That Elusive Organized Day

The overwhelming theme of your questions a couple months ago: How do you organize your day? What does your routine look like?

*NOTE: This is nothing what a day actually looks like at our house. (Wry grin.) (This is a pretty good day for us.) You know those conversations you have with yourself that sound something like, 'Well, there is no way I can get it all done anyway, so I'm not even going to try....' (Am I the only one that thinks that?!) Now my internal conversations can sound like this: 'Well, girl, it is your own fault. You know what you were supposed to be doing.' Or maybe, 'I'll get it all done tomorrow.'

This is the bare-bones, all business, get-it-done schedule. No feel-good ambiance photos to enhance it today...


Master Schedule



7:00 me: get up, shower, get ready


7:30 boys: watch eductional show/DVD
me: read devotional, check email,
put in load of laundry, make bed


8:00 boys: chores
me: make breakfast (fill crockpot if on the menu)


8:30 eat breakfast, take vitamins, Levi read memory work,
boys clear table


9:00 clean up kitchen, reboot laundry
me: finish putting on make-up, wipe down bathroom
boys: get dressed, make beds, brush teeth



Monday-Thursday:

9:30 1 1/2 hour morning lessons
(handwriting, spelling, grammar, Latin, geography, hymns, art, and music)
(remember to drink water!)


11:00 Levi: piano practice, Luke: read Bible
11:30 (Luke: piano, soon!) Levi: read Bible

11:45 break (laundry reboot, check email, jump on mini trampoline...)
put on music CD for boys


12:00 fix lunch
(eventually, Levi: Rosetta Stone Spanish)


12:30 eat lunch (listen to CD), clean up


(take Leif to Grandma's house a couple days/wk)


1:00 (make pot of tea)
math with Levi (Luke hang out with us)
10 minutes of math with Luke while Levi finished lesson

1:45 or 2:00 science/history/literature

3:00 boys: play
me: chores (more about those in a later post)

3:30 or 4:00 snack, straighten up house



Friday:

free day for appointments, library, field trips, activities, play dates...



Evenings:

(right now we have nothing scheduled other than piano and occasionally swimming (wahoo!) but this is a possible schedule in the next few months...)


Monday: Family Night


Tuesday: Tae Kwon Do (bath night)


Wednesday: Piano Lessons,
Levi and Luke church (me: errands, groceries)

Thursday: TKD

Friday: Family Swim Night

(after TKD and piano, before other activities:)
Dinner prep, put away laundry, boys set dinner table
Dinner
Dinner clean-up, straighten up house

Boys ready for bed


8:00 picture book with Leif, Luke read to me,
family chapter book


8:45 Levi: independent reading
me: chores! finish kitchen clean-up, run dishwasher,
straighten house, sweep/mop, school prep, etc.,
evening routine

9:30 blog

10:00 Bible/reading

11:00 asleep!



Weekends, Wahoo!:

Saturdays:


yard work, chores, projects, library, Home Depot kids' workshop, play, Saturday market, field trips


haircuts, fingernails trimmed, baths, get clothes ready for church



Sundays:

Church

Costco
Garbage/recycling (Russ and boys)
check meal plan, check weekly calendar, weekly school prep
relax, play, projects, day trips, time with other family

____________________________________

Even on the best of days, I don't follow this schedule to a T. Often I'll trade things around. Give and take, and all that. We might take Tuesday morning off and Thursday afternoon off rather than all day on Friday. I might make my bed and check email and then take a shower. The main thing is that I know what needs to be done, and roughly the amount of time it should take. If I have to put something in the crockpot or we got up late, I'll serve yogurt and granola bars for breakfast rather than make pancakes. If I know that Leif is spending the afternoon with Grandma, I'll wait and have Levi practice piano after he's gone.

If we are having a particularly rough day for some reason (illness, etc.) the boys might watch several educational videos (science, geography, etc.) and do more free reading. We can actually do geography songs, Latin review, hymns, addition/subtraction songs, Bible verse memory, memorization/poetry/Shakespeare, and/or music appreciation in the car. Sometimes we will go for a drive just to get out of the house and take care of those subjects or even do them on the way to/from piano lessons, etc.

I also have to remember that we will not be doing full lessons every week of the year. I don't have a specific yearly school schedule, but we will probably do light lessons as much as possible during the summer and take off various weeks here and there. Bigger projects and activities (or just time for relaxing and playing outside) will take place during off weeks.

Well, that's it, folks.

(ETA: Sorry about the wonky spaces and stuff. Having trouble with my post formatting. Oh, well.)