Let's share our schedules!

[MommyInTraining]

cooking during the school day

made a very simple 2 week rotating lunch plan

Julie,

I was thinking earlier of posting a request for menu planning help, and, after reading this tonight, figured I would just piggy back on this quote from you here on the scheduling thread.

I really need to come up with a menu plan for breakfast, lunch, snacks. and dinner. I have wanted to do this for years and have never gotten around to implementing it. I have wondered if I should prepare lunch in the mornings or the night before so as not to have to do it during the school day. Would you please share your rotating lunch plan? I am hoping it will give me some fresh ideas for coming up with our meals. Also, in your menu planning, do you have a worksheet that you use to write it out?

Thanks so much!

[my3sons]

Before sharing this, let me say I LOVE to cook - but, to be able to homeschool well I have made our breakfast and lunch menu extremely easy on me.

I follow these guidelines for the lunch menu:
*must be super quick to make with little cleanup
*must be something the dc really like
*must have a main dish, a grain, a fruit or veggie, and dessert



For supper, I fill in the blanks in pencil each week. Supper is about my dh and I - I make what we like, and the dc have to enjoy it as much as possible. I make a big supper meal on Monday, and we have it for leftovers on Tuesday. I make another big supper meal on Wednesday, and we have it for leftovers on Thursday. This menu has made it super easy for me to shop for groceries. I plan the bigger supper meals 2 weeks at a time, so I have 2 big grocery shopping times, and 2 that are more just the basics. I make a big batch of muffins and dessert every Monday. I also put my recipes in a big 3 ring binder in clear plastic sleeves and organized the main dishes by beef, chicken, pork, etc. I try to pick one from each kind throughout each month. Also, if my dh is going to be gone (and I know it ahead of time), I note that in the margin, and our meals become much more simple those nights than they would have been if he were home. Having large quantities of frozen beef, ham, chicken on hand helps too. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[water2wine]

Thought I would post my schedule that we are using for Beyond, Preparing and CTC. Just a heads up though I do a few things out of the ordinary. I have my CTC child listening in on the history part of Preparing. We all do a 30 minute Bible reading just straight from a chronological narrated Bible together daily and everyone listens in on that. And I have my oldest using a higher level Apologia. One more thing I alternate two LA programs, one being very time consuming and one very easy for my kids using CTC and Preparing. When we do the easy program we will also be doing DITHR (4 genres per year) when we do the time consuming LA we will not be doing DITHR so that is kind of in the schedule too. I color coded by program and by my time. CTC and Preparing are in the same column because there is overlap between them with my time in many areas. I also have two slots for CTC because I wanted some options with it and Beyond in terms of when I do my read alouds. So CTC is listed twice but in practice I only use one of those slots so the first one says possible, which means it's possible I might do it then. I have done both ways and both ways were very smooth days. I like starting my day out with it but I also have things that I must do first thing in the am with my dd that has special needs. So it is good to have flexibility. Also Fridays has options except what is in color and Health is done independently for the most part. I have an extra time for Spanish. If I fit it in three times during the week we can skip a formal lesson but just do a little fun review. We are running Beyond on a 4 day schedule as well. I am choosing to do that by combining day 4 and 5 together at this point. This week I got the extra day in by mistake so it does not seem like it will be a problem for us. CTC me time is Blue, Preparing me time is Purple, and Beyond time with me is Yellow.

[Becca]

We are doing Preparing (and the Extension) with an 8 and 11 year old. We use a seperate science, math and LA curriculum. The following is our schedule on the days that we will be home all or most of the school day.

The kids need to have all of their chores dones and be all prepared for school by 8:30 and then we start sometime between 8:30 and 9:00.

Our morning consists of the subjects that we do together. We start at the Kitchen table where we do Bible and Poetry (the right hand side of the Preparing Schedule) along with Logic and Meaningful Composition (our grammar/writing curriculum) and a read-aloud (on the couch). We then move into the school room where we do Math Drill, Spelling, and Dictation.

After about a half an hour break we do all the Preparing activities from the left and side of the Preparing Schedule (history and whatever else is listed for that day) and Science. That usually takes us until lunch time.

