Making a Schedule-Part 2

Well, my friend uses Managers of Their Home to help schedule and run her home/homeschool but I have not purchased the book (as of yet, and likely will in the near future). From looking relatively briefly over her schedule I was able to see that pretty much everything and everyone was scheduled (though of course there were blocks of FREE time as well). Things were written on post-its so that if things needed to move around it would be relatively easy. One major difference with my schedule is that no matter the length of time my time blocks are all the same size (fine for me, possibly confusing for the children). Every subject is scheduled for 30 minutes though it is likely that some will run under and some will over. We will have to wait and see how it goes.


I've scheduled enough breaks, I think, so the kids don't feel like they are bogged down in school work. I've tried to schedule subjects close together that I think will flow into each other. Read aloud with science because one is more quiet and the other more involved. In addition, some of the books we read will lead easily to a science unit (reading Farley Mowat right now). Same deal with read alouds and Geography because we can look up and learn about the areas in our books. History is scheduled before arts and crafts because most of our history work usually ends up in us getting messy building castles or pyramids or working on sewing or weaving, etc. Friday mornings I have cooking/baking scheduled because last year we'd try to make some period specific foods as part of our studies.

I've posted the list of what each subject includes and what the children's chores are below the schedule so everyone knows exactly what is expected.



I'm anticipating running into some conflicts and having some unhappy children from time to time when their playtime is cut short. However, I think in the long run having some sort of a plan will serve us well. While it does look HIGHLY scheduled (maybe just from my free spirited, chaos loving point of view) I plan on being relatively flexible so that if it is a beautiful day out we can enjoy or if Mike gets home early the kids can run off with Daddy (hense the "special projects" time at the end of the afternoon....it can be used either for catch-up if we do other things in the morning or to do things as a family if Dad gets home early or basically for whatever they would like....including special privileges like TV/computer free time if they've been earned).

Well, I am off to read Farley Mowat as my Internet time is just about up! Have a good day!