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Dear all,

My daily routine is out of control. I was a long time sick . And I feel the routine and structure which we had before is disappeared.

So I would like to have some inspiration/advise. I was wondering how your daily routine as a mother looks like.

When do you wake up ? When do you start homeschooling , cleaning, cooking etc.. 

So please share your day routine .

 

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((((visitor)))) I hope you're feeling better now.

I only have two dc, so my routine might not be helpful. But a friend who had many children did this: All of them got up at the same time, got dressed, made beds, and came downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, the kitchen was cleaned, and there was no snacking or free-range eating going on. 🙂 Then they did school work, and then they had lunch and the kitchen was cleaned. Then they did...whatever they needed to do--school, errands, whatnot. They had dinner together, and the kitchen was cleaned, and they were free for the evening.

I was at her house one day, and everything seemed so relaxed. I know her routine seems tough, but it was still gentle, and her children were so sweet, and there was no chaos.

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For myself and my little family, it worked best for me to take a shower at night; in the morning I got up and got dressed and made my bed before leaving my room. The dc slept until 7ish--no early morning creatures in my house. 🙂 They got up and got dressed, too, and we came out and had breakfast together. They had baths at night and early bedtimes, in bed by 7:30ish. We were usually read for school by around 9. We had lunch together, they played while I tidied up the kitchen, then I read aloud to them from a good book, just one chapter. Then they played. There were different things we did each day (library and field trips and whatnot), but our morning schedules, and after-dinner schedules, were pretty much the same.

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I write my schedule out the day before consulting the menu, weather and calendar.

6-9 Bible, study, work (secretary work, school prep, budgeting, whatever)
9-10 Breakfast & Morning Time
10-1 School (work with DD5 while DD8 plays with the baby, switch)
1-2 Screen time (leave me alone!)
2-4 Lunch and quiet time (mom does housework, prepares dinner and works out)
4-6 Housework, go outside, kids showers
6-7 Dinner
7-8 Daddy time (art, games, play, mom does school prep)
8-8:30 Teeth and books, kids in bed with one hour of audiobook
8:30-9 Trash, dog, dishes
9-10 Marriage
11 I usually read for a little while

 

I like this app for figuring out the perfect schedule and then using a daily checklist rather than the app itself. Don't plan things in order of time but importance. Sleep, meals, things that are scheduled, the rest.

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Scheduled blocks worked well when mine were all little, but by the time my oldest was 12, my schedule really had to shift. I did less housework and meal prep personally, but my work as a homeschooler and as a taxi service began to ramp up. Part of the challenge of large families is that you have kids at different age ranges. 

I wake at 5:30, do my personal care, wake the kids at 6:00, start a load of laundry while they are stirring and starting the morning shower lineup, help my younger ones with their hair, put the clothes from the washer into the dryer and start another load, check that the dishwasher has been unloaded, eat breakfast with the younger set and give them their vitamins, etc and then move on to helping them brush their teeth as the older ones come down from their showers to eat...... etc, etc.

Everything is woven together—laundry, dishes, meal prep—because these things are constant in the life of a larger family. (Four kids is a small large family—larger is 7-10kids, you know?!!) 

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I've never hs'ed with only young kids because we started when my oldest was 13 and my 5th was 1.5, so I don't know how I would have structured my day had I hs'ed with all littles. But I just had my 6th and this is the daily routine I'm trying to get into right now. It would be nice to fit some exercise for me into this schedule, but so far that hasn't happened and I'm not willing to give up my sleep to get up earlier for it either 🙂

7:00 Wake up and nurse the baby, check and respond to email and facebook, check the news, eat breakfast, get out meat for supper, start a load of laundry, shower and get ready - kids make their own breakfasts

