfast) and laundry (start a load most mornings and fold anything that may be left from prior day). The kids do their own things and we’ve been doing the same thing every morning for about 3 years but still, many mornings if I don’t give a reminder to finish up they will get distracted. We always get it all done before starting homeschooling. It shouldn’t take long, though.

4) For laundry, give thanks to your washer and dryer each time you use it. Really. I think that is why I’ve never had the dreaded laundry pile everyone else has. 🙂 More practically, though, first, we don’t have many clothes. My 7yos sons have about 4 outfits (though more shirts). I taught my teenagers to wash their own clothes when they were 8-9yo and they’ve done that ever since. I wash my younger sons clothes along with mine and my husbands. I don’t fold theirs, though. When I fold the laundry, I lay theirs in a neat pile unfolded along with half the kitchen towels and they both fold and put away their clothes and the dish towels. I wash a load most mornings, transfer to dryer sometime during the day and fold in the evening on my bed, or the next morning if I don’t get to it. A clean load never makes it past the next morning bc it is part of my morning routine to get it done. Some days I may wash two loads, but with the washer and drying doing all the work, I find it easy.

So, get sleep and make a solid morning routine. That’s my advice. And don’t fret if that seems to take a long time to solidify. If next year this time you and your children have those habits in place, think how much easier your day will be. I hope you find some ideas that help.