At the very end of winter, when I feel like I absolutely cannot stand any more cold, dark days, I desperately look for signs of spring. There isn’t a specific day or time that it comes. Little by little the temperature gets warmer, and the trees respond and begin to bud and blossom. 

Nature is rhythmic. One event cues the next. The seasons are predictable, but not scheduled. 

I’ve discovered that a peaceful homeschool is one that mimics God’s creations. It is rhythmic. It is predictable. One event cues the next. 

Just like nature, our minds work by habits, and habits start with a cue. Some kind of external event begins the habit. Habit stacking is when one habit cues the next one. This is how a rhythm, or routine, works in the home. We don’t need a formulaic schedule to get things done.

Habit stacking is the most important thing you can do for a successful daily rhythm. Instead of creating a timetable (math from 9 – 9:20, history from 9:25-9:50, etc), which works well for schools, establish a daily rhythm.

I have a list of subjects to study each day for family gather. We pray, sing a hymn, read scriptures, recite poetry or scriptures, and then we have a special discussion for each day of the week. We go in the same order, which creates rhythm. My boys each have their own notebook with a list of subjects and how long to do them for each day of the week. They have a certain amount of time allotted to each subject, but they don’t have a strict schedule. Too many times my toddler makes a mess, my school-age boy can’t find the right book or notebook. If we had a schedule it would be thrown off by every day life. Our school day is so much more peaceful when its based on habits and rhythm, not a schedule.

In order for an action to become a Habits it needs to be consistent. If it isn’t consistent, it isn’t a habit. Since our goal is for learning to become a lifelong pursuit, a lifestyle, it needs to become a habit. 

BUT, life is sporadic and unpredictable. Sometimes you just can’t possibly do everything on your list for that day. So how do you stay consistent when life throws you curve balls? 

Floors + Ceilings

One method that changed everything for me was creating a daily “floor” and “ceiling” goal. 

Floor goals are the most important subjects as well as the minimum amount of schoolwork. My family’s daily floor goals are: 

1. Read or recite one scripture. 
2. Read one chapter from a book for whatever subject is assigned that day (history, nature, geography, literature).
3. Copy down a sentence from the book you read (point out punctuation, look up unknown words,identify the nouns, verbs, etc)
4. Create a story problem for math in whatever topic you’re learning and do five math problems. 

And that’s it! It takes less than 30 minutes and is easy to do everyday no matter what – while we’re traveling, sick, and you can even do it during the summer to keep up your knowledge. Our goal is to do school everyday, and the best way to be consistent is to be realistic and flexible. The floor gives us consistency and flexibility.

The ceiling is the ideal – everything is going well that day and you can get everything on your list done. Many days we do and it feels great, but when we just can’t possibly get our ceiling goal done, we do our floor goal and I still feel like the day was a success. This method brings confidence and peace in a situation where perfection is not always possible. 

What if you are almost always doing your floor goals and rarely your ceiling goals? Don’t sweat it. 

There were years that my ideal school day didn’t happen everyday. In fact, it was a special occurrence if it did. My boys have still scored above proficient in math and reading in state testing despite doing the bare minimum.

Our Daily Rhythm

Family First

We start with Family Gather. This consists of singing a hymn, reading scriptures, doing recitation, a special of the day (like artist study or history discussion) and then our read aloud book. After that everyone is finished eating breakfast and they go out for a play break. I require that they move their bodies, a lot. This is not a Legos or read a book play break, this is get the wiggles out play break. 

Individual Work

Then they get out their notebooks and work on individual subjects, like math and word study. They also read books about history, geography, or science based on their personal reading level. We don’t go by grades, I just decide (and the boys give me feedback) based on their personality and ability.

Baby School

The kids work on their own, unless they need help. Then I’ll enlist one of the other boys to take a play break and do baby school with my toddler. Baby school is revolutionary for us! It gives the baby/toddler one-on-one time, it gives my boys a chance to learn how to play with or read to a younger child, and it gives me some one-on-one time with one of boys, like reading dictation passage, giving math lesson, or listen to narrations. All the boys take a turn doing baby school for about 15-20 minutes during individual learning time.  They read books, take him outside, swing him downstairs, wrestle, and do other activities. 

Weekly Schedule

You probably noticed that I don’t do every subject everyday. There are a variety of subjects you can choose and a variety of ways you can schedule your subjects and divide over the days of the week. I’ll show you how I do it, which is based on how Charlotte Mason scheduled her schools, but you can use it as a guide and make a weekly schedule that works for your child and family. 

My only suggestion would be to provide a “feast” of subjects. Not just the Three Rs. In my home we have:

• Scriptures (daily)
• Singing (daily)
• Recitation and poetry (daily)
• Artist study (1x week)
• Composer study (1x week)
• Shakespeare or Plutarch (2 x week for my oldest)
• Math (daily)
• Copywork (daily for younger sons)
• Dictation (2x week for older son)
• History (2 x week for young kids; 3x week for oldest son)
• Geography (2 x week)
• Literature (2 x week)
• Nature study/science  (3 x week)
• Citizenship (1 x week for my oldest)

Daily Notebooks

I’ve tried so many ways of planning, organizing, and scheduling my homeschool. I’ve tried physical planners, digital planners, and none have worked for me or my kids. We can’t plan too far ahead becuase then I have to redo our plans when we miss a day of school. Digital planners haven’t worked because they take so long to set up and I forget about them. Then a couple years ago I listened to an episode of the Read Aloud Revival by Sarah Mackenzie. She described the “notebook method” of planning school. Which is simply taking a cheap spiral-bound, lined notebook and writing down each subject and assignment your child needs to do the next day. I tried it and loved it.

This year I adapted it a little bit by pre-making my own booklets with the subjects they have for each day of the week, and they check off when it is finished and write down what they did beneath it. In case you’re interested, I made the notebooks in Affinity Publisher. Here’s a video walking you through the entire process, if you’re interested.

Baskets

I keep each boy’s school books and notebooks in a wire basket. I clip the notebook on the front so they can easily find it. I’ve found books get “misplaced” and half our school day is spent finding them. They still get left in random places, but at least it helps them know where to look first and they know where to put it away when they’re done or cleaning up. 

Homework Assignment

1. Think about subjects you want to teach and then create a schedule for the frequency and amount of time to be studied for each child’s age and development. Each child should have their own schedule. I have example schedules below for you to reference. 
2. Establish a floor goal and a ceiling goal. Remember: floor goal is the most important things/subjects shortened down to less than 30 minutes.

Note: your schedule will most likely change as it gets lived in. This is ok!! Take note of what is working and what is not working and makes changes.  You can either start with all the subjects and take them out as needed, or start with a few and slowly add one in at a time as you feel confident.

CLICK on the link below to download lists of recommended subjects for each age along with the frequency and time to study it. You can use these to make your own schedules, or print and use mine.

PLEASE do not not sell, reproduce, or distribute these documents without permission from me. Please respect my time and intellectual property.