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.
Showing posts with label schedule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schedule. Show all posts
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Setting up a Daily Schedule
Can you believe it is August? I can't! Over all, we've had a perfect summer other than one week of horrid nasty weather (in other words - hot and humid and almost unbearable). Instead we've had sunny days, even cool days, and a lot less humidity than normal. We've hardly used the little kiddie pool, I've been able to clean all the rooms in the house (not just the ones that have A/C HA!) and we've been able to keep the A/C units off except at bedtime. (Granted if I had central air, we would have run it often since some days it did get warmer than I like in the house ;-) ) It's this time of year that I start revamping my daily schedule, weekly schedule and other routines. I tend to loosen it up in the summer and get out of the old routines and need a new plan to start with in September. I thought I would take a few minutes to share my latest plan. I still plan to enjoy August but . . .am starting to lean the direction of a little more structure :-)
Monday - Monday is always recovery day around here. I don't know about anyone else but our house takes a beating on the weekends, especially if we are all home. Things get set down in odd places, we get home from staying on the other side of the state for Church and bags get set down without enough time to unpack before bedtime, and just general pick-up doesn't get done. With that in mind, the first thing that is on my Monday list is always something called "Pick up/Put away" also known as PUPA. I go through each room and make sure that everything is put away where it belongs. Here's my list:
* PUPA
* Laundry
* Clean the kitchen and dining room
----- This is weekly cleaning of each room which includes things like dusting, wiping down the countertop, table and chairs, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming the floors/rug, wiping down light switches and appliances. All the basic cleaning things. In general it should only take about 30 minutes total to do it all.
Tuesday - The List:
* Baking - cookies and usually a dessert or bread is on the list to be baked for the week
* Laundry
* Clean the bathroom
---- Cleaning the counters, bathtub/shower, the toilet (inside, outside and all around since there are many little boys in this house!), cat litter, sweeping and mopping along with washing the bathroom rugs
Wednesday - The list:
* Change Sheets
* Laundry
* Empty all trash cans
* write menu/grocery list
* Clean the Living Room
---- Since we "live" in the living room on a daily basis it tends to get more attention during the week but on Wednesday I specifically clean it including dusting, matching up misc toys, getting toys out of the corners that have been missed in nightly pick-up, and vacuuming. I also try to take a few minutes and clean up the desk area since it tends to implode :-)
Thursday - The List:
* Desk/Paperwork day
---- Balance budget, pay bills, make any phone calls/send e-mails that are needed
* Laundry
* Clean cat litter
* Clean the bedrooms
---- Dust, pick up things that are not in their right homes, vacuum
Friday - The List:
* Home Blessing Hour - this is the counterpart to Monday's PUPA. Just a quick once over to get ready for the weekend including, making sure stuff is put away, vacuuming, spraying furniture with Fabreeze, sweeping the stairs and picking up the playroom and office/classroom as needed. The goal really is for this to last no more than an hour.
* Laundry
* Weekly food prep since I usually grocery shop on Thursday evenings.
Saturday - The List:
* School Prep for the following week
- - - - As I slowly get out year running, I hope that I can spend about an hour on Saturday morning and get everything ready for the week. This will also allow me to see if I need to pick up any needed supplies before Monday. I do plan on doing printing of units throughout the week - especially in the evenings - but as far as putting together the lessons, I need an hour or so on Saturday to get that done. I will also have the "free week", which is week 7, to work on stuff like printing and organizing and planning to help keep this hour to a true hour each week ;-)
Sunday - The List:
* This is a day of rest. We attend church, watch Football now that Football season is underway. I'd also like to be able to scrapbook or work on crafts on this day but it depends on where we at - we are travling often to my Brother's church which is a little trek :-)
By following this simple list, it keeps everything in working order. I do have monthly tasks and other items that I fit into my week but I'll wait until I post my daily schedule post to share those. (I'm sure you are thrilled)
Monday - Monday is always recovery day around here. I don't know about anyone else but our house takes a beating on the weekends, especially if we are all home. Things get set down in odd places, we get home from staying on the other side of the state for Church and bags get set down without enough time to unpack before bedtime, and just general pick-up doesn't get done. With that in mind, the first thing that is on my Monday list is always something called "Pick up/Put away" also known as PUPA. I go through each room and make sure that everything is put away where it belongs. Here's my list:
* PUPA
* Laundry
* Clean the kitchen and dining room
----- This is weekly cleaning of each room which includes things like dusting, wiping down the countertop, table and chairs, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming the floors/rug, wiping down light switches and appliances. All the basic cleaning things. In general it should only take about 30 minutes total to do it all.