~8:45 Start school with morning meeting when baby is ready for a little nap and then do school with somebody all morning long - I have a list of subjects/kids prioritized from must-get-done-no-matter-what right on down to wow-wouldn't-it-be-nice-if-we-ever-actually-got-to-that and I plan to attack it line by line each day til it's time to go on to the next thing - whatever doesn't get done from that list by the end of the day will just have to wait til the next day

Noon to 2:00 - older kids make lunch and do dishes and I swap out the laundry and we all have a big break and the older kids all play outside or do their own thing - I think this would probably be where I would put in exercise if I ever get that ambitious - however it's much more likely that I will call it a win if I end up just getting some fresh air outside with the baby and have some time to decompress from the morning

2:00 - hopefully the baby will be ready for some more napping while I do more school with the above mentioned list of priorities

5:00 - start supper and fold laundry on the table so it has to get put away before we eat - older kids do dishes and sweep the kitchen floor after we eat

7:00 - grade any papers and get things ready for school the next day

9:00 - try to unwind and spend some time with DH

This is what I'm hoping to do 4 days/week. The 5th is our out of the house day when we do our extra curriculars and grocery shop.

You'll notice that there is no cleaning anywhere on this daily schedule that *I* do. My kids do the bare minimum that needs to be done to keep the household running and to teach them basic chores, but that's it. That's because I can only do so many things and do them well, and I've consciously decided that cleaning is not one of the things I'm going to do well during this season of my life. I am going to cook healthy meals for my family (or provide healthy food for them to cook themselves). I am going to educate them to the absolute best of my ability. I am going to make sure I have time to foster my relationships. And I am going to make sure that we all have clean clothes to wear. But I'm not Wonder Woman and I can't do it all.

For cleaning other than the stuff the kids do during the week, we all sometimes take 2 hours on a Saturday when we have nothing else going on and I just say, "OK, kids, we're going to get as much done on this list as we possibly can in the next 2 hours, and then we'll stop. Go!" and we call that good as far as cleaning goes.

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My routine that has never altered in 25 yrs is that I start my day with a load of laundry.  I get up and throw a load in.  If everything else goes downhill that day, at least 1 thing was accomplished. 🙂

We start school very early in the morning.  Our day normally starts between 6-7.  Sometimes we get a subject done before we eat breakfast.  We may eat while we do something. Or we may eat something that doesn't take much time.  

I fold laundry while I call out spelling words.

I make dinner while having discussion with my high schoolers.  Or my dd practices the violin for me. 

I don't have a set routine beyond those types of things.  I make sure that I rotate through the kids and that they stay on target.  When I have an opportunity to slip away and switch loads of laundry, I do, etc. 

I grade work immediately as it is completed. So, when my 4th grader finishes math, my very first next task is to grade her math.   With my high schoolers, I tend to grade problem by problem.  (I can fold laundry, work with a younger sibling, etc in between while they are working on a problem set, etc.)

 

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@visitor Are the ages of your boys in your signature up-to-date? If so, you are still in the thick of it with littles. The good news is you are still in the prime age range for training them to make your days smoother. Unfortunately, at this stage the days are long but the years are short. The days feel never ending and exhausting right now but in no time they will be all grown up and you wonder where those years went. My oldest three kids are all young adults now and out on their own. It seriously feels like I blinked because I could swear yesterday I was still in your shoes trying to figure out how to be the ringmaster of a three ring circus most days.

If you haven't already, you need to be training them all, even the little bitties, to do things for themselves. Your 9yo should be able to make a bowl of cereal for himself and his brothers if asked. They should all be able to help each other get dressed in the morning. Your 8 and 9yo are capable of helping with gathering laundry and putting it in the machine with supervision and coaching  in preparation to do their own laundry by the time they are 10. They can all be trained to put their dishes in the sink. The 8 and 9yo can be in charge of rinsing and loading things in the dishwasher. They can also run a vacuum with supervision, dust, sweep or mop a floor, clean up a spill in the kitchen and take a bath or shower with guidance and checking their work. My role in all of this was making sure they were slowly learning all these skills and improving as they were able.

