Just One More Story, Mamma

Many people do it no matter if their children are homeschooled or not. We sit down and we jot out schedules. Blocks of time we intend to do things. Trying to keep ourselves, our lives, and our things all organized. But, life is messy and schedules get messed up. Things get left undone in favor of other things that must be done. So, why do we continue to do it? It sooths us to think that we can map out our days, weeks, months, or years into organized slots. We make lists, fill calenders, and vow this time we'll do it all.

Well, I'm always making lists and schedules. Most of the time I even stick with them. Sometimes life gets in the way and I work the schedule around until it works again. That is how I deal with it. I used to stress out like nobodies business when things didn't get done... Now, I shrug and let it roll off of my shoulders.

So here is what our schedule "should" look like starting September 8th (our official start to the new school year).

7 AM - Wake up, morning chores, breakfast, daily Bible reading and morning prayers
8 AM- Change clothing, brush hair and teeth, get our daily binders
8:30 AM - Begin lessons in following order -
            Spelling and the rest of language arts
            Math
            History/state work
11:30 AM - Half an hour outside time, lunch, and music
1 PM - Science/nature walk
2 PM - Health, Art, or read along
3 PM - Independent study or quiet time
4 PM - Afternoon chores
5 PM - Supper time
7 PM - Medicine, showers, pajamas
7:30 PM - Bible stories, bedtime story (Peanut, though sometimes YCJ listens in), and snuggles
8 PM - Bedtime for the girls and silent reading time for ECJ
9:30 PM - Bedtime for ECJ (Sun. - Thurs.)
11 PM - Mom gets to go to sleep

OK, so that's how I'm hoping it will go. Chances are it won't go anything like that at all. We probably won't wake up until closer to 9, other that YCJ who wakes up with the sun. Lessons probably won't start until almost 11, lunch will most likely end up around 2 'o clock again, and we'll probably end up eating closer to 6 or 7 PM most nights. It's rare that I ever go to sleep before midnight and most often it's even later. Does that mean that I have to rewrite the schedule completely? Nope, and here's why...

We've kept the same basic schedule for over a year now no matter what time we wake up. Our lessons are always in the same order. We've found that doing language arts first works best for us (though many families do math first) and that history, science, art, health, and music are easier to handle if we work on them after math. Sometimes we get every subject done every day. Sometimes we alternate science and history, music and art, and sometimes we only do health once a week. 

Once catechism starts we'll have a late night on either Monday or Tuesday which always leads to a later start in the morning the next day. If we add in swim, ballet, and/or gymnastics we run into the same situation. We're contemplating adding co-op for the kids this year (at least for the field trips) and we all know that will wreck the schedule sometimes as well. Throw in doctor appointments, illness, allergies, and any other number of things and we're all out of whack.

We do somehow manage to get it all in each and every day and usually with plenty of time to spare, plenty of outdoor time, and little whining (I'm including myself in that whining part). I've learned that while I'll always write down my "perfect" time oriented schedule it doesn't matter if I stick to it or not. I'm goal oriented. So, if I write out our lessons and decide that things need to happen in A, B, C order then that's usually how they happen.

Chores get done, lessons get finished, everyone gets clean and fed, and there's always time for "Just one more story, Mamma."

And for those of you who have yet to look us up on Facebook you can find us there by following this link . As yet it is the only social media account we can be found at.