In Homeschool Planning Guide Part I, you studied your daily rhythm. Now it’s time to use those insights to artfully form a routine for your family.
Make a second hours chart and lay your rhythm finder alongside it. Brainstorm options and play with your ideas, moving things around in different combinations. I like to use sticky notes. You are not planning details yet, just the broad placeholders for your day. Consider the needs and opportunities at different points in your day: Plan your hardest work when you are most productive, go outside when they tend to get rowdy and give them rest before they usually start whining. Once you have identified the basic needs, start creating slots to fill. When you put your new routine into practice, you will likely make more adjustments.
To see our preschool routine, read The Early Years: Our Preschool Routine and Gentle Homeschool Plan.
I built our first routine when my children were in preschool. It took months of self-discipline for me to streamline it. But once all the tweaking was done and the transitions were ironed out, the kids subconsciously moved from one activity to the next with little argument or complaint. The consistency gave us all a sense of security, which brought peace in place of our former chaos. Now that my children and I have daily habits in place, our school days go smoothly. Well, they go as smoothly as they can with a toddler and five people’s emotions running around.
A streamlined routine removes common barriers in your day and provides a stability that comes with anticipation.
As your children grow, your rhythm will shift and you will tweak your routine accordingly. Some months, hard circumstances call for an overhaul. And some days, awesome spontaneous ideas will call for a temporary cancellation.
Your routine is a series of slots into which you can slide your homeschool plans. It will carry you from year to year. As your kids grow, you can expand the routine a little at a time to suit their capacity. Every term you can fill your slots with different content, simplifying your planning process. Now you can read Homeschool Planning Guide Part III: Filling the slots to start making your homeschool plans.
