[I guess I should clarify, before jumping in, that this is our ideal "routine," but we hold it very loosely. With four little kids, and with life just being life, things are always bound to come up...doctor's appointments, my husband traveling for work, holidays, trips, etc., can all change up our "normal," but this is our typical "normal" for as normal as life can ever really be.]
Somewhere in the dark, dark hour around 4 or 5 in the morning, our three oldest children wake up. A very blurry-eyed mommy or (mostly) daddy puts on a movie for them and gives them bowls of apple slices or a banana while we try to catch a bit more of interrupted sleep with our babe. Not my favorite way for them to start the day, but kind of a necessity right now for us and our lives (after months of trying to get them to sleep later...we pretty much are just learning to embrace their early rising time). The kids then play or read until breakfast.
7:00ish Breakfast and our daily devotions (we are reading Jesus Calling for Kids), our weekly Bible memory verse practice, updating/discussing the calendar and schedule for the day, and reviewing the bulletin board that I change weekly (letter of the day, word of the week, flashcards of landmarks, space, states, insects, etc.)
Morning Chores - the kids are responsible to clear their place settings, put their jammies in the hamper, get dressed, brush their teeth, make their beds, and come to me to find out their one, daily cleaning chore. This is something simple they can do to start learning how to help around the house...clearing off the breakfast table, loading the washing machine, emptying clean diapers from the dryer, helping unload the dishwasher, etc. Then Micah does his handwriting practice (often copying Scripture).
Morning Activity - this varies depending on what day it is. On Mondays, our plan is to go to the library, and on Wednesdays, we do a little craft (again, pretty simple activities that often relate to the season...i.e., painting pumpkins, making handprint turkeys, cutting and creating a Christmas paper chain, etc.) The other days might include a playdate, grocery shopping, a doctor's appointment, a monthly field trip with our homeschool group, or just staying home and playing and catching up on chores.
11 or 11:30ish - Lunch
12 or 12:30 - Girls take naps and we do our schooling! Every day, Micah has a lesson in math and language arts, and we usually do either science or social studies, or sometimes both. Sammy works weekly on his alphabet book he is creating, and I usually let him choose other activities while Micah is working on his work. (Some of Sammy's activities include puzzles, pattern activities, counting to 100 with the abacus, practicing cutting, using the Tag reader, playing map/geography games on the computer, etc.)
We are usually finishing school around 3 or 4, depending on the day. Every once in awhile, we have an afternoon playdate, or we have an errand to run, or the kids just play while I fold laundry and start making dinner. On Tuesdays, Micah has his Spotlight (children's theater) class, on Wednesdays, I am attempting to get the house ready for our weekly small group that takes place after the kids are in bed, and a couple times a month, I am trying extra hard to be on top of dinner and chores since I will leave for book study with my girlfriends.
5:00 Dinner
6:00 Bedtime Routine - Family worship time (if we are on top of it), bath (if they need it), books (I always read aloud a chapter from whatever novel or biography we are currently reading), prayer, and songs
7:00 Bedtime!
I have an awesome husband who is crazy-supportive of me being a stay-at-home mama and of us homeschooling, so he is super helpful with chores. After the kids are in bed, we work together to do whatever went undone throughout the day, putting away clean laundry, doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen from dinner, washing our cloth diapers, sweeping the floor, etc. This also gives us a chance to chat about our days at the same time as trying to keep up on the housework.
Around 8 or 9, when we don't have evening plans, we relax on the couch by watching a show on Netflix, a movie from the Redbox, or occasionally playing a game.
In a perfect world, around 10, but more realistically, around 11, we make our way to bed ourselves to get some much-needed rest for the day ahead.
Other things...we have found that it works really well to pick up toys twice a day, right before lunch, and right before dinner (or right before we leave the house). This way, I am not worried about whatever messes there are in between because I know they will get picked up at a certain time, and I am a believer in kids making messes with their toys! (That's what they are there for, right?) Of course there are exceptions, but this general routine of clean-up works well for us.
Also, there are many things thrown in to the day that aren't "scheduled," of course, like diapers, nursing my babe, discipline, sibling squabbles, phone calls, reading books, cleaning up from toddler messes and big curious minds, etc. :-)
Feel free to ask questions...my life is pretty much an open book! Hope this helps answer questions about our life and how we roll.
Happy Monday and Happy Scheduling to you all!
What chapter books do you read with your kids that all of them are interested in?
ReplyDeleteHey Melissa! Mostly just the boys are sitting still for read-alouds. Our two-year-old is usually in the room, listening, but moving. We have read a couple of the Christian Hero: Then and Now series...amazing biographies. These are a bit much for our three-year old, but our oldest loves them. We are currently reading Wizard of Oz. We have read Charlotte's Web and some of the Flat Stanley books, too. :-)
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