Does anyone actually follow a time-slot schedule for school and housework?

[gandpsmommy]

I know many people (including me) have admitted that we don't follow a tight schedule. For many people, a loosely organized day really works and they get a lot done. But my very loosely organized ways are letting things slide that need to get done. I think that maybe I could learn from people who successfully follow a schedule. So, are there any of you out there who assign school and housework activities, errands, etc. to a time slot and then follow through with doing the activities in their assigned time slots? If so, may I pick your brain for a few minutes?

 

1. What do you do if an emergency comes up and you don't accomplish the task in it's assigned time slot? Do you purposefully leave certain times open to play catch up or deal with emergencies? What if something throws your whole day off, do you just push it forward? Or do you skip the chores/schoolwork that you missed and just resume with them the next day?

 

2. How do you make your schedule in the first place? How do you know how much time to allot to each activity?

 

3. What do you do when you have your schedule set, and you are following it well, but then you have major PMS or a bad day and you just don't feel like following it? Do you resume it the next day, make a new schedule, what? In other words, how do you keep yourself following the schedule, even when you don't feel like it? I am good at following other people's schedules (e.g. taking dc to scheduled activities, doing things for dh when he asks, meeting people at set times, etc.), but I'm bad at making a schedule for things that I am solely in charge of (e.g. housework) and sticking with it.

 

4. What does your schedule look like? I would love to see sample schedules!

[kaylk in tx]

that said, i'm bumping this up because i really need the help myself!

[Laura Corin]

Very little throws it off: if I am so sick I can't get out of bed then we don't school. If one of the kids is sick, he gets put in front of the TV and I teach the other one.

 

I have a leeway week at the end of the year to make up for those days. If we don't miss any days, then we do 38 weeks; the year stretches to 39 weeks to cover that sort of time.

 

The time slots evolved by a combination of how much I wanted to get through in a year and what length seemed good to accomplish a satisfying amount of a subject.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[saved1112]

I'm interested in reading replies also!

[gandpsmommy]

bump

[Another Lynn]

and an outside observer would probably say there isn't even much of a loose routine, LOL. But I'm feeling the need to reign everyone in too. Too many days are started later than they should be, etc. Too many times kids don't pick up what they got out, etc. My thought this morning was to begin requiring them to be through with "morning chores" and breakfast and ready to start "circle time" by x:00. (as opposed to just waiting forever for everyone to get ready). So my big rocket science answer is maybe to just set some milestones/guidelines during the day, but let the rest of it be routine. Granted I haven't tried this yet - and can't call myself succesful with any schedule I've tried, but I'm wondering if this would give us structure and still allow for flexibility.

 

Just a thought...

[QuirkyKapers]

One thing that I have found that helps me is to figure out what absolutely needs to be done (I use Sonlight, CM and some other things that I like:)

I decide what absolutely needs to be done. For myself, I want them to do Math and Phonics. I know how much I need to do for the week and I have the pages pulled for the kids to do. If they skip a day they have to make it up the next day. If by the end of the week they haven't done any work, than they need to do it in one day. As for the read alouds, history, science, etc. I write what needs to be done on sticky notes, if it doesn't get done one day, than I move it to the next. Sometimes next means-next week:001_smile: I also will drop things if they did something that might not have been scheduled but qualifies for lets say, reading. It might not be the scheduled reading but if they read than by all means it is reading. Sometimes dad helps in the evenings if it was a particulary hairy week. :D

 

Another thing I try and do is history in one day instead of reading history all week. So any read alouds to do with history are scheduled that day. In fact, friday is my nature & science day. So, anything that pertains to that, we do than. Again, if I skip a day, I move the whole day to another day and combine it with things scheduled, do it in an evening or just do double the next week.

 

I do have a schedule that helps me remeber what I am trying to do! If someone wants to see a copy, I know how to email it as an attachment. I have no idea of how to make it accesible to this board.:confused: Don't know if that's helpful....

[gandpsmommy]

Thanks so much for the responses. I am looking for school schedules, but also for *everything* schedules: errands, cleaning, laundry, personal study time, cooking, etc. Thanks!

[LG Gone Wild]

Thanks so much for the responses. I am looking for school schedules, but also for *everything* schedules: errands, cleaning, laundry, personal study time, cooking, etc. Thanks!

 

 

I've tried as you are thinking, scheduling everything, and I've not made it work. Events just don't happen as I plan. The best thing is (like I should be giving advice :tongue_smilie:) is just to make a hit list. Maybe when you get really good at the list, start assigning times to that list, and perhaps down the road, you could get onto to scheduling.

