Scheduling 101

Getting ready to start a new school year…excitement and dread all rolled up together! Not really, I am the excited one while the children are the ones dreading it. We get to be official high schoolers LOL 🙂

What this means for me is the grades have to count, testing becomes more like “testing” and not reviewing the material. ACT and SAT prep starts, as does keeping the “Official Transcript”.  

While we are homeschooling our children, they are quick to point out that we are NOT Homeschoolers… watch this video that explains the difference… really cute.

So in the mindset of getting it all included this year…including keeping one three-year old grandson while one parent works and the other is in school full time….I pulled out my GOTO management tool Manager of Their Homes. While I do not follow this program completely, it does get me moving in the right direction. Of course all my spreadsheets are in Excel and my calendar is in Google, but the principles are wonderful in keeping your priorities straight AND getting all the lists included in the day.

You start by making of list of all the things you would like to get done in a day and note how long each should take to complete. . Don't laugh!! In a perfect world, I would be able to get items that total 46 hours done..ummm… yeah… we only have 24 hours in a day if we don't sleep. Well, some things can be multi-tasked. NOT 22 HOURS WORTH!!

Back to my list, trim down the “Oh in a perfect world my bathrooms would get cleaned daily…make that twice a week”; and yep, the floors can be mopped twice a week instead of three times, the children are volunteering to only do Algebra once a week to lighten my load (such sweet girls), the van can be cleaned out twice a week instead of four (must be on the list for Fridays as it is a pet peeve of hubby's on the weekend).. you get the idea.

Don't want to cut back on school hours, bible study time or meetings, worship services are not negotiable, cooking meals must remain on the list (hmmm have to work on that one this year).

So now my list is down to a mere 36 hours to fit into 24…do I need sleep? Shame that the answer is YEAH ~ because my schedule would just about work if I didn't have to sleep.

While this is always a funny step in the process, it does open my eyes to how sidetracked and busy we become without noticing it. No wonder my TODO list is NEVER done! No wonder I seem to always be playing catch up or jumping from fire to fire. I love the Flylady program and try to keep things just this side of the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) most of the time. My house is not and will never be magazine ready or quality. And that is ok with me. We have had children running, climbing, skating, you name it in the house forever. Our home is child lived in. My sign at the door says it all.

Welcome, we are not under construction, children live here!

Every once in a while I get overwhelmed and we hit RESET for a day and get things back where they belong. Yes, I know that if we put things away as we used them….etc etc etc… Again, in a perfect world. This is also a good thing to take to your husband. Ask him to look it over and offer his thoughts on your schedule. He may have a totally different take on what is important or he may see something that your family can handle differently. Yard care was one of the stress items on my list. My husband saw that this was an item that seemed to get pushed back or off with weather changes, classes, etc… so we decided to contract out the lawn work. SWEET…. now Mr Lawn Guy shows up once a week and is done and gone in about 20 minutes. Added two hours to my week.

Now you have your list of things to get done each day. In the MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) method, you would take a post it note for each of the items and stick them on a poster board, filling in your days.  Personally, I open an excel spread sheet and create times down the first column in 30 minute units and fill in the days of the week on row one.

Starting with the list you created above; start dropping in the items on the spread sheet. For us, Sunday would be Services from 9:30am to 1:00PM, followed by lunch (wouldn’t matter if at home or out, time would still be blocked). Monday we have PE class 12-2 (class is 1-2 but going and coming back need to be accounted in the time), Breakfast is at 7am, Bible Study, Math, Science, chores, music lessons, language lessons, etc….

Keep dropping in the items from your list until you run out of available spots. Notice I didn’t say until you have used all the items on your list?????? This is where it gets fun. This is also where you start using your children to help each other. Your third grader needs to work on flash cards? Let your K-1 grader drill them. They can hold up the card and see the answer. Funny thing will happen, the K-1 will learn their tables while teaching their older sibling. Same with reading… Your fourth grader needs to practice reading out loud….let them read to your toddler. Keeps the toddler busy while the older one is reading AND frees you to do something else.

Example:

8:00        Rebekah works with Ryan on letters and numbers
Mom works with Meagan on Algebra

8:30        Meagan continues with Algebra
Rebekah works on Independent Reading
Mom work with Ryan on colors

9:00        Meagan and Ryan take dog outside and play with blocks
Rebekah and Mom work on Algebra lesson

Get the idea? Activities can be stacked as long as everyone is covered. You can’t have a toddler running around while you are trying to teach Algebra!

Assign chore time, meal prep time, meal clean up time, shopping prep, shopping /unpacking, personal grooming and oh yeah…. Sleep! Don’t forget date night with spouse.

Sounds simple….not so much. Don’t go taking away your sleeping or bible time to make other things fit. This exercise is a great tool in showing you how much you are trying to get done. Perhaps there is an activity that will need to be moved to another time slot, or stopped for a season.

Also don’t forget to schedule down time…what’s that you ask? Is there a show you like to watch on the television? How about just sitting with your coffee and listening to the birds in the morning? Schedule these times in your day!

