Our New and Stress-Less Homeschool Schedule

This is the first year that I have four active bodies to keep busy during our homeschool time, and I have to admit being more than a little nervous about how our homeschool year is going to work… without me going crazy.

In order to insure that I would maintain my sanity, I took a deep whiff of Peace and Calming Essential Oil and got real with myself. What really needed to change?

Change begins with finding the problem

After reviewing my own back to school bootcamp plan from last year, I considered creating a new chore chart but realized that there was nothing wrong with the chart I had. We just needed to… cough, cough… use it consistently.

I reviewed our discipline plan and the Virtue Meter we use with We Choose Virtues curriculum is working well. No changes needed there except for more… consistency.

A pattern started to develop. I noticed that all of my homeschool plans and printables were awesome. Our problem was that our lack of consistency was creating stress and discord. What could I do to increase my dependability and see my children also improve?

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Based on the verses in 1 Corinthians 9, I created a simple printable to tie everything together.

DOWNLOAD: 30-Day “Run the Race” Goal Tracker

Every month, the children choose a prize, like a trip to the party place or out to eat. As a family, our goal is to complete all of our chores and schoolwork each day, and when we do, we mark off one running man. After 30 days of consistently getting our jobs done, we will be rewarded with the prize they have chosen.

Change means eliminating extra stress

After looking over everything we had done last year and what needed to be done this year, a few areas needed additional change in order to remove potential stress that might disrupt our day.

Our new homeschool schedule

Our homeschool schedule from last year functioned well, but now that Ariary has grown, I want to make sure that our time literature unit studies were fun but focused. So I did make some minor tweaks to have some study time while Ariary is taking her afternoon nap.

I also scheduled our week differently. Since our co-op meets on Tuesdays, Monday will be more about home economics, history, and unit study while the rest of our week will have an emphasis on math and reading.

Essentially, I know I cannot eliminate the stress from our homeschool completely, but I can find ways to stress less.

 

Additional Resources for Building a Homeschool Schedule

• See how I fit everything into my day as a work from home, homeschooling mother.
• View our homeschool schedule from last year and grab our free printable chore chart.
• Consider how I once scheduled my homeschool lesson plans to keep them flexible.
• Get started with a back to school boot camp because preparation yields a smooth start.
• Print a Virtue Meter to establish character and discipline in your homeschool.

This post is linked with love at the NOT Back to School Blog Hop.