[Alice]

My kids are little so I don't have much of a school schedule at this point. We roughly do things at the same time each day, but the day-to-day might vary. For example, I work two afternoons and evenings so on those days I have to do everything in the morning. Other days I might do some school in the am and some in the afternoon.

 

What I do is type up a schedule each week of everything we are doing, along with dinners and cleaning tasks.

 

It would look like this:

Monday:

Library Storytime ( I would put here anything out of the house for that day. Dentist or doctor appointments, classes, meetings, etc.)

Clean: Downstairs Bathroom (I've divided my cleaning into Mon: Downstairs Bathroom, Tues: Kitchen, Fri: Upstairs Bathroom, Dust, Vacuum, Sheets/Towels...it's heavy on Fridays but we're usually free and I like having a clean house for the weekend)

Dinner: Whatever we are having

School: Phonics x 15 minutes

HWT x 5 minutes

Math x 15 mintues

FIAR: Read book, discuss geography.

 

Then I also have a to-do list on the side for things I want to get done in the week. This might be church tasks, e-mails, appointments to make, extra household cleaning, etc. I try to think of one "extra" task a week. Any more and it just doesn't get done. So this week it is sort through toys to give away. Or it might be clean windows, clean van, etc.

 

I started doing this after my second son was born and I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything I had to do. For me, having a schedule is very freeing. For example, instead of just thinking "oh, the bathroom needs cleaning" I just know that I do it on Mondays. So I don't worry about it on Saturday. It will get done. If I don't do a task on the "assigned" day because I'm not feeling like it or life happens...it's not that hard to just do it another day. I typically don't plan much on the days I work and I leave Saturdays completely free of household stuff. Often we end up doing some stuff on Saturdays but I use that as a catch-up day and I know if I get everything done on Friday...I have the whole weekend free. (We try not to shop, do errands or cleaning on Sundays.)

 

This has worked for me. I am a pretty perfectionist control-freak kind of person. I think a schedule with times would end up making me feel crazy because I would never be "on-time" and I'd just feel frazzled. Although, I can imagine as my kids are older having more of a daily schedule to make sure we are doing what is needed with school. As we're juggling multiple subjects I think that would be helpful.

 

Also, I should add that although the typed schedule may seem incredibly compulsive (and probably is :)) it doesn't take much time. Many of the things stay the same week to week so once it's typed once I just go in once a week and add what is specific for the week and print it out.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have a schedule that looks like this:

 

9:30-10:00 : breakfast with me reading history read-a-louds to the children with my mouth full of oatmeal.

 

10:00 - 10:30: morning chore time

 

10:30 - 11:15: 5th grade history/ 1st grade math (she has other stuff to do too since she doesn't take that long, Lang. Arts, science etc.)

 

11:15 - 11:30: snack recess

 

11:30 - 12:00 ish: 5th grade math/ 1st grade phonics & reading (again she has other stuff to do as filler)

 

12:00ish to 12:30: recess for kids/ lunch prep for me

 

12:30 - 1:00: lunch with me reading history read-a-louds to the children this time with my mouth full of peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

 

1:00 - 1:15: 5th grade typing, 1st grader put out books for our fun read-a-loud time, I scurry around trying to clean up a bit.

 

1:15 - 1:30: 5th grader and I play our recorders together (duets)

 

1:30 - 1:45ish: fun read a-loud with 1st grader; 5th grader does silent reading for history

 

1:45ish - 3:00: quiet time

 

3:00 - 3:15: snack time

 

3:15 - 4:00: 5th grade grammar/ Latin

 

4:00 - 4:30: daily gardening if it is not pouring

 

4:30 - 5:30: dinner prep for me; free play & clean up time for 1st grader; Science 2x a week for 5th grader & clean up time

 

5:30 - 6:00: family dinner time with dh

 

If our schedule just goes a little catty-wampus (sp?) then our time slots are big enough to kind of catch up.

 

If things go really bad, we will catch up on weekends. Or if things go really, really bad (and they have a lot this year) then we do one week's worth of school spread over 2 weeks)

 

Our current schedule is the result of a lot of previous schedules being tweaked over the years to fit us.

 

Having a routine is comforting for me on those days when I just "don't feel like it". I do it anyway - but then I have an illness with frequent pain and fatigue so if I took off every time I felt like it I'd be in deep moose-poop!

