If you have elem and middle school ages

[jkl]

Can you share your daily routine during the school year?  (Bonus if you also have a pre-schooler :)  I am trying to figure out how to balance 2nd/3rd grade, 1st/2nd grade, 6th grade, and a 3 year old while still getting in chores, plenty of outside time, read-aloud time, and quiet time (the last one is mostly for me).  I'd love to hear how others do it!  Thanks!

[airforcefamily]

This year for us it's 8th grade, 6th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, kindergarten, preschool, a toddler, and an infant. Quiet time doesn't exist. Chores happen on weekends and when I stay up way late, day to day there's only enough time to do the essentials. The older kids play outside on their own with neighborhood friends. Read aloud time happens when we're all in the mood for it, it's not a big part of every day for us. We don't have a set schedule, just a routine and even that is loose. It's so stressful trying to keep up on doing things a certain way when there's a lot of people.

[OneStepAtATime]

I only have two but I have a friend with 7.  

 

Based on her, my own experiences, and on others I know from WTM, here are some recommendations I would make...

 

Train the 6th grader and the 2nd/3rd grader to do chores (if you haven't already) but don't call them chores.  Call it an apprenticeship in a house maintenance job.  Do one apprenticeship training course at a time.  Make it sound very official.  Treat them with the respect and support you would want if you were training for a new job.  Give them a certificate after their training program is complete to show they have passed on to journeyman status.  It may take days or even a couple of weeks to really get completely proficient.  If they need that time for that particular chore, give them that time.  I promis it will pay off in the long run.  Play music during training and praise for effort.  Make it a positive bonding experience as well as a training period.  Notice the things they are doing RIGHT, instead of focusing on mistakes.  Make sure they have developed solid muscle and procedural memory before moving on to the next thing to train on and don't assume prior knowledge or mind reading abilities as they are beginning their training.  What may seem logical to you may not be logical to them at all.

 

If you have any early risers, get them into a morning routine where they are dressed, fed and ready for any one on one before the next group gets up.  Keep bed time consistent for all.

 

Plot out all your academic goals by day and see where you might need one child to keep another child occupied, either with babysitting or helping with school stuff while you work one on one with someone else.  Plan on everything taking way longer than it should and plan accordingly.  Try to build in a light day every week so if you have to stuff can spill over there.  

 

Always keep in mind that kids learn through play, too.  If you find you have a day where all you can pull off is a read aloud, a you tube video on a science experiment and a whole lot of playing outside, count it as good.  They are still learning.

 

Prep ahead of time, have emergency work sheets/documentaries you can pull out as needed, and make sure every weekend you carve out an hour of time where DH watched the kids while you prep for the next week.  This is your job.  You need prep time and you should be given that prep time.  Don't feel bad about saying this is necessary.  Then make sure every morning you look over everything again to keep it clear in your head.

 

Even if you are exhausted at the end of the day, try very, very hard to make sure everything is put away and lessons are ready for the next day.  Teach the  older ones how to help get prepped for the next day.  Even the 3 year old can help if you are consistent in showing them how and are very positive in your approach.  

 

Maybe switch to workboxes for the school age kids.  

 

Keep in mind that your 6th grader is still young, even if they are the oldest.  They will still need you, even if they don't need you as much as the littles do.  

 

Good luck and best wishes.

[Momto4inSoCal]

I have 5yo twin (going into kinder), entering 6th and entering 7th graders. I start school with one twin at 6:30 he finishes around 7:30-8. Weekdays we do easy breakfast like instant oatmeal, cereal or bagels so everyone can feed themselves breakfast. My other kids wake up around 7:30 and eat. My two older girls read and do veritas press history online from 8-9am. I work with the other twin during this time. My boys get an hour a day of screen time which they use from 9-10. During this time I work with my older girls on writing and grammar. Then I work with one girl in math while the other goes and plays with the twins. After the first girl is done they switch and the other does math. Everyone has lunch and again it's pretty simple make your own meal. Sometimes my girls play restaurant during the others math time and makes lunch for everyone. They've made menus and little order sheets and wrap up the meal like take out. They came up with this game on their own but is such a help when they play it. After lunch I send the twins to the backyard or they play in their room while I do science, spelling and geography with my girls then we are done.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Momto4inSoCal

[LindaOz]

I currently have 11th, 9th, 7th, 1st and K. We start with 'family time' around the breakfast table. Everyone is involved here, including my two older dc who are still at home. We discuss, read Bible, memorize, sing (learn harmonies) etc. Even my younger two are part of this and they learn things above their grade levels by being part of this time.

