What hs routines have you established that you love?

[Tranquility7]

And by "love" I mean either because you actually enjoy it, or because it just works really well for you.

 

Oh, and these don't have to be routines that worked forever - they can be routines that worked for a while because of your kids' ages at the time, or whatever.

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I write assignments in planners for all three of my kids.  They go to today's work and pick something to do.  They highlight it when they are done.  It helps create independence and take a lot of the burden off of me.  

 

I check out books from the library that have book quizzes on Book Adventure (free) and when they have down time they utilize it.  I use the points for house rewards.

 

For my daughter, I laminate thematic games from teacher pay teachers for her to play.

 

For the younger two, I write their current poem to be memorized on sentence strips and cut it up.  They put it together in a  pocket chart when they practice their poetry.

[desertflower]

Reading before bedtime. It's bonding time as a family.

 

What about you?

[AimeeM]

I am really enjoying our current HS routine.

 

In the morning, DS5 and DD13 do their "together work". We call this our Morning Meeting. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, given their age difference, but it's working beautifully, thus far.

 

Morning Meeting:

DD13 does her handwriting, while DS5 and I do his calendar work.

We do their memory work together. They are working in Classically Catholic Memory; while their Great Words memory work differs, the rest they do together. I think I will add something different for DD's math memory work - she really doesn't need to memorize counting by 2's, lol. 

We do Catholic Mosaic together, too. We do the read aloud, talk about the discussion questions, and do any activities together.

We do their saint story or other read aloud.

 

After this, I do DD13's Instructional period, wherein I directly instruct her in any new concepts, and I do any mom dependent subjects with her (the reading portion of her science, religion, etymology); during this time DS5 is still playing with modeling clay and listening in (they play with the clay while we do our memory work). After this, DD breaks off to complete her assignments independently. She stays at the table in case she needs help, but she puts her noise canceling headphones on and listens to music while I work with DS5 (phonics, handwriting, mathematics, science or social studies related read aloud, and any associated science activity).

 

I try to do DS5's work with him while DS2 is napping.

[Farrar]

Reading before bedtime, definitely. A read aloud and then an hour of independent reading.

 

A short story, a nonfiction book, and a poem to discuss each month.

 

A writing project each month (that's a Brave Writer thing).

 

Copywork or dictation once a week (another BW one).

 

Documentary and lunch together on slow days. Usually a 45 min episode of Nova or Cosmos or something along those lines.

 

Writing the assignments for the day on the whiteboard and letting the kids erase them as they finish. I have tried so many things for this, but we always come back to this method and I've finally just embraced it.

 

Putting a special mark (just a dot) next to the things on the whiteboard that are completely independent work. It has helped delineate those things so clearly and made them happen and be more independent.

 

When my kids were in kindy and first grade, we had a lot of little daily routines that worked well at that age, including a word a day and an art a day, both from books and flip things.

[CardinalAlt]

Fun Fridays with poems, a free write, game math, a library visit, other activities from art to field trips... Weekly library visits mean very rare fines, too.

 

Reading over morning snack time and before bed.

 

Starting the day with the 3yo's books and activities and seeing how often the 7yo can still get into them, too!

 

Slowly developing a good morning basket time, more geared to the 7yo with trickle down for the 3yo...

 

Not 100% of the time but often, we go for a Sunday family swim in the Y's heated pool - such a great reset for the week to come!

[Ellie]

For several years, our schedule was like this:

 

Daily: Read aloud from a good book, one chapter a day, right after lunch, every day that we were home. Shower at night for me, so I could get dressed as soon as I got up in the morning. Make my bed before I leave my bedroom, already dressed. Wash my hair in the kitchen. I still do this. :-)

 

Monday and Tuesday: Stay home. No errands, no outside classes, no appointments, no heavy cleaning, no involved projects for me Just...stay home. I put Official School Stuff on the kitchen table, where dd could work on them if they wanted to, or not, but often, because we were Staying Home, dds would pick up those things anyway.

 

Wednesday: Library. Dds could check out as many books as they wanted, or none at all. Every book was returned every Wednesday whether it had been read or not. We usually went to a library in another town that was much larger than the one close to us, and we just sort of hung out until we were all ready to go home. Sometimes we goofed off with friends afterwards, but we had no major, regular events after the library.

