Part of the homeschool life is running your home. I am a SAHM and my husband can work anywhere from 10 - 12 hours in a shift. His schedule can change from week to week, so we have to be flexible. I need to be able to maximize the time the kids can spend with Dad and also get everything done. Thankfully, my teaching experience and OCD are a big help here. Right now I don't have a set "homeschool" time, though I can see this evolving once everyone stops taking naps. We fit in homeschool lessons at small intervals throughout the day. That way we can be flexible around appointments and routines. Both my children have food/environment allergies so we have several doctor's appointments. My son also has a skin condition that requires wet therapy and wraps twice a day. We live a fairly chemical free lifestyle, so we make/grow a lot of our own food as well. To work around this, and other activities, I just block out 30 minutes of time, multiple times a day, to work on "lessons". I also try and work lessons in while we are grocery shopping or traveling.
So, to begin, I have found that putting the kids in the shower/bath right when they get up is a great way to keep us on schedule. Otherwise we end up in pjs at 11am. I keep breakfast pretty routine as well, so we can stay on track. Breakfast usually consists of a whole grain, a protein, and a fruit. Usually a cereal bar, some raw milk cheese, and a banana. I have noticed that since I have been feeding everyone the same breakfast (minus the occasional pancake) there is less arguing, less time I have to spend polling everyone on what they want, and less time spent playing at the table. This also helps offset the time needed to get everyone dressed, since we have to do wet therapy first. I don't have a dishwasher, so I decided that we will use paper plates for breakfast and lunch. This was a hard decision since I hate to add to the landfill, but I also weighed in my time and the water needed to wash all the dishes. I multi-task during breakfast as well so I can move on to other things when the kids are finished. I eat while they are in the shower and then finish up any leftover dishes from the night before (I have limited counter space so sometime it takes a few cycles to get them all done) and quick clean the counters and bathroom. If I'm making good time, I'll start a load of laundry too. And we are off and running.
If we don't have appointments in the morning, we can do a 30 minute block (sometimes 2) of homeschool and then go outside for playtime before lunch. I am pretty fastidious about the kids getting outside/strenuous play at least once if not twice a day for 45 minutes. This is our PE time. Dad usually goes out with the kids while I make lunch. During the winter we do yoga tapes I get from the library or kid's music and movement activities if we can't go out. There is a park at the end of my street so we will walk there to keep everyone interested. Finally, we have memberships at several area museums, zoos, etc. so that we can get out and walk or have an indoor place to run around during the winter. We are a one car family, so we walk in town whenever we can.
Lunch is usually leftovers that follow the protein, whole grain, fruit and vegetable formula. Naptime is next. Everyone naps/rests because this is my time to either rest, or catch up on planning, laundry, or making food. My husband goes to work during nap, and so this is a nice bit of time to myself. When the kids get up we have a quick snack and then move into another 30 minute block or we go outside, depending on what we accomplished in the a.m. Once or twice a week we have "specials" at our community center or in the form of lessons in the afternoon (art, soccer, piano, etc.) I will be so happy when we finish the basement in the next month so we can put all the toys downstairs and have room for a piano. While I am putting together dinner I usually let the kids watch an educational video (we don't have TV) such as Magic School bus or a Veggie Tales DVD. After dinner (on plates!) that again follow the protein, whole grain, veggie and fruit formula, we will either talk a walk as a family (kids like to razor scooter as well) or we will go sit on the front porch while the kids play in the front yard. During the summer, we let the kids play in the sprinklers if it has been super hot that day and we didn't go out much. The kids will shower, deal with wet therapy, get pjs on, review behavior sheets, etc. and we will read the Bible and a story. My oldest child used to stay up a bit later so that we could work on handwriting and some extra practice items, but now everyone goes to bed at the same time. I am trying to find another time period for this one-on-one time, maybe when the nap is gone. Once everyone is in bed I use this time to read scripture, mend clothes, or work on the internet.
So this is the basic schedule, and I foresee that it will evolve as everyone gets older, but we also have to contend with my husband's schedule so I like the flexibility. Another reason we chose to homeschool is that with one car and my husband's sometimes erratic schedule, working outside the home was a major scheduling nightmare. Part 2 will deal with the behind the scenes organization and food prep that makes it all easier!
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