On schedules and finding your pattern

Daily rhythm, setting goals, and building a strong backbone

The Sock Knitter by Grace Cossington Smith, 1915

Would you like to connect with me to talk about your homeschooling questions, or simply to chat about family life? I have been a home educator for over fifteen years, have coordinated various co-ops and community programs, and have met and advised a vast variety of homeschool families over the years. Starting next week, I will offer a 40-min. “one-on-one zoom chat” for annual paying subscribers. If you are interested, send me a direct message via Substack chat (simply click “message” on my profile page). I’d love to hear from you :)

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I love wool, especially cornflower blue baby alpaca. I could spend half an afternoon in the craft store touching different skeins and admiring the textures. But when it comes to actually knitting, I stick with simple patterns that I don’t have to think too hard about. And if I don’t really enjoy the final product, I’ll readily unravel everything and make something else instead.

I realized that my approach to knitting seems to also reflect my method for devising our homeschool rhythm and schedule. I love high quality curricula and never miss a chance to explore the school books on my friends’ shelves; but when it comes to implementation, I know that the material needs to fit well into our daily schedules and match our teaching and learning styles. Over the years I have explored a vast array of curricula and experimented with a variety of schedules.

I always appreciate when fellow homeschoolers share specifics of their daily schedules with me, the nitty-gritty of how they get things done. I have used their input to inspire my own weekly schedules, try new approaches, or simply stay the course.

So today, I’ll share a selection of our homeschool schedules with you. I highly recommend that you apply my moto of “use, adjust, or ignore”. I’ve often found that the most useful aspect of seeing detailed homeschool plans, was that it helped me to recognize what I liked, and what I could (or would) never want to do!

We have generally used what might be called a “classical light” approach, sprinkled with Charlotte Mason and some ecclectic add-ons. I have known families who do far more schooling than we do and families who do far less. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, hopefully you’ll find something to encourage or insprire your own pattern.

Also, when I use the word “schedule” I am fully aware that often its most important function is to serve as a backbone. Life happens, and schedules need to adjust. I am writing this against a backdrop of one son who has an eye infection and is supposed to participate in a Lego Robotics tournament this week, another son who just sprained his wrist and needs help with preparing his university application, and a chicken coop door that has just fallen off (just to mention a few notable events today…).

What is the “common core” of your day?

Before even thinking about what learning materials to use and when to find the time to teach them, it is important to find a rhythm to your day that you can sustain. What are the things that form your “common core”? What are the parts of your day that you simply must have in order to maintain your home’s (and your own) sanity?

Here are some of the things that have formed the “common core” rhythm of our home¹:

• Get up before the kids to read scripture and pray.

• Have a regular get-up time for the kids.

• Eat breakfast together.

• Start the day with a 15-30 min walk outside. This way we not only got excercise and fresh air, but had the added advantage of making us all feel that we were “arriving” at school.

• Have a set learning time each day.

• Eat lunch together.

• Take a regular 1- hour downtime in the afternoon where children do quiet reading, drawing, or listening to audiobooks.

• Outdoor time / library / play with friends etc.

• Eat dinner together.

• Pray together.

• Have “adult” time in the evening after all the kids are in bed.

• Have film time only on Friday and Saturday evenings.

There is nothing fancy about this rhythm, but there are certain aspects that I found particularly helpful: keeping an afternoon quiet time myself (reading or taking a catnap) and spending some quiet time in the evening conversing with my husband, or simply reading and not being asked any questions.

Notably, these quiet times only seem to be refreshing if they are spent offline. Break time spent answering messages or following rabbit holes is not only not restorative, it often leaves me with a tense forehead and feeling slightly scattered (or irritated).

You will also note that my “common core” rhythm does not include lots of “out-of-the-house” activities. While we have always participated in homeschool co-ops and a weekly sports program, I have generally kept those commitments down to twice per week. Many families I have met over the years end up feeling stressed or hurried because their days are simply too full, leaving them frazzled and exhausted.

