So, just this last week as I was prepping for this year, I realized (and finally admitted) that I have no time management skills/aspirations nor have I ever.
Uh oh.
Miraculously, out of the clear blue sky I came up with a very easy, very flexible system that makes me wonder why in the world I never did this before….
Basically, I have three schedules to choose from each day. The R schedule, as in just the 4 Rs (Bible, Math, Reading, Writing) is the shortest and embracing the shorter lessons that CM extolled, we are usually done by 10am or earlier if we really knuckle down ( and don’t answer the phone). Sometimes I’ll tack on a nature hike before lunch, and maybe some very brief rather informal science after lunch. (DH comes home from lunch every day so it is a Big Deal and we schedule everything around his hour.)
Generally my decision-making revolves around how much sleep I had, how crabby the kids are, what we have for breakfast, and what we all feel like doing that day. Plus we factor in our errands, outside instruction (swimming or dance lessons, etc).
The A schedule is also the 4 Rs followed by History/Geo, Keyboarding, and Handicrafts.
The B schedule is the 4 Rs plus Poetry, Picture Study, Hymn Study, Music/Composer Study, and Drawing/Painting.
We’re done by 1:30 every day. And then Mommy gets a nap! Whew! So far this week, we’ve had all “R” days,
Anyway, I just wanted to share this in the hopes that it strikes a chord with someone who might be struggling.
I like it – I do something similar in that I do take a “minimal” day sometimes, but I like your approach to validate the scheme into a real schedule with options. Something to work on during my planning time this weekend…thanks for sharing.
We have something sort of similar. I have a schedule for each day of the week, M-F. Two of the days are lighter days, typically my Tuesday and Thursday. What I do at the beginning of a week is look to see which to days I really need the lighter load (we may have doctor’s visits, friends over, or a class or lesson scheduled). Those days are when we do one of our two lighter days. Three days of the week we cover more subjects in the day (typically M, W, F).
An example from this week – today we’re actually doing our Friday full schedule, and tomorrow we have a writing class and will use the Thursday lighter day schedule.
I printed each “day” schedule and laminated them. In the morning I just grab the appropriate schedule and we do those subjects. I made sure that over the course of a week we’ll cover all our subjects, we just have some we don’t do every day.
suzukimom- I hear ya. I’ve been working hard to incorporate as many other subjects as possible each day, but they don’t quite add up to my A or B schedule. Luckily we’re just in our first week so I have lots of room and time for improvement. Because of our disatrous time last year, I’m cutting myself some slack right now and trying for three R days and one each of the others each week.
Tristan-you’re way more organized than I! I’ll have to work up to laminating. That sounds so permanent. 🙂 I do have the week scheduled beforehand though. Actually, I already have our whole year scheduled since we are doing quite a bit of traveling and DH has a varied schedule each week… again, we like to work around him and the time he uses to help with handicrafts and other projects (the girls are building a birdhouse with him in the winter and are currently designing and constructing their own sleds… we’ll see how they work once the snow flies).
Another thing I make sure to do is schedule a day with drawing/painting (B schedule) right before a birthday or holiday so we can make cards (which is one of our handicrafts for this year, actually) and have time to mail them off to friends and family.
Off to finish nature drawing and math, then cookie baking! Thanks again for improving on my ideas and taking the time to add your thoughts here. I love getting the feedback! Jenni
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