How Do I Schedule All These Subjects In A Homeschool Day?
Each child has a different subject, but there is just ONE of YOU. So, how do you schedule all the subjects in a homeschool day?
Here are 2 very different options!
My favorite method of daily scheduling involves a stack of colored sticky notes. Sometimes I do it on the wall or cleared off table (my tables are rarely completely cleared off *shock*.)
Each child gets their own color of note – so enough colors for each school child.
Each sticky note is an hour.
Half a sticky note is 30 minutes.
A quarter of a sticky note is 15 minutes.
Have one sticky for each hour of the school day (8am, 9am, etc.)
Subjects that require MY time (as a teacher) are put in marker or BOLDED.
Cut (and write) the notes so that some of the sticky part on the back is still on each portion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten this part and had to start over because my subjects kept falling off the wall.
Steps
1. Determine (roughly in round terms) an average amount of time each subject should take your child.
Guess! Don’t get hung up on this step since each day and lesson and child is different from the previous. For example, my 1st graders were given about 30 minutes to do math each day, however, most could only pay attention for 15 minutes at a time. My middle schoolers took 45 minutes and my high school kids were always allotted an hour, even though often this wasn’t enough time for every lesson. Some of my kids ended up with *homework* at the end of the school day in high school.
Just guess how much time it should take them for each subject.
2. Each subject gets its own sticky note and cut according to time allotted.
For example, Science reading may take only 30 minutes per day, but one day out of the week you’ll do experiments. “Science” would be written on half a sticky note, since half a note is 30 minutes.
3. Lay out the 8am, 9am, etc. stickies.
My brain works left-to-right, so I put my 8am, 9am list in a column on the left side of my table. Then each child gets their own column. You can do it rows if you prefer.
4. The FUN, EXCITING, *hard* part – putting together the puzzle.
Start with morning: what time would you like to start school? Again, don’t get hung up. Just pick a time – nothing is carved in stone here. For a kid who is hard to motivate, I may put a fun subject first. If morning is a kid’s “best” time, I’ll put a subject that is tough for her. Then layout a rough draft of that child’s day. Don’t forget lunch, & clean-up time.
Do the same for the next kid and so on.
*WHEW* You’re done, sort of. Is your child’s day too long? The first time I did this exercise, I realized I’d made my 2nd grader’s school day 12 hours. I had too many subjects and too much expectation of her little brain. Your puzzle will need to be rearranged. Do all the kids listen to literature together and you have them separate? What about your time? Is it linear, or did you schedule yourself doing 4 different things for that half-hour? What needs reconsidered? What needs rearranged? What needs cut out?
5. Write it down. 
After several tries, at least it takes me several tries, I have a plan that looks like it will work. It’s time to put it on paper. Transfer it to your planner or a piece of paper.
Your schedule is a tool.
You are not the tool of your schedule. What I mean is, DON’T FEEL GUILTY when your homeschool days don’t look like your plan. This is a guide and maybe we get it all done as elegantly as the plan 2 days out of the year. However, having a plan to fall back on is invaluable in *almost* getting it all done.
Some years I couldn’t accomplish this…
(pregnancy, new baby, illness) so I just make a checklist the kids can follow *mostly* without me.
Poster Planner
It allows us to keep the kids on track with a glance and allows them to be as independent as possible.
This method wouldn’t work if I wanted to keep lesson plans or have any complicated organization. Their planners work well for having each child doing the same subject matter in history but assignments on each person’s own level.
I put the poster in landscape mode and divided it into 4ths (for my 4 kids that need to do school). Then I divided their 4th into 6 lines (that gave each a 2″ space to write in) for the subject I wanted each child to do on their own.
When they complete a subject, they put a pencil checkmark on that day and that subject for their name. When I check it, they get a sticker for doing it without being told. Their books are either in their desks or any math papers or other assignments are paperclipped to the poster so they know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing.
