Let’s talk schedules. I’m a planner all the way. I itch when there’s no plan and I rarely diverge off the planned plan. I used to be spontaneous (oh to be young again), but once we had kids, it’s been all about schedules and routines. As the kids have gotten older, we’ve learned to relax a little bit, but planning makes my world go round. Well, at least it keeps me day moving forward.

Our school days are Monday through Thursday because the girls go to school all day on Fridays. This is what a typical day looks like for me/us:
5:30-6:15 Wake up/quiet time (me)
6:15-7:00 Work out with Ben
7:00-7:30 Breakfast/emails (girls wake up)
7:30-8:00 Get dress (everyone)
8:00-9:00 Language arts with Soul and Glow (True and Brave are in another room doing Spanish lessons via facetime with Ben’s mom)
9:00-9:30 Math with Soul/Instructional time with True and Brave (Glow leaves for Spanish)
9:30-10:00 Math with Glow/Instructional time with True and Brave (Soul leaves for Spanish)
10:00-10:30 Reading with Soul and Glow
10:30-12:00 Instructional time with True and Brave (Soul and Glow work on independent work and reading practice)
12:00-12:45 Lunchtime
12:45-1:30 More instructional time (or group project)

This is more or less what it looks like. It is pretty smooth and fluid, and everyone stays (mostly) on task. Though, they are kids after all (and I’m not always in the best of moods), so there are definitely hiccups throughout the day. Not every day runs how I think it’s going to run in my mind. Switching between instruction for the older two and the younger two is pretty seamless, especially since the older two have been doing this a long time and can work independently when I need to work with the little ones.

The rest of the afternoon is True and Brave finishing up. They have to practice piano, guitar, and Spanish. Most of the time, Soul and Glow are done by lunch. If they have any extra-curricular activities, they are scheduled in the afternoon. Activities used to be in the morning, but I’ve changed them to the afternoon, so that we could have uninterrupted learning in the morning.

I have 2 charts for the day (it’s on my clipboard that I carry around everywhere during the day, and I’m holding it in the picture above)… my daily lesson plan for the girls and I have my personal goals for the day, and I cross things off as things get done. This really helps me stay on task. Once instructional time is done, I am able to work on my projects (cakies, babiekins, wovenfolk, or catching up on emails). By 4:30ish, I head downstairs and get dinner started, and we have family dinner at 5:30. Kids get ready for bed a little after 7, and then have quiet reading time from 7:30-8:30. This gives Ben and me some downtime to finish up whatever else we need to. Usually, it’s garden stuff for him and online stuff for me. And that’s what a typical day kind of looks like!