Daily Routine - Curious to hear yours!

[abibechard]

My family consists of three boys. Ages 5,3 and 4 months. My husband works 8-5 outside the home and I'm a stay at home mom.

 

We are doing Sonlight's P4/5 with 1st grade elements (readers and LA) for my oldest. Our official start of school day is tomorrow and I'm very excited to start this journey with my two boys.

 

The only thing I'm nervous about is just carving time in my day for school. I feel like we fill our days just with keeping the house running, feeding and helping my baby sleep, making food... adding on school seems intimidating at times.

 

I would like to hear from you how you structure your days. I know school will only take us maybe 2 hours. I'm guessing an hour of couch time and an hour of table time at the most.

 

Do you tie any of your particular subjects to other parts of your day?

 

Heres my hopeful routine (not schedule, because with the baby I don't feel like I can stick to particular times, just rhythms)

 

Wake - Nurse: Breakfast: Papa Leave

 

Post Breakfast - Dressing: Beds Made: Laundry: F nap: R&E play

 

Morning Time - Couch Subjects: Handwriting: Break for R&E to play: Housework: Make Lunch

 

Lunch - Finish Any Reading

 

Post Lunch - E&F Nap: R's Table Subjects (Math, LA, Readers): R Quiet Time with leftover naptime: Me rest

 

Afternoon - Housework: Errends: Make Dinner

 

Dinner - Papa home

 

Post Dinner - Papa play time: Cleanup boys areas: Baths

 

Bedtime for Boys - Finish Laundry: Clean Kitchen: Adult Time

 

Bedtime

[Mommyof1]

Good Morning Abibechard,

 

I have an only DD4.5 so it's different. She sometimes interested sometimes not so at this age I'm not scheduling her or pushing to much.

 

We do a lot of read alouds everyday, plus audiobooks. She currently loves Bedtime Math. She loves being read too. At bedtime alone is about an hour of stories everynight.

 

She can read some basic readers, everyday or every other day.

 

She practice's writing with chalk or whiteboard.

 

What do you think of Sonlight 4/5?

[abibechard]

We love Sonlight. I grew up with it and loved the broad perspective it gave me on the world and others points of view. If you are interested they have a great article called Reasons You Shouldn't Use Sonlight. It's spot on. I love that they acknowledge they may not be for everyone. But they are for us!

[Mommyof1]

The only thing stopping me from Sonlight is the money. We have had a ruff year with health issue and things.

 

I have been checking the library for the different books. I have some.

[wendyroo]

Last year my kiddos were 7, 5, 3 and newborn.

 

My newborns tend to want to eat around 5am, so I go with that, and use it to my advantage.  I nurse them around 5, get myself ready for the day, start a load of laundry, get a chore or two done and then eat my breakfast while making breakfast for the older kids.

 

The older kids all get up at 7am and report straight to the breakfast table.  While they eat I read aloud to them.

 

After breakfast I would supervise everyone getting dressed and brushing teeth, and then the 3 and 5 year olds would have play time while I got the 7 year old started on his school work and went to get the baby up (around 8am).  I could then sit and nurse the baby at the table while also helping the 7 year old with his work and keeping an eye on the younger boys.

 

When the baby was done nursing, we would sometimes go for a walk...though she was a fall baby, so the temperatures plummeted when she was only a couple months old.  Still, I would often wrap her to my chest and get us all outside for a bit as long as there wasn't too, too much snow.

 

Back inside, the baby would go down for a nap, the boys would have a snack and then the 3 year old would have independent play time in his room while the older boys and I would finish up our school.  In total, my second grader spent about 2 hours on school and my K'er spent about 45 minutes.

 

When the baby woke up from her nap, we would sometimes pop out to run an errand.  That was the time slot that the boys had speech therapy one day and homeschool gym another.  I would often schedule pediatrician appointments at 11am.  We could also fit in a short trip to the library before lunch...and let's be honest, a short library trip is the only feasible kind when accompanied by a pack of small children.

 

After lunch, I would get the big boys started on their independent math work while I got the baby and preschooler down for their naps.  Then I would help finish up the math and shuffle the big kids into their rooms for rest time/quiet play.

 

Everyone would reemerge around 3pm, have a snack, and then have free play until Daddy came home.  I would supervise the chaos, get a couple chores done and make dinner.  Dinner was at 5, then a bit of family time, bathes, books and early bedtimes so we could all wake up and do it again the next day.

 

Wendy

[Ausmumof3]

My family consists of three boys. Ages 5,3 and 4 months. My husband works 8-5 outside the home and I'm a stay at home mom.