 

Thursday: Field trip. We left the house every.single.Thursday for a field trip. Sometimes we invited friends, especially if I wanted to go some place that required a group, in which case I would invite the specific number required. Otherwise, it was mostly just the three of us. (I did not go on field trips with my support group unless the event was on a Thursday, or it was exceedingly awesome and required a group.)

 

Friday: Clean house--all the laundry, the bathroom, move the furniture and vacuum, dust the furniture, everything. Once-a-month park day.

 

Weekends: Free of major cleaning so we could either goof off with Mr. Ellie or just stay home. No worries about clean clothes because all the laundry was done on Friday.

 

And on Monday, we just...got up, got dressed, had breakfast, stayed home. No worries about laundry or major cleaning/projects. Relaxed.

[MrsWeasley]

Reading before bed. Hump day (Wednesday) movie afternoon, often with a tie-in to something we're reading or studying in history or science. Weekly poetry tea parties. Weekly nature exploration (whether just the woods behind our yard or more recently working through the Roadside Geology book for our state). Full moon hootenannies - both my big kids take music lessons and we do a mini performance every full moon. After dinner pajama walks to look at the stars (as part of our science this year). Monthly family game night (with lots of games that reinforce spelling, math, geography, history...).

[MiMi 4under3]

Math first thing in the morning until it's finished.

 

(To get the most important subject done and out of the way)

 

Or, as DD13 puts it, "To get the misery over with."  :lol:

[Wildwood]

Reading aloud often and closely partnering with my kids through their schoolwork and creative activities...letting them see that I love being involved.  

This means being interested and invested in their daily activities.  Nature walks, hands-on craft/art time, and just paying attention to what interests them.  

[Tenaj]

We have "fun" math on Fridays.  Some years it is Life of Fred.  This year it's Pet Store Math from Simply Charlotte Mason.  I have three boys doing it and it's been a great fun contest for them to see who can make the most money and run their shop the best.   I think this will be a repeat for a few years.

 

Daily schedules on clipboards.  Allows them to work as independently as possible and to see the goals for the day.  Nobody is done with school until I see their clipboard and initial off on it.  Avoids the next morning annoyance of me finding out somebody didn't do an assignment the day before which is easy for me to lose track of with six students this year.

 

Bible all together first thing in the morning.   This year we're doing Bible Study Guide for All Ages and surprisingly what seems to be one of their favorite parts is singing a song just before we head back to the table to do math.  Oh, and they love the big maps and timeline.  We don't use the worksheets except for my younger two.

 

We do dictation, a la HOD, and we've/they've developed this whole weird routine of rewards and disciplines regarding it that really crack me up when I think about it but in the process, it's become one of our favorite parts of the day.

 

When someone's having a frustrating moment, I send them to run our little hallway that is "circular".  Usually, that's my 6yods or my 5 yodd.  Most of the time, all the kids join in the running and what was a grumpy moment turns into much fun.  Everyone needs a hallway like ours :)

[Mrs Twain]

I do some of the things already mentioned. In particular, having a fixed daily schedule gets the most work done. The kids know what is expected of them, and they are accustomed to the routine.

 

We started listening to audio books in the car on our way to and from everything. This has dramatically increased our number of read alouds, and it makes the car trips far more enjoyable.

[PeterPan]

Cookie Thursday (reward for having all your work done on your checklist up to that point)

Mom's Day Off Wednesday (only independent work)

[lexi]

Doing catechism during breakfast.

 

If morning school work is done they can watch an educational show on the computer during lunch. This gives time to do dishes and laundry and eat (while I check the forums). Those 30 min are sacred to me!

 

Reading aloud in the afternoon while they do art, build Legos, or play quietly.

 

Letting them jog on the treadmill while watching an educational show on days that it's too hot to run outside.

 

Other than that I just try to survive the homeschool day - I have two toddlers.

[LindaOz]

'Family School' time after breakfast before we break off into own work. I have a wide age range these days and our Family School time gives us some common points of interest and togetherness. Love it.

 

Quiet time after lunch. Everyone goes to rest and read, and I get time just with my preschoolers to read and snuggle before they go to sleep. It's a delicious time :) .

