How We Plan Our Days

I don't know about you but I'm forever tweaking our daily schedule. I love having set routines and predictability, but life just isn't like that. Interruptions happen, guests arrive, children get sick, classes get cancelled....However, it doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't try to establish some order and 'normality' to our days. I believe that kids thrive on routine and feel safe with predictable schedules. As homeschooling mums it also helps us to feel like we're ticking all the right boxes and being diligent in our job.

In the early days of homeschooling I spent hours on the internet reading and researching how other mothers ordered their days. I don't want to pretend that I've got it down pat and that mine is the perfect schedule by any means, but just in case it might be helpful to a few people out there then I thought it was about time I shared my daily timetable with you all.

My eldest is 8 and is in Year 2 of the Ambleside Online curriculum, which I love. My second daughter is 5. She's in a kind of kindergarten year, but listens in to a lot of what the eldest is doing. My son is 3, and mostly hangs around the schoolroom playing with his trains or his cars, although recently we've started looking at some letters together.

The times below are very loose and flexible. Usually, when we've finished one activity we just move onto the other, but it helps me to keep track of where I think we should be.

8.45am Family Bible Time (using a Children's Bible), prayer and Scripture Memory
9.00am Phonics (during this hour I also have the weekly composer music playing in the background if it's not too distracting)
9.15am Maths
9.45am Reading
10.00am Copywork
10.15am Snack time in the living room while I read the daily poetry selection and we recite one of the poems we've been learning. We also drill our weekly 'Times Table'.
10.45am Literature (one of the weekly reading selections followed by narration)
11.15am French (Tues, Thurs), Russian (Mon,), Artist Appreciation (Wed), Book of Centuries (Fri)
11.30am Reading time with my 3-year old while my girls practise piano.
11.45am Outdoor time - usually a walk around the village. This can include a 'nature walk' on one day.
12.30pm Lunch preparation time while kids play
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Quiet Half Hour
2.30pm Bible reading (Ambleside selection), followed by Monthly Hymn and Folk Song
2.45pm Mission (Mon), Mapwork (Tues), Astronomy (Thurs), Character (Fri)
3.00pm Literature (another of the weekly reading selections followed by narration)
3.30pm Snack
3.45pm Nature topic and nature notebook (Mon), Handicrafts (Fri)
4.30pm Free time

 On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons the girls have a dance class in town, and on Wednesdays I have a nanny come so that I can have an afternoon off. During that time Sophie (8) has a half an hour Russian lesson with the nanny. I'll also need to tweak the timetable when we work out the new schedule for art classes in town, which the girls used to go to twice a week. Unfortunately things keep changing here!

I hope that's helpful for some. Every family is different, so you need to find what works for you, and as I say, my schedule is forever changing because....well....life happens! Also, I often drop some of the 'extras' if we're having a busy period, like the Astronomy, Mission, Mapwork, Character and Book of Centuries.



In my next post I'll talk through some of my curriculum choices for the individual subjects.



Qu: I'd love to hear how you plan your days! Please feel free to give a quick outline or link to a relevant blog post in the comments below.

Abide in Him!



P.s. I just wanted to clarify again that this is my ideal schedule that we're working towards at the moment, and it doesn't always happen! In fact, the morning I posted this we had some unexpected guests and that was it - the schedule went to pot for the day. Also, this is a winter schedule, since we can't get outside much at the moment and it's nice to have something to fill the whole day. Once the weather gets better we'll be scheduling much more outdoor time. So please don't feel like I'm some superhero mom - very far from it!

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/ Stuart Miles