[CarynB]

I have my beautiful MOTH schedule hanging in all of its festive glorious colors right in my living room where *I'm SURE* to follow it....ha! We have 5 kids, our oldest is 6. At this stage of life I'm just happy to get the schoolwork/housework done WHENEVER it happens and make sure the kids eat sometime too...ha!

 

I'm sure this didn't help answer your question but I feel some sense of relief for some reason just affirming for myself that this is actually ok....

8-)

 

Blessings,

Caryn

DD 6, DD 4, DS 2, DD 17 months and DD 6 months

[pixelroper]

If I do not schedule and stick to it, chaos rules. I leave myself loop holes, such as lightly scheduling or no schedule for Fri and we will do make up work (from emergencies OR something fun happening during the week) on Sat if we need to. I try to be done by noon and usually we are *IF* I stick to my routine. If we get sick I just put it all on hold until we have recovered, this has gotten ridiculous which is why I like year around. Scheduling gives me more flexibility b/c stuff gets done and we have time to use for whatever.

 

Basically 7-9 schoolwork break for snack go until done usually just before noon. If we leak over into the afternoon- it gets dragged out and can be miserable for both of us. We do not have any outside lessons going on now- when we do they are all in the afternoon. Dd also does reading assigned and independent at her leisure in the afternoons or early evening.

[Peela]

I love, love, LOVE to make schedules. I have made MOTH schedules, zillions of Flylady schedules, school schedules, chore charts. In colour, in black and white. With pictures, without pictures.

But all that time making schedules would have been better spent actually doing the housework, lol. Maybe the making of schedules helps me organise my thoughts, but I do not enjoy having my day confined to a schedule! We have a school schedule but I only follow it loosely.

 

However, what works for me are ROUTINES. I have developed routines which work for me. I spend alone time in the morning by getting up before everyone else. So my body clock wakes me up early. I make tea for dh and I, we have a spa every morning, we start school at 8.30.....these things are routines. The order we do our school subjects is fairly automatic and regular but not rigid.

The kids' chores are routines- they get up, dd has to have a shower,(has to, or she cant wake up!) then chores and breakfast. Ds has to have breakfast first, then chores (skips the shower). I have trained the kids to keep the kitchen clean- it has taken time and effort but they take alternate weeks to do ALL dishes after every meal. That frees me up to cook meals and do deeper cleaning.

Other routines: evening spa, filling the water filter, walks, Saturday morning cleaning (vacuuming etc), and usually, but not rigidly, a daily load of washing.

Routines work far better for me, because then things happen by themselves, virtually. I dont "think" about making my bed in the morning- I just naturally do it after a spa with dh, when I am getting dressed, putting moisturiser on etc.

I don't shine my sink every day though, but I do do it 2-3 times a week. I don't tidy every day, but I do do it 2-3 times a week. I don't have a schedule when to clean out the saucepan cupboard, but I felt to do it the other day and I enjoyed it thoroughly! I do "zone" or deep cleaning literally as the mood takes me, but I do do it fairly often, because I enjoy it.

I wish I had found Flylady before I had children- those first few years of permanent overwhelm and chaos may have gone much easier. But, I survived and after a few years of Flylady, I kind of do my own thing, but it works well enough for me. You will find dust in places, but I dont mind. Things are basically in order.

[gandpsmommy]

I have my beautiful MOTH schedule hanging in all of its festive glorious colors right in my living room where *I'm SURE* to follow it....ha! We have 5 kids, our oldest is 6. At this stage of life I'm just happy to get the schoolwork/housework done WHENEVER it happens and make sure the kids eat sometime too...ha!

 

I'm sure this didn't help answer your question but I feel some sense of relief for some reason just affirming for myself that this is actually ok....

8-)

 

Blessings,

Caryn

DD 6, DD 4, DS 2, DD 17 months and DD 6 months

 

:iagree: I am simply in awe of people who have more than two children and still get something done! I have only two, who are both old enough now to do many things for themselves and help out a bit. I am just getting to the point where I think more of a structured routine would work for us.

[gandpsmommy]

I love, love, LOVE to make schedules. I have made MOTH schedules, zillions of Flylady schedules, school schedules, chore charts. In colour, in black and white. With pictures, without pictures.

But all that time making schedules would have been better spent actually doing the housework, lol. Maybe the making of schedules helps me organise my thoughts, but I do not enjoy having my day confined to a schedule! We have a school schedule but I only follow it loosely.

