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I am putting my homeschool day down on paper and finetuning things. It is a very educational process so far. I realize I switch around between my children a lot. I tend to have longer blocks with my oldest, in Bigger Hearts, because the others are done with school or structured activities and are off playing. Have you found it better to switch between children frequently or try to have 30 minutes or more with each child?

Since January I have pretty much done it like this-
Start Bigger child on independent work, then a block of 20 min w/ Little Hearts
After that semi-independent with Bigger child for about 10-15 min, young one taking a break w/ 4 yo.
Next, another 20 min block with LHFHG child. By then he is just about finished, he is so quick.
Usually I have a couple things that are independent or semi to let him do while I do Little Hands or help the Bigger child.
20 min or so of Bigger teacher directed work, then I finish anything with the youngers.
Last in the morning is all directed to the Bigger child.
Right after lunch is reading time for all. They read to me and I read the Bigger Hearts storytime.

I have found that 20 min blocks work better for my family. Another I know does 45 min blocks (grade levels see some distance apart for her, with no preschool children). So that will depend on your family and what you think they can handle.
Mine can only focus 20 min at a time before a quick break. Actually my oldest can do 25 min, I have him do the 20 to make it easier on my scheduling.

This way if for some reason we are late starting school, or happen to be early we can still follow the same format, and not be tied to a certain time.

That's probably basically what I do too, and in the same guides even! I haven't been doing LHTH but am planning to add it back in. The "on paper" schedule just seems so disjointed but the thing is that's what we've already been doing and it seems to work. I feel like I can't focus on any one thing for too long because I bounce around so much! But I guess with 4 kiddos in the house, that's how it's bound to be. Of course, I can't schedule in the toddler's dirty diaper, 3 year old's tantrum, or anything like that. I'm like you, I prefer to have a routine, this is the order we do things and who I work with in what order, so that I'm not always watching the clock. It seems like when some things take a long time or there are small interruptions we still usually end up okay if we've started at a reasonable time.

You really have to go with what works smoothly for you. After tweaking 4 times I ended up with a schedule (Preparing and Little Hearts) that has 1 shorter block of time with each child, 1 larger block, and one semi-independent block where they are both working and I go back and forth. My Preparing child finishes with me while younger is done.

The one thing that concerns me about switching around so much is often we lose each other in transition. Transitions can be the hardest, especially with my 3YO, she has a hard time listening. Now with the new schedule I have made I think there are fewer transitions for her, I am hoping she can stick with an activity/area for 20-30 minutes at a time (and seriously, I am switching around with my older kids more often than that!) She and 1YO baby brother are going to get to watch a cartoon in the morning, which is going to make the older sisters insanely jealous, but I am kind of low on other ideas for how to keep baby brother entertained the whole time we are doing school. The last 30-40 minutes (at least at this point) of my oldest's school baby brother is "on Mom's hip" which has been the reality of what it is usually like. He is hungry for lunch, getting tired for his nap, and I haven't been able to put time into finding something else for him to do. I suppose I don't mind. I should get a hip carrier. Also this is when we are usually doing science and the rotating box, which it is fine if I stand for those.

I have been doing long blocks of time this year, mostly because transitions were so hard for us the year before. I work with my eight-year old for over an hour in the morning. In part I do this because my younger two fight a lot and they seem to do best in the morning after breakfast when they are fresh & tummies full. I also work with my 6-year-old in the later morning for almost an hour. The downside has been that my five-year old has to be away from me nearly all morning, but I am lucky in that he plays very well alone. (Just not always so well with his sister!). I do his school right after lunch.

My oldest sometimes seems fatigued by the end of her long block of doing dictation, math, grammar, and DITHOR all in a row, so I think for next year I'll divide it up a bit, but I'm sure that I will make blocks of at least 30 min. However, your situation is different than mine in that you have a baby and a younger child, so I'm not sure what would be best for you...

I do long blocks (60-90 minutes) with each child, though the others know they are allowed to come over and wait quietly if they need clarification for something. I also will allow another child to interrupt us at certain times in order to give an oral narration while it's still fresh in their minds. This has worked very well for us.

I am going to give it a try! I can always still tweak it if I need to. It will be interesting to see if I can manage to run my youngers' time better and keep them happy and get school done. Thanks to all of you for the ideas!

Melissa,

One thing that really helped me when I had little ones who were hungry and waiting on us to finish school for lunch was to just feed my little ones lunch early. While they were eating, they were much happier and that actually bought me time to work more quietly and efficiently with my olders to finish up as needed. I made a lunch menu that had easy things to prepare on it, so lunch was very low-key. This meant that it was easy to just make the littles their lunch and get them eating.

Then, later when my olders were eating, I usually read aloud or had them listen to a book on audio during lunch. My littles could then come and go during that time, because they had already been fed. I just mention it in case it helps!

I also tried to think of my day in 30 min. chunks and move my little ones for sure to something different every 20-30 min. (long before problems erupted). This helped me keep them happy and moving through their day while we were moving through ours.

This past thread may be of some help to you as you ponder. I'm sure you've read it before, but sometimes seeing something again at a different time in life allows us to take something different from it: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10601&p=77197

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

Thanks, I did intend on going back to read the thread, at least I think it is the same one. I still remember some of the ideas but I am sure there are several I've forgotten too. Organizing all of the things for the little ones' playtimes will take me some time, but I am sure it will be well worth it. I have tried feeding my youngest lunch first. He doesn't like it when it comes to lunch. He's much more likely to sit and eat if everyone else is sitting and eating too (usually by this time my oldest is the only one still at the dining room table doing school). I could and sometimes do feed the 3 who are not doing school before my oldest, as she is finishing up a notebooking page or something. Simple lunches have been the norm around here, though I do hope to be able to plan things out a little better, because I want to have my 6YO and 8YO helping with meal prep as they can. It then helps if I'm not looking in the fridge going "what do we have.... oh ok, scrambled eggs."

I sometimes get away with that for dinner. He is so so hungry by that time that he is ready to sit and eat. He doesn't like sitting in the high chair, I think he views it as confinement of his exploration efforts. Then he is done with dinner before we even start, but that's OK, it's easier for me to finish making dinner if he is not on my hip.