Seamstress by Wenzel Tornøe, 1882

If you have part-time work alongside homeschooling, finding a sustainable rhythm and ensuring that you meet your “common core” needs as a parent is of particular importance. I recently had an e-mail conversation about this challenge with

Dixie Dillon Lane

, who kindly allowed me to share her insights with you:

The thing is, I can't do this work while homeschooling and without fitting it into all the possible little nooks and crannies. Or at least it feels that way. I would like to compartmentalize my computer-related work but I can't do that in a life that is lived with my children and actually have enough work time in that way. It can be frustrating.

I do have an idea for the new year, however. I find it very difficult to do the things daily that are needed to meet my basic needs: eat breakfast, take a walk, pray in a deliberate manner (as opposed to those also-good, but different "Help me, Jesus!" prayers that go up throughout the day). And I am really struggling to be present and positive during our homeschooling mornings because I feel so exhausted, worried, etc., not knowing how or if I will get to these things.

So my idea is to try front-loading these things in the day and letting the other chips -- even the homeschooling -- fall as they may afterward. This is different from what I currently do, which is to front-load the homeschooling. What I want most of all is to have more energy for my children. I'm always so drained! So the plan is to try doing a shower (which I do already do every morning, well done me!), a protein-rich breakfast, a one-mile solo walk with prayer along the way, and checking my e-mail/doing small online tasks FIRST, before starting any chores or homeschooling. My hope is that most of that can happen before my husband leaves for work, but even if it can't, the kids are old enough to be home alone while I do a twenty-minute walk. This is all going to delay our usual start time for school (usually 8:30) but maybe I will feel well and better cared-for and so will do the day better with my children afterward. Perhaps if I make sure I have what I need first each morning, I'll also be more successful at compartmentalizing work later in the day -- really being efficient while working, and then really being able to put it away and focus on the kids.

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Laying out subjects and setting goals

One of the most fun aspects of creating a learning schedule, is selecting your favorite materials. When I first started out, I chose curricula based on recommendations in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer. Over the years I have added a great variety of materials because of friends’ recommendations, used book store finds, or “inheritance” from families who no longer needed their books.

In my post on Unconformed Education I noted:

Homeschooling books and resources have exploded over the last few years and it can leave one feeling overwhelmed with options. While online recommendations can sometimes be useful, everything sounds like a “must have” or “the best ever” but it could be a complete mismatch for your family (e.g., one math curriculum which received rave reviews was renamed the “kill-me-now” curriculum by our children).

Sometimes you will find materials you think are superb, but your children cannot stand. Other times a given curriculum may be wonderful, but simply take way too much time to complete, or require too much one-on-one instruction (especially when other children need you as well). And sometimes you’ll find the perfect fit that you are planning to use for all the younger ones as well, only to realize that it is way too challenging (or easy) for your other kids.

I have never been able to use all the materials I wished I could have used. Time, and especially children’s energy to learn each day, is limited. Thus I would encourage you not to feel compelled to have to finish everything exactly as it is stated in the curriculum. Make adjustments, stretch lessons over a couple of days (or even three). In the long run, it is much more important to feel positive toward what you are learning; nothing good comes of you and your kids feeling stressed and exhausted.

Here are some of the core materials that we used for Grade 7 for two of our kids:

Our daughter loved languages and her materials were quite challenging in the Language Arts (there were stacks of additional novels not shown here), but lighter on the Math and Science side.

Our youngest son is currently in Grade 7, but his core materials look quite different. He needs more guided language instruction but is a math and science whiz (he is taking a live online math class that his brother took in Grade 9 and uses part of his science work to participate in Lego Robotics competitions). He also prefers to get his lessons done as quickly as possible in order to work on various building projects (including this cockpit replica). For his reading, he is working through the Redwall series by Brian Jacques just now.

Once you have your materials, set goals for each subject.

I generally chart out the pages/lessons to be covered in my notebook and divide them up into the school year. Most curricula are designed to fit into a single school year, but can easily be sped up or slowed down as you go along.

