Day plan

I've started a new practice which is helping me to identify what the children and I want to get done in a day, and to make sure that there is time set aside during the day for getting those things done, including time for me to go for a jog every two or three days. Somehow things had got to a state where I felt that I should be constantly available to the children in case they wanted to do an activity that required my help. I was feeling guilty when I went out for a jog, which is ridiculous.

So, my new practice is to write a loose schedule for the day at breakfast time. First I write in any appointments: "6pm Depart for climbing," "1.30pm Visitor," etc. Second, I set a time for chores and, if we are going out in the afternoon or evening, the time for a snack or meal shortly before departure. The children don't like to do their chores early in the day but we have afternoon and evening appointments at different times on different days, so our evening meal time varies and there is no one time that is always suitable for chores. Chores were tending not to get done on days when we were out around tea time. So now I set chore time either shortly before dinner or shortly before we depart for an afternoon or evening outing. Once that is down on paper, it is easy to see where best in the day to incorporate a work session or two and a decent break.

On the schedule, I leave a large space under "Work session" so that when I go over the schedule with the children, a note can be made of which work they would like to do.

Today's schedule was atypical because we had a friend visiting in the early afternoon and the house was a mess so we did chores and a tidy up in the morning. This shrunk our work session; Josiah wrote his climbing diary, Tessa practised guitar and they both worked on their contributions for the family Christmas letter. Then it was time to grab a quick lunch before our visitor arrived. Here's a more typical example:

9.30am Work session
Latin
Josiah: climbing diary
Tessa: guitar practice
?? Science / maths / history / Christmas cards ??


12.45pm Break

3.40pm Afternoon work session
?? Family read aloud ??


4.55pm Chores
5.10pm Dinner
6.10pm Depart for climbing lesson

Times are all approximate! We use them as guides.


By the way, this weekend is Tessa's last guitar lesson for the year and we've only just thought of including her guitar practice in the work session rather than Tessa practising later in the day. I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner; it makes guitar practice much easier to fit in. Tessa's enthusiasm for practising has fluctuated but mostly been reasonably high. Some weeks, she has happily commenced without me reminding her; other weeks, she has not felt like it. She is very keen at the moment since she came up with the idea of composing a song.