Our Daily Schedule

I know that in the past I have enjoyed seeing how other people's days go...how they schedule their days. So...I decided to do a quick post this morning and give you a peek into our daily schedule. This is how "most" of our days go ;). Please don't think you have to pattern your day after ours. I only share our schedule with the intent of maybe giving you some ideas of how you can order your day.

My day starts at around 6:00 a.m. I get up with my husband, get his breakfast out, make his lunch, and send him off to work. Most of the time none of the children are up yet, so I use this early morning time to shower, do my devotions, exercise, check email, and do some business-related work if needed.

Around 8:00 a.m. I start getting breakfast ready. We then eat breakfast around 8:30 a.m. After everyone is done eating, we go over the Bible verses that we are memorizing, pray, and then clean up breakfast dishes.

Once breakfast dishes are cleaned up, we head upstairs for bedroom chores (all our bedrooms are upstairs). Everyone goes up, gets dressed, makes their bed, and cleans up their room (including me!). My 1 year old and 2 year old play in their crib and "sing" to us while we do our chores. After bedroom chores are done, laundry is brought downstairs (we have a laundry schedule so that laundry is spread out throughout the week), and laundry is started.

Once everyone is downstairs we all brush teeth, hair, etc. - get our bathroom stuff done.

Next is personal devotions. My 15 year old heads to her bedroom with her Bible. I put the 1 year old in the playpen to play while the rest of us sit on the couch and I read out of the Day by Day Bible. The kids are really enjoying this Bible reading time. We then spend a little time talking about the story...applying it to our lives...then we pray.

Next in line are cleaning chores. We have a schedule for this too. Each of the kids have assigned cleaning jobs for certain days of the week. Once cleaning chores are done, then they can go to the table and begin their schoolwork.

My two older children (15 and 9) do their independent schoolwork pretty much on their own at the table. They have written out schedules for their schoolwork (that they helped plan out) and so they know what they need to get done each day for schoolwork. While they are working on that at the table, I take the 4 yo, 2 yo, and 1 yo to the playroom, shut the doors (so the 1 year old can't escape!) and have preschool time with them...reading through our Learning for the Littles and Growing in Wisdom books...singing their letter songs...and reading books.

By this time it is around 11:30 a.m. I usually take the three younger children with me and we head down to the post office to get the mail (and run any other quick errands like going to the library and bank). When we get back home, my two older children should be wrapping up their schoolwork and I fix lunch.

I put my 1 year old down for a nap around 12:45, and my 2 year old goes down at 1:00 p.m. At 1:00 we have our read-aloud time. This includes history reading Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and literature reading Thursday and Friday. My 4 year old stays up for our reading time and then goes down for a nap around 2:00 p.m.

At 2:00 p.m. my older two children finish up any schoolwork not done yet. One day a week I like to take a bit of time after our read-aloud time, to read some Biblical Womanhood/Manhood books with my two older children. My 15 year old likes to do her math at this time, when the house is a little quieter! Once their schoolwork is done, and all chores are done, then they can have free time until dinner time. I use this time to do any dinner prep work, catch up on laundry, and get the house in order before my husband gets home. I should say that our "nap time" ends around 4:00 p.m. I don't like to let the kids sleep longer than that because then they have a hard time going to bed at night! My "nappers" don't usually sleep until 4:00 every day, but sometimes they do! Usually they start getting up around 3:00.

We usually eat dinner around 5:30 or 6:00. We have family time until bedtime.

I have found that this schedule works great for us. Our days seem to flow and things are getting done...and that is really what matters. This works for our family, but it might not for you. It took me many tries before I found a schedule that worked. It will be different for each family..and may even change from one season to the next. Be encouraged...seek the Lord and allow Him to show you the order for your days. He will bless your efforts!!!

Have a GREAT day in the Lord!