I also had to learn to accept "kid-cleaned" as good enough. I gently pointed out what happened when they didn't rinse a dish well enough and help them wash it again correctly. I believe cleaning the house should be 1) a family affair because we all helped make the mess, we should all help clean it up and 2) a teaching opportunity to teach the kids incrementally the skills they will need to one day live on their own without a maid and butler. My house has never graced the pages of Southern Living but it was clean enough to live in comfortably and not make anyone sick from uncleanliness.

When I had a house full of littles (I have 6 kids but only 4 of them were close enough in age to all be little at the same time and still living at home) and was still homeschooling them all, I needed to have a plan for what all the kids are doing during school time. Planning to do math with your 9yo from 9:30 - 10am will never happen if you don't have a plan for what the other three kids should be doing during that time. When I was in the thick of this kind of planning, the book Managers of Their Homes was all the rage for Christian and secular homeschoolers alike. If you aren't Christian, as long as you can gloss over the religious references, you'll be fine. There is helpful information for managing a group of children while trying to maintain a homeschooling schedule in this book that could apply to anyone in this situation regardless of religious preference. I didn't use the MOTH system in its entirety but I found lots of little tidbits that help me make a routine that worked for me and my situation.

Also, for your little bitty ones, there is no shame in a 30 - 60 minute PBS kids or other "edutainment" video to get some work done with your older littles. Used judiciously and not just running as background noise to your day, it is a tool in your tool belt for managing to get everything done in a day. If they don't have unlimited access to tv shows all day, they tend to have more attention span and actually learn something from educational TV. My 6yo has been coming out with some amazing vocabulary lately. 90% of the time when we ask him where he learned that word, his answer is he learned it from watching "Martha Speaks".

Some other tricks and tips I remember using...

* Rotating toy bins for your preschoolers so they always have something engaging to do. Make sure you rotate the bins often, such as 3 or 4 bins rotated weekly, so that they aren't bored of the toys when it comes back around in the rotation. Themed bins that only come out during school time like one full of cooking toys, one full of play tools and "fix-it" things, one full of trains and tracks are fun too. Just make sure the can only ever have one bin at a time to keep mess easy to clean up.

* Let the littles make a controlled mess while you are working with the older kids. An inflatable pool full of ball pit balls. Or legos/duplos. Or water if you are really adventurous and can sit outside and do schoolwork at the patio table while they play.

* Sensory bins

* Audiobooks (you can even find picture books as audiobooks)

 

And finally to answer your questions, in the thick of it with elementary aged kids and younger, I often got up around 5 - 5:30am because I need at least an hour or so to wake up slowly before the kids. If they weren't up by 7 - 7:30, I woke them up. Usually they woke up on their own between 6:30 and 7:30 though. I usually aimed to start school-y things by 9am. We were usually done by 3pm but that didn't mean that they were all doing school work for 6 hours. It just meant that I was done with school-y things for the day and everyone had completed the lessons for that day. I kept breakfasts and lunches simple on school days, cereal or microwaveable pancakes or toaster waffles or anything they could make themselves for breakfast and leftovers from the fridge or traditional sack lunch type things for lunch all of which could be prepared ahead of time on the weekend or put together in 20 minutes or less at lunch time. It was rarely perfect, sometimes lessons didn't get done, sometimes the house looked like toys r us exploded, sometimes we just sat around and read stories all day but I wouldn't trade any of those days in now even if I was exhausted, exasperated and unsure I was doing things right at the time. In the end, they all turned out to be just who they were meant to be and doing at great job at "adult-ing" now.

 

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I get up at 5.  Shower, get dressed, spend a few minutes making the bed, tidying my room and bathroom.

At 6 I have to start tending to the kids - giving meds, getting them to shower.  At 6:30 I start making breakfast and oversee the 10 and 8 year olds reading their literature books.