After lunch is my one-on-one time with each of the kids where we do math and the language arts that the kids do on their own level, and sometimes some extra history activities or reading.

A couple of days during the week we have activties planned outside of the home such as piano lessons, co-op or field trips. On those days we just speed things in a little and squish things into the time we have available or I skip a couple of things here and there (science is always the first thing to go - LOL)

And that's our day. A little before 3:00 we leave to pick up my other daughter at school and then we have a couple of crazy hours until Dad gets home and it's dinner time!

[kissesmomof4]

I have not read through all the responses yet but I thought I would lay out my "not really a schedule" schedule

We get up at about 8:30-9am

9am: Breakfast, dressing, some cartoons, dogs let out, laundry started, email checked, and my husband's lunch made

10-10:30am: start school with the big kids while 6yo plays wii or something. We usually do half the boxes before lunch

11am: DH leaves for work

12pm: everyone begs for a lunch break and they rot their brains with a little computer or tv

1pm: Finish up the last of the boxes for the older kids

2pm: Work with 6yo alone

3-3:15pm: finished with school, I rest my back and play on the computer. The kids play inside on the computer/wii or outside with the neighbors who get home from school at that time.

5pm:I start dinner

6pm: Dinner

8pm: Sometimes we have family tv time, kids cycle through shower

9pm: snack

10pm: DH comes home, kids say good night and go brush teeth and go to bed. 6yo does not sleep a lot so he usually stays up to about midnight

12am:I go to bed, my husband usually goes much later

Thursdays we have co-op so we have to be out of the house by 9:30am and we do not get home until 12:30-1:00

I am a really laid back person and really hate schedules so this is about as close as I will ever get to having one

[Sheila in OK]

Julie,
Thanks for sharing your schedule, that was really helpful! I so need to set up something like that. Lunch always catches me by surprise every day ("it's that time already??").

Can you tell me what Chicken Fingers are? Sounds like something my kids would like and I'm wondering if you have a recipe or if it's something purchased.

[my3sons]

Julie,
Thanks for sharing your schedule, that was really helpful! I so need to set up something like that. Lunch always catches me by surprise every day ("it's that time already??").

Can you tell me what Chicken Fingers are? Sounds like something my kids would like and I'm wondering if you have a recipe or if it's something purchased.

Hi Sheila! Chicken Fingers are one of the things I get from the "Schwan's Man" who comes to our house once a month. Here's a link:
http://www.schwans.com/products/product ... 9&c2=11278

They are super fast to make, and the kiddos love them. You can see if Schwan's delivers in your area at this link:
http://www.schwans.com/?kwid=searchggmi ... &dmg=3320/

We also like their Cod Nuggets and Chicken Fingers. HTH!


In Christ,
Julie

[Saved-Eagle]

I'll have to get back with you once we get our HOD books and get into it. But what we have been doing is starting school at 9:00am. I've been letting my ds and dd pick which subjects we do 1st, 2nd etc. I've come to find that helped a bit because they got to "pick" what they wanted to do. I'm thinking it's going to be alittle different with HOD, but we'll see

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I am finally getting around to posting our schedules for 2009-2010. I always shy away from posting my schedule, as I know each person is different and what works for one family may not work for another. On the other hand, I know it can be helpful to see other family's schedules, so I will post my schedule for this year with that thought in mind.

At our house, I find I function better having each child have his own schedule written out separately. It is easier for me to make changes this way, without affecting everyone, and also easier for each child to see what he needs to do each day. Each child has his own schedule in a binder with a plastic page protector. He checks off each item as it's done each day. The kiddos keep their same schedule all year, after we've made a few initial adjustments. In this way, they learn the schedule by heart (and so do I).

I am trying something new this year by NOT taking a morning recess break and by starting my older boys earlier (starting at 7:30 A.M. to get ready for the day) in order to have more of our afternoon free. I must admit that my husband (who is an early riser) makes sure the older kids are up and going before he leaves for the day. This has helped me tremendously! I will also admit that in this schedule I do try very hard not to do anything but school during the scheduled school-time. The added benefit of this is that we are actually finishing very near lunchtime (at 1:10 or so) each day (and have from the beginning of the school year).

