I’m just curious about “routine”. I’m a pretty routine personality in most things. And I’ve always guarded my girls when they were little, making sure my days were around their nap times and feeding times. It’s looser now, but we do stick to a fairly predictable week. HOWEVER, with school, I’m not. I have the list of what I want to accomplish that week, but our days are always varied. We get it all done, but probably not the same way twice. Is that a bad thing? My DD’s are young, ages 5 & 7. The only stable factor in our day is Math (and devotions first thing). It usually seems to fall around the same time and it signals “snack time” when it’s complete. I just wonder sometimes. I don’t want to develop any unsavory habits, but some days just seem to lean more towards a particular subject then others so I tend to go with the flow. We tried a set order, it just never seemed to work out so I gave up.
This sounds like our days. I have dd7, ds6, ds4 (almost 5), and ds 11months. I have everything “planned”as far as time goes, but I kind of just do things as they fit in. Usually I’ll start math with my dd7 and have ds6 do handwriting, if he’s done before she is then I give him something else that he can do without me. If she’s done then I start his math. It all depends.
This week I have started having my dd7 and ds6 read to each other from Pathway Readers while I do “preschool” with ds4. That is really the only “predictable” part of our day.
One helpful thing for me to do is routinize wherever possible. For us, the routines that are most important have to do with the ‘home fires.’ The waking up, before/after meals, bedtime routines are most crucial for us.
The learning routine is important as well, but must allow for service opportunities, teachable moments, and special interests. There are a few things that we feel are non-negotiable, however. One is reading scripture, obviously.
It sounds like you are on a good path. When our oldest were very little ones like yours, I found a checklist helpful. That helped me to at least touch on areas and know where to concentrate the next day. This was not a forever solution for us though, we are always striving to maintain a schedule.
I think it would be interesting for you to write down just what your days are like; the order things happen, what worked, what didn’t. It may be that after a couple of weeks you will find that you are on more of a schedule than you think! Now that’s encouraging!