HOW do you create a schedule? little overwhelmed here...

[brokenopen]

We are running three guides here, and I love them.
However, the children are filthy, the dishes overflow, the laundry is breeding, the yard is overtaking the house and mom needs way more coffee and Jesus.

I do not like schedules, seeing as how SOMETHING unexpected always happens. I see no other way around it, regardless of my feelings!

I have gone through the thread on schedules, and I am not seeing anything for the guides we are running specifically.

Can anyone tell me how they go through the schedule creating process? Do you schedule a whole side of a guide, or individual boxes? Maybe just T, S, and I boxes? Something else?

Right now, we are checking off boxes as we go, and I forever have 3 sweet faces asking me what's next. I am trying to juggle the boxes around and give some independent work while I read or do one on one with another, but it is REALLY hard to keep all the balls in the air, and is taking me all day.

I saw that a lot of ladies were having success working with the oldest early, before breakfast, so we tried that this morning. We had high hopes at 9 am when we were already so far into our school, but at 4 pm when DS still had another page of math and diagramming to do and taekwondo coming up at 445, there were no more smiling faces.

Anyone else struggle with this successfully?

[happyhome]

I don't have answers but I am just about to start the same guides and am trying very hard to come up with a schedule. One of the threads I saw said to write everything you need to do- each box on a separate post it note, then match them up to see what areas you could schedule at the same time, i.e. kids in Bigger and preparing doing math while you are reading LHTH.
I'm praying for us both!

[mom23]

I did the post it thing to come up with a basic block schedule. Wrote each child's work on their own color; marked with the name of the box, how long it took, and whether it was T,S, or I. Then lined up one block at a time so I could see which child needed me and what the others could be doing on their own during that time.

The other thing that has really helped me with kids coming up constantly to ask what's next is making up a sort of workbox system. Each block of time has it's own box filled with everything they need to complete all subjects in that block. For example, my Preparing box 2 has my dd's Draw and Write through History, the notebook where she copies from it, a pencil, her science book, and science notebook (all independent). Our Beyond box 2 has my ds's History book with a post it note for what pages we're reading, a note card with his Bible Memory verse written on it, and his Science book (all to do with Mom.) Our LHFHG box 2 has some workbooks that ds enjoys and is able to either do alone, or we complete it together when all other boxes are done (I only have 2 LHFHG boxes, most of his school day is in box 1, where I get it done first thing before starting with the other kids.) Their workboxes face with the number out on the shelf when they're full, and when the kids do the work they put them backwards. They can easily see how much of their day is left that way. I try to do any grading as I empty and refill the boxes the night before. At first they took around 45 mins to fill, but now I can set them out in around 20 mins each night. Time well spent, considering how much time it whittles off our school day!

I hope this gives you a place to start thinking; and maybe some hope...because I so identified with your post! I fought the idea of making a schedule for 2 years! It really is helping, though.

[Mom2Monkeys]

I have a schedule that might fit pretty closely for you I think.... I have it shared on hslaunch.com... just search "school days gone by" and you should find all my files I've shared. Or go to my blog and click on the sun in the sidebar and it'll take you right to my page of files. You'll see a few schedules there to get ideas from. Hope they help.

www.schooldaysgoneby.com

[moedertje]

I pray that the Lord will give you wisdom as you are trying to figure out your schedule.

Some of the things that helped me come up with a schedule for my kiddo's: (and I changed many times as kids changed guides or situations in the family came up. This year I'm waking the kids at 7:00 instead of 8:30 and it makes a huge difference).
1. What time allotments are needed for each subject in the guides (for the beginning I took the longest time)?
2. What child is the most alert early in the morning?
3. What child is able to do the whole guide in one, time wise, acceptable day?
4. What child can do all their teaching with me in one setting and do their seat work independently after that?
5. Knowing yourself and your limitations, frustrations with schedules helps. I now hold more loosely to "time", it's there as a guide!

Than I picked the most alert child for the first teaching session. He happens to be in Beyond and is able to handle, doing his 3 R's (spelling, LA, math) and moving right into all the other subjects with me. Leaving him with his seat-work minus math, we have to do all of his math together.
This usually takes about 1 1/2 hours. (8:00-9:30)

While he is working with me, my oldest son begins his independent seat-work in Preparing (and piano practice).
His first teaching time I do is LA, Math and History Project (making sure he knows what to do) and he goes off to finish his work, after snack time! (9:30-10:00)
Snack time is from(10:00:-10:15)

Number 3 is chomping at the bits at this point to get HER schoolwork done! I am also able to get all her school work from LHFHG done in one sitting, 3 R's first and moving into, Rhymes, history etc. She also gets to finish her fine motor skills and ETC on her own and any craft that she wants to get more elaborate with.(10:15-11:30).

At 11:30 I start with my oldest and depending on the activities of his day, we have finished with teaching anywhere between 12:00 and 1:00. Than we eat lunch and he finishes anything that he has left over. This week we have been completely done with school every day before 2:00pm, including piano practices for all 3 and a lesson we go to for 1 1/2 hour at 2:00pm.