I also made a point of scheduling last in the day anything the kiddos could do independently earlier in the day if they happened to finish a scheduled subject early. In this way, the older boys have the added motivation to finish a subject early and "work ahead" on their after lunch tasks.

The schedule below is for 2009-2010. It includes Beau (age 3, doing Little Hands to Heaven half-time), Greyson (just turned 7, in 1st grade, doing Beyond Little Hearts at full-speed 4 days a week), Shaw (age 10, in 5th grade, doing Creation to Christ at full-speed), Cole (age 13, in 8th grade, piloting much of Resurrection to Reformation at full-speed).

2008-2009 Shaw Grade 5 "Creation to Christ" Schedule:
7:30-8:00 Make Bed/Groom/Dress/Pick up Room/Breakfast
8:00-8:30 Creation to Christ Reading About History box (morning room)
8:30-8:50 Creation to Christ Independent History Study box (in morning room)
8:50-9:00 Chores: Take out garbages, put away silverware, wipe high chair tray, dust bust kitchen rug/floor.
9:00-9:10 Dictation
9:10-9:30 Creation to Christ Genesis: Finding Our Roots/Geography of Bible Lands (with mom at kitchen table)
9:30-10:10 Tues./Wed./Fri Level 4/5 Drawn into the Heart of Reading (with mom in morning room)
Mon./Thurs. Creation to Christ Science (morning room)
10:10-10:40 Math (with mom at the kitchen counter)
10:40-11:00 Creation to Christ Write with the Best/Rod and Staff Grammar (with mom at kitchen counter)
11:00-12:00 Pick Orders for our business (in warehouse)
12:00-12:15 Poetry (at kitchen counter)
12:15-12:40 Creation to Christ History Project (at kitchen counter)
12:40-1:00 Creation to Christ Bible Quiet Time box (morning room)
1:00-1:10 Help prepare lunch
1:10-1:45 Lunch (read-aloud the Storytime box here) Chores: Clear table after lunch.
1:45-2:15 Tues./Wed/Fri. Creation to Christ Science (at kitchen counter) Mon./Thurs. Play with Beau
2:15-3:15 Recess (outside unless it’s raining)

2009-2010 Greyson's Grade 1 Schedule for "Beyond Little Hearts":
8:00-8:30 Get dressed/make bed/groom/pick up
8:30-9:00 Breakfast
9:00-9:45 Play in his room
9:45-10:00 Clean-up room and come down
10:00-10:10 Handwriting ‘A’ (with mom at kitchen table)
10:10-10:25 Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory math 1A/1B (with mom at kitchen table)
10:25-10:40 Beyond Little Hearts Language Arts box (with mom at kitchen table)
10:40-10:50 Clean up area/ Choose educational video off my list of choices (in living room)
10:50-11:30 Educational video in living room
Note: After the video, Grey and I have one chunk of time where we move through the items listed below between 11:30-1:00. We do this all in the morning room.
11:30-11:45 Phonics (with mom in morning room)
11:45-11:55 Beyond Little Hearts Reading About History box
11:55-12:00 Beyond Little Hearts music box
12:00-12:10 Beyond Little Hearts Bible Study box
12:10-12:20 Beyond Little Hearts Poetry box
12:20-12:35 Beyond Little Hearts rotating activity box
12:35-12:50 Beyond Little Hearts Storytime box
12:50-1:00 Explode the Code
1:00-1:10 Help get ready for lunch
1:10-1:45 Lunch (Chores: Dust bust after lunch)
1:45-2:15 Educational computer CD with headphones (from my pre-selected choices)
2:15-3:15 Recess (outside unless it’s raining)