 

After morning clean-up we have read aloud. This is mostly for my three older school age kids but the younger two will sometimes hang around for it - and sometimes not.

 

After that I do table work with my 1st and K'er. The others do independent work here. After that, I work with older kids while youngers play.

 

At lunch we do another family activity - like DVD, read etc. After lunch I have a focused reading time with two youngers while olders have quiet time with own reading/individual work.

 

So that's pretty much the way we roll and the way I try to manage read-alouds (which are important to our family), group times and also individual work at own levels. I pretty much rotate through the different groupings during the day. Hth.

Edited June 13, 2017 by LindaOz

[LMD]

Yeah that's pretty much the ages I have - 6th, 4th, 1st and 3 year old.

 

It's chaos. We have morning and evening chores, everyone just pitches in. Outside time is in the afternoon, literary lunch is outside usually. My kids are outside a lot naturally. Quiet time, well... I haven't got that figured out yet.

 

We have a routine more than a schedule. It takes us about 5 hours.

 

My daily list is:

 

Morning Time

Maths with 4th

Maths with 1st

Maths with Preschool

Meeting with 6th - maths teaching, going over English assignments

English with 1st

WWE

Phonics/Spelling

Reading practice

Grammar with 4th

Activity with Preschool

Literary Lunch

Violin with 1st

Activity with preschool

Edited June 13, 2017 by LMD

[mamamoose]

I only have three kids, all school age, but we have a farm and run a large business, and my mom and stepdad run a large cattle operation we also help with. My oldest is going into 6th and my youngest into 2nd and those are the girls; my middle kid is the boy and he's going into 4th, just for reference on who's who. The boy waters chickens, pigs, and calves, and feeds the chickens/pigs when necessary. He is also mows the lawn and helps his dad where he can. The girls water flowers and also help mow, when he gets tired. THey are all teensy--my 11 year old isn't 60 pounds yet, and it's a big lawn, so sometimes he needs to be done before it's done. The other horse the girls do are: chick care when we have chicks, they clean both bathrooms weekly, and help with cooking and dishes. They all pitch in weekly with vacuum, dusting, sweeping and mopping. My oldest is learning to prepare meals.

 

Really it just all got to be too much for me to do this winter because I blew my knee out in a skiing accident and my husband did his 10 days later--then I had surgery, so I've been down for almost 5 months. When I realized they were capable, well, we just ran with it! Lol

[jkl]

This year for us it's 8th grade, 6th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, kindergarten, preschool, a toddler, and an infant. Quiet time doesn't exist. Chores happen on weekends and when I stay up way late, day to day there's only enough time to do the essentials. The older kids play outside on their own with neighborhood friends. Read aloud time happens when we're all in the mood for it, it's not a big part of every day for us. We don't have a set schedule, just a routine and even that is loose. It's so stressful trying to keep up on doing things a certain way when there's a lot of people.

 

Oh my goodness, it's a miracle you are still sane! :)  A routine and not a timed schedule is the way for us to go this year too, I think.

I only have two but I have a friend with 7.  

 

Based on her, my own experiences, and on others I know from WTM, here are some recommendations I would make...

