A Homeschooling Mom’s Daily Schedule

Hi everyone, have you ever wondered how I do it all? How I homeschool, work from home, and keep up with daily life? Well, I think the last time I posted about our daily schedule was about 4 years ago, so I thought maybe it was time for an update! Ya think? LOL!

 

 

While each day can bring on a chaos of its own, we do have a basic routine that we try to stick to. Obviously things don’t always run smoothly around here, and some days are crazier than others. But I like to at least have a basic guideline to get me through the day.

As most of you already know, we homeschool. For me that’s like my full time job, and I do my best to focus solely on school during those hours. I also work from home on my blog, creating YouTube content, and I create homeschool curriculum as well as free printables.  Those all take up quite a bit of time, so without some planning I’d never be able to get those things done! I try to view that as a part-time job and have to plan work time into my day as well. Then we have our family commitments like church, sports, household chores, etc.

One thing that has helped tremendously was using a traditional daily planner. I’m using my 2016 Weekly Planner right now because it helps me keep track of regular household chores, our family commitments, things to do/buy, reminders, and my blog, etc.

I still use my iPhone as well because it physically beeps to remind me that I need to be somewhere, or do something. But I realized that I still really like to see things all laid out in front of me and I find that once things get put in my phone they disappear from my brain. So having them written out has really helped me literally “SEE” what I have to do each day and week.

That said, here’s what my ideal schedule looks like.

 

Need help building a schedule that works? Click here to download my schedule printable:

• Mom’s Schedule Word Doc (In the event that you would like to copy my insane schedule here you go! Just kidding, this one is editable so you can create your own!)
• Mom’s Schedule PDF

WEEK DAYS:

Here is our schedule in a little more detail….basically…provided nothing unexpected happens…like life.

• 8:00 am –  Devotion/shower/get dressed
• 8:30 am – Breakfast & Kitchen clean up
• 9:00 am – SCHOOL STARTS! We usually break for lunch around noon-ish, then finish our group studies like history, geography, art, etc. after lunch.
• 3:00 pm – SCHOOL ENDS! (Well you know, technically it ends…realistically my kids are subject to my constant pop quizzes all day long.) At the end of each day I re-fill workboxes while the kiddos clean up their areas and make sure the school room is all nice and pretty like it was when we started.
• 3:30 pm – Chore time: Everyone does what they can from their chore chart assignments or whatever I ask them to do. We all take turns doing daily chores like folding laundry, emptying the dishwasher, taking out trash, etc.
• 4:00 pm – I usually work a little bit, check email, blog, etc. The kids get some free time.
• 4:30-6:30 pm – Dinner Prep, Eat, and kitchen clean up. Some nights we have hockey or swimming, so we work our dinner around those.
• 6:00pm – Dad enters & asks “So, what did you do all day?” I say “Not much, just lounged around and ate bon-bons.”  Dad quizzes kids to make sure I’m kidding.
• 7:00 pm – I usually try to exercise or go on a walk during the calm between dinner and bedtime. I find that it helps my mental state tremendously to get out and get some fresh air! When it’s too cold, I hit our elliptical trainer, however I usually get bored on it.
• 7:30 pm – Bedtime Prep (Clean up rooms, put away laundry, take baths, brush teeth)
• 8:00 pm – 10 Minute Tidy & Bed Time! – This is where I set a timer and everyone runs around like maniacs cleaning up anything can they find so mom doesn’t blow a gasket at the mess we’ve created in just one day. Oh, and since our laundry room is upstairs now, I toss in a load of laundry, then swap it to the dryer when ready. Then yes, I let it sit overnight until we do chores the following day. Crazy I know, but that’s just how we’re rolling this year. A little bit wrinkly
• 9:00 pm: Free time for mom and dad….sit down for first time today and sigh…blog…make cool printables to share…check emails etc. and praise God we made it through another homeschool day without burning down the house!

Hopefully after seeing our daily schedule you’ll be gracious with me. If you’ve emailed me during the day, you probably won’t hear back until the evening! Please be patient with me, I really do try to get back to everyone by the end of the day, but there are a lot of you and one of me ;o)

New! I hired my mom as a virtual assistant to help me out with some of the easier to answer emails, and to sift out the spam too. She’s also taken over shipping out orders as well. So if you email to get your links reset you’ll most likely hear back from her! Thanks mom! I couldn’t do it without you!

 

WEEKENDS:

As you can see we don’t have a lot of time during the week for much else besides school and sports. So here are a few things we do on the weekends:

1. Grocery Shopping: As much as I hate shopping on weekends, often this is the only time I can make it to the store. Sometimes I’ll go on Friday’s when the kids are at options, however a lot of the time I take advantage of that time to run other errands and work.
2. Household Cleaning: On the weekends we all take one chore and clean the whole house. I assign tasks based on requests from the kids, or who I think will do the best job at a certain item. Things we assign out include dusting, vacuuming, toilets, sinks/mirrors, window sills and door knobs, sweep/mop kitchen, and kitchen counters/appliances. Since we all work together we can usually clean our whole house in about 2 hours, then we have the rest of the weekend to chill out and have fun! I’ve also had to relax a little bit in this area. Since we homeschool, our house just gets lived in. It’s all about being flexible when you have four children and homeschool!
3. Sports: Right now we have hockey games every weekend, and sometimes we have tournaments that prevent #1 & #2 from happening consistently. So we’re just trying to work through it. As you can see from our daily schedule the house is kept mostly tidy all week long, so on the weekends we don’t get to deep clean it’s not too bad.
4. Free Time: As crazy as our week can get, I like to try and get done with cleaning first, so that everyone can just hang out and relax on the weekends. That’s when we schedule play dates, have family game nights, etc. And that’s usually when I have time to sew, quilt, and read too! Everyone needs a little downtime. While it’s difficult to do during school time, a little break here and there can do a world of good!
5. Work: I usually try to squeeze in some work time on the weekends. I try to take one of the days off, then make sure to get whatever I need to do for my blog each week finished on the weekends. That can include catching up on emails, writing new blog posts, and working behind the scenes on things like writing books and creating printables and curriculum.

 

 

Here are some more tools that I use to help keep me organized:

• Chore Chart
• Monthly Meal Plans
• My Planner

Hope this helps answer some of your questions about our daily schedule!