Tuesday - The List:
* Baking - cookies and usually a dessert or bread is on the list to be baked for the week
* Laundry
* Clean the bathroom
---- Cleaning the counters, bathtub/shower, the toilet (inside, outside and all around since there are many little boys in this house!), cat litter, sweeping and mopping along with washing the bathroom rugs
Wednesday - The list:
* Change Sheets
* Laundry
* Empty all trash cans
* write menu/grocery list
* Clean the Living Room
---- Since we "live" in the living room on a daily basis it tends to get more attention during the week but on Wednesday I specifically clean it including dusting, matching up misc toys, getting toys out of the corners that have been missed in nightly pick-up, and vacuuming. I also try to take a few minutes and clean up the desk area since it tends to implode :-)
Thursday - The List:
* Desk/Paperwork day
---- Balance budget, pay bills, make any phone calls/send e-mails that are needed
* Laundry
* Clean cat litter
* Clean the bedrooms
---- Dust, pick up things that are not in their right homes, vacuum
Friday - The List:
* Home Blessing Hour - this is the counterpart to Monday's PUPA. Just a quick once over to get ready for the weekend including, making sure stuff is put away, vacuuming, spraying furniture with Fabreeze, sweeping the stairs and picking up the playroom and office/classroom as needed. The goal really is for this to last no more than an hour.
* Laundry
* Weekly food prep since I usually grocery shop on Thursday evenings.
Saturday - The List:
* School Prep for the following week
- - - - As I slowly get out year running, I hope that I can spend about an hour on Saturday morning and get everything ready for the week. This will also allow me to see if I need to pick up any needed supplies before Monday. I do plan on doing printing of units throughout the week - especially in the evenings - but as far as putting together the lessons, I need an hour or so on Saturday to get that done. I will also have the "free week", which is week 7, to work on stuff like printing and organizing and planning to help keep this hour to a true hour each week ;-)
Sunday - The List:
* This is a day of rest. We attend church, watch Football now that Football season is underway. I'd also like to be able to scrapbook or work on crafts on this day but it depends on where we at - we are travling often to my Brother's church which is a little trek :-)
By following this simple list, it keeps everything in working order. I do have monthly tasks and other items that I fit into my week but I'll wait until I post my daily schedule post to share those. (I'm sure you are thrilled)
Saturday, April 20, 2013
I'd like to be a Schedule Person
I like to say that I am a routine driven; that I can write a schedule and stick to it. In reality, though, I tend to be more "chair driven". I like to sit and relax. Some might call that lazy but I call it the ability to relax. The problem is that sometimes I probably relax a little too much :-) I've had a few months off from babysitting which has allowed freedom for my schedule and I've been taking advantage it. Such as, not needing to set an alarm (my kids are my alarm) not needing to watch the clock to make sure lunch and snacks are served on time or making sure my kitchen is cleaned up before the 3:00. :-) While it has been nice I'm starting to feel the after effects of it - that feeling of not accomplishing much. I'm also starting to see that as my kids get older, they need a little more structure to make sure that I can help direct them to some things throughout the day. I don't mind cartoon watching but we working on watching less of it; I don't mind computer games but we are limiting those as well. Other things, like crafts, schooling, and exercise time all taking planning. I'm a really good planner but not a great finisher so I'm working on that too.
I figured that now that I'm getting close to "working" again (I.e.babysitting) it was time to implement a schedule of some kind once again. Even though I put times into this, I'm well aware that with three boys ages 2, 3, and 4 plus a newborn, the times really don't matter. I only use them as a guideline to help me stay on track throughout the day.
Basic Daily Schedule
6:00-7:00 - (yuck - but I have too!) - Do my Morning Routine (which consists of showering, getting ready for the day, making my bed and having my quiet time.)
7:00-8:00 - Kid time - this is when the munchkin and princess arrive and my kids get up so breakfast and getting kids dressed for the day are all part of this time. My kids normally eat Pop Tarts or Fruit/Grain bars for breakfast so it is easy :-)
8:00-10:00 - Kids play time/my "work" time. I have daily routines such as specific cleaning tasks, preschool planning, baking, or making stuff for my lunch for the next week etc. that needs to get done during this time.
10:00-11:00 - Preschool Time (we don't normally do preschool on Friday's - but we do our theme activities and/or plug in some special activity during this time or on a nice day, we can all go to the park and have a picnic for lunch or take off to the mall to play in the playland or other fun activity that is "easy" to do with pre-school age kids.)
11:00-12:00 - Finish up Preschool activities (if we are doing a special project), do small tasks such as folding laundry, emptying the DW and also fixing lunch.
12:00-1:00 - Lunch time/clean up time/chore time for the boys (this is something new - the boys are going to have 4 basic chores they need to do after lunch such as - brush their teeth, make their beds, put their dishes away, and feed the animals.)
1:00-2:00 - "Gym" time (exercise time). I want to do a small workout during this time and think the boys will have a fun time doing it with me; plus depending on the weather we can go for a walk or play a game inside or outside.
