It took me until March to find a good homeschool groove with 3 children that lasted more than a couple weeks! From the beginning of the school year until around March, it felt like things were constantly changing. I had to preserve and many days I questioned my ability to be able to manage my 3 children and homeschool which is funny considering I used to manage a classroom of 20+ fourth graders with ease. Many days I shook my head in wonder at how a 6, 4 and 1 year old could be harder to manage than a classroom of 4th graders.

I pressed on, and when the calendar went from February to March, I realized one day that we had finally found our groove and I could tell this groove was here to stay…at least for this season of our homeschooling journey.

Here is how most typical Homeschool Days went once we found our rhythm:

{I am just writing about school time because the surrounding activities stayed virtually the same from my last schedule update.}

8:00am: Everyone was up by 7:45am. The girls picked their clothes the night before which is a life-savor for getting reading in the morning. They were to be dressed by the time I came to get them at 8am. A little after 8am, everyone would be busy on Morning Chores. The girls were emptying the dishwasher while I was getting breakfast on the table, handing out pills and vitamins, brushing hair and getting essential oils on everyone. Sarge was sitting in his high chair watching all the action!

8:30am: Usually by 8:30am, everyone was finished eating. The girls cleared the table, brushed their teeth and then all 3 kids would go play together while I got the kitchen cleaned up from breakfast and started a load of laundry.

9:00am: At 9am, I would take Sarge to his bedroom for his Independent Playtime. Then, the girls and I would begin our day by reading a Bible story and reviewing our CC Memory Work.

9:40am: Time to get Sarge out of IP. I would go and get him and bring him to the kitchen for water. Then he always liked to look out the front window and see his sisters in the school room before going to take his morning nap! By 9:45am he was down for his morning nap.

From here on out, the times are approximate. Everything flowed in the same order each day but times varied.  The time didn’t vary by much more than about 15 minutes.

9:3oish: Preschool with Sweet Pea. We would read books first and Little Bug would join us for that. Then Little Bug would have 15 minutes of iPad time where she would play educational games.

10ish: Phonics with Little Bug. Sweet Pea would work on her Independent Work (handwriting, educational activity) and then she would have 15 minutes on the iPad to play educational games.

10:30ish: Math with Little Bug. Sarge would get up at 10:30am from his nap, so we would all go to the kitchen table for math time. Sarge did not like being locked out of the homeschool room when we were in there. Moving to the kitchen table gave everyone more options. Sweet Pea and Sarge would either sit with us at the table or they would go play. Many days I taught math with Sarge on my hip and Sweet Pea sitting at the table quietly observing! It worked for everyone even though there were some days that I had to call it a day before math was finished because Sarge wasn’t cooperating. On those days, we just finished math once he was taking his afternoon nap!

11ish: We would all head outside!

12ish: Lunch

12:30ish: The kids all played after lunch and I did chores. Like put that load in the dryer!

1:15pm: Clean up time! The girls were responsible for cleaning up the toys in the living room and playroom while I went to read to Sarge and put him down for his afternoon nap.

1:30pm: Sarge was down for nap. Anything not cleaned up would be thrown away or go to the donate pile! (This system for getting the girls to clean up worked like a charm!) After things were cleaned up, I would read aloud to the girls.

2:00pm: Naptime for Sweet Pea and Little Bug would work on her Independent Work (Explode the Code & Math fact practice).

2:30pm-4pm: Everyone was napping or resting!

That routine worked well for us from March through the end of the school year in May! Next up is figuring out a schedule that will work for homeschooling the girls while managing and balancing the needs of a 2 year old and new baby!

Stay tuned… it is bound to be interesting. :)

- Elaine