[FriedClams]

Chores and piano practice before breakfast. We get up at 7, then the kids rock out their lists. We've done it for years, so it's pretty smooth. In the process the laundry is taken down, sorted, and a load started; dogs are watered and fed; dish washer emptied; and main living areas vacuumed. Chores take the kids about 15-20 minutes.  I do chores too, start meals, make breakfast, and sometimes take a walk. It's awesome. The day starts with 20 minutes of piano practice (half) already done, the house straightened and ready to start the day.

 

Another one is our work list. The kids KNOW they have to highlight when they're done with a subject. It gives everyone a visual of where we are in our day, and our curriculum is tracked for end of year. The lists hang on the wall and the new week is just stuck up over the old one, so all accounting is done. We use Sonlight, but before then I just made up a grid and filled in our assignments.

 

And, (can you tell I am a creature of habit!), end of the school day clean up. 5-10 minutes. All books, paper, pencils, computer junk, etc. back to the school room and back to the baskets. I don't expect much - we have school buckets so it's a quick clean up. But, at the end of the day before we break and play the tornado that is two middle schoolers (we use a different space for just about every line of every subject) is contained... until tomorrow...

 

[For the moms will littler ones, or newer homeschoolers, please don't be intimidated!! Some of these routines that people are lauding have taken YEARS to hone. We've homeschooled for 9 years now, and we're very consistent. My advice would be to think about the one thing that drives you nuts the most - maybe the clutter at the end of the day - and work on just that. Every day. Tie it to a carrot or a stick (no playing until it's done is ours), and then inspect, inspect, inspect. :-) ]

 

 

[Coco_Clark]

Staying home all day on T and Th, no exceptions.  It keeps us on top of school work.

Morning Read-Aloud.  It's just a great way to start the day together.

A morning chore (to be done before 9 am morning reading) and general put away what you are doing + afternoon chore (to be done at the 5pm alarm) for everyone in the family.  Including the 2yo.  Including me.  :)  It keeps the house humming, or at least limping along.

[simplemom]

Start the school day with dc together for an hour of group work: a short prayer, song, poetry reading, Spanish lesson, a social studies lesson (currently going through a picture atlas learning facts about each US state), a loop schedule (rotating picture study, composer study, or other short extra lesson) and read aloud.

 

Afternoon quiet hour...everyone in their own rooms for one hour without disturbing anyone else.

 

Nighttime biography read aloud by dad.

 

We just started a Waldorf-inspired main lesson book a few days ago. Not in true Waldorf style, but my idea is picking out any new lesson they learned during the school day and coloring or drawing an illustration of the lesson into a sketchbook. We plan to do this on days when we don't have outside the home activities. So far it is going well.

[bayareanative]

Morning Math - it's a routine my girls don't question and we often do it on weekends too because they're so used to it they just ask when we're going to start.

 

Audio books in the car - we love listening to the classics read to us, often with great British accents!

 

Reading at bedtime - often I read to them for over an hour every night, usually several longer books, a chapter or two from a novel, plus a section or chapter from a nonfiction book, plus a chapter or section from one of our many books of ancient myths from around the world.

 

 

[Random]

We have a morning meeting that is working splendidly for us this year.  It takes about an hour and includes Bible study, grammar recitation, spelling drill, Latin or Spanish drill, and poetry or a fable. 

 

 

[GrammarGirl]

We have a short Morning Time at breakfast in which I read a Bible story and a picture book or chapter from a novel. We also practice memory verses for church and work on a hymn and Latin. These are things that would fall through the cracks if we didn't do them first thing. We just read the D'Aulaires' Pocahontas and one of my toddlers has been picking up the book, saying, "Hontas, Hontas!" It's rewarding to see even the littles picking something up from this family time.

[ScoutTN]

read aloud at lunch

room time most afternoons for about an hour

piano practice first thing after breakfast

finishing ds' reading practice/phonics lesson with a lively round of "tickle and kisses"

[Chelli]

Morning Meeting is our first thing of the day, followed by seat work, Lit for Lunch, and finish our day with Table Time where we study our content subjects. 

 

I recently established anchors (a hybrid of schedule and routine) for our day that helps with the flow even better.

 

 

[Jackie]

I just have a kindy kid this year, so we just have a few simple routines that work for us.

 

- a logic-type puzzle to start the morning (Kanoodle, Mighty Mind, and Rush Hour are the current favorites)

 

- 5 minutes of cleaning up while lunch and dinner are being prepared to keep the chaos down

 

- an "in order" but not "by date" schedule on my part - for example, I know what comes next in science, but we can do it slower or faster than originally planned.

