scheduling.....ideas?

[frugalmama]

I've come to the conclusion that if we don't get onto a family schedule, things are going to go just as they did last year - nothing got done, the house was a wreak and dd slept most of the day and kept us up at night.

 

So....how the heck do you implement a family schedule? And get a kid who has never been scheduled in her life to abide by it?

[regentrude]

We find it rather simple: breakfast is at 7am, school starts at 8am (DD and I have to leave the house on some days at 7:30).

Everybody has to be up in time to start work. If needed, they are woken. Breakfast is optional.

If we school at home: school work until noon, one hour lunch break, finish school before anything else.

 

I do not impose any other scheduling. Dinner time varies because of activities and work. But starting the day together at a specific time gets us organized.

 

ETA: During summer break, the kids are allowed to sleep in.

[RainySunday]

We've just started a schedule, for the first time ever. My kids have always been great sleepers (dd sleeps til 8ish on her own, used to be much later; ds sleeps til somewhere between 10-1pm, depending where he's at in his phases).

 

Now, I get up at 7am, and hang out/check email/eat.

 

DD5 gets up at 8am (I wake her if needed). She eats breakfast and does her "daddy mail" that he leaves for the kids. Starting next week, we will doa read aloud chapter during breakfast, then while she finishes eating and her mail, I go milk the goats and do outside chores. If she finishes before I come back in, she is to get dressed, brush teeth and hair and be generally ready for the day.

 

School starts at 9am. So far, we are doing morning meeting, phonics and math. Over the next couple weeks we will add in science, character study, and Bible study. I expect school to take until about 11am, eventually.

 

After school, free time until lunch.

 

Lunch is at 1pm, and naps are at 2pm, so if they eat nice and get done, they have time to play or watch a magic school bus after lunch.

 

Naps end whenever they wake up, or when Daddy gets home from work, and it's free play the rest of the day.

 

Dinner is whenever, usually between 6:30 and 7:30, and then bed at 8:30, unless we are out (like at small group, or my parent's house).

 

DS is not woken up unless we have to be somewhere, or he isn't up by lunch time. He follows the lunch and nap (and bedtime) schedule, but not the rest.

 

With another on the way now...hopefully we'll be able to stick to it, at least until baby arrives.

[bobbeym]

I wish I could offer advice, but sadly, lists and schedules never work in my house. No matter how hard I try, nobody else will adhere to them. :glare:

[ProudGrandma]

If she's never had to go to bed at a certain time, that's probably your first obstacle to overcome. So I would start waking her earlier every day until you get to your desired wake time, and that will consequently make her sleepier earlier at night. She's going to be cranky during the day and want to take a nap but if you let her she'll not want to go to bed at night. It will be a rough week or two. Once you get that under wraps, then you can worry about the rest of it.

 

 

I agree with this!!

 

this is our schedule:

 

up by 7:00 (have to wake up 2 of my kids), breakfast, clothes on, teeth brushed and ready for school by 8:00. We do work, piano practicing, and quiet reading before lunch time. After lunch is quiet rest time for an hour and then Science or History (depending on the day). That is our typical day. Works for us.

[5LittleMonkeys]

So....how the heck do you implement a family schedule? And get a kid who has never been scheduled in her life to abide by it?

 

You implement it by deciding what it will be and then sticking to it. You get a dc to abide by it in one of two ways depending on what kind of parent you are and what works best with your dc. Either make it unpleasant for her if she doesn't abide, or reward her for complying.

 

I'm in the unpleasant consequences camp myself. I just find it hard to reward my dc for something as mundane and expected as - get out of bed, eat, and brush your teeth. Should I reward them for breathing too? BUT I digress.:tongue_smilie:

 

Really, it's all going to depend on what your daily priorities are. Here, school is the priority. With the exception of dd14 moving laundry around a couple times a day, and dd13 keeping the kitchen cleaned up after breakfast and lunch, we don't do household chores until after school is completed for the day. Then everyone spends a few minutes doing a cursory tidy up, fold some laundry, sweep the floor... Major cleaning is done one day a week. I don't schedule everything in minut detail. I've trained my dc to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done, and to do what I ask when I ask even if it's not "scheduled".

 

Try out a few different schedules to see what will work best and then write it out and post it for all to see. Then stick to it. Don't give up on it when you have a day or so that things go awry...just do the best you can and start fresh the next day. Eventually it will become second nature.

 

As far as getting dc to abide...you just keep after them, reminding, disciplining, rewarding, re-directing, modeling for them over and over. It's just like learning anything else for the first time; they have to practice, practice, practice getting it right until it becomes old hat.

[Joshin]

My family hates schedules, so I started calling it our daily and weekly rhythm and they love it. Each day is scheduled for something beyond school that makes things run smoothly- ex.: Sunday is cleaning chore day, Saturday is laundry day and Friday is grocery and errand day.

 

The days are divided up into blocks. Starting block is 7 - 9 am. Kids must be up, dressed and they must have breakfast during this block. One kid wakes up right at 7 to have as much free time before school as possible, the other lays in bed until 8:30. I don't care as long as they are ready by 9. If they try to stay in bed later, then I get them up.

