We have a plan of action for each day....but things work much better if we write it down. And the boys like to see the order of schedule too. Even Bear, even though he can't read. He loves to see where we are at on the schedule and have me read it to him.
Here's our routine.
Download my
excel
file here to see it better or use/edit it.
If something gets done sooner than the time listed, we start the next thing early. Odds are something takes longer than the time frame but something else might not take as long so it evens out good enough. And there is a buffer room in the play time so if we run out of time before lunch we always cut that section out. Let me explain some details.
Devotions- We read 1 chapter from the Bible.... sing 3-4 songs from the Hymn book/chorus book, and work on memorizing a verse together.
Breakfast... self explanatory right?! :)
Cheerful Chores- We have set chores we do every morning. Bear empties the bathroom garbage and then dusts the living room. He doesn't do the best job dusting since he's 4....so there's always something for him to dust every day! Monkey empties the dishwasher....which has to be done almost every morning. If not he empties the garbage, or sweeps and mops the kitchen floor. And notice it's Cheerful chores because we have to be cheerful the whole time we are helping out! :)
Colossians 3:23 Work willingly at
whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for
people.
Bible/Science/Social Studies- From our Homeschool material. We usually have a bible lesson and then a science project or social studies project to go along with it. One or the other each day.
Monkey works on his Math...using
Math-U-See.
While he's doing that Bear has an activity bin to keep him occupied. Different each day.
Letter Bin/
Number Bin,
Sensory bins,
Puzzle Bin,
Mosaic,
File Folder Games
Then I set up Monkey's flash cards and handwriting assignment which is either a bible verse we are working on, and sometimes focusing on proper ways of writing letters or copying sentences from books, etc. He is close enough where I can help him if he has a question while Bear is going through some preschool materials.
Activity- Then we work together on a Craft, Coloring, Painting, Do some follow the leader activities or journaling. We learned the follow the leader from some friends, and read about it also in the Duggar's book. :) You give simple instructions like walk to the chair, turn around twice, jump 3 times and sit down. And see if they do it in the correct order. And for journaling, Monkey is writing enough that if I help him with the spelling he can write his own short journal of something he enjoyed that week. Bear, I have him draw a picture and then tell me the story about that picture and I write for him. :)
Mom read's aloud. They get to pick a couple books, and I pick a couple books that go with the subject of that week. And I read outloud to them for 20-30 minutes.
Play Time....this is just some bumper time if we get done a little early, and something for them to do while I make lunch, which usually doesn't take long. We usually run over on time and don't have much extra time before lunch anyway.
Lunch!
Monday's we go to the Library, which cuts nap time short....Friday is more game oriented. Inbetween we might choose a short 20 minute learning cartoon.
Then Nap time for Bear....and Quiet play time for Monkey, starting with reading, and the rest playing quietly by himself for a little while.
Snack Time!
Brotherly love play time. I usually pick an activity for them to do together. It helps them work together better. That way they aren't automatically mad because they didn't want to do what the other person wanted...so I either pick the legos, or box of cars, or army men, or blocks etc....sometimes they get to do 2 projects at once. :) They enjoy this scheduled time. And now it's time for me to prep supper so I can watch them while I get things prepared.
Supper!
The evenings are not as scheduled....Daddy's home, we run errands, we love to go to the store together just for a fun outing, Wednesday is Awana for us, and any other mish-mash of what we can fit into the evening hours.
7:30 we put on our jammies, brush our teeth, and by the time we sing songs, same ones from the morning(we pick 3-4 different songs each Monday to help up get to know them really good), say our memory verses and pray, it's 8 and time to climb into bed. For the kids anyway. :)
If you know me, you know I'm up til 11 or 12.
