Scheduling is one key for our family to having things run smoothly. During the summer or other times when I haven't had a schedule, I find the kids more discontented and unruly. This often leads to fights and other behavior issues. The more they can be on task, kept busy, and know what to expect, the smoother things run.
I thought I'd start by listing our morning schedule for weekdays. I'll continue this next week sometime with more of our later morning, afternoon and evening routines.
6:30-7:30 (need to be consistent with 6:30 if possible) I wake up and have my morning quiet time. I'd like to ideally get my baby on a routine and possibly do her first nursing during this time but I haven't scheduled her with that yet as sometimes she sleeps through the night and sometimes not. I also get dressed during this time and when the weather is nicer, ideally I'd go for a walk for exercise during this time.
7:30 Leland wakes everyone up and they get dressed and go down to set the table for breakfast. Usually it's just cereal but occasionally there's something more that one of us has made. The kids all know what their job is during this time and do most of the work of getting breakfast on the table and our oldest feeds the cat outside.
7:45 We're usually ready to eat about 7:45. We do a morning Bible time during breakfast. Whatever Bible is for our schooling we do as well as have morning prayer time where we talk about prayer requests, missionaries to pray for, or others who have needs and pray for them as a family.
8:15 (or a little later) Kids clean up from breakfast - clear table, load dishwasher etc.. 8yo and 5yo then make sandwiches for our lunches before wiping the table and sweeping the floor. While they're doing this I do "school" with our 4yo twins. They each take turns doing a short educational activity with me for 5-10 min.
9:00 Our 8yo reads his reader and other easy picture books to our 4yo twins and 2yo while I do school with our 5 1/2 year-old, Cora. If he finishes his reading early, they are to sit on chairs and look at books or go into their rooms or some room alone and do alone time playing quietly. Cora's school only takes 20-30 min. depending if we have extra activities. We use My Father's World and love it! She's just started into the first grade program as we took 1 1/2 years to do the Kindergarten program when she was 4.
9:30 Cora (5 1/2) and Judah (2) go up for partner time in their bedroom and Devin & Derek (4) go up for partner time in their bedroom. Usually this is free play although sometimes I'll get out a special toy they haven't used for a while during this time. Then Cody (8 - 2nd grade) and I will do school together for 30 min to an hour depending on the day. We're using My Father's World - Exploring Countries and Cultures.
10:30 The kids upstairs clean up their bedrooms from partner time and then we do other activities. I'll continue with some of that next time I write about our schedule.
I didn't mention the baby much as she isn't into a good routine yet, but as she doesn't go anywhere, she just gets nursed when she's hungry, put down occasionally, held a lot while I do whatever else it is I'm doing, and naps when she's tired. I would like to get her in a better "schedule". I'm hoping to work on that again soon and revise a few things for later in our day at the same time.
Of course although we have a schedule, I need to remain flexible with discipline issues and other things that come up during the day. All in all it's a guideline and a routine that we go through each day more than a specific time-schedule. May God guide us each step of our days as we trust in him and not our "schedules"!
Thanks for coming by for a peek in my fridge! I NEVER would have posted that picture last week! Several things had lived out multiple lives in there, it was not pretty ;-(
I've enjoyed visiting your blog!
Kathleen
Hi, I'm just visiting. What a beautiful family you have! I have enjoyed reading your entries. We seem to have a lot in common - except you have more kiddos & younger. I will have to visit often, and catch up on some of your old blogs as well.
Blessings to you and yours, Your New Friend, Jane in MN
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• Sat 3 Feb 2007 - Untitled Comment