Daily Routine

During the school year, our day begins pretty early.

It's important to me to have some quiet time before the day begins, so I usually get up around 5:30 AM. I do my Bible study and prayer time and shower. A couple of the children like to get up very early, too, to have personal time or start on school work while it's quiet. The children, except Abby and Thomas, get up at 6. We have family Bible time and then one person starts breakfast while one gets in the shower and the others go back to their quiet time. After breakfast, we study our Proverbs verse and pray. Sometimes we work on some scripture memory. Then everyone begins morning chores and gets dressed.

Around 9 AM, we start our book work. Those who can, work independently until their turn with me. I usually begin with the youngest and get her work out of the way so she can go and practice fiddle and play or listen to a book on tape. While she's working on her independent work, I work with Thomas, who has (hopefully) finished math. I usually finish with his 3Rs before time to cook lunch and he goes to practice fiddle. Sometimes I have a few minutes to work with Carrie, but I usually get to her after lunch.

A couple of the children have after-lunch chores and do those before starting schoolwork again. After lunch, I finish up with Carrie, do FIAR with Abby, and history and science with Carrie and Thomas, check papers and see how the older girls are coming along, finishing up around 3:30 or 4:00. My high schoolers set their own schedule, so they may work on into the evening if they aren't finished with the day's work. Even though it looks like every child works from 9-4, actually it's ME who's busy that long - the younger kids have breaks to do other things while they are waiting for me to do the next thing with them.

I fix my planbook so that most of the children can mark off subjects are they complete them and a quick glance shows me what has been accomplished. I like to plan for the week, instead of for each day, so we can be more flexible with which subjects get done which day. This especially helps on days when we have interruptions so the whole schedule isn't down the drain. We usually start with math every morning, then follow with reading/language/spelling, etc. I like to read history, science, and FIAR after lunch.

A few years ago, I tried a timed schedule, but that simply doesn't work for us. We have too many other things in life that happen everyday - sometimes unexpectedly, and having a certain amount of time for each thing made me feel very stressed. We are much happier with a good routine and only the time set for getting up, family Bible, school time, lunch, night chores, and bedtime.

Oh, one hint that has helped me tremendously. If there's something you're forgetting to do or have trouble getting in every day, hook it to something that's always consistent. For several years, I couldn't seem to ever get to Bible with the kids, but when I hooked it to breakfast, which we never skip, it became very easy to be consistent with it.