Our daily routine

Here is how our days usually unfold. We follow the clock in a very general way, so that one thing happens after another at around the same time. However, I don't have math scheduled from 9:00 - 9:10 because it would never happen at that time, and then I would be off the schedule and that would bother me.

Also, our routine is constantly being tweaked as I work out the kinks and as things change in our household. We follow our school routine Monday thru Saturday. I have discovered that unscheduled days leads to everyone fighting. The kids have a lot of free time in the day, but it is broken up with scheduled activities.

Nuthatch has just started grade one, he turns 6 next month. BlueJay is almost 4, he does not have any formal program. Chickadee is 20 months. She naps for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon.

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8 am breakfast

9 am School, Part 1
Nuthatch (narration, math, Nuthatch reads to me, penmanship) about 10 minutes each. This takes anywhere from 1/2 hour to an hour, depending on the number of interruptions by the other two kids and how long the narration takes.

BlueJay - computer time
Chickadee - hopefully she plays independently

10 am morning snack

10 - 12 o'clock outing
My kids are all small, and if we don't get out of the house on a daily basis, they all start going bonkers by the end of the day (mom included). This time is for exercise, socialization, and nature study. We go to the zoo, the museum, the park, play groups, and hiking in conservation areas. If school is finished early we bring our morning snack with us.

12 noon Lunch

1 pm Chickadee has her afternoon nap
Nuthatch and BlueJay have School Part 2 - Reading stories (Bible, poetry, science books, and books of their choosing)

Quiet time for Nuthatch and Bluejay (1/2 hour in separate rooms)

Afternoon snack

Afternoon activity (art, science experiment, nature notebook, cooking something) pick one
We try to do this while Chickadee is still sleeping.

Free play in the backyard, Nuthatch gets 1/2 hour of computer time if he remembers :)

5 pm Dinner
after dinner Nuthatch and Bluejay get 5 minute piano lessons each

8 pm bedtime
The kids each get to pick a story and I pick one as well.

This works for us right now. My most recent tweak was to move narration from the afternoon stories slot to the morning lessons. Narration is hard work and Nuthatch needs to be fresh so he can focus and remember what he has heard. There are a few things that consistently get lost in our routine that I need to turn into a habit. The piano lessons are often forgotten after dinner. I keep forgetting afternoon snack and I end up wondering why my kids are so grouchy before dinner.

I can see some changes to our routine coming in the future. The BlueJay turns 4 years old in September and I will want to start a tiny academic program for him in the fall. Also, in the middle of the summer I might want to try and get out earlier for our outings to avoid the heat.

One of the best things about homeschooling is that our schedule can be very flexible. If it isn't working it can change quickly and easily.