At 7 the kids sit down at the table to eat and do "Morning Audio/Visual".  They listen to a poem, watch a vocabulary cartoon, watch the free BrainPop videos in English and Spanish, watch CNN 10 and then review the YouTube videos assigned in their Spanish class.  The whole routine takes about 40 minutes.  I eat, check my email, put in a load of laundry, etc.

By 8 the kitchen table is tidy, the dishwasher is unloaded and reloaded with breakfast dishes, teeth are brushed and everyone is starting school.  The 10 and 8 year olds start on independent work (nearby where I can supervise) while the 5 year old reads to me and the 3 year old.  Then I work with the 3 year old on letters, numbers and fine motor skills while the 5 year old does his math and handwriting.  After they are done, they might hang around to listen to what the rest of us are doing or they might wander off to play.  I spend ~8:30 to ~10:30 working with the 8 and 10 year olds either together or independently.  All school gets done except math.  If I am busy with one, I will often send the other off to spend 10 minutes doing a chore to give them a stretching/brain break.  If I give them both a task to do then I will often slip off to move the laundry or do something else quick.  Other times I will fold clothes or prep dinner while I listen to them read or supervise a science experiment or just keep them on task while they do something independent.

At 10:30 we have a snack and go to an extracurricular...every day because we thrive on structure.

We get home around 12:30 and have lunch while the kids watch a (semi) educational show.  Right after lunch the two older boys start working on their math and I get the two youngers settled in rest time.  As soon as one of them is done with his math I immediately check it before releasing him to free play time.  Everyone reconvenes around 3 or 3:30 for a snack.  Then the kids might play outside or do some sort of activity while I make dinner.

Dinner is at 5 or 5:30.  Then family time, books and bed.  DH and I finish doing dishes and tidying the kitchen.  I often pop in one more load of laundry.  Then we watch a show and go to bed.

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We have 4. I dont know if that qualifies as "big," but here is our routine. 

6-8am. Girls wake up, eat breakfast, play, do assigned morning chores, etc. Their chores include their bedrooms, wiping down bathrooms, unloading dishwasher, getting dressed and teeth brushed, etc. 

8am. I probably just got up. I eat breakfast while starting girls on school. 

8am-12pm. School time almost exclusively. I may make a crockpot dinner if it's in the menu. 

12:30pm. Lunch. Girls mostly make their own and I've been teaching them some basic cooking, so we've had a lot of burnt eggs lately. 

12:30-5pm. Free time for us all. Finish any leftover school, I may do a load of laundry, girls play, I watch them at the pool, etc. (3pm is official popsicle time) 

5pm. Girls screen time and I make dinner.

6:30. Dishes, Roomba Ready (straightening up), girls fold any laundry I did, get ready for bed. 

7:15. Family scripture study time. 

7:30-8:30. Lights allowed on bedtime. 

8:30. Lights out bedtime. 

 

That's our schedule for any given normal day. 

 

Edited by MeaganS
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We have 6 with #7 on the way. Our oldest is 10. 

We school Mon. - Thurs. I try to be up by 5:30 on a school morning. I spend the first 45 minutes dressing/making the bed/having devotions. I like to be in the kitchen by 6:15 to start a load of laundry, start breakfast, pack my husband's lunch (Sometimes I run out of time to do this). I like to wake the children around 6:30 and get the older ones started on getting dressed, feeding pets, etc.

We all try to be at the table by 7 for breakfast and then family devotions with Daddy. This usually lasts until around 7:45 or 8, then we clean up from breakfast, brush teeth and tidy the house until about 8:45. I also transfer the laundry during this time and get another load going. 

We do Morning Time from 8:45-9:30, after which I rotate my time between the 3 oldest and also try to squeeze in reading to the 3 littlest and doing a bit of Phonics and math with the 5 year old. School lasts until 12 at which point I go to the kitchen and prep lunch. We usually eat around 12:30. About 1:15 the table is cleared, the house is tidied up again, I transfer the laundry/start another load and start counting down the minutes to nap time! I put the two youngest down at 2, settle the older ones down with a quiet activity, usually reading, and then go rest until around 2:45. 