 

Train the 6th grader and the 2nd/3rd grader to do chores (if you haven't already) but don't call them chores.  Call it an apprenticeship in a house maintenance job.  Do one apprenticeship training course at a time.  Make it sound very official.  Treat them with the respect and support you would want if you were training for a new job.  Give them a certificate after their training program is complete to show they have passed on to journeyman status.  It may take days or even a couple of weeks to really get completely proficient.  If they need that time for that particular chore, give them that time.  I promis it will pay off in the long run.  Play music during training and praise for effort.  Make it a positive bonding experience as well as a training period.  Notice the things they are doing RIGHT, instead of focusing on mistakes.  Make sure they have developed solid muscle and procedural memory before moving on to the next thing to train on and don't assume prior knowledge or mind reading abilities as they are beginning their training.  What may seem logical to you may not be logical to them at all.

 

If you have any early risers, get them into a morning routine where they are dressed, fed and ready for any one on one before the next group gets up.  Keep bed time consistent for all.

 

Plot out all your academic goals by day and see where you might need one child to keep another child occupied, either with babysitting or helping with school stuff while you work one on one with someone else.  Plan on everything taking way longer than it should and plan accordingly.  Try to build in a light day every week so if you have to stuff can spill over there.  

 

Always keep in mind that kids learn through play, too.  If you find you have a day where all you can pull off is a read aloud, a you tube video on a science experiment and a whole lot of playing outside, count it as good.  They are still learning.

 

Prep ahead of time, have emergency work sheets/documentaries you can pull out as needed, and make sure every weekend you carve out an hour of time where DH watched the kids while you prep for the next week.  This is your job.  You need prep time and you should be given that prep time.  Don't feel bad about saying this is necessary.  Then make sure every morning you look over everything again to keep it clear in your head.

 

Even if you are exhausted at the end of the day, try very, very hard to make sure everything is put away and lessons are ready for the next day.  Teach the  older ones how to help get prepped for the next day.  Even the 3 year old can help if you are consistent in showing them how and are very positive in your approach.  

 

Maybe switch to workboxes for the school age kids.  

 

Keep in mind that your 6th grader is still young, even if they are the oldest.  They will still need you, even if they don't need you as much as the littles do.  

 

Good luck and best wishes.

Thanks!  We do at least try to do a lot of this.  We haven't done the staggered start times yet, though--I think I'll try that.  Thanks!

[jkl]

Thanks everyone!  The kids all have chores, but I need to be more strict about having them do them well.  This year, we were able to finish by 1:00 with table work, but it was too much of a push by the end of the year, when our starting time kept creeping later and later.  I think an early start may be the key, and maybe pushing a little table work until after lunch.

[maize]

This year for us it's 8th grade, 6th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, kindergarten, preschool, a toddler, and an infant. Quiet time doesn't exist. Chores happen on weekends and when I stay up way late, day to day there's only enough time to do the essentials. The older kids play outside on their own with neighborhood friends. Read aloud time happens when we're all in the mood for it, it's not a big part of every day for us. We don't have a set schedule, just a routine and even that is loose. It's so stressful trying to keep up on doing things a certain way when there's a lot of people.

What are my kids doing at your house? Please send them home.

 

On second thought, could you keep them for a couple of weeks? I might be able to get my house clean :tongue_smilie:

[Momto6inIN]

My youngest is in K this year, but when she was a toddler this is what worked for us.

 

We didn't start school until 9am after I'd had time to snuggle, eat, and read with the toddler for a while and throw in a load of laundry and empty the dishwasher. We did history all together and she colored the same coloring page as the lower elem kids. Then the other kids took turns playing with her while I did math with each of them. By this time she'd had enough attention to play on her own for a while and they worked on their own for the rest of the morning and I started lunch.

 

We took a long break from 12-2. Kids played outside, I got some quiet breathing room and swapped out the laundry, and then I put the toddler down for her nap and got down to business with the teacher intensive stuff while she was sleeping. The younger kids just had a bit to do after lunch break and were usually done by 3ish, me and the high schooler usually went til 5. But that was still just 6 hours of school total and I was able to finish in time to start supper.

 

After supper I'd do any grading that needed to be done and prep for the next day.

 

Eta: Read alouds happened at lunch when she was contained. :)

 

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

Edited June 14, 2017 by Momto5inIN

[Targhee]

A few years ago we had similar ages and this was our strategy: 1) you are either working independently, working with mom, or playing with/reading to the youngest. 2) oldest had independent, self-driven (weekly meeting to put their self-driven work down on checklist to hold them accountable) work in the afternoon we called "project time." For the 7 year old that might be creating cards for family members or teaching herself how to sew simple felt projects, 9 year old might be working on Edison Project class or listening to SOTW and doing map work, for 12 yr old it might be her online leadership class work or studying for her Science Olympiad events. This usually included music practice for all three. They finished between 2 and 3:00, dependingbon age. I was always around as a resource (from threading needles to printing workpages to explaining scientific principles. But I was also playing with youngest, doing laundry, and preparing school for upcoming days.

 

9:00 Breakfast and Morning Basket (they eat while I have a captive audience)

10:00 Math (this was the only time the youngest had to play independently, older two were mostly independent thanks to AOPS and BA, and I did Singapore with #3)

10:40 started the three-point rotation above, with about 20 min intervals. We covered logic, Latin, writing/penmanship, memory work, grammar, reading/spelling.

12 lunch and free time

12:30 "Project Time"

 

It was a lot of training in small ways over a year or two to get their independent work levels up. And choosing curricula that works independently helps. I suppose I wasn't fully Classical with this - more of a blend of things - but that development of independent learners was worth more than what I could have given them in direct teaching that year.

 

ETA They take care of personal responsibilities before school starts (bed, grooming, etc), and do their chores (feeding animals, sweeping floor, tidying rooms, etc) after school but before any activities or using screens.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Targhee

[coastalfam]

We start by 8:30 at the latest, and schedule by blocks of time. 8:30 to 9:30 is math. I get the most independent kid started first. Then the next, then my guy who needs complete handholding I get to last. I often have him start with a math game he can do himself while I get the other two started. Math does not normally take an entire hour for everyone, and everyone gets to play Prodigy or Starfall during that hour as well. At 10am we do language arts, and I do it in the same fashion, by getting my independent 3rd grader started first, then my Kindergartener, then last my son who has learning challenges. Everyone usually gets to play one literacy game, expect the 3rd grader, who simply practices typing. That chunk of time, with me bouncing around to whoever needs me, lasts until lunch.  In the afternoon is when we do content studies. We go to our charter school on Monday and Wednesday afternoons (music lessons, and enrichment courses). Tuesday we do one big chunk of History, and Thursday is one big chunk of Science. I work in Geography while they eat lunch. I want to work on more mapping next year, so will have to decide where to work that in. On Friday we do art projects/appreciation, music appreciation, or a field trip--I just kind of rotate it. In the evenings we continue with read-alouds that support our other learning, such as composer biographies, geography read alouds, history read alouds, or just fun books my kids are interested in. We use car trips for audiobook read alouds that are more literary in nature. They listen to works of the composers we study as they settle in for bed. There is no way, with having one kid needing so much of my time, that I could work all our school in between morning and afternoon, so we just spread it out to the entire day. I think play is learning as well. My kids wake early, and I don't make them start school until 8:30. Our mornings are our most intense and focused time, but I juggle the kids, and inevitably someone is always having some free time in that space, aside from the half hour break they all have between math a language arts. We take a long lunch break before getting to our afternoon studies. We do lots of sports, because my kids love it, so that gets them moving in the afternoon (and of course no homework, so it works to keep busy afternoons). We use Wayfarers curriculum schedule, which I re-work because of our charter school afternoons. I have found audiobooks are my best friend when it comes to realistically working in all the wonderful books I want to include from Wayfarers, with the exception of picture/story books, of course. :)

 

ETA: I should say, Wayfarers is one of those "multiple ages/levels studying the same content" programs, so once I get through our crazy mornings of kids all in vastly different levels, learning abilities, and even individual curriculums in math and language arts, the content studies are all together with little adjustments made for age/stage. My mornings are intense (for me, not the kids), but afternoons are easy and enjoyable. ;)

Edited June 14, 2017 by coastalfam

[jkl]

Thanks everyone!  This gave me some things to think about! :)