Here is our daily schedule from two years ago. Strange that I can’t find the one from last year and I need to make this year now…

 

		Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
6:00	AM	Mom -Morning Routine Girls – sleeping	Mom -Morning Routine Girls – sleeping	Mom -Morning Routine Girls – sleeping	Mom -Morning Routine Girls – sleeping	Mom -Morning Routine Girls – sleeping
6:30	AM	Mom -Quiet Time        Girls – Sleeping	Mom -Quiet Time        Girls – Sleeping	Mom -Quiet Time        Girls – Sleeping	Mom -Quiet Time        Girls – Sleeping	Mom -Quiet Time        Girls – Sleeping
7:00	AM	Mom -Computer Time  Girls – Morning Routine	Mom -Computer Time  Girls – Morning Routine	Mom -Computer Time  Girls – Morning Routine	Mom -Computer Time  Girls – Morning Routine	Mom -Computer Time  Girls – Morning Routine
7:30	AM	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
8:00	AM	Morning Chores	Morning Chores	Morning Chores	Morning Chores	Morning Chores
8:30	AM	Beka – HOP Tapes  Meagan – Flash Drills	Beka – HOP Tapes  Meagan – Flash Drills	Beka – HOP Tapes  Meagan – Flash Drills	Beka – HOP Tapes  Meagan – Flash Drills	Pack lunches / Travel to Co-op class
9:00	AM	Meagan w/Mom 1o1  Beka – indep  / writing	Meagan w/Mom 1o1  Beka – indep  / writing	Meagan w/Mom 1o1  Beka – indep  / writing	Meagan w/Mom 1o1  Beka – indep  / writing	Co-op Classes
9:30	AM	Beka w/Mom 1o1  Meagan – indep / writing	Beka w/Mom 1o1  Meagan – indep / writing	Beka w/Mom 1o1  Meagan – indep / writing	Beka w/Mom 1o1  Meagan – indep / writing	Co-op Classes
10:00	AM	Meagan – HOP Tapes  Beka – Flash Drills	Meagan – HOP Tapes  Beka – Flash Drills	Meagan – HOP Tapes  Beka – Flash Drills	Meagan – HOP Tapes  Beka – Flash Drills	Co-op Classes
10:30	AM	Piano Practice – 15 mins & Bible Drills 15 mins	Piano Practice – 15 mins & Bible Drills 15 mins	Piano Practice – 15 mins & Bible Drills 15 mins	Piano Practice – 15 mins & Bible Drills 15 mins	Co-op Classes
11:00	AM	English / Grammar	Math	Lunch & Clean Up	Math	Co-op Classes
11:30	AM	History	Computer / Flash	Lunch & Clean Up	Computer / Flash	Co-op Classes
12:00	PM	Math	Reading	Math	English	Co-op Classes
12:30	PM	Science	Travel to PE / Lunch	English	Travel to PE / Lunch	Co-op Classes
1:00	PM	Computer / Flash	PE @ Town & Country	History	PE @ Town & Country	Travel / Lunch
1:30	PM	Lunch & Clean Up	PE @ Town & Country	Science	PE @ Town & Country	Art Co-op with Brenda
2:00	PM	Travel to Piano	Errands / Paula Produce	Other School / reading	Travel from PE / Errands	Art Co-op with Brenda
2:30	PM	Piano – Meagan	Errands / Paula Produce	Computer / Flash		Art Co-op with Brenda
3:00	PM	Piano – Rebekah	Errands / Paula Produce	Reading	Bible Bowl Work	Art Co-op with Brenda
3:30	PM	Errands	Errands / Paula Produce	Bible Bowl Work	Science	Errands / Paula Produce
4:00	PM	Errands / AHG Meeting	History	Free Time	Other School / reading	Errands / Paula Produce
4:30	PM	AHG Meeting	English / Grammar	Free Time	History	Reading
5:00	PM	AHG Meeting	Bible Bowl Work	Dinner Prep / Free	Reading	Dinner Prep / Free
5:30	PM	AHG Meeting	Science	Dinner & Clean up	Dinner Prep / Free	Dinner & Clean up
6:00	PM	AHG Meeting	Dinner & Clean up	Dinner & Clean up	Dinner & Clean up	Dinner & Clean up
6:30	PM	Travel / Dinner	Dinner & Clean up	Leave for Church	Dinner & Clean up	Free Time
7:00	PM	Dinner	Household Chores	Church	Household Chores	Free Time
7:30	PM	Beka Bed Prep / Meagan Reads	Beka Bed Prep / Meagan Reads	Church	Beka Bed Prep / Meagan Reads	Beka Bed Prep / Meagan Reads
8:00	PM	Meg Bed Prep / Beka Reads	Meg Bed Prep / Beka Reads	Church / Travel Home	Meg Bed Prep / Beka Reads	Meg Bed Prep / Beka Reads
8:30	PM	Bedtime for girls / quiet time w/mom	Bedtime for girls / quiet time w/mom	Bed Prep Girls	Bedtime for girls / quiet time w/mom	Bedtime for girls / quiet time w/mom
9:00	PM	Girls – Bedtime          Mom – Evening Routine	Girls – Bedtime          Mom – Evening Routine	Girls – Bedtime          Mom – Evening Routine	Girls – Bedtime          Mom – Evening Routine	Girls – Bedtime          Mom – Evening Routine

 

I hope this helps… I know… makes things clear as mud! Just be slow and steady in working your schedule. There will be days (those days) when nothing goes according to the schedule. Others, you may make it through lunch time before you are knocked off track. Someone calls and you need to go help them….just pick up again at the next activity and finish the day.  Service to others is as important in teaching your children as one Math lesson.

Good luck and remember… it is the adventures along the way that make life sweet.