Routines and Priorities

At the Real Learning message board, I was catching up on some threads I had missed while I was gone with Aidan, and found this one called Routines. I read along for several pages before I realized that the thread was two years old and had been bumped up by Cay because she rightly thought it was timeless. What made me check the date was that I found myself reading an entry that I had written, and I didn't think I had been THAT scattered during this illness, scattered enough to write something I had no memory of.

There are lots of good nuts and bolts ideas on that thread, anyway -- check them out.

Our household routine -- chronological "spine" for the day -- has been pretty much the same for several years. It goes like this:

• I wake up approximately when the sun rises ( 6 am in the summer, 8 am in the winter). Everyone else rises in the next hour or two after that. I go for a walk, check email, start laundry, and converse with the kids as they appear.
• A good cooked breakfast (we have a rotating schedule for breakfasts -- Aidan likes to help me cook them and I count it as part of his occupational "curriculum").
• Start studies -- usually about 9 am.
• End studies about noon or1 pm, usually. High schoolers may go a bit longer. Sometimes we have afternoon "homework" if things have been off for some reason in the morning.
  
• Lunch. Since we've had a cooked breakfast, I usually let the older kids get their own lunch -- sandwiches or leftovers or whatever they want to put together.
• Afternoon down time. I try to have some things strewn to keep little ones occupied since they no longer nap. But I do nap. I usually take a bath and then read stories to the little ones before I close my eyes.
• Up again to run errands, afternoon activities, catch up on phone calls, do household stuff, or spend some time doing projects with the kids. .... depending on what day of the week it is. Informal learning.
  
• Dinner Hour: Dinner prep, tidy up, dinner, kids clean up.
• Family time -- daughter usually plays music, others read or play. Baths and bedtime routine for little ones -- including more stories.
• Bedtime Routine Rosary, read, 15 minute examen, talk to husband, go to sleep.

This basic spine is fairly consistent but can be flexed during life events or enriched by adding things onto the basic "pegs". I have these Priorities for "setting their feet in a spacious place". These are the foundation stones that I keep coming back to. Elizabeth has some categories at her Faithful blog.