2009-2010 Cole's 8th Grade Schedule (piloting much of “Resurrection to Reformation”):
7:30-8:00 Make bed/get dressed/groom/pick up room/ breakfast
8:00-8:10 Chores: Unload dishwasher
8:10-8:30 Bible Study (in morning room)
8:30-8:35 Dictation (with mom at kitchen table)
8:35-8:55 Rod and Staff Grammar (with mom at kitchen table)
8:55-9:10 Greek (at kitchen table)
9:10-9:30 Geography/Bible Study (with mom and Shaw at kitchen table)
9:30-10:10 Tues./Wed./Fri. Level 6/7/8 Drawn into the Heart of Reading (with mom and Shaw in morning room) Mon. /Thurs. History Project (kitchen counter)
10:10-11:00 Math (upstairs in my room – set timer and work until it rings)
11:00-11:05 Chores: wipe bathroom counters, dust bust bedroom
11:05-11:30 Mon./Tues./Wed/Thurs. Medieval History-Based Writing Lesson (with mom in morning room) Fri. Practical Happiness study
11:30-12:00 History Reading and Follow-up
12:00-12:25 Get Beau out of crib, put toys away, play and read with him in his room
12:25-12:30 Get Beau’s lunch ready and get him seated at the table
12:30-1:00 Science (mom’s room for readings/kitchen for experiments)
1:00-1:10 Help get lunch ready
1:10-1:45 Lunch (After lunch chores: load dishwasher)
1:45-2:05 Extension Pack reading
2:05-2:15 Typing Instructor
2:15-3:15 Recess (outside unless it’s raining)
3:15-4:15 Warehouse work

2009-2010 Beau's 3 year old schedule “Little Hands to Heaven” half-speed:
8:15-8:45 Dress/Eat/Brush teeth
8:45-9:30 Watch educational video in the living room
9:30-10:00 Mon./Thurs. Little Hands to Heaven (playroom) Tues./Wed./ Fri. Play at table with playdough
10:00-11:00 Plays with educational toys from cupboard with me overseeing (while I work with Shaw and Greyson in kitchen)
11:05-11:10 Head up to crib/ get out toys
11:10-12:00 Plays in crib with toys and music
12:00-12:25 Play with Cole in room
12:25-12:30 Get ready for lunch
12:30-1:00 Eat lunch at table with daddy
1:00-1:45 Play out while the boys eat lunch
1:45-2:15 Mon./Thurs. Play with Shaw; Tues./Wed./Fri. Play with whichever child is done early today with school
2:15-2:45 Recess with boys
2:45-3:00 Looking at books
3:00-5:00 Nap

I make a master schedule for me that is one sheet and only has on it those things that I must teach or oversee during the school day. I put this in a plastic page protector along with the boys’ individual schedules behind it. That way I can see at a quick glance what I should be doing and also what each individual child should be doing.

My Schedule:
7:30-8:00 Mike makes sure older boys are up and going
8:00-8:30 I make sure Greyson and Beau are up and going.
8:30-8:35 Dictation with Cole at kitchen table
8:35-8:55 Grammar with Cole at kitchen table
9:00-9:10 Dictation with Shaw at kitchen table
9:10-9:30 Geography/Bible Study at kitchen table with Cole and Shaw
9:30-10:00 T/W/F Drawn into Heart with Cole and Shaw in morning room; M/R Preschool with Beau (playroom)
10:00 Handwriting with Greyson at kitchen table and then math (oversee Beau)
10:15 Go over math with Shaw at kitchen counter whenever he is ready (oversee Beau)
10:30 Help Shaw as needed with math and do Language Arts box with Greyson (oversee Beau)
10:40 Write with the Best/Grammar at kitchen counter with Shaw (oversee Beau)
11:00 Put Beau in crib with toys
11:05 Medieval History-Based Writing with Cole (morning room)
11:30 School with Greyson in morning room
1:00-1:10 Help make lunch
1:10-1:45 Lunch/Read-aloud
1:45-2:15 Watch over Beau and check work
2:15-3:15 Recess

Once I make a schedule, we work it every day until it becomes routine. The kiddos have timers for some subjects and generally watch the clock for the others. While I am not always on-time, I do keep the same order for each child every day. I have honestly found that to be the single most important thing schedule-wise that we do in our homeschool. If I am constantly changing my schedule, then my kiddos will never know what to expect, and I'll never hit the point at which the schedule really gives me freedom (because everyone knows what they're doing every day). Even if you don't like time allotments, just keeping the same general order of subjects every day will make a HUGE difference.

Blessings,
Carrie

[inHistiming]

Carrie,

Thanks so much for posting this. It's really neat to see how you do it, as well as all the rest of us who are using HOD! I like you're idea to have a separate schedule for each child as well as a master schedule for yourself so everyone can see at a glance what each is scheduled to be doing. I think I'm going to try that for us (the kids are with their grandparents this week so I will be working on our new schedule for chores, as well as school). This has been a great thread.