Now I have to say, we are all well into our guides this week, after summer break: Preparing unit 27, Beyond unit 12, LHFHG unit 5 (teaching it the 3rd time around is easier as well).

So, this may sound like we have it all together, but it did not start out this way. (struggled successfully)
We had to do some training first on all the guides especially the older ones. Bigger is very teacher intensive guide that you are doing. You may consider doing it at half pace until everyone gets used to and is able to get their work done in an acceptable amount of time. With my older son, we did Bigger at 1/2 pace pretty much for the whole guide, because he is a reluctant writer and he was on the younger side of the age range.
In the beginning you may also need more time to spend with your child in Preparing, it took us months to get this place of ds maturing and being able to work independently and doing a good job. (We are still working on written narration, it drains our time ) That we finish on Friday!

With my 2 older ones I do 4 days a week full guide. With the little one 3 days a week at the moment, since she just started piano and needs help to practice. On the other 2 days I do her 3 R's, with the boys I also do 3 R's on Friday and keep that day for special interests, field trips, Keepers of the Faith, any unfinished work from the week etc.

So, allow the grace of God to sustain you and pray and listen to the voice of God as to what will work for your family. Perhaps you can make a rule that by 2:00pm you stop school with those who have worked diligently and they can pick up the next day where they left off. This is what I am realizing the beauty of homeschooling is! Do what is best for the kiddo's and what works for Mom.

Success and HTH

[lissiejo]

This is a post on my blog about our organization and scheduling: http://lighthousehomeschool.blogspot.co ... ation.html

I'm not sure what guides you are running, but I basically sorted all the different boxes into three categories, independent, semi-independent, and dependent. I work with my most dependent child first and give the other work that is independent or semi-independent. We are using Little Hands, Little Hearts, and Bigger Hearts at half speed, but we are typically done by 11 or have an activity or two from Bigger to finish during the younger's nap. I know things are different with the older guides as each takes longer, but this works for us at the moment.

[brokenopen]

Thanks so much!!

We have tried a few things unsuccessfully, and today I have made up all the post it notes for the boxes in all three guides to play around with. So far, the only thing that has helped is to take my ds11 in preparing down to half speed. I think I need to train him in the independent subjects for a few weeks and get some confidence under his belt.

Hopefully I will have a more positive update by next week! We LOVE our HOD guides!

[amysconfections]

I agree that Post it notes are the easiest way to plan. I have found that we just can't complete Preparing easily doing full days. Actually it's mostly day 2. So I am taking that day and breaking it down spreading some of the first few days out. This makes one unit take 5 days instead of 4. I was burning us all out by plowing through. If you get a good schedule/routine flow down for your subjects each day then everyone will know what comes next which makes your day sooo much easier. Then if your child has not completed the subject in the required amount of time, swoop in with your supermom cape on and help them wrap it up. Look here viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1833 for Carrie's recommendations with a slow child in Preparing. I was very encouraged by this. Make a checklist for your kids to check off each subject to keep them on task and feeling a sense of completion.

Now, for everything besides school. Put your laundry on a schedule. This has saved me so much. I do clothes (darks and whites) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Towels are Tuesday. Sheets are Thursday. Many times I skip on Wednesday because we don't have enough. I finish folding when I can. Divide lots of your chores up between your kids. You are more of a manager and trainer. Start with the youngest child possible when assigning chores. We take Friday and clean the house together for deep cleaning (bathrooms, moping, vacuuming). Make your menu plan simple. Create a rotating breakfast and lunch menu. Try to take a little time on the weekend to prepare everything.

I hope this helps!
Here is a link to a final schedule template.http://www.titus2.com/downloads/master-schedule.html

[Tansy]

Last year I was doing 2 programs and Nuro therapy (minimum 2.5 hours of work) and I felt like a ping pong ball.
here is my post on Scheduling http://gardenforsara.blogspot.com/2011/ ... makes.html

I used a Word Doc available on the web, I looked at our day where we were slipping, I scheduled in big blocks
one does something with Mom while the other does something Independent.
Some of those Independent things were Clean bathroom 10 minutes a day.
Flip Laundry (wet goes in dryer... dirty goes in wash, dry goes in basket, bring clean basket to Mom when you narrate.
While I listened to narrations I was folding clothing.
even if it was one load a day it stopped the breeding.
Those I scheduled into the big block of science, and poetry, I didn't care what order they did it in as long as it got done at that time.
Requiring them to tidy the bath/bed/living rooms 10 minutes a day kept the rooms from getting totally out of control.

We too have looooong school days Still and were on Unit 5! I really need to SET the Timer!!! Mom rabbit trailing and lost work from previous day is the main reason for the delays lately.

