Routines and Schedules

I have been reading and working on establishing routines in our homeschooling, in order to create little islands of consistency throughout our day. I know that when our life gets crazy and overly busy, I very easily get stressed, and I most certainly take it out on my family. I need the predictability of a routine, such as coffee and reading my email in the morning, stories with the boys every night. No matter how crazy the afternoon, or abbreviated the morning, or late the bedtime, these routines help me to start and end the day. I know that having more structure built into our lives would give my youngest a better sense of continuity, as he is wired like me, craving predictability and operating better in an orderly world. I want to design more rhythm in our school days to give the boys a sense of flow, such as baking on Thursday, tea time in the afternoon, Saturday pancakes. It would be wonderful if my husband could participate more in our days, but his work schedule is part of the unpredictable craziness that kind of wrecks our rhythm.



I have a weekly checklist of things that must be accomplished for school, plus our out-of-home activities (art, piano.) All that I have left for the upcoming school year is to draw up a daily schedule that all of us can understand and use (including the 4 year old). I intend to schedule in Nature walk/journaling, grocery shopping in that 2 hour window when both boys are at their classes, morning reading and math times. Following the AO yahoo groups for several years has given me many ideas about how to use our time best, such as composer study in the car (brilliant!) and artist study during tea. My tentative schedule has Truman and I doing an awful lot (chemistry, Spanish ) on Monday and Friday between 12:30 and 3:00, when Henry is at his preschool. This may work, maybe not.....

This is an example of a WEEKLY checklist.  It is printed and attached to a clipboard that follows us while schooling. This keeps us fluid in planning, but with expectations of what will be accomplished during the week.  It took a lot of work to transfer an entire year of AO readings, plus everything else that we add in, into a weekly document.  Notice that I have a blog check-off...I am serious about this book!

WEEK 9
__ __ __ __ Spelling
__ __ __ __ Poetry or Walter de la Mare
__ __ __ __ Math
__ __ __ __ Piano
__ __ __ __ Copywork
__ __ Spanish
__ __ Chemistry
__ __ Story of the World
__ An Island Story ch 29 The Story of King Stephen
__ Child's History of the World ch 49 Knights and Days of Chivalry
__ The Little Duke-first half ch 5
__ Tree in the Trail, Chapter 13
__ Map/Timeline Work
__ Cultural study/Religion
__ Burgess Animal Book XVII Three Little Redcoats
__ Burgess Animal Book XVIII Mice with Pockets, and Others
__ Understood Betsy, Ch 8
__ Pilgrim's Progress (Dangerous Journey) next ch
__ Nature Study
__ Composer Study
__ Science
__ Handicrafts
__ Blog
__ Artist Study
__ Folk Song
__ Recipe/Cooking

This is not a daily schedule, although it allows me to easily know what I need to read when we sit down for our morning snuggle/reading, and keeps me on track to spread out our requirements. Last year I occasionally had to cram a lot into a Friday to finish a checklist, but that will not happen this year...because I am so much more organized....and I have read to many books and articles on rhythm and discipline.

Speaking of routine and discipline...


A major sticking point with me is dinner time, and I need to figure out how to get the boys (Will included) more involved in helping with the meal, and cleaning up afterward. Nothing drives me up a wall faster than telling them to come to the table multiple times, and not having help before and after. The boys will take their plates to the counter without reminder, but the whole experience can be improved. We have been reading a "devotional" before dinner every night (Buddha to the Beatles, A Devotional for Daily Living) which I really enjoy, it makes dinner seem that much more of an event (which it is, dang it). We read most of that book, but there isn't any reason why we can't read it again. I am going to try reading our poetry selections before or during dinner, as a way to have Will be more involved in school. He has the ability to analyze the poetry and help the boys think it through far better than I. Plus, it just seems like a pleasant idea.


Secrets of Discipline by Ronald Morrish has one mantra that I implemented with the boys, and which works well. Start small, stay close, insist, and follow through. Surely this is intuitive to most parents, but it is nice to see it posted on my sticky notes as a reminder. It is hard for ME to fight my impatience and follow through with what I have said to the children, but the rewards are certainly worth it. Anything can be made more dependable, even my dear husband, with attention and care. My goal before our Year 2 starts is to have small routines cemented so that our transition to full time schooling is calm and seamless.


Current Priorities-


Dinner Time


Morning exercise (just need to buy the elliptical and cancel the gym membership)


After dinner house clean up




Lofty goals for myself, but I WILL DO IT.

Keeping Track of myself

Unbelievably, I will be able to turn our Year into a book, which is my motivation to document our school work. To have a record of the process will be incredibly helpful for when Henry gets to this stage, not to mention this will ease the guilt that keeps building because I do not scrapbook my children's lives.

http://www.blurb.com/ Blog to book software-too bad I have to wait a year until I can see what a blog-turned- book looks like.

I am also getting a better camera with my tax return money! This will allow me to take FAR better photos than I can get with my point and shoot Canon Powershot, which is on it's last legs anyway-literally being held together with duct tape. I am eyeballing the Canon EOS Rebel, which is similar to the SLR camera that an unscrupulous West Virginian stole from me years ago. I am also looking at different lenses, and daydreaming about the cool effects I could produce with a fish-eye. 

Now that I think about it, this IS scrapbooking, without the kitschy, stay-at-home-mommy stigma attached.  Not that I care about that, but somehow it seems a better use of my time to digitally document, rather than cutting expensive paper with fancy serrated scissors and creating a mess.