[Carrie]

Oh, I'm so glad this was helpful in some small way! After I posted this, I hoped it wouldn't make anyone feel like they needed to do school exactly like we do. It's just our way of making the guides fit our family. I know it may look overwhelming, but it actually helps my life run smoothly. Once the order is set, we can just work the routine. The making of it always takes some pondering though.

Blessings,
Carrie

[inHistiming]

Carrie,

While I know it could be overwhelming for some people...I'm one to get overwhelmed easily ....it was very helpful for me. I copied and pasted the schedules into Microsoft Word, then printed them out and sat down at the table with them this morning. I was able to begin a schedule for my kiddos, based on yours but tailored to their specific ages, guides, and goals. It was great! I'm not finished yet, and I'm sure we'll need to tweak it once we get into it after the new year, but I feel good about how it will work. I have the MOTH book and if I feel it will work we may eventually put it on their chart since it's color-coded according to each child. However, if it works as well as I think it will I may find that is not necessary. Thanks again for posting this....and I think I'll be reading over this thread again over the next weeks just to glean more ideas and refresh myself on great organizational techniques!

[MommyInTraining]

Greyson (just turned 7, in 1st grade, doing Beyond Little Hearts at full-speed 4 days a week)

Carrie,

Since Beyond is a 5 day program, do you just go longer into the year to finish it?

[MommyInTraining]

Carrie,

Thanks so much for sharing!!!

Would you mind saying what your children do after their outside recess time in the afternoon? Do you schedule their evenings? Do they have certain things they do or do you just give them open play time?

Thank you!

[Carrie]

Terri,

I didn't see your question here until now. However, I did get a chance to answer it on another thread. So, I'll paste my response below for anyone else that may be helped by the answer in some small way.

We actually have been getting done earlier with school than my schedule above shows. My older boys do their after lunch subjects whenever they finish a subject early in the mornings. So, by lunch they are usually finished for the day. Typically we are finished by 1:10 (which is lunchtime for us). After school is done and their one-hour outdoor recess is over, my boys each have 20 minutes to choose something for the other boys to play together. My 3 oldest boys do this, while my youngest is napping or looking at books upstairs. This takes up an hour or more of their afternoon after school is done (and comes after our one-hour recess).

When my kids were younger, we had a 30 min. time that they each chose something for the others to play. However as my kiddos are getting older, they each desire more of their own free-time in the afternoon. So, after they have played together now they each have their own free-time until our afternoon rest time before supper.

For their 20 min. play time, the boys can pick anything from playing a board game, to playing outside, to creating with art supplies, to playing with some sort of toys in our playroom (like Legos, K'nex, Playmobile, G.I. Joes, castle, build huge train tracks), to playing with our game table (new this year for Christmas), to recording books on tape or cd, to flying paper airplanes, to using their foam dart guns, to playing cards, to racing cars, to writing and illustrating stories together, to making puppet shows, to making short videos with their cameras, to playing in our Playhut type tents and tunnels etc. I set the timer (or have the boys set it), so each activity is only 20 min.

They must not be upstairs where the little guy is sleeping, they must not be running through the house or be incredibly loud, and they must all play together (not one child off by himself reading or something), but beyond that there aren't many rules for this time. The kiddos are usually required to pick up at the end of each 20 min. segment. However, sometimes a child will want to continue playing with his choice later. Then, we'll allow those things to be left out.

I am always nearby to oversee but am doing my own tasks. The boys have done a great job of coming up with their own ideas as the years have passed. If they're not sure whether something is appropriate, they'll ask.

We also do still have a 45 min. rest time in their rooms in the late afternoon right before supper (where they can play quietly, create, read, listen to books on audio with headphones, latch hook, etc.). In this way it's quiet for me right before supper, and I have time to prepare it (or think ) without all of the kiddos around! If we skip rest time, we find especially the little ones quickly derail in the evenings. So, we work hard to make sure everyone gets some quiet time before the evening meal. (Mom needs the quiet too!).

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie