Do you have a schedule that you follow each day? Do you have a plan to complete the top ten things on your to-do list for today? Is that schedule or that plan actually written down where you can refer to it or just in a mental spot where you think you’ll try to remember it for today?
I have learned so much about home schooling in the last few years – some through the wonderfully caring advice of other veteran home school Moms, some through my own trial and error. Scheduling is one thing that I have had to learn through my own experiences to know what works for our family. Your journey to a schedule may look different and your final schedule may look different as well. I hope with this article to encourage you to try again if you’ve tried a schedule and it hasn’t worked. I hope to give you ideas to refine your schedule if you have one but don’t like it as much as you could.
When I first started out, I only had two children and sort of took each day as it came my way. My oldest was five and my youngest was a small baby, so we just did our school times around her naps and played until Daddy came home. Looking back, I sure could have accomplished so much more during that time if I had developed a schedule. As I’ve had more babies, I’ve realized that I need a schedule to keep my sanity. There are so many books 
and how-to manuals about scheduling, many aimed at the unique challenges of a home school family. I wouldn’t say I’ve mirrored one methodology from top to bottom, but I have gleaned little bits from each book and added what worked into our schedule.
The first step is to figure out what your priorities are in general. If your days are anything like mine, one day very rarely looks exactly another day. It seems there is always something new coming along that we need to think about. When the dust settles on each day, what will you want to look back on and KNOW that you accomplished? Each academic subject? Bible study? Piano lessons? Character building? Speech development? Reading lessons? The list of priorities is endless and as unique as each family.
Take a week to live life with this question in your mind, “What are my priorities?” Some of you may already know that without having to really think about it too hard, but if you’ve been running behind your life trying to catch up for so long, you may have lost sight of what you once knew to be important.
Take some time to reflect on what you want to accomplish with home schooling. What do you want your kids to be like when you close the last book at the end of high school or college?
Designate a notebook and pen and put them in an area where it won’t be disturbed – mine is on the top of my refrigerator. As you think of things, write them down right away. Make sure to write down specific priorities for each child and for yourself separately, maybe on different sheets of paper in the notebook. At the end of the week, take stock of the things on your list. Find a nice spot in your home where you can really get some work done – for some, that is the comfy living room couch while for others, that is the kitchen table. I have to be at the kitchen table or I get too comfortable and forget what my original intent was for sitting down in the first place. 
Bring out your notebook and give each priority a rating. You can do any system you like, a’s b’s and c’s or 1′s 2′s and 3′s but just put some kind of order to those things you’ve written down. After that, I always break out my Excel spreadsheet to start on my schedule by 30 minute segments. If you would rather write it out with pen, break down your day into segments and either make a chart on paper or use an appointment book, whatever helps you visualize your day. Make sure to include weekends in your schedule!! Then, by priority, make a schedule for each person in your home right down to the baby. Start out with a different piece of paper for each person if you like or, like on my Excel spreadsheet, have a column for each person. I like having the columns next to each other instead of on different sheets of paper because it helps me coordinate activities in a way that flows together better. If my oldest is practicing piano at 10am, I can’t have the baby taking her morning nap in the same room at the same time.
Now, try to live your schedule for one week and see what happens. You’ll be marking things and moving things as the week progresses so don’t be too frustrated if things don’t go the way you planned right off the bat. By the end of the week, you will hopefully have a very good framework for your schedule. I made my schedule nearly two years ago. We’ve added a baby, the kids have gotten older and their needs have changed, but my framework has basically stayed the same. Having the same basic schedule for so long really helps me remember what is coming next because, by now, I have it memorized. We make minor changes occasionally depending on what change we need to accommodate, but for the most part, everyone knows what the next activity is each day.
In a few days, I’ll post my schedule to give you some concrete ideas of what you might want to put in your schedule and talk about why I do some of the things that I do. Until then, I hope this gets your wheels turning about bringing peace and order back into your life with one word: schedule!
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