From 2:45-4 we finish up any remaining school. After 4, I usually head to the kitchen to start on supper, work on the laundry some more and just do general household maintenance. We try to eat around 6 or 6:30, after which are baths if needed and bedtime prep. The three youngest go to bed at 8 and the older girls are in the bed by 8:30. I spend the next couple hours tidying the house, reading, spending time with hubby, etc. 

A few things that seem to make our day go more smoothly: 

Getting up on time. 

Taking my shower in the afternoon or evening. I used to do a morning shower but it just seemed to eat up a big chunk of my early morning. I try to squeeze a shower in after I rest or before I go to bed. 

Run the dishwasher during the day and empty it before supper. Our supper dishes don't fill it and there is still room for breakfast dishes the next morning. I do not like trying to squeeze unloading the dishwasher into my busy morning. 

Tidy the house before you go to bed. I think this helps me rest better, knowing I'm not waking up to yesterday's mess.

Keep things picked up during the week and then do a weekly cleaning  on Friday. I really like a clean house but have learned to relax quite a bit with so many little ones. As long as the floors and bathrooms are decently cleaned, I'm good with that. 

Give yourself grace and don't feel like a failure. Parenting a large family is exhausting work and takes A TON out of you. 

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32 minutes ago, kiwik said:

Those of you who manage to get up between 5 and 6 - what time do you go to bed?

 

When I get up at 5 it's because I work out early in the morning. This causes me to go to bed early which is about 9, leaving me 8 hours of sleep. If I'm not working out too hard I only need 7 hours of sleep. But, my oldest only 8, so 9 is not bad.

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4 hours ago, kiwik said:

Those of you who manage to get up between 5 and 6 - what time do you go to bed?

 

Around 9 or 9:30.  All my kids do are in their rooms (sleeping or reading) by 7, so that gives me and DH a couple hours to get stuff done, talk, watch a show before bed, etc.

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When I had nursing babies or was pregnant, I'd have to go to bed early, 9ish. Now that I don't have any little ones, I stay up until 11ish and still get up around 5.

When all of my kids were 10 and under, our school days ended before lunch time, Even as my oldest go older, we still finished around that time bc he wanted to finish early, so we would get up an do our work together between 5-7 before I did anything with the younger kids.  It just became our routine.  Early days with our most concentrated work early in the morning.  

Now that I only have 3 at home and my youngest is 9, we are less laser-focused about routine. We tend to still start early, but we are more leisurely about breakfast and lunch and have more meanderings in our day bc I have more time. I sit in bed and drink my coffee these days. That never happened when all of our kids were little. It was jump out of bed and hit the ground running.

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17 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

 

I also had to learn to accept "kid-cleaned" as good enough. I gently pointed out what happened when they didn't rinse a dish well enough and help them wash it again correctly. I believe cleaning the house should be 1) a family affair because we all helped make the mess, we should all help clean it up and 2) a teaching opportunity to teach the kids incrementally the skills they will need to one day live on their own without a maid and butler. My house has never graced the pages of Southern Living but it was clean enough to live in comfortably and not make anyone sick from uncleanliness.

 

Totally agree!!!

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My kids are grown now, but I had five kids in seven years, so we were quite busy for a time.  This was our general routine:

Began school at 9am.  Kids were on their own waking up and getting breakfast once they were a certain age.  By 9am, they were dressed and ready for the day.  We didn't require chores before breakfast.   My only job before 9am was to wake up and get myself (and very young children, when we had them) ready for the day.  We didn't have a sit-down family breakfast.  I often woke up around 8am and one hour was plenty of time to get myself and younger children ready (no babies by then) and have a quick breakfast.

