family | Chaotic Bliss Homeschooling

The other day I talked about my bedtime routine and how it has helped me stay more sane and productive during our school day (or even non-school days honestly). Today I wanted to share all about my daily schedule so you can kind of see how we make things work around here.

Wake Up

I HAVE to wake up before my kids. Even if only 5 minutes before them. That time of peace and quiet is pure bliss. I try to wake up around 8 am so that I can have at least 30 mins to an hour before I have to deal with any other human in the morning.

Coffee!

Since I program my coffee machine the night before, my coffee is ready to go by 8am when I wake up. I even set my coffee cup next to the machine so I don’t have to bother with opening a cabinet. So before I do ANYTHING in the morning, I get some coffee in my system, otherwise the rest of the day just isn’t going to happen!

Check Email/Facebook

Hi, my name is Jenn and I’m a facebook addict. (*HI JENN!*) … okay… now I feel better. Yep, I have to check facebook and email first thing when I wake up and I’m enjoying my coffee. I never said I was proud of this but admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

Dinner Prep

I’m a huge fan of my crock pot (slow-cooker, whatever you call it), especially during the week. It’s saved us from having to do emergency fast food dinners so many times I’ve lost count. Let’s face it, some days its just too busy around here to cook anything! So I try to use the crock pot as much as possible. Once I’m awake and before the kids have had the chance to take over the kitchen – I get dinner going. If I’m not using the crock pot that day, then I’ll pull down whatever meat needs to be thawed for the day.

Wake up and Feed the Kids

Okay really, its more like the kids have been awake for at least the past 30 mins but I don’t let them come out and start acting crazy til 9. Because before 9am is MY TIME. Yep. I’m that mom. I’m also the mom that doesn’t cook much in the mornings, so this is more like – tell the kids what they can help themselves to in the kitchen. Usually one of the older girls will help my 4 year old out for me.

Morning Chores

I make my girls do basic “chores” everyday. Usually its just the basics like get dressed, brush their hair and teeth, make their bed, etc. Sometimes I’ll ask one to put away the dry dishes from the night before, but since I refuse to go to bed with a clean house, there’s usually nothing else that needs to be done right away.

Begin School Day

10am is our “start time”. Usually one of the older girls goes back in the other room and works on their computer work while the other stays in the living room to do their book work. The 4 year old usually gets educational ipad time, because this girl is HOOKED on the ipad! This also helps me focus on one kid at a time making sure they’re getting that one on one time with me and I can really see that they understand what they are doing. It also keeps things quiet around here because the two older girls aren’t fighting or goofing off with each other. We’re MUCH more productive this way.

12pm we break for lunch for about an hour. We eat and then make sure the kitchen looks exactly how it looked before we started our day – table and counters clean, all dishes from lunch washed, and floor swept if needed.

1pm means lunch over we work on any of the subjects that the older girls work on together (science, social studies, non-cores, and sometimes Literature). Then when that work is done they split up again, only this time they switch (whoever did computer work first does their book work now and vise versa). Then when they’re done with their individual work it’s usually anywhere between 3 and 4 pm. Once our school work is done for the day, then it’s a free for all for the rest of the night! Since my house is clean (should be) the kids are able to play and have fun and just be kids for the rest of the day. Our evenings are used for having fun, spending time together as a family, or for extra curricular activities (we do American Heritage Girls and 4H).

9pm we begin the bed-time routine, which you already know about. And that’s it – that’s our homeschool day and how it all functions! Since beginning this new schedule this year, I’m able to accomplish so much more during the day and I feel like my kids are so much less crazy throughout the day.