 

- having our to-do list on the white board and erasing it as we finish - so nice for us both to see an empty board at the end of the day!

 

- short time periods of instrument practice in the morning and afternoon

 

- 20 minutes of read alouds before bedtime, followed by her reading in bed as long as she wants before going to sleep

[FloridaLisa]

There are only a couple of routines that we have kept year after year because some of our schedule and my teaching time depended on the age of my kids at the time

 

• Morning Bible time -- we start each day (except co-op day) coming together for scripture memory work, Bible study, prayer and general family announcements. It's one of the only times the littles and olders are together and working through the same material. Love it!
• Evening read alouds -- this is actually one of my all-time favorite routines. It's more and more difficult to do with my olders as they have meetings and sports practices. I still do it with my youngers. When I can do it with the olders, they love it. 
• Finishing up in early to mid May. 
• capitalizing on my early riser to start school with him.

We have some other fun things we've done to mix it up, but they're not really routines. Lunch out one at a time with mom or breakfast out at a playplace with books so the youngers can play. 

 

Lisa

[Slache]

LOVE this thread!!

[Plink]

I love our simple morning routine, but what has been most revolutionary was to embrace the fact that my kids NEED to move.  The daily use of clay, wiki sticks, coloring pages, and any other quiet craft that can be completed during read-alouds has increased their attention span by leaps and bounds.  

[Mswin15]

We start of with read aloud time. I have a basket with various books. We are currently reading Dickens Stories About Children, My Book House set, Collier's Junior Classics, Grimm's Fairly Tales. Lovely way to snuggle up and warm up our minds and imaginations before we do any seat work.

 

Poetry and Tea is our mid morning break and, yes, my 7 year old tough boy loves this part of the day. We have tea and shortbread and I read poems. Sometimes they steal the book out of my hands and read. Sometimes we work on their current poetry recitation or try to recall old ones. We all look forward to this pause on our day.

 

I'm loving the piano and chores in the morning ideas! I might have to try that!

[redsquirrel]

My personal homeschool routines that I love have to do with making our day go as smoothly as possible. For me, that means prepping ahead of time.

 

I do a lot of planning in the summer so that when school starts I don't have to think very much about it. I have been doing it for three or four years and I can't imagine doing it any other way. It makes everything run so smoothly.

 

In Late July or August I make lesson plans from September through the end of January for all subjects. This is fairly simple, a list of assignements along with all scheduled activities. That way I don't over plan, lol. During our January break I spend some time making more lesson plans, adjusting etc. through the spring. Then again in the spring I finish making plans for the end of the year.

 

I use one of these books for each kid:

http://www.amazon.com/Products-Teachers-Green-Tint-Assorted-12144/dp/B0006OL4ZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414031116&sr=8-1&keywords=roaring+spring+teacher+plan+book

 

Best 15$ per kid I have ever spent. I have saved them from my older boy and can use them to help with planning for my younger.

 

My kids have lots of friends who are in public school and they are in a few activities that are organized around the public school schedule, so my kids know when the schools are closed for a week. I have turned that to my advantage and I use that as 'catch up week".  Any time the public school close for a week, I don't schedule any school work and we use that time to get all caught up on anything we haven't done yet. The more you do at the beginning of the week, the more likely you are to have the end of the week off. And if you stay on track you might get the whole week off! It has worked like a charm. Now I no longer find us getting further and further behind. I have catch up week and then pick up where I planned to be when the week is over. I love it!

 

And my last routine has been around science. When I started homeschooling I saw that lots of people have high hopes around science but it always goes flat in a short time. It takes time, needs the proper materials and is to easy to push off for another day. Hands on stuff is hard to get to!  So, I always have a general plan for the year and a materials list. I buy it all before the school year starts and I have it ready to go and easy to find. I leave very little to chance and make sure to have all those little bits and bobs it is impossible to find when you need them, like drinking straws or modeling clay or food colouring etc. I have found that when I have all my materials, and when I have PAID for all my materials, I am much more likely to actually get science done.

 

So those are the hs routines that I have developed that really work for me.