 

We are doing Sonlight's P4/5 with 1st grade elements (readers and LA) for my oldest. Our official start of school day is tomorrow and I'm very excited to start this journey with my two boys.

 

The only thing I'm nervous about is just carving time in my day for school. I feel like we fill our days just with keeping the house running, feeding and helping my baby sleep, making food... adding on school seems intimidating at times.

 

I would like to hear from you how you structure your days. I know school will only take us maybe 2 hours. I'm guessing an hour of couch time and an hour of table time at the most.

 

Do you tie any of your particular subjects to other parts of your day?

 

Heres my hopeful routine (not schedule, because with the baby I don't feel like I can stick to particular times, just rhythms)

 

Wake - Nurse: Breakfast: Papa Leave

 

Post Breakfast - Dressing: Beds Made: Laundry: F nap: R&E play

 

Morning Time - Couch Subjects: Handwriting: Break for R&E to play: Housework: Make Lunch

 

Lunch - Finish Any Reading

 

Post Lunch - E&F Nap: R's Table Subjects (Math, LA, Readers): R Quiet Time with leftover naptime: Me rest

 

Afternoon - Housework: Errends: Make Dinner

 

Dinner - Papa home

 

Post Dinner - Papa play time: Cleanup boys areas: Baths

 

Bedtime for Boys - Finish Laundry: Clean Kitchen: Adult Time

 

Bedtime

How is your baby with nursing? I found sonlight has with a new baby worked best if I had a pile of books near the feeding corner so feeding time was also read aloud time. Honestly p4/5 is very light - it takes us an hour a day absolute max although I don't always do everything as my current p4/5er gets to tag along with all the stuff the older ones are doing too.

[medawyn]

My kids are 4.5, 2.5, and 15 mo. Here's what's working for us at the moment (and what's not). Times are approximate, but they are pretty routine oriented kids, so this timing happens more often than not.

 

Everyone is up by 5:30, and they all want breakfast right away.

 

6:00-7:00 - kitchen clean up, first load of laundry in, small handful of "morning chores" done, and everyone dressed (in their first outfit, at least) for the day.

 

7:00 - Table Time for 45 min to an hour. Baby in high chair with us. Math lab first, which is playing with C-rods right now. 4.5 yo is learning the values, 2.5 yo just plays, and 15 mo plays some and throws many. Quick spin through 12 phonogram cards, and then handwriting practice. This is mostly hand strengthening activities like play dough, cutting, squeezing glue or coloring/painting, etc. the baby has an adapted activity to keep him happy. The 4 yo practices letter formation on a sand tray or similar 1-3x per week. Depending on the activity and mess level, I do a read aloud while they play.

 

After table time, it's family exercise. Walk/scooter ride, "races", mini obstacle course. Whatever I have energy for.

 

8:30 - baby naps, big kids play (mostly) independently. I switch laundry loads and get chores done depending on where and how well they are playing.

 

9:30 - Baby is up; this is the time we run errands or do fun out-of-the house things many days OR continue independent play, with a little more supervision since baby comes too.

 

11:00 - lunch, followed by endless kitchen clean up and more play time, preferably out doors

 

12:45 or 1:00 - nap time for baby and DD 2.5, "school" time for DS4.5 (reads 1-2 books independently and some math if he wants) Pop him into his room for some quiet time with an audiobook. I get an hour to myself on a good day, and at least 30 minutes most days.

 

After nap and rest, I sort of grit my teeth and get through. We rarely plan to leave the house, bc moods are unpredictable. If we do, it's to go to a park. The most whining and bickering starts about 4:30, just when I need to start dinner, which we eat at 5:30 (except once a week if DH is in town, when he and I do date night in).

 

Bath, stories, bed, hallelujah! All three kids are in bed by 6:30 and usually asleep by 7. I clean the kitchen (again), get around to folding laundry, and hopefully catch up with my husband, before realizing I can't stay up another minute.

 

Our afternoons are rough, and I haven't found a consistent way to turn them around yet, but I'm working on it.

 

Wednesdays and Fridays we are out of the house from ~7:30 am-nap time, and Sundays we have church, but the rest of our mornings flow pretty well. In the next few months the baby will drop morning nap, which will actually help our morning flow. But the weather will change, making outside harder (we'll still do it, but not as much in and out). And we're expecting number 4 in January, so who knows then.

 

Meals and laundry and a handful of key chores happen every day. Keeping kids alive has so far happened everyday, and we manage some fun and education most days. Otherwise many things don't get done as often as I would like. But I keep reminding myself that this is a season, and hopefully I'll sleep through the night again someday.