All About Routine

When it comes to homeschooling Planning & Routine are everything!

I'm not talking about a detailed, color coded, down-to-the-minute schedule that dictates your day.  I'm talking about a flow or rhythm to your day with an expectant (but realistic) outcome. I know I don't feel successful after a day or week of running around always searching for what I need or not knowing what I want to teach the kids next. Your daily habits, daily chores, daily and long term goals and how they are carried out (+attitude) will help determine how successful your homeschooling and overall life experience will be. 

Here is a small example of our daily routine:

Up early to spend time with Daddy before work,
Breakfast
Tend to Animals
Morning Chores
Bible Study
Math
Language Arts
Lunch
Vocabulary
Family Read-a-Loud
Independent Reading
Piano Practice
FreeTime
Dinner
Quick Clean-up
Family Time
Prep Time
Lights Out Early (Early to Bed, Early To Rise...;)

So, here are some sites and information that I found helpful in my struggle to rope in the chaos and help create a nicer flow to our family life and learning. This is a constant with me, so when I stumble upon more resources, I will add them as I find them. Hope this helps and is a blessing to anyone else who struggles in this area as I do.  :)

              

  Homeschool Creations  has a very nice Homeschool Weekly
                                  Planner that can be edited for an affordable price.

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  DonnaYoung.org Printables and Resources has a
                                         plethora of free information and resources for Planning
                                         in the home, homeschooling, and etc. 




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Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family By Kim Brenneman (even if you don't have a large family, very useful to any mother or wife who struggles with taming the home.) Simple Homeschool-Lots of great ideas and encouragement. Fly Lady - Let's face it when the house is in chaos, so is our family.                           Fly Lady has helped me realize everything does not                           have to be done in one day. And I have to admit Fly                           Lady does help make cleaning house feel...well...fun!  My free Organization Helps: December Monthly Menu and Inventory Chart How to use: First, I go through out the house and list what we have and how much of each item is left. I then start preparing our Menu from what is left. I then fill out the rest of our Menu for the month. I compare the Menu with my inventory and decide what is needed and how much and mark it on the inventory. My Grocery list is based on the finished inventory or just use the inventory as your grocery list-which ever works for you. At first it may appear like a lot of work, but in the end it's a great stress reliever.