[Paige]

We've started having an "Arts Tea" after school every other week this year. We all love it. The kids wish it were every week but I think every other week keeps it fresh. I set the table with my fine china, some teapots with their favorite teas, and real sugar cubes. I also make scones after lunch with whatever flavor/add ins I have on hand which keeps it different. Each week we listen to a different composer as our background music, I'll read them a poem, and we look at some famous works of art from an art book. Then the kids and I take turns sharing whatever creative things we've been working on for the last 2 weeks. The rule is that everybody has to say something nice about each person's work and nobody can offer advice unless it is specifically requested. It's been nice. Even my 13yo DS who is way too cool looks forward to it. I'm not normally artsy but everyone has to bring something to the table so it makes me stretch out of my comfort zone and the kids like that I follow the rules. 

[....]

My post is more about our weekly schedule.  This is what's been the least stressful (but still productive) for us so far.

• Limiting formal schoolwork to 4 days a week (3 days all subjects + 1 day math/language arts/reading)
• Spending one morning a week at the park
• Spending one morning a week at the library
• Building most of our outside classes/sports into two days a week -and we don't even attempt school on those days
• Schooling year-round and taking a break when we need to (which we hardly ever do)
• Using Saturday or Sunday for math + language arts + reading as our 4th day of school  

[LindaOz]

Another thing that is working well for us is having pre-breakfast chores. I have a list on the fridge with what needs to be done and everyone does something from the list... For example, first one to the kitchen unpacks the dishwasher etc. Also, I put on a load of laundry just before I go to bed so that gives us a head start on the next day's laundry. It makes such a difference, and hanging out that first load is a pre-breakfast job for someone. Doing these chores before breakfast helps us slide right into our 'Family School' time after breakfast without having to break up and do copious amounts of housework first :) .

[Excelsior! Academy]

Due to dh's work schedule and lots of babies and toddlers through the years we have always had anchor times.  Those anchors used to take the form of meals and naps.  At one time we had 5 children 4 and under so nap time was sacred!!  Now we anchor more to checkpoints throughout the day.  Everyone needs to be fed, teeth brushed, dressed, and basic morning chores (read make beds, open blinds, etc.) done by 9.  We do any group assignments and discuss any scheduling issues for the day and remind certain dc *ahem* of that day's priorities.  Our next major checkpoint is 11:30ish.  We do a quick sweep through the house, picking up and prepping for lunch.  The younger children often run outside to rid themselves of the wiggles while the older children use the quiet to finish up essential school work.  The noon hour is lunch with daddy.  Then everyone is encouraged to rest and read for a bit.  After hitting the books again we try to stop completely by 3:30ish with another house sweep.  Our final checkpoint is Bible reading, prayer, and daddy reads aloud while the youngest children are in bed and the older children wind down for the evening.

 

 

Eta:  Please don't think my dc only get 15 minutes outside a day.  These times are fluid.  Dh often arrives home between 12:30 and 12:45.  On nice days the children eat their lunch outside.  They are free to run and play after their school work is complete with the exception of the morning school block and required rest period in the afternoon.

[Critterfixer]

Afternoon tea with poetry recitation has to be my favorite.

[SorrelZG]

Sleep in or quiet time until 8:30 when oldest DS makes breakfast. :D

 

Then, once we are all together after breakfast, I love starting the day all comfy on the couches with a big stack of books (children bring blankies/babies, paper and pencils). We do memory work and I read aloud across all subjects. We usually have a snack break half way through and the children can draw while they listen and for the second half, the little ones can play quietly and not necessarily listen (memory work and the books more specifically for them are first). I squeeze in phonics lessons with the little ones while the older ones do their chores, either breakfast cleanup or lunch prep. Sometimes we get in a brief science experiment, and then we break for lunch and free time (for them, outside play; I usually rotate some laundry :tongue_smilie:). After free time my little ones go upstairs for another quiet/nap time, at least two hours, while I work one on one with the older two.

 

I even have a routine for our read alouds which helps me remember them all. It is currently: Religion (Bible, hymn, and current read aloud Pilgrim's Progress), literature (poetry, fable, story—currently reading through a book of nursery tales), history (chapter of American history book and then a chapter of SOTW or supplemental book), and then nature study/science (more loosely with a fiction, currently Paddle-to-the-Sea, and then a non-fiction, sometimes with an experiment or activity).

 

It's enjoyable and it's working for us (currently). The children produce some great artwork and we have some interesting discussions. I sure have had my fill of talking by lunch time, though. :laugh: