I did it! I sat down with coffee in hand. I sat and planned my school for weeks! I had it written down. I had it perfected. I was proud and nothing could rock my homeschool. I was on top of the world….until…
School started. Day 1….great…day 2……well life happened. The phone rang (and I don’t normally answer this during school time), the UPS man showed up, dinner blew up…..life happened. Then the next day we had a dentist appointment, which I had actually planned for, however due to the happening of Day 2, we were already behind. Then the guilt and doubt sets in.
This is when I learned Routine vs Schedule! Lifesaver…game changer! What is the difference you ask? A routine is a list of things we do in an order, whereas, a schedule is a list of things we do on a timeline. Since time was our issue, we eliminated it! We sat down and created a routine and we named it Our Loop! So we weren’t tied down to a timeline. I am also a firm believer in mastery vs box checking. I would rather stay on one topic until my children have mastered it vs just getting a list of things done that will soon be forgotten next week. Our days look a lot different and happier! Now we still have our days where everything blows up and I question everything but now I don’t worry about getting behind.
We have found a routine that works for us but it took some time! We flopped a few times before we settled in. This is what our day look like:
Morning Basket…. We start our day with a morning basket that contains our Bible, Current Events and Read Aloud or language lesson. Because my kids could listen to me read all day long and not ever use a pencil, I have chosen to read novels for our bible time. (Check our current loves to see what we are using for our curriculum.) Our current events usually consist of websites. Read Alouds are what ever I am feeling we need to read. Our language lesson is where I fail….I try, I do! But we can’t seem to get far in anything but Sign Language. This is where I am trying to improve.
Next, I work with Jeremiah. He is the youngest and needs a lot of one on one. The two older ones start their “Loops” which includes Math, English Language Lessons, Writing, and then one of their electives. Electives include typing, civics or science. Josh does his own science lessons…he is just that too much too old to do with the little do, so he does his as an elective. The littles do their science in the Afternoon Tea Basket time.
We finish our day with an Afternoon Tea Basket! We fix ourselves a cup of tea and 
end our day with our final Loop. We fill this time with Science, History, Art, Music, and what ever we feel like doing! Sometimes it is just going outside, sometimes it is helping papa on the tractor, what ever!
It took awhile to find our groove, but it has been the one thing that saved our homeschool. I would love to hear what works for you! Drop a comment below or visit us on Facebook.