 

Morning block runs from 9 until noon as is the bulk of our school day. We break for lunch then have afternoon block which runs from12:30 until 3-ish. We wrap up school stuff, go on a field trip or work on that days chores. The rest of the afternoon and evening is free.

 

Weekends run a bit differently. Unless we have something planned the kids can do their own thing -- after that day's chores are done. Usually the chores must be finished before lunchtime. Mine are old enough that bedtime is more or less a suggestion. Unless DS7 is doing astronomy, they have to be in bed at 9 pm, but they don't have to go to sleep. They can read, watch netflix/NASAtv on their laptops, or do anything quiet that can be done in bed. If they start having trouble getting up, then I get stricter about bedtime and they know this, so they usually regulate themselves fairly well.

 

I painted the door leading into in my kitchen with chalkboard paint. Our weekly and daily rhythm is kept updated on the chalkboard, along with any appointments, meetings or events for the week.

[IsabelC]

I have reluctantly started to impose more of a schedule on my dc.

 

For a while we were working on a kind of checklist for the day, where we had 'morning routine', then basic schooly stuff, then more fun stuff. But we got to the point where the morning stuff, which shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, was taking till lunchtime. I'd be so stressed after all the mucking around, bickering, etc that I'd have to take a long-ish break to keep my temper, then we'd be doing the reading and math until late afternoon and we wouldn't get to the science experiments, games and stuff.

 

We've started by revamping the before bed routine to try and get them all settled down and sleeping better. We have one parent on cleanup duty - washing up, cleaning and tidying the kitchen, dining room and lounge room - while the other parent does half an hour of one-on-one winding down time with each kid. This does mean that bedtime now takes 1.5 hours, but it does seem to be a worthwhile investment.

 

I love the blocks of time idea. Might try incorporating that as well.

[Shellydon]

First, you pry the child out of bed in the morning. Wake up is no later than 7:30 here. Bedtime is no later than 8:30. School starts at 9:00. Lunch is at 12:00. School is usually done by 2:00, then extracurriculars and play. Dinner at 6:30, bath at 7:30.

 

 

Really, it is not the kid that can't stick to the schedule, it is mom and dad not enforcing it every single day.

[MomatHWTK]

I have insomnia, my youngest doesn't sleep at night, and my DD has insomnia too. So...

 

 

Yesterday we did our group school work from 9 p.m. to midnight. That actually worked pretty well. We went swimming after DH got home from work and could watch littlest and didn't get home until right at 9.

 

Today group lessons were from 5-6 p.m., a break for me to run for groceries, and then 8-9 p.m. I'm making it a short day. ;)

 

Those are extreme hours even for us, but you can set a schedule that fits your personal rhthyms. Not everyone is a first thing in the morning kind of person.

[AmyontheFarm]

Really, it is not the kid that can't stick to the schedule, it is mom and dad not enforcing it every single day.

:iagree:

[LaxMom]

First, you pry the child out of bed in the morning. Wake up is no later than 7:30 here. Bedtime is no later than 8:30. School starts at 9:00. Lunch is at 12:00. School is usually done by 2:00, then extracurriculars and play. Dinner at 6:30, bath at 7:30.

 

 

Really, it is not the kid that can't stick to the schedule, it is mom and dad not enforcing it every single day.

 

Yep. That's pretty much it. They have alarm clocks (which they turn off before going back to bed :glare:), then we chase them out of bed, breakfast is had, morning routine commenced (dressing, etc). Then, we are in the school room until lunch. After lunch, we have some quiet time (where I recharge while no one talks to me) and do the other stuff we have planned. They're all in bed by 8:30.

 

We, as the parents, at the ones who keep everyone on task. That's our job.

[FO4UR]

Start with sleeping and eating routines.

 

 

I am a stickler for bedtimes. We do baths/toothbrushing at 7pm. I read to the kids until 8:30. They have 30min of quiet time on their beds before lights-out at 9pm. Wed. night is the only exception b/c we are out late, but I still shoot for a short bedtime story and lights-out at 9pm, even if they don't get the quiet time.

 

 

I don't have to wake mine up. 2 are always up about 7am, and the other is up by 7:30 most days. I have an early riser that usually wakes *me* up.:tongue_smilie: Going to sleep at 9pm regularly sets the body-clock. If they stay up late, they still get up at the same time. They are just very grumpy -so that is definitely a motivator to get them in bed peacefully.

 

 

Food. Eat breakfast when you wake up. Snacks are at 10-ish. Lunch is 12:30. Snack at 3-ish, and dinner by 6pm. After that, the kitchen is closed. (I make rare exceptions for a sickly child, or a crazy day.)

 

 

 

If I were just starting this, I think I would start with bedtime. I would plan a very busy and physically exhausting day (trip to the zoo!?!) and start a bedtime that night. Then up in the am like the other posters have said so that you move her body-clock to a reasonable sleep.wake cycle.