2:00-3:00 - Planned time for the kids - games, computer time, reading, etc. (I want to start reading chapter books to the boys so I think we'll start this time with reading each day and then play learning games either computer driven or "floor" driven HA) I would even like to get them things like Army Guys and "teach" them how to play; build with legos and Lincoln Logs and more. Sidwalk chalk and paint, the pool (when it is warm enough), squirt guns, bubbles and more. Really - this is directed play time to get the boys doing something other than sitting in front of the TV.
3:00-4:00 - Free time - for all of us :-) (This hour of time, for me, allows me to "gear up" for the end of the day which is pretty crazy with tired, hungry kids)
4:00-7:30 - Evening Routine - a lot goes on during this time; The munchkin and princess head home, dinner prep, Darryl comes home, family play time, dinner, bath time and bedtime.
7:30-9:30 - Adult time. Kids are in bed and Darryl and I just watch our favorite shows and catch up on our computers.
9:30ish - bedtime. (Well, I'm going to try!!)
There are some weekly things that aren't in the schedule such as grocery shopping and other errands. I'm not really keen on hauling four kids to the grocery store if I don't have to so I will either shop on Saturday mornings with the boys (crazy, I know) or go in the evening after Darryl gets home - maybe on his 3:00 day or just go on Thursday's since he has ever other Thursday off (I can go during the day on those Thursdays). We'll see :-)
Weekends are not planned :-) On Weekends that Darryl has to work my goal is to get scrapbooking done or plan some fun time with the boys. The weekends he doesn't work - we try to do something as a family. The kids get lots of free time :-)
How's that for a schedule? It really is similar to what we normally do but it contains more structure then what I do right now.
Now . . to print this and up it into action!
I figured that now that I'm getting close to "working" again (I.e.babysitting) it was time to implement a schedule of some kind once again. Even though I put times into this, I'm well aware that with three boys ages 2, 3, and 4 plus a newborn, the times really don't matter. I only use them as a guideline to help me stay on track throughout the day.
Basic Daily Schedule
6:00-7:00 - (yuck - but I have too!) - Do my Morning Routine (which consists of showering, getting ready for the day, making my bed and having my quiet time.)
7:00-8:00 - Kid time - this is when the munchkin and princess arrive and my kids get up so breakfast and getting kids dressed for the day are all part of this time. My kids normally eat Pop Tarts or Fruit/Grain bars for breakfast so it is easy :-)
8:00-10:00 - Kids play time/my "work" time. I have daily routines such as specific cleaning tasks, preschool planning, baking, or making stuff for my lunch for the next week etc. that needs to get done during this time.
10:00-11:00 - Preschool Time (we don't normally do preschool on Friday's - but we do our theme activities and/or plug in some special activity during this time or on a nice day, we can all go to the park and have a picnic for lunch or take off to the mall to play in the playland or other fun activity that is "easy" to do with pre-school age kids.)
11:00-12:00 - Finish up Preschool activities (if we are doing a special project), do small tasks such as folding laundry, emptying the DW and also fixing lunch.
12:00-1:00 - Lunch time/clean up time/chore time for the boys (this is something new - the boys are going to have 4 basic chores they need to do after lunch such as - brush their teeth, make their beds, put their dishes away, and feed the animals.)
1:00-2:00 - "Gym" time (exercise time). I want to do a small workout during this time and think the boys will have a fun time doing it with me; plus depending on the weather we can go for a walk or play a game inside or outside.
2:00-3:00 - Planned time for the kids - games, computer time, reading, etc. (I want to start reading chapter books to the boys so I think we'll start this time with reading each day and then play learning games either computer driven or "floor" driven HA) I would even like to get them things like Army Guys and "teach" them how to play; build with legos and Lincoln Logs and more. Sidwalk chalk and paint, the pool (when it is warm enough), squirt guns, bubbles and more. Really - this is directed play time to get the boys doing something other than sitting in front of the TV.
3:00-4:00 - Free time - for all of us :-) (This hour of time, for me, allows me to "gear up" for the end of the day which is pretty crazy with tired, hungry kids)
4:00-7:30 - Evening Routine - a lot goes on during this time; The munchkin and princess head home, dinner prep, Darryl comes home, family play time, dinner, bath time and bedtime.
7:30-9:30 - Adult time. Kids are in bed and Darryl and I just watch our favorite shows and catch up on our computers.
9:30ish - bedtime. (Well, I'm going to try!!)
There are some weekly things that aren't in the schedule such as grocery shopping and other errands. I'm not really keen on hauling four kids to the grocery store if I don't have to so I will either shop on Saturday mornings with the boys (crazy, I know) or go in the evening after Darryl gets home - maybe on his 3:00 day or just go on Thursday's since he has ever other Thursday off (I can go during the day on those Thursdays). We'll see :-)
Weekends are not planned :-) On Weekends that Darryl has to work my goal is to get scrapbooking done or plan some fun time with the boys. The weekends he doesn't work - we try to do something as a family. The kids get lots of free time :-)
How's that for a schedule? It really is similar to what we normally do but it contains more structure then what I do right now.
Now . . to print this and up it into action!
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