Do you want to start a debate at a homeschool gathering? Just ask about schedule!
This only gets more exciting when you announce that your child has autism, or a learning disability. Then you hear…. you MUST schedule their entire day…you MUST go self directed learning to teach them to loosen up… you MUST….blah blah blah!
As far as I am concerned there is NO WRONG way to schedule your homeschooling day or year! As long as you hit the main points.
1. My child is learning and progressing!
2. I have met all legal requirements.
3. My home is not stressed and anxious everyday to meet our goals.
I am a semi-structured person. This year I have found with a middle schooler all the way down to kindergarten that I need more structure. Each year we have homeschooled our schedule has changed. What worked great last year didn’t work for us this year. What works great for my friends doesn’t work totally for me but I can use some of their ideas!
In order to keep us on our toes and moving forward I made a schedule board.
Our Schedule Board
This has the month, the daily schedule, a chores chart, our memorization scripture for the week, and few lists we are working on.
Here is our daily schedule:
Daily Work Schedule
Wake up!
Working on the days of the week
8:00 Breakfast/ Dressed/ Tidy Up
8:30 At the Table Ready to Work
9:00 Prayer/Hand Wake Up
9:30 First Block
10:00 Second Block
10:30 Snack/ Mom Reading
11:00 Third Block
11:30 Fourth Block
12:00 Lunch/Free Hour
1:00-3:00 Big Projects/ Arts and Crafts/Free Time
3:00 Chores DONE then Tech Allowed
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Bedtime Routine
Our morning is cut into blocks so I can shift kids to subjects they need rather than my spectrum kids getting hung up on specific subject names. I love to give crunchy healthy snacks while I read aloud. The crunchy snack often feeds that need to chat while I read and the kids need some time to rest their eyes. After lunch is the messy stuff. Whether that is a science project, arts and crafts, or any large projects that needs some extra elbow room. Then we have a open, no tech time for the afternoon.
A gentle reminder
I have found that I need to teach my spectrum kiddos HOW to use unscheduled time. Teaching a child how to play was not on my list when I first started homeschooling but it is now. When we are in open time. First comes chores. Then I step back and let the kids try to find something to do. Sometimes they do and all is well. Then there are the whiny days. Those days when nothing but tech will cure….haha I am a hard parent. I don’t give in!
I try to have a few suggestions up my sleeve to encourage play. If that doesn’t happen I always have walls that need washing, a cat that needs a bath…you get the hint. 😉
Our days are simple. We enjoy our time together.We are all year homeschoolers. (I’ll have to scan my yearly schedule and show you.) This is our WORK DAY schedule. We have a PLAY DAY schedule which is obviously looser with the only work on it chores, BUT I find that I still have to have SOLID tech limits. Tech is very enthralling to my son. He needs limits and I have to set them in stone.
I asked my friends how do you schedule. Here is a list of links to see how other families are scheduling their day!
Homeschool USA has an article by Christine Field Yearly Scheduling Option for Homeschool Families
Tracey at Learners at Home wrote two posts The Dreaded Task- Planning and My Own “Ramblings” and Success with Google Calendar – Scheduling that is Paper Free
Dianna wrote Our Homeschooling Schedule (Some Days, Anyway)
Cindy wrote Homeschooling All the Time
Bethany from Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom A How-To Example of Mid-Range Planning She also has an e-book on planning for school.
Kym Wright had an article at CrossWalk.com Why Schedule?
Kym can also be found at KymWright.com and Learn and Do Unit Studies
Please let me know how you schedule! I would love to add more to the list! Parents are always tweaking their schedules or they are new and need some guidance! The more the merrier!
This post is included in the Carnival of Homeschooling 262th edition!
I am just starting to homeschool my 7-year-old son – tomorrow will be our first day. He’s very highly gifted and also has Asperger’s.
Thank you for your blog. I also don’t believe there’s one correct way to schedule, especially since every child’s needs and strengths are so different. We’re planning a combination of structured learning (to ensure we don’t skip over necessary skills) and child-led learning (since he’s already ahead academically and most of his knowledge has been self-taught).
My 9-year-old son has autism and is still in the public school setting; however, if he were ever to be homeschooled, he would need a very structured, busy day.
I’m looking forward to exploring the links you included to others’ schedules.
Thank you for this post! We are starting our home school journey tomorrow. My PDD-NOS son kind of graduated from his developmental delay preschool room but a regular kindergarten would be too much for him. This will help me as I get adjusted. I love the blocks of time idea for the future, and I will come back later to read everyone else’s ideas! For now I’m going to go to bed and rest up to face kindergarten in the morning!
Good post! I agree. We’ve found that we have to gently direct our special needs daughter how to use free time. Her tendency is to go straight to videos or computer games, so we do have to limit that. She can be very creative with her time, and does enjoy so many other things, but they don’t always come to mind. If she is bored, she thinks it’s time to be snacking, and that’s a challenge we face. So we try to give her things to look forward to and to prepare for if she hasn’t thought of something herself. That’s pretty “normal”, come to think of it.