 

However, what works for me are ROUTINES. I have developed routines which work for me. I spend alone time in the morning by getting up before everyone else. So my body clock wakes me up early. I make tea for dh and I, we have a spa every morning, we start school at 8.30.....these things are routines. The order we do our school subjects is fairly automatic and regular but not rigid.

The kids' chores are routines- they get up, dd has to have a shower,(has to, or she cant wake up!) then chores and breakfast. Ds has to have breakfast first, then chores (skips the shower). I have trained the kids to keep the kitchen clean- it has taken time and effort but they take alternate weeks to do ALL dishes after every meal. That frees me up to cook meals and do deeper cleaning.

Other routines: evening spa, filling the water filter, walks, Saturday morning cleaning (vacuuming etc), and usually, but not rigidly, a daily load of washing.

Routines work far better for me, because then things happen by themselves, virtually. I dont "think" about making my bed in the morning- I just naturally do it after a spa with dh, when I am getting dressed, putting moisturiser on etc.

I don't shine my sink every day though, but I do do it 2-3 times a week. I don't tidy every day, but I do do it 2-3 times a week. I don't have a schedule when to clean out the saucepan cupboard, but I felt to do it the other day and I enjoyed it thoroughly! I do "zone" or deep cleaning literally as the mood takes me, but I do do it fairly often, because I enjoy it.

I wish I had found Flylady before I had children- those first few years of permanent overwhelm and chaos may have gone much easier. But, I survived and after a few years of Flylady, I kind of do my own thing, but it works well enough for me. You will find dust in places, but I dont mind. Things are basically in order.

 

 

I have been developing some routines, lately, for a few household chores, and it has helped significantly! I'm thinking that much of my angst and frustration is because our lives have been off-kilter for the past few months, as dh has been working a lot of extra hours teaching a university class and starting some small businesses, in addition to his regular job. The kids end up staying up late to see dh, which means they need to sleep late in the morning. Schoolwork gets pushed back to the afternoon. I don't function as productively around the house because of my lack of sleep, and the combined effect is that I feel like a slacker. I know that if only we could get the kids into bed at 8:00 every night and do most of our schoolwork in the morning, or if only I could get 8 hours of sleep on most nights I would feel much more productive and organized. I guess life isn't perfect!

[Julie Herbster]

I have tried strict schedules before, using resources like Managers of Their Homes. But, like others on here, I've found that trying to stick with them "to the letter" is too stressful, because children have unpredictably arising needs that a schedule doesn't meet...like when they get excited about their literature study and beg to read just one more chapter...or when the toddler layers the kitchen floor in craft beads and, er, body waste. Ah, the highs and lows of homeschooling!

 

All that to say--schedules are good if you're the kind of person who understands that they're not right up there with the Ten Commandments, written in stone and binding upon you forever. I shudder to think where we'd be without our schedule. But when we start feeling uncomfortably hampered or restricted by it, I feel free to adjust it or ditch it altogether for a time. After all, I am The Mom Who Refuses to Be Held Hostage in Her Own Home. :cool:

[Peela]

I have been developing some routines, lately, for a few household chores, and it has helped significantly! I'm thinking that much of my angst and frustration is because our lives have been off-kilter for the past few months, as dh has been working a lot of extra hours teaching a university class and starting some small businesses, in addition to his regular job. The kids end up staying up late to see dh, which means they need to sleep late in the morning. Schoolwork gets pushed back to the afternoon. I don't function as productively around the house because of my lack of sleep, and the combined effect is that I feel like a slacker. I know that if only we could get the kids into bed at 8:00 every night and do most of our schoolwork in the morning, or if only I could get 8 hours of sleep on most nights I would feel much more productive and organized. I guess life isn't perfect!

 

Yes,those sorts of things are very high priority for me or I would certainly lose my equanimity very quickly! My dh works from home and it took me ages to train him not to just walk in and disturb us whenever he wanted a chat. It would really throw my day, my routine! he is much better now, and nowadays he loves to come and sit in the room and do a jigsaw puzzle quietly while we work...he has to be good though or I toss him out! We do chat quietly but its understood that the work goes on while he is there.

I guess for me its finding what is really important to my wellbeing and the family's wellbeing and trying to prioritise things so that those things are supported, hence the routines.

My kids are usually in bed by 8 and we do do most of our schoolwork in the mornings, and i will do almost anything not to interfere with that. But, if they never got to see their dad with that routine i guess I would change it because seeing their dad would be a priority. (Actually, I am pretty mean, that might not be a priority for me- I love my routine- but I can understand that it might be a priority for others :001_smile:).