9am school begins.  We'd begin with a family time, and then the kids would branch out and do assignments on their own, or with me.  Sometimes they'd take a little break mid-morning and make tea with cookies, and that was fine with me.  They were always good about doing that and getting right back to work.  I always figured those little perks were just part of homeschooling.  During morning schooling, between helping my kids, I'd throw in a load of laundry, throw ingredients into the slow cooker for dinner, etc.  

As my kids got a little older, I'd give them each a 10-minute job that they had to do before lunch.  It would be listed as an actual school assignment.  🙂  They could do it anytime they wanted between 9am and lunch.  Little 10-minute jobs among 5 children meant that a lot got done, actually!  Jobs might be:  sort socks; add ingredients to bread machine and turn it on; empty the wastebaskets.  

Lunch time:  I wasn't big on family meals together except at dinner, so everyone had lunch on their own, although we all seemed to eat at the same time and sat down together.  Sometimes I made it for everyone (something simple -- leftover soup and sandwiches, waffles, etc.), but as my kids got older, they enjoyed making their own sandwiches, omelets, noodles with veggies, etc.)  My dh came home for lunch every day, and sometimes it would be when everyone was eating, or sometimes it would be late and kids would already be back to work, but that was okay.  We generally did everything in the same two rooms -- our living room/dining room, so they were with their dad even if working on assignments during that time.

I didn't set a firm time to have lunch or get back to work, but my kids would have a complete list of assignments at 9am every day, so they were always eager to get back to work after breaks and lunch and get everything done.

Afternoon was pretty much the same as morning -- they'd do some work independently, some with me.  I'd squeeze in things here and there that needed to get done -- more laundry, business calls, doctor appointments, etc.  I didn't really clean anything except the kitchen after lunch.

Kids would complete assignments anywhere from 1:30 to 3:30.  Younger ones would be finished sooner, and they'd generally just play on their own.  They also knew that at 3:30, they could turn on the TV for awhile (we actually only got public television here, so it would be Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow, shows like that).  Older kids often had part-time jobs, sports practice, etc. between school and dinner.  Or, often they'd just get together with neighborhood friends and play.

I'd be in the kitchen starting around 5 to get dinner ready, and we'd generally eat around 6pm.  Dinners were always fun and rather long -- an hour, anyway.  Dad was home and we'd talk about our day and play games like everyone getting a turn to ask any question they want and everyone had to come up with an answer.  As kids were involved in more things as they got older, we'd have to adjust our dinner times or sometimes not everyone could make it, or sometimes we'd have to pack a picnic dinner in order to watch a soccer game that someone was in, etc.

My dh loved being with the kids in the evenings.  Usually oldest kids would clean the kitchen, or if they had things going on or before they were old enough, then I'd clean it and my dh would have time with the kids... taking them all on a walk, reading to them, etc.

Before bed, we'd set a timer and tell the kids they had 10 minutes to clean up.  Usually the mess was all in those same two rooms -- leftover from various art projects, messy play, etc.  The kids loved racing against the stopwatch to clean up!  You can do a lot of quick cleaning in 10 minutes with five kids.  Our kids were generally in bed between 8 and 10, depending on ages.  My dh loved putting them them to bed and reading with them, so he did that a lot.  Or, there might be evening baths, etc., which one of us would do.

After the kids were in bed, or at least the younger ones, I'd be at work planning the next school day.  It would generally take me about an hour and a half to correct the day's work and plan out the next day's assignments and write them up for each kid.  I'd do a quick vacuum of the two main rooms, and then my dh and I would have an hour together alone, often with coffee (caffeine doesn't keep us up!).  🙂 Sometimes a TV show or movie.  Often we'd fold laundry during that time!

We'd be in bed around midnight.

