Every year, I put a lot of brain-power into thinking about what we need to accomplish for the day and what is the best way to achieve our daily goals. I also think about the individual needs of each of my children. Then, it is like a big jigsaw puzzle that I spend a few days (or weeks!) figuring out. Once I have a plan in place, I write it down to see how all the pieces fit (or don’t fit together) and then I tweak things here and there until I come up with a proposed schedule to implement at the beginning of the new school year!

And by “schedule” I really mean a “routine”. It’s the flow of our days. There are parts that are scheduled because those things rarely need to change or be flexible, like meal times and nap times.

At the homeschool convention, I heard a speaker talk about organizing her days into CHUNKS of time and I really grasped on to that idea and decided I was going to implement it into my homeschool routine.

Here are our 4 CHUNKS and what happens in each chunk. I have put times on things in our daily routines that are more scheduled and happen at about the same time nearly every day.

1. Morning Chunk - Mom's Morning Hour, Morning Routine, Tot Time, Independent Work
2. School Chunk - Morning School Time, Read Aloud, Outside Time, Lunch, Story of the World
3. Afternoon Chunk - Geography/History/Science, Playtime, Afternoon School Time, Rest Time
4. Evening Chunk - Free Time, Dinner, Family Time, Baths, Bedtime Routines

This year, I have an 8-year-old, 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 1-year-old!

Morning Chunk 7:00-9:00 A.M.

Mom’s Morning Hour (6:45-7:45): Now that I don’t have an infant in the house (Beau is 1), I have started waking up earlier than my kids to have one hour to get myself dressed and ready for the day and to have time to do my Bible study. This hour really does set me up for a much better mind frame than rolling out of bed and meeting my circus with sleep still in my eyes. It is hard for me to do this when I have an infant though, so it’s been hard to have this routine in place for myself over the past 3ish years!

Morning Routine: The kids are up around 8am - except Little Bug who is an early bird and is usually awake around 6:30/7am. Fortunately, she is also a bookworm so she spends her early mornings reading. At 7:30am, she is reminded by her Daddy to go do her “I Can Do This” portion of her CLE Math lesson. After math, she and Sweet Pea get dressed and start their morning chore (empty dishwasher) while I am getting the boys up and Dave is getting breakfast on the table.

Tot Time & Independent Work: After breakfast, the girls move right into the dining room and begin their independent work while I get the boys cleaned up and into the living room. When the girls finish their independent work, they play board games together in Little Bug’s room until it is time to start school. As soon as I get the kitchen cleaned up, I go to the living room to spend some time with the boys. I read them a Bible story, Sarge says his Memory Verse and then I read several picture books. After reading books, Sarge starts his Room Time and Beau goes down for his morning nap. As the year moves forward, Beau’s morning nap time will decrease and his Room Time will increase.

School Chunk 9:30 A.M - 12:30 P.M.

Bible Story, Memory Verse, Prayer: We begin our school time by reading the Bible, going over our Memory Verse and praying together.

Morning School Time: We do Little Bug’s CLE math lesson first and then try to squeeze in about 10 minutes of LA as well. While I work with Little Bug, Sweet Pea works on any independent work she has left and then has some free time. When I am finished with Little Bug, she gets some free time while I do some LA and math activities with Sweet Pea.

Read Aloud - Around 10:30, we join in the living room for Read Aloud time!

Outside Time: Around 11am, the kids go out to play for about an hour while I get lunch prepped, get Beau up from his nap, do some chores and have a moment to breathe from the morning!

Lunch Time: We sit down to lunch around 11:45am and listen to Story of the World. We are listening to Volumes 3 and 4 this year.

Afternoon Chunk 12:30 - 4:00 P.M.

Geography/History/Science: Once lunch is cleaned up, I put an educational show on for Sarge while Beau goes to Room Time.  Then I teach a geography, history or science lesson to the girls for about half an hour. We do geography once a week, history 1-2 times a week for the first semester and science 1-2 times a week for the second semester. [This is the only part of our day that I don’t have to do. Our science and history content this year is so exciting and fun and I decided I wanted to dig a little deeper into this content this year with the girls. The majority of our lessons are just reading books together so I figured it wouldn’t be a time strain to add this in among the things we need to do daily like LA and math!]

Play with Boys: Around 1pm, we all spend time with the boys. With the weather getting cooler, we like to all go out on the deck. Sometimes the girls will choose to play together inside and that is fine as long as they are getting along and I am able to spend time with the boys. To get them back inside, I give them their waters and start singing the clean up song. We are working on learning to clean up toys before naptime!

Nap time for boys: Both boys are down for their naps around 1:30/1:45pm and then the girls and I do our afternoon school time.

Afternoon School Time: Our afternoon school time starts with our CC Review. I keep this very simple. We go over each of the 7 pieces of Memory Work like we learned at Community Day. Sweet Pea goes to her bedroom for rest time and Little Bug and I sit at the dining room table to finish her LA.

Rest Time: At 2:30pm, Little Bug goes to her room for rest time. At 3pm, the girls are allowed to get up and play quietly in their bedrooms until the end of rest/naptime at 4pm.  During this time, I go to my bedroom and stay there and REST. I need that down time each day to function well for my family.

Evening Chunk 4:00-8:00 P.M.

Free Play: The hour to hour and half before dinner time tends to be our most varied time of day. Activities include: free play, outside time, chores, tv time, structured activity time (like painting, coloring or playdoh). What we do in this block of time is different nearly every day.

Dinner + Family Time: Usually by 5/5:30pm, we are sitting down to dinner. In this season of life, dinner time really is our family time because there just isn’t much time left between dinner and time to start the bedtime routine. We occasionally can squeeze in a family walk in the neighborhood before baths, which we all enjoy!

Baths + Bedtime Routines: The kids usually require a bath every night because by the end of the day, they are a hot, dirty mess! Dave gives the boys their bath and the girls take their bath/shower sometime after the boys are done. During bath time, I am usually cleaning up the kitchen from dinner. Sarge is in bed by 6:45pm. Dave reads to the kids before it is time for Sarge and Sweet Pea to go to bed at 7:15pm. Little Bug stays up reading until 8:00pm.

This is the routine we fell into and it is serving us well in this season! Our days are certainly lively and most days I don’t sit from the time I put my feet on the floor until it is rest time, but these days are very fulfilling because I know I am doing the most important work I could possibly be doing in this season of my life! I don’t let much distract me from this work. I know these years are fleeting and I want my children to have all of me in this season.

- Elaine