It's that time of year - as a teacher, September symbolizes the start of the year for me and even though I haven't taught in a classroom in years, I still have that same feeling. I see the school supplies. stop in at the teacher store, and start to think about setting up a schedule. After relaxing things for the summer I start to feel the need to put things back in order. In my teaching life, my days would become much more structured and much more time limited and, this year, I'll feel that a little more with homeschooling. Now, I will say that this summer, weather wise, has been wonderful so far - we had two really hot weeks; One week we were on vacation and it was cooler where we were plus we had a hotel room with awesome A/C; the second week we were trapped in our living room. The rest of the summer it has been really nice and I got things done!
First of all, I did some research and found a new planner. A few years ago I had found one that was great except for two things. One, it was too big for the average purse and two, the cost. I looked it up this yera and it was $75.00 . . seriously? I can get a Franklin for less than that!! So I found the one I have now for . . $14.95. It's perfect. I'm still waiting for it to arrive . . and trying not to get frustrated with that fact so when I receive it, I'll post about it!
Secondly, our daily schedule has to change some as homeschool kicks more into high gear (which just means I have three little boys to teach each day HA) There is always balance between teaching and getting things done. My personality is one where I need to get things done each day or I flounder which is why a plan is always good. I do have to say that the last schedule I posted back in January or February actually worked pretty well even after I started babysitting again I was able to keep some of it running . .. not all of it, but some of it :-)
In planning the schedule for this fall I took what was still working from the last one and added to it. Now, I'm the first one to tell you that this schedule is my basic goal each day but there are always things that come up that aren't planned especially with 4 little ones in the house. Here we go!
6:00 - get up, shower, devotions. Now, last year this was my goal and I did not succeed but I did get up at 6:45 every day and was showered/ready before the extra kids arrived for the day which was much better than the year before. My brother has preached a few messages at church recently that have convicted me about getting back into to my daily time with God so I'm going to really work on doing that first thing. I would like to note - this is my goal I might not succeed . . .6:45 seems to be "my time" for getting up.
7:00-8:00 - Kid time - basically waiting for the extra kids to get here; my kids get up and need breakfast and to get settled for their day ect. This is also when I take a look at what is for dinner and get anything out of the freezer.
8:00-9:00 - This is my time. I eat breakfast, read, catch up on facebook/e-mails, write blog posts or even get a few last minute things ready for preschool
9:00-10:30 - Preschool. Right now I'm just doing preschool with Josh and we go about 45 minutes to an hour. I'm hopeful that by 10:30 I can have all three boys working on their tasks and I can move on to my tasks. This timing might change in September when the two little boys start their lessons.
10:30-12:00 - Chore time! The boys will have chores starting up (I will write a blog post soon!) and then I will do my daily chores that I posted about yesterday. I also have other things like working outside for 15-30 minutes as time allows doing things like weeding, picking up toys, cleaning out the truck or, when it is snowy out, even taking time to clear off old snow/ice from the sidewalk, porch, or driveway.
12:00-1:00 - Total break time! Lunch, clean-up and then time to read!! (or something fun)
1:00-2:00 - This hour is reserved for two things. 1)To work on any school stuff I need to get done. I'm hoping to get into the groove of doing all of this work on Saturday but even working on future lessons can happen in this hour. 2) Finish anything I did not get done in that 10:30-12:00 time slot.
2:00-3:00 - This is time for me to get other things done - a project hour. I'm going to create a list of monthly chores/cleaning that need to be done and put those in a jar. I can pull one or two each day and focus on those. By the end of the month, the whole jar will be done and I can start over. Once done, I can work on crafts, planning, reading, writing, computer time -what ever :-)
3:00-4:00 - Kid time. I really want to work on, again, having some fun activities to do with the kids. Maybe a theme a day - crafts, cooking, something active, a game . . . Some days, this will just be down time too where I can take a break!
4:00-5:00 - The extra's go home and I get dinner on.
5:00-8:00 - family time for the most part - dinner, clean-up, playing with the kids, bath time, bedtime. I'm not sure how yet, but I would like to be able to get in about 30 minutes of exercise for me; I have a few ideas but we'll see how it works out.
8:00-10:00 ish - Lesson Prep, blog writing, weekly planning or just doing nothing. Seriously.
The exception to this schedule is Fridays - September and October we have Friday school so we leave home around 8:00 and don't get home until between 12:30 and 1:00 so once we get home, we eat lunch and do no dot much. I will do my weekly home blessing on Friday afternoons but that will probably be all! I'm also really hoping to add some field trips this year to our monthly schedule. A local Christian Bookstore has a story hour every Thursday - I'd like to be able to go once a month. Maybe get to the local library story hour at least once a month if not more and then visit local things like museums, parks, and more. Later in the fall it would be fun to take the kids to the local airport again and have a picnic on their observation deck to watch for airplanes - they still talk about doing that at the beginning of the summer.
