Homeschool Memoirs – Routines

Well, as you may know, I’m really not into set schedules around here. We love routines, but we don’t do actual time slots for schooling. When we started out homeschooling, I tried the whole time slot for each subject thing, but it was a disaster. As the years went by, we’ve fallen into a routine that works for us.

I get up in the morning before Munchkin, so I can do my devotions. I then spend some time checking emails until she gets up. When she gets up, we eat breakfast while watching an episode of Liberty’s Kids or Magic School Bus. After breakfast, we start school for the day.

Our day always starts with the Bible lesson. After that, Munchkin decides what order she wants to work on her school work. I have created an assignment sheet for her, so she knows what she needs to do each day. She does have some leeway as to when she does her assignments as long as she gets them done by the end of the week.

We eat lunch between 11:00 and 12:00; we eat supper between 4:00 and 5:00. She usually completes her school work shortly after lunch, but some days school days last into the late afternoon. After she completes her school work, she needs to do her chores. Upon chore completion, her time is hers. She usually works on some craft or project. Sometimes, she’ll play games on the computer.

I usually work on housework or work on the computer while she does her independent school work. Prior to this year, we did pretty much all of her school work together, so this took a little adjusting to get use to the new routine. I had to change things up as she started to really like to talk to me while she should be doing her work.

Now that the homeschooling year has officially started for everyone around here, we’ll have outside activities such as homeschool p.e. on Thursdays, soccer practice on Fridays, and soccer games on Saturdays.

We like to do read-a-louds in the evenings (and sometimes during the day). Munchkin does her devotions in the evening and then reads until lights out.