Sample Routine/Schedule

As the kids have gotten older, they are able to take more responsibility for their own time management.  Everyone knows what they are expected to learn.  One child gets up at 6:00, and we are often able to finish that child’s work before anyone else is awake.  It works very well for the kids to choose the order that they do their studies.  I am available to teach the subjects that need to be taught – sometimes I call a child and say, “Let’s do you grammar now.”  Other times someone will come and ask, “Can we do my spelling test?”  Following is the checklist that we use (I print the entire week on one sheet of paper; shown below is one day).  When a subject is done, we check off that it is complete (for some subjects, we write the assignment that was done that day).  The kids are free to work on whichever subjects they choose, as long as it all gets done.  I am finding that it works well to give the older kids freedom in learning to manage their time, and to have a routine in helping the younger kids with their studies.

This is not a schedule like the others, where (for example) math is at 9:00, science at 9:30, etc.  The reason I consider this a schedule instead of a routine is that every lesson is scheduled to occur on a specific day:  On Monday, lesson 29 is assigned; on Tuesday, lesson 30 is assinged…

Only Monday is illustrated here, with one column per child, and the specific assignments scheduled for every subject:

Week of ____ to ___		Child #1	Child #2	Child #3	Child #4	Child #5
Monday	Bible Study	x	x	x	x	x
	Music Practice	x	x	x	x	x
	Spelling	lesson 29	lesson 34	lesson 49 & 50	lesson 4	n/a
	Math	test 26	test 28	lesson 16 A B	lesson 11 D E	lesson 6 A
	English	lesson 5-1	lesson 5-1	lesson 4-1	lesson 11-1	n/a
	Reading	x	x	x	x	lessons 76, 77
	Penmanship	lesson 4-1	lesson 5-1	F T		i
	Science	ch 13	ch 12	ch 4	ch 4	ch 4
	Health	ch 4	ch 4	ch 4	ch 4	ch 4
	History	x	x	x	x	x
	Spanish	1-4	3-2	2-4	n/a	n/a
	Horse	x	x	x	x	x
	Chores