[sherryd]

I am new to homeschooling, but I have a book on creating a schedule that sounds a little like the sticky notes idea. It is the same as the link that Amy gave. It's called Manager's of Their Homes, by Titus 2 Ministries. It has a lot of great ideas and walks you through creating a schedule. It uses small squares of paper that represent 30min. each. You use a different color for each child and you and put sticky tack on the back so you can move them around when you need to. It is very useful when juggling several things a one time. You would have to get the book to really understand, or their may be some samples on their website.

Hope this helps!
Sherry

[my3sons]

I am right now making my schedule, and I have been thinking about it, praying about it, and moving things around for several days. So, the first thing I'd suggest is to begin with prayer to ask for God's leading! Schedules often become routines, and it is then that our family is most successful within the day to day of homeschooling - usually about a month into it. I think a schedule should be made first, as it gives a ballpark for the day that is possible. The ladies already had some great responses here. The sticky note idea is a good one! It works well for many, many families. I thought moedertje's questions to ponder were very insightful too.

Here are some steps I follow to make a schedule...
1. Prayer

2. Print first week of plans for each guide and staple each guide's week together... here are links to yours (if they don't print correctly, you can always photocopy them from your guides)...
LHFHG: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf
BIgger Hearts: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/BHFHG-first-week.pdf
PHFHG: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/PHFHG-sample-week.pdf

3. Print the time allotments for each guide... here are links to yours...
PHFHG and LHFHG time they take:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4244&p=31219#p31219
BHFHG time it takes:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=702

4. Jot down next to the time increments whether they are "T" teacher-directed, "S" semi-independent, or "I" independent. Look at the plans and see how much of the "T" for your olders requires time from you. For example, teaching writing may require 15 minutes of teaching time from you, and 15 minutes of writing independently with you around to help if needed. This is why I find it helpful to print the first week of plans.

5. Figure out when you each want/need to start your day, and when you want/need to end it. This can be different for different people. Aim for a happy medium. If a person is not a morning person, that doesn't mean they can sleep til noon, but it may mean they should start school a little later. Talk to your older dc, especially 10 yo on up. If they are morning people, let them get up and start earlier with their independent work.

6. Divide your time as a teacher among your dc in teaching blocks. In general, 30 min., 45 min., and 60 min. blocks are nice. Figure out what the others are doing during those teaching blocks. In general, others should be doing independent work (if they are able and are older), should be playing with a younger sibling, or should be fairly quietly doing something independently. I have done this several ways. One way is to have columns for: Time, Mom, and one column for each child. Another way is to have 3 columns always for: Time, Mom, and What the Others Are Doing.

7. Rotate your teaching blocks. I start with my oldest, as he has the most to do, is a morning person, has already gotten up early and has finished some work I want to meet with him about, and as my younger two love to play together first thing after breakfast. I put in a checkpoint for what I need to check with him, the names of the boxes I will teach, and the times they should take. Then, I plan another child's teaching block, and then another's.

8. Try to end a teaching block with something they can finish on their own, so typically "S" boxes or even "T" boxes I've finished my part for and given the next directions for are good to end on. After a teaching block time, I often plan an "Independent Work Time" for them, to finish what I've just given the directions for. Plan breaks as needed into the schedule, as well as snacks and meals. Depending on our life in general, I choose either the "shotgun approach" (get up early, school all in a row, and finish to have a late lunch), or the "slower, spread it out more" approach (stagger start, add breaks, add recess in the middle, and plan to finish later). Decide which fits your life best now.

9. Now that you have your roughed out schedule, jot next to each person where they are supposed to be in the house as they are doing their things. For seatwork, we use our dining room table, kitchen table, and small library table I set up in the entry room. For reading, we use our living room couches, chairs, or floor with pillows. For science, we use our kitchen. For playtimes, we use our sons' bedrooms, upstairs childproofed playroom, and main floor childproofed entry room. Figuring out where everyone will be will help keep people spread out and utilize the house the best way possible.

10. Take one last look at your schedule. Is it realistic, or pie in the sky? Can you get done as a mama and wife what you need to in the day (again being realistic)? Do you have some free time to decompress? Move things as needed. One last thought - basic chores and meals - they are good to have roughed out and put in some kind of rotation/routine. Often times, these things are the stress causers rather than "school." HTH! Here is my last year's schedule, and I will try to post this year's schedule when I finish it...


Here's what it looked like later as a routine...


In Christ,
Julie

[pjdobro]

One last thought - basic chores and meals - they are good to have roughed out and put in some kind of rotation/routine. Often times, these things are the stress causers rather than "school." HTH!

This is so true for me! I have found my stress level has been way too high since starting school, and it isn't because of the school part. That is going fine , but I didn't have my chores and meals planned. I came back to the board ready to ask for some help organizing my life but before I did searched out old threads and found some wonderful advice on how to manage my home. It's a work in progress, but my stress level is on its way down. So, heed Julie's words and get meals plans and chores arranged as well. It will really help everything flow so much better.

BTW, thanks so much Julie for your detailed list on how to make a schedule. I love seeing it laid out in such an easy to follow format. I'm thinking I need to go back and tweak mine a bit and your directions will help me do just that.