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Aug. 25, 2008
This Year's Schedule
I have had some requests again to share my daily schedule on this blog. Since I conveniently just wrote it in an email to share with someone in my women's Bible study group, I will post it here in brief. Our daily schedule includes all our chores and schoolwork with the goal of having a fully managed home each day. Keep in mind, each day, I do let the Lord lead. Things change daily at His leading, but the following schedule is our general framework for every day that we are home.
My checklist system: You will see me refer to the "checklist" below. My children each have a daily checklist that lists their daily chores and their daily independent school work. I print each child a new checklist every Monday morning, and there is a checkbox for Monday through Friday for every chore and every school assignment. The checklist is a two-column page. The left column is schoolwork, the right column is chores. The left column says, "Monday," then under that has the checkboxes for each independent school work assignment, then below that it says Tuesday, etc. At the bottom of the chores column after Friday, there is a section titled "Weekly," which is for our once-a-week chores, such as cleaning out closets, scrubbing toilets, tubs, and sinks, hosing off the front porch, changing sheets, etc.
Some notes on our chores:
All the daily chores and weekly chores are divided up between myself and the older two children (son 14 and daughter 9). This list includes everything it takes to keep our house the way I like it kept: from the general cleaning, laundry, vacuuming and dusting, all the way to the details such as straightening every bookshelf, washing refrigerator shelves, washing the inside of the microwave and under the stove top, washing the fronts of the kitchen cabinets, and keeping all the drawers organized. Almost all these chores are on their daily checklists.
On my son's checklist, when it says "bookshelves," that means it is his job to check every bookshelf in the house and make sure the books are straightened and put away properly, arranged from tallest to shortest where appropriate. My daughter's checklist has a chore called "refrigerator shelf." She does one refrigerator shelf a day--takes everything off, wipes it down, puts everything back. Everyone's checklist says "Clean drawer." This means that the children and I each choose one drawer to organize and clean out each day, whether it be a kitchen drawer, or a clothing drawer. Sometimes we do two or three--when you keep on top of them it only takes a few minutes. My son's assignment is the floors, which means sweeping and spot cleaning the tile floors daily, and washing them once a week. The younger children are learning to take over this chore. My oldest also wipes out the inside of the microwave and under the stove top every day (his checklist says "microwave/stove").
My chores are: Each day, I do the bathrooms (wipe down toilets, sinks, and pick up--my son does the floors), I pick up the office (my jurisdiction), keep my desk clean, clean my bedroom and make my bed, and do two loads of laundry. The younger children put away the laundry. Until this year, my oldest did the laundry, but he is growing out of that and working on bigger outdoor projects now, plus planning some college credits. I manage the kitchen and do all the cooking and cleaning. My daughter, 9, helps with the cooking almost always, and it is her job--jurisdiction--to put away every clean dish, whether it is from the dishwasher or washed and clean on the counter.
My oldest son does yard work every day in addition to the weed whacking. Clearing, weeding, sweeping, mowing, pruning--whatever else. We have 10 acres. In the winter, he manages the firewood.
Here is our schedule/order of business:
The children wake up by 7:30 a.m. All chores must be done before eating breakfast. We usually do the "upstairs" chores first: All the bedrooms cleaned and beds made, laundry put away, picked up, vacuumed if needed, and a drawer or two organized. If it's "closet day" (we clean out our closets once a week), we take an extra five or 10 minutes to do that. I do the ironing, never more than about 2 things a day, if any. Then the children get dressed (showered if they need it), brush their hair, then tackle their "downstairs" chores. This may sound like a lot to do before breakfast, but it actually takes us very little time as we touch up all our chores before dinner, and then we all get a head start on chores just before bed, so many of them are already done when we wake up in the morning.
Breakfast is usually eaten around 8:30. Most days, breakfast is "make it yourself." Cereal, eggs and toast, oatmeal, yogurt. About once a week, my daughter and I get together and make pancakes, breakfast burritos, homemade biscuits, muffins, etc.
Then, the children start their independent schoolwork by around 9:00, working at their desks. From 9:00 to 11:30, we do this independent school work--listed on their daily checklist. Grammar and Language Arts workbooks, Balancing the Sword (a Bible Study book), a multiplication drill for my daughter, a math lesson and assignment, a writing assignment (Writing Strands), Spanish, Typing, Piano and Voice practice, guitar practice, journaling, geography, and science (The Rainbow for the older one, Switched-On-Schoolhouse for the younger). They take turns at the computer for their Spanish (Rosetta Stone) and typing--15 minutes each. Piano, guitar, and voice practice is 15 minutes each. They love to practice longer than that, but that is for free time. I teach their math separately at this time (Algebra 1 for the older and 4th grade for my daughter) and give their assignment. I also work with them on their writing and give their writing assignment for the day, whether it's an outline, a draft, a revision, or a final. I answer questions as needed, do school work with the preschooler.
How I manage the 3-year-old: He works with us whenever we do chores. He is learning to do many of them well, and he loves working. He can put away laundry, and he has even washed the kitchen floor twice by himself--he gets it cleaner than his brother with all the soap suds he makes! During harvest season, he asks to help, and I find ways he can help. When dad cooks on the grill, he wants to help, and dad finds a way for him to help. This is important! This is training time! Then, when we start school work, he has three choices: If I am available, he can work with me on his school work and do some lessons. If he is not working with me, he must be doing his independent school work at his desk--he has some coloring and preschool things he can do on his own, such as write-on/wipe-off letter and number books, coloring books, and workbooks from the dollar store. If he chooses not to do schoolwork at his desk he may play with his toys--any of his toys--in the school room on the floor. Quietly. If he does not want to work at his desk or play with his toys, he must sit on a chair and do nothing. Those are his three choices!. He does fine playing toys and doing school work, for the most part. I usually get to work with him on his preschool stuff for 30 minutes to an hour during this time.
The baby, 6 months old, usually takes a little nap from 9:30 to 10:00, then he happily plays on the floor or in a saucer during this time. In between helping the children with their school work, I may bake bread or goodies, or work in the kitchen--like preparing tomatoes for canning or salsa! If that is the case, my 3-year-old is often my helper for these projects. He loves to bake!
At about 11:30, everyone is ready for a break. Laundry is switched and a load quickly put away, if necessary. If it's nice, the kids may head outside for some bike riding, or basketball, or sledding in the winter, playing on the swings, picking berries--whatever. If it's cold, they like to read, play games together, play Legos, or sometimes I let them play computer games or hide and seek. My daughter likes to crochet or sew. My son likes to clean the garage or tinker with his 4-wheeler.
12:30 is lunch. Peanut butter sandwiches or leftovers. That's it, usually!
12:50, we put the little ones down for nap. We usually take a 1/2 hour rest, too. I get extra reading and study time in. Sometimes I nap, too.
At about 1:30, we do our "teaching classes," the classes where I teach them together. History (3 times a week) , health (a few times a year), government (once a week), Bible (a few times a week), Ohio History (a few times a year), Poetry (a few times a year), Speech (two speeches a year), Art-when I feel like it, and whatever else.
We finish up this section of the day by about 4:00 usually. Then it's project time or free time. Right now, that means I'm canning tomatoes, salsa, and applesauce. I may have the children help. Sometimes I sew, my daughter and I do an art project (we love to paint!), we crochet, or we make cards. Sometimes we bake something special for Daddy for dinner. My oldest son works on cleaning the garage, or he works outside on yard work, and takes his little brother with him to help. My daughter likes to write books, write letters, draw, crochet, and practice singing. My son will play the piano or guitar for an hour or two. Sometimes we pick berries, or do photography, or play baseball, or hit golf balls, or ride 4-wheelers... you get the idea!
At about 6:00, we do "chore touch up time." We finish up the laundry for the day and get it put away, and get everything put back so the house is clean and nice for Daddy. Then my oldest son takes the 3-year-old to play something fun while my daughter and I have some girl time. The two of us feed the baby his dinner and together we cook our family dinner. We often sing while we work in the kitchen, practicing her voice lesson assignment, or working on a new song.
7:00 is dinner. I clean up while Dad and the children do family time, then I join them. Usually this is a game, or something outside like fishing or riding 4-wheelers, or playing baseball. Sometimes the older children still have some "homework" to finish up. Sometimes the children do something on their own while my husband and I do other things--he likes to work on his computer/study the Bible, I like to check email, work on Bible study outlines, write articles, plan the next day's history lesson, plan next week's menu and shopping list, etc. Sometimes we watch a movie or show--we've watched some of the Olympics lately. Last night, my husband and my oldest son repaired my son's portable DVD player, which he uses at his desk for math. They ordered a motor from eBay and took the whole thing apart and replaced it. My daughter and I scoured through a stack of old "Taste of Home" magazines that a friend had given us. We clipped recipes for our files so that we could throw the magazines away.
At 9:00 or so, we start getting ready for bed, which means a head start on next day's chores. The children actually look at their checklist and start checking off the next day's chores so that when we wake up, there's not much to do!
Everyone's in bed by about 9:45!
That's how the schedule in our house goes! This is a very flexible schedule. If we have an appointment or an errand, it is very easy to still get things done by putting our chores and schoolwork in where the free time goes--we just rearrange some of the time blocks.
If you read this, then know that I have said a prayer for you today for God to bless you and your upcoming school year. I pray that God will help you manage your home well, and find solutions and a schedule that works for you, your children, and your family.
God bless,
Mrs. E. |
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Aug. 27, 2008 - Thanks for sharing your schedule
It's nice to hear about your happy, helpful children.