I’ve gotten quite a few questions via text and phone with friends having read the blog post and asking, “What does your day actually look like?” So here goes. I use Evernote. For just about everything. I have a Homeschool Notebook on there that has all sorts of Stacks in it. Research, any and all programs I’ve ever heard about, Book Lists, you get the idea. I also use it to create our actual daily, printable schedule. In Evernote, I create a Weekly Plan with Checkboxes. I print this list out each week and just work down the list. The most important point is that everything I listed in the previous post is NOT done in a day or a week, or sometimes even a month. It’s a Framework to guide me, not an inflexible, rigid list that MUST BE FOLLOWED no matter what. We create our own schedule and rhythm based on what works for OUR family. Also, I have no idea yet how our joining Classical Conversations will overtake my own plans, so this will most certainly be adjusted quite soon into the school year. Which is totally fine! You might recall that one of my Top 3 Homeschool Goals is Hands-On Experiences. This means I say yes to most Field Trips, Learning Opportunities away from home, or even just visiting time with other homeschool families, while the kids play (they are learning so much just through play – spend some time listening to their made up games, how they plan their fort building, and the like…that is incredible team building time). Saying yes to these opportunities means my Checklist goes Unchecked. My Checklist is my version of a Brain Dump. I don’t have to remember what we did or didn’t get to the last couple of weeks b/c I have my lovely, organized Evernote telling me.

TIME: For 3rd grade, the goal is to finish by lunch time. As mentioned before, Nora does much better if we work in one, half day block rather than bits and bobs throughout the day. Morning Time should take us 45-60 mins. Daily subjects are 60-90 minutes. The Loop takes us to Lunch. Whenever that is. Sometimes we need to stop at 11:30 for Lunch. Sometimes we can go until almost 1. But we work our Loop until Lunchtime. After Lunch, there might be a small bit of “catch up work,” usually Piano & Read Alouds are saved until after lunch, even though it is listed in Daily work. Or Nora might request a Nature Walk or a Drawing Class. Third grade is adding it a bit more rigorous work, so we may find that there is an hour or two of independent work that is assigned post-lunch. We’ll see. For those of you new to Homeschooling, you will likely be stunned at just how little time “school” takes. One on one, focused attention, teaching the way your child learns, takes far less time than the 7-8 hours spent in a regular school day. If you have littles for whom you are needing to stave off the “I’m Bored,” develop an “I’m Bored” list…Lego assignments, Scavenger Hunts printed off the web, a TV show or video that relates to something you are studying that week, a drawing assignment that ties into a book you’ve been reading, and so on. I use an “I’m Bored” jar – it’s a mason jar filled with wooden sticks, each one with an activity on it. Some of them are fun (go outside with a drawing pad and draw what you see, free play on the iPad games for 30 minutes, etc.) and some of them are chores (wipe the baseboard, vacuum the living room). When my daughter says, “I’m Bored,” she picks from the I’m Bored jar. Only requirement is that there are no 2nd picks. What she picks out is what she is required to do.

MORNING TIME…There are loads out there. We only recently started using them, and I love them. Before, I felt like a bit of a Morning Banshee. Morning Time allows both Nora and myself to enter into our day of learning with peace. Many Homeschool moms use Breakfast time as their time for Morning Time, Reading Aloud, Bible Devotions, Poetry Readings, and/or Music Appreciation. For me, it’s a struggle for me to up at 6:30am. Any earlier, and I’m fairly useless by lunchtime. So I get up at 6:30 and do my own Workout, Quiet Time, and Tea. Nora gets up 6:30-7 and does her own Morning Routine and Breakfast. We meet to begin our day together between 8-8:30.

THE LOOP…My Loop is different from many loops you will find in the Homeschool world. But it’s what I’ve found works for our planning. Subjects I wish to be done 3x/week get 3 boxes, 2x/week get 2, etc. I work down the Loop, but I don’t always stick to working STRAIGHT down it. For example, we may have 30 minutes before Lunchtime or before we need to leave the house, but my next Loop subject is something I know will take us 45 minutes. So I skip on down to find something that works with our current day’s schedule. Or we have time for only one more lesson for the day, and Nora has asked for a Drawing lesson…I can glance at my “Loop,” see that we have not done one of our Drawing lessons for the week, so I can skip to that immediately. Other ways to use a Loop are to pick one subject for each day of the week. Mondays are Art Study, Tuesdays are Music, Wednesdays are Nature Study, Thursdays are Poetry…you get the idea. My Loop has taken me two years of trial and error to figure out what works for US!

OFF DAYS…These are days that we need a break. If you are stuck in “Real” School Mindset Mode, think of these as Parent/Teacher Conference Days, except you are having your Parent/Teacher Conference curled up on the couch with a book. Or maybe you’re spending your Parent/Teacher Conference Day on the computer, revising your Dream Plan into your Real Plan, the one that’s actually going to work this year. Or maybe you have a Dr. Appt and your children will be home without you. Or you are sick with Allergies keeping you from being fully engaged. Or Grandma is keeping your child, but you want schoolwork to still be done. These are how I use my Off Day plans. I have a backup set of work that can be done independently. These are made up of my Supplements from the last post.

We do as many Field Trips as possible. Those days, none of the Checkboxes happen. Then there are days that I can see Nora’s brain needs a break, so those turn into “Let’s read books on the sofa for the morning,” and we both curl up with our individual books. Or I find an interesting documentary, and we watch that for our School Day. Learning happens all the time, and you do NOT need a carefully laid out plans or Evernotes. You do you! You find your own family rhythm. It will take time. It will take paying attention. There will be tears at times. There is also an immeasurable amount of joy to be able to spend these years together as a family. I tumbled into Homeschooling somewhat halfheartedly, and here we are, years later, still muddling our way through but enjoying every year! I hope you can spend this year connecting with your children, learning them in new ways, learning and building yourself as well. You’ve got this, Moms & Dads!