It took me quite a while to establish but having strict school hours assures that the work does get done. Otherwise I would be a nervous wreck.

[Julie Herbster]

I guess for me its finding what is really important to my wellbeing and the family's wellbeing and trying to prioritise things so that those things are supported, hence the routines.

ITA! This is the key for sure!

My kids are usually in bed by 8 and we do do most of our schoolwork in the mornings, and i will do almost anything not to interfere with that. But, if they never got to see their dad with that routine i guess I would change it because seeing their dad would be a priority. (Actually, I am pretty mean, that might not be a priority for me- I love my routine- but I can understand that it might be a priority for others :001_smile:).

It took me quite a while to establish but having strict school hours assures that the work does get done. Otherwise I would be a nervous wreck.

The way you and I think is almost identical...except I have a few more kids to consider. I know that a strict schedule would work better for me if I didn't have those wee ones whose aim in life is to mess up said strict schedule--hee hee!

[Susie in CA]

It is not really a schedule - more of a routine! To an outsider, however, it may look very rigid. I am not a rigid person by nature, though, so we are flexible with it.

 

FWIW;

 

I usually get up @ 6:00 am. This is actually my natural wake-up time. The kids sleep still at this time. Hubby and I have a cup of coffee together, talk about yesterday, today's plans, and tomorrow.

Then I go online to check e-mail and this board. After that I usually read for @30 min. I have a lot of reading homework these days:D Then I get dressed and we have breakfast. The kids are up by then.

 

School starts at 8:00 am. Our time slot for 'school' is long. It is from 8:00 to 2:00 or 3:00 depending on the day. We don't, of course, do seatwork all this time. We take care of our difficult work but we also play games, read, do projects etc. This time slot is mainly so that I and the kids stay productive in some way. It means I don't wonder off; and the kids don't watch TV or play on the computer.

 

After 3:00 we are eiter at the park or the kids play computer games, watch movies while I do housework.

 

Almost every day around 5:00 pm we have somewhere to get to (Karate, Soccer, my class).

 

Dinner @ 6:30 pm.

 

7:00pm we read

 

Then we go upstairs for showers, baths, read-alouds etc.

 

 

This looks pretty rigid. It is not really. The kids have a lot of time to play and just be. This routine helps us stay focused. If we have an emergency we just drop everything. If we have visitors we drop everything. If it is really hot and we want to go to beach we do. We school year-round, though, so in the end it always works out.

 

I hope this helps someone.

 

Susie

[muffinmom]

I'm a girl who enjoys some overarching structure but with room for flexibility. Our planned schedule is this:

 

me up at 6:30 (read Bible, shower, get ready for day)

 

breakfast at 8:00

 

between breakfast and school we do chores, or at least start them--for my K'er, he makes bed, gets dressed, brushes teeth (during this time and before breakfast, I have instituted "Music in the Morning"--I put on classical tunes or kid tunes they like--any kind of music, really, to fend off ideas of turning on the TV!) Chores for me include cleaning up after breakfast, emptying and reloading dishwasher, trying to leave kitchen and dining room tidy (IOW, finishing one thing before going to the next). Also I start a load of laundry--I do this every day so it doesn't overwhelm.

 

I like having a finite time to focus and do chores, knowing in, say, 40 minutes, we need to start school. I go faster and stay more focused with my "deadline" in mind. It becomes a game to see how much I can do in a short amount of time.

 

This is also the time I make any important phone calls that must be made early in the day.

 

9:00--we start school

 

When school is over--we do whatever

 

I've found that doing (or starting) the chores before school is so liberating. I feel like I've gotten a jump on things. And it is teaching my son routine and responsibility. I'll add to his chores as he ages.

 

Now do we follow this strictly? Many days, I'm up later than 6:30 (true confessions!), so our times get off, but we still follow the same general plan. But since we homeschool, of course, we reserve the right to do special activities or events in place of or in addition to our plan. Some days, like today!, I finally just gave up after one sick kid and one unbelievably grumpy kid just made doing anything productive impossible. But we'll pick back up tomorrow.

 

I try to follow the plan most days, just to accomplish what we need to accomplish, but I love the flexibility homeschooling allows.

 

As for more housework ideas and philosophy--I love Flylady.net! Using a timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes at a time to accomplish tidying or other housework has revolutionized my life and relieved my cluttered mind!

 

Good luck!

 

Melanee