Ideas for using time more wisely

I could really use some ideas for using time more wisely! I look forward to hearing lots of great ideas, but I will share a few things we do that may or may not be helpful.

I often eat WHILE I’m making the kids’ breakfast and lunch, which frees me up to read during the meal. 🙂  I used to try to eat while they did too, but then I would end up snacking on garbage because I’m hungry, and then during the meal when I was eating my proper meal I was always trying not to talk with food in my mouth and that really cuts into the flow of the story! lol  So a history reading, family read aloud, biography for a composer or artist, really any subject that has a real aloud component could fit in there. I haven’t yet established an actual “rotation” for this but was just thinking that would be helpful, otherwise at every meal time I’m thinking, “Hmm…what should I grab to read?” lol 

We stick pictures for art appreciation and the history related pics (like from SCM’s “Things They Left Behind”) in page protectors on the refrigerator. Your 9yo could have the job to write up a label with relevant info on it, and the younger two could put it up with magnets. For some reason my kids all like doing that. We do talk about the pic for a few minutes of course, but that’s where they go once they’ve been discussed. We have 4 items up pretty much all the time, in the middle section so it’s at the kids’ eye level.

Tea times — love them! There have been some discussions on here, for sure. Maybe you could do a seach? We were much more consistent before Christmas, but my kids love them. They usually all bring a couple poems to share from whatever they want, and I share a few from the current poet we’re studying. 

Music — we don’t usually play it in the car, but many families do. Usually I squeeze that in by either playing it during a time when they are working on art stuff, or sometimes during a meal if we’re not reading something aloud. I used to play it for background music during tea time and I still think that’s good for exposure, but I don’t want that to be the only time because we’re also focusing on the poetry at the same time, of course. 

Read alouds in the car — It’s less than ideal, but we do listen to audio books (Librivox or a library one) for a current classic read aloud that we’re doing. This works really well when we do have those busy days. We like to talk in the car though, so we usually only listen to one chapter or for one direction of the car ride. 

One thing I really struggle wiith is the balance between the kids and trying to get things done…getting those who can and should work more independently to do that without getting distracted or taking too long, while not just abandoning them either. Then there’s the youngest one who needs more “mom” time but the whole give-your-time-to-the-youngest-first philosophy doesn’t seem to make my day much smoother. lol Not to sidetrack the OP question, but just thought I’d throw that out there if someone wants to comment with ideas. 🙂

We do devotions, memory verse practice, and hymn sing/study over breakfast. Then I play music by our current composer focus during table work and/or chores. Lunch is our time to reevaluate our day and see what we need to focus on during the afternoon. We try to do tea time at least three times a week (unless we’re out, basically). Once a week we do poetry during tea, the other days we do one of our chapter read-alouds (history or literature, etc). Sometimes I’ll sneak in a science chapter as well–we use God’s Design for Science which has short chapters. Tea time often leads naturally to more in-depth exploration of whatever we’ve read, beyond just narration. My kids love tea time and are always disappointed when it gets skipped! In nicer weather, I’ve also done read-alouds during outdoor time after lunch.

You also mentioned nature study–for us, other than regular outdoor playtime, I found I needed to just schedule nature walks once a month. A few other families join us, and we get them in that way. If it wasn’t for having them on the calendar, I think they might fall by the wayside–and the littles REALLY benefit from downtime in nature!! (I have four kids under 8.)