Obviously I didn't do much cleaning during the school week... we'd get to that on Saturdays.  Then, we'd make a list of little chores that needed to be done, and let the kids choose from the list.  They'd each have about 4 5-10-minute jobs to do.  It would end up being about half hour per child, but between 5 children that's 2.5 hours, and my dh would join in and I would and we'd have fairly clean house after that.  I didn't worry about thorough jobs and things were always a little cluttered and not perfect, but that was fine with us.

About once/month,  I did a more thorough cleaning on weekends on my own, and would spend a big part of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon thinking through school and assignments and goals, and laying out a general schedule for the upcoming weeks.

I think the biggest helps for us were that I wasn't a picky housekeeper and wasn't too regulated about things.  Also, my dh stepped in and helped a lot every minute that he was home and the children were awake.

 

 

 

Edited by J-rap
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/19/2019 at 7:46 AM, visitor said:

Dear all,

My daily routine is out of control. I was a long time sick . And I feel the routine and structure which we had before is disappeared.

So I would like to have some inspiration/advise. I was wondering how your daily routine as a mother looks like.

When do you wake up ? When do you start homeschooling , cleaning, cooking etc.. 

So please share your day routine .

 



During the school year I assume?

I put the maids (dishwasher and wash machine) to work immediately - start a load of dishes right after breakfast and a load of laundry first thing in the AM.  
Keep littles close to you so they cannot wreak destruction while you are busy.
Simplify breakfast and lunch.  Feel free to assign lunch making to others if they are old enough.

Start breakfast in the AM with a table time - a coming together of all the people.
Direct olders and independent learners after table time.
Work with youngers.  Do hard things first because you are going to wear down and then not do them.
Choose curriculum carefully.  Distinguish the difference between, "In my ideal world, I would school like..." and, "This is my real life and I cannot decide between things, so I need this planned and laid out or I will fail."

I'm a morning person.  Success starts with me going to sleep decently early at night in my ideal world.  Doing homework is not always conducive to this so I'm not perfect at it.
I get up fairly early (by 6:00-6:30 most days, sometimes earlier and, rarely during the school year, sometimes a bit later.)
We read aloud as a family at night.  It keeps me accountable and establishes the routine of getting it in.  Reading aloud is the most important thing I do, IMO.  

I combine when and if I can.  IEW is good for this.  
I will be schooling more this year than at any point in the previous 18 years.  Grades/ages are in my signature.  

Edited by BlsdMama
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I am a single mom of 5, grades K to 11th.  I also have some health issues, so we school year round, taking time off as needed.   

I wake up at 7, check email, shower, etc.  I make sure my kids are all up by 8:30 (we aren't early risers).  Our breakfast is something easy like cereal, yogurt, fruit, or eggos.  My older kids get their own breakfast.  I usually help my youngest, although most days he just wants some fruit. 

I am aiming to start school at 9:00, but I may have to fit my 5yo's lessons in earlier when he starts K.  He's not really a morning person though, so I don't know how this will work.  Before lunch, we work on our "morning basket" (for us that includes Greek, grammar, hymn, catechism, and fine arts--basically anything we are doing together).  Then we work on Latin, composition, and math.    Lunch is quick and easy (quesadillas, tuna salad, PB&J, etc. with some a fruit and/or veggies).  After lunch, we work on content subjects like literature, history, science, etc.  If we finish early, I might organize a craft or experiment, but usually we just have free time.  We work on chores and laundry during this time and on weekends.  I start dinner anytime between 4 and 6.  More free time after dinner, sometimes we take a walk.  I try to round up kids at 8:00 to clean the kitchen and pick up.  We do a family devotion at 8:30, followed by a read aloud.  Then we head to bed (quiet time until 10-ish or later, depending on their ages). 

We sometimes take a day off for shopping, visiting with friends, co-op, or going to lunch.  We don't have many activities, so we need this time out of the house.  Sometimes we go to a movie, a park, or the ceramics shop.  I try to grocery shop on Saturday morning.  And we have church on Sunday.  Yard work is done in the evenings or on the weekends. 

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