I guess I’m not the only one who thinks about revising the daily routine in January.
- Here’s Faith at Dumb Ox Academy’s schedule plans.
- Here’s Woodstone Prairie’s
Here’s a typical day of mine from May. And here’s one from June. Guess it’s been a while since I wrote one of those!
The basic plan of our days hasn’t really changed in years and years. I think this is probably because it works for us. The details change often though as family needs and stages of life change and I think this is one reason I get stuck in these doldrum times wondering why things aren’t working quite right. It’s because our needs have outgrown our systems.
Basically, we have:
- Morning Routine
- Study time
- Afternoon
- Dinner/Evening Routine
- Bedtime Routine.
I guess that’s so simplistic it isn’t even worth writing out, but thinking of the day in blocks of time like that (which represent how our life generally goes) is helpful to me.
During the morning routine we have breakfast, morning conversation, I play with the little ones a little and there are various household tasks that are needed to start the day. For example, Aidan gets his medications and recently I have been putting a big pot of water on the stove to boil since we still don’t have our hot water heater!
Then we move into what we call SCHOOL — though of course the name has a bad connotation, but schola originally meant something like games or leisure time! Anyway, it’s a placeholder word for anything academic we do that needs my intense input or guidance.
In the afternoon, starting about 2 pm, I slow way down, and I have to acknowledge that. So I read to the little ones, dink around doing minor organizational tasks, rest or take my bath or shower. I usually fit some prayers in here. SOmedays we run errands or go outside.
By about 4 pm I’m back on my feet. Then I move into dinner prep, tidying the house, getting things ready for the next day. Calling to mind that in Hebrew tradition, a new day started at sundown and ended at the next sundown, I really think of the last few hours before sleep as a readiness time for the next day.
Then we move into the bedtime routine, which is often a rich learning time but not schooly. We read stories and this is often the time that the teens get energized and we have the best conversations and begin the best projects. I read somewhere, and now I can’t remember where, that there is a physiological reason that teens seem to get charged up in the evening. So that’s another reason I need afternoons to be a bit slow — because in some ways the “second shift” begins at about 5 pm.
(Edited to add: JoVE reminded me it was her blog I read about the Teenage Brain and sleep patterns)
Now the area that seems to need the most work right now is the morning “study” time. Clare has been really trying to hit the books recently, and the fact is that when we are sort of freeforming the morning, there are these waves of ….. well…. noise, at intervals. The boys will begin an impromptu football game or wrestling match, and it does definitely change the atmosphere. So I think I am going to work on some sort of Rules of Order for that part of the morning. Details to follow. I was hoping that writing it out would help me THINK it out, but unfortunately several children are in here with me in one of those challenging, interruption minded moods.
And now I’m signing tax returns.
And this room is trashed. Sigh. I’d better go be involved in the workings of the day again.
Aidan got his leaf! Two of them in fact! It made his day; he is still carrying them around everywhere.
