Creating a Homeschool Rhythm You Love
I love a good daily rhythm. I love being able to automate much of my life, knowing that top priorities are planned for and my creative energy and decision making can be put to better use.
My first step in creating our homeschool rhythm, any rhythm really, is to make a priorities list. These are the items that must have a place inside the homeschool schedule. If I plug them in first and happen to have extra time, great! But to be honest, that doesn't often happen. But really, does that surprise anyone?
Steps to Creating Your Homeschool Rhythm
Step 1: List Your Priorities:
Right now with my 2, 4, and 7 year old children, this is what our priority list looks like:
Calendar work
Grace and Courtesy lesson
Reading, writing and math with Peter
Reading, writing and math with Vivian
20 minutes of lesson time with each child
Peter's homework time
Chapter book read aloud
Picture book read aloud
History book read aloud and rabbit trails
Family prayer and scripture study
Recess
Quiet time
Three square meals
Step 2: Write Each Priority into an Hourly Schedule.
Our hourly schedule:
8:00 AM breakfast WITH calendar work (what day of the week it is, how to write the date, plans and expectations for the day) & grace and courtesy lesson (a fancy Montessori way to say, manners)
9:00 AM a 20 minute lesson with each child, beginning with the youngest and continuing to the oldest. Thank you, Sarah Mackenzie for this advice! You can find that complete and wonderful podcast episode below.
RAR#231: Homeschooling with Babies and Toddlers
10:00 buffer lesson time (because 20 minutes each × 3 children somehow takes longer than 60 minutes...)
11:00 Recess. We all head out to the backyard to play or to the cul-de-sac for some bike riding practice
12:00 lunch (smoothies) WITH read aloud picture books. Each child (and mom) choose one book. Peter also reads his next All About Reading story to us.
1:00 Quiet Time. Peter finishes his homework before free play.
2:00 Quiet Time continues... Elliot is hopefully asleep. If it's a really good day, I'm asleep too.
3:00 small snack WITH History Read Aloud and rabbit trails
We love to use The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as our history backbone and take the rabbit trails that interest us along the way.
4:00 make dinner
5:00 dinner WITH family prayer and scripture study
For a full post on how I prepare for family scripture study see:6:00 tidy up
7:00 chapter book read aloud
We are currently reading and thoroughly enjoying Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure by Ann M. Martin with illustrations by Ben Hatke. Missy is the niece of the well known Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and in this first book of three in the series she tackles some tough behaviors in children and parents alike.
8:00 bedtime. Peter and Vivian normally look at books in bed until 8:30, when book lights are out.
You'll notice that I love to tie different homeschool priorities to meals. This is extra security that they will not get skipped. I don't often skip meals.
Step 3: Revise as Needed.
Creating a homeschool rhythm that works for your family is not a one time event. I'm constantly taking notes on what's working and what's not and then making little tweaks here and there. Best of luck!
If you would like more information on a certain part of our homeschool rhythm, let me know in the comments and I'll write a post with more details.
Happy homeschooling,
Elizabeth Erin
