I want to mention lesson schedules before I go on about our routine:

The idea is to have a weekly planner or calendar type schedule for each child. It can also function as a log once the week is completed. This eliminates most of my daily logging in a separate notebook.

You get the blank schedule and the week’s assignments and sit down with the child. He needs to learn how to plan out his own week. You start them as early as you can on this. The younger ones need more guidance. I really appreciated simple advice about how to make the kids more responsible for their education in an overview from Marcia Somerville.

Now the student has his schedule as a guide for the week. I have my guys mark each subject they’ve completed for the day. At the end of the week, I store the schedule in a binder. 

The boys like to pick up their schedules and any work I have copied for them from the “IN” box. They put completed work in the “OUT” box for me to look over. (When I write about the lesson plan, you will see that I do more than wait beside the “OUT” box all day!)

This type of homeschool does not mean that spontaneous learning does not happen. For me, it works because I can make sure the bases are getting covered. We do a lot of things that are not on the children's schedules.