The Schedule

As I am planning for school to start back up in the fall, the first thing that needed "hammered out" is the schedule. This year's schedule was quite easy to come up with. We will be following the same basic plan as last year, since it worked so well. For those that care, here is the short form: (I've included some really old pictures in this post, just for fun!)

7:00 - Everybody up to pray with Dad and Night Owl before they leave for the day.

7:15-8:00 - Morning chores, breakfast, personal prayer times for everyone (except Mom who took care of that in the hours before everyone else woke up.)

Jetter making his bed when he was 4.
8:00 - "Morning Meeting". This will be our "Religion and Art Block". I think this is the most important time of our day, and depending on how it goes, it sort of sets the tone for the rest of the day. Because of this, I put a high priority on what we do and how it's done. I'm planning a separate post on "Starting and Ending Our Day" in which I'll describe what goes on during this "launch" as well as the "wrap up" of our day's itinerary.

9:45 (ish) - "Classroom Time". We will all head down to the classroom for individual lessons with Mom and time to complete the "workboxes", which I will post more on later.

Night Owl in 4th grade and Social Butterfly in Kindergarten. She really hates this picture!

12:30 - Lunch / clean up / and free time.

Builder at the park

2:00 - Chores for everyone. Chores are a regular part of our day out of necessity. As homeschool moms know, and non-homeschool moms can imagine, being home all day with the kids, cooking 3 meals and snacks, playing inside during inclement weather, etc. can all lead to a messy house. It's important that a time be set aside for everyone to pitch in. We've fallen into some bad habits this summer. Basically the kids haven't been doing their chores and mom has let them get away with it :( . So, we'll be starting this part of our schedule before the beginning of the school year. Hopefully by then everyone will know their chores and doing them will be just part of the routine.

Jetter and Social Butterfly doing dishes.
3:00 - Tea Time. This is essentially an ending to our school day. It is a snack time for the kids, who don't actually drink tea, and a time to relax and listen to literature that I will read to them. I

find that this time is almost as important as the beginning of our day, so I'll be devoting a post to this as well.

Social Butterfly reading to Jetter and Builder.

4:00 - Quiet Time. This will be a time of resting, but mostly a time of quiet reading. Social Butterfly will have A LOT of reading to do this year. The boys need to develope the habit of quiet reading time as well.

Beany and Night Owl

5:00 - Free time for the kids, dinner prep for Mom.

Night Owl at his favorite pastime. Builder, proud of his accomplishment.
6:30 - Daddy's home!