One helpful point to keep in mind is that for students in elementary and middle school, having strong reading and math skills is crucial to all other learning². Thus, having a solid reading and math curriculum should form the foundation around which other subjects can be added.

Starting with a strong backbone

At the start of each school year, I would create a weekly schedule³. It helped me to establish a direction for our daily learning, even if the specific times would shift. Having a written schedule (which was placed in a sheet protector in their binder) also helped to reduce quibbling about school work that needed to be completed each day.

The children were excited to receive their “school schedules”, and it helped shape their expectations for the week.

One thing that is not written in the schedule is the vast amount of screen-free, unstructured playtime, which was basically all the time after lessons until they went to bed…

One version of the schedule for Grade 1 looked like this:

Note that there was some reading time scheduled with dad during the time when I would be preparing dinner. Thursday afternoons we had some fellow homeschoolers come over to do some simple science experiments and play math games, and Friday afternoons we joined a homeschool gym program.

Another version, simply included a checklist for the learning tasks that needed to be completed:

Here is an example of a schedule for Grade 5/6:

That year we were part of a “chicken co-op” and would tend to the flock on a nearby farm on Fridays. Although we always adjust our schedules as we go along, one subject that has always remained central to our morning is the history-snack time combination. I would read the history chapter aloud while the kids got to eat their snack (and I had my second cup of coffee) and we would then spend time narrating, drawing maps, or completing a history-related activity.

One year, I tried the “fill-in-the-blank” schedule. On the left I listed all the subjects that would get covered during the week and would then fill in the needed assignments (incl. page numbers etc.) to be completed.

The advantage of this was that I could easily carry over work that did not get quite finished. I could also add or subtract work depending on the student’s progress. The disadvantage was that I had to take the time to preview the specific tasks and copy them into the schedule for each of the kids, which was a bit cumbersome.

The format that I have found most helpful with regard to keeping track of what tasks need to be completed is a checklist format:

Once they entered the high school years, the checklist helped them to organize their work independently:

Playing the long game

When I look back over all the years of homeschooling that we have completed, I simply marvel. How did we get here? I clearly recall the feeling of inadequacy when we started out, perfectly described in the Charlotte Mason Companion:

A mother’s sweet present of love, dedication, enthusiasm, and desire to educate her own children may be wrapped in the brown paper of apprehension, insecurity, and dismay.

This uncertainty has now washed away, as our daughter is in her third year of university, our older son is finishing his last year of high school, and our youngest completes most of his school work independently.

It was not the schedules that helped us arrive here, yet they did offer us a backbone that helped guide us along. No schedule was ever perfect, and I inevitably made adjustments to all of them, but knowing what we were striving for helped us to persist.

I hope that you have found some inspiration for creating your own learning patterns. But more than sharing some practical ideas for creating schedules, I want to offer you encouragement to persist:

There will be days where nothing seems to go right. Sometimes even weeks or months may feel like a struggle. But there will also be times when you will keenly feel the blessing of hearing your child read to you, see the pride in their eyes as they finally get that tricky word spelled right, and take joy in showing you a picture they drew.

No matter how you schedule your time, time that you spend together is never wasted.

Children Painting Spring Flowers by Viggo Johansen, 1894

I would much prefer to discuss all these thoughts with you at our kitchen table over a cup of coffee. The next best thing would be for you to let me know that you are there — share your reflections in the comments, share the post with your friends, or simply give a like.

Until next time,

I would love to hear from you!

What forms the “common core” of your daily rhythm?

Do you have a learning schedule?

What parts work/don’t work for you?

When do you know it’s time to adjust or change your approach?

1. This rhythm worked well for all the kids until the end of middle school. High school brought about quite a few adjustments….but that’s a topic for another post.

2. If a student can read well, subjects like science, history, geography, etc. will benefit also. If a student can perform math calculations smoothly, this mastery can offer support for subjects requiring systematic and critical thinking or logic.

3. I would simply create these as a table in a Word document.