I sat down today to create our daily and weekly homeschooling schedule.
Since our homeschooling year begins September 1, it’s time to begin the Tetris game that is scheduling my day with several kids that still require “teaching” as opposed to merely “facilitating”.
I am adding a new student this year, Ruby, who just turned 5, the first time I’ve had 5 kids in school at one time.
Pray for me.
And send dark chocolate and red wine!
Thankfully, my oldest is nearly done (he’s doing another round of American history and pre-calculus) and all I have to do with him is check in on him from time to time. That’s the ” facilitating ” I mentioned earlier.
Also, praise be, he will be getting his license in a couple of weeks. Meaning he can drive himself to work. One less round of car trips which are decidedly stressful with a young baby who hates the car seat.
I am way too busy these days running here and there. I’ve become one of those American mothers our French peers call “maman-taxi“. (And it’s not a compliment. They think we’re nuts for spending our evenings driving kids around to activities.)
/rant
I started by getting down on paper everything that we need to do in a week. This includes:
- subjects I help the kids with directly, making sure that I wasn’t putting myself in two places at once
- the other subjects
- the most important things: Bible reading and study
- health (including mental health!) necessities such as eating, taking breaks to play outside and an hour long daily quiet time.
- two daily read-aloud periods: one with the bigs, one with the littles.
- space for hygiene and chores.
- time for me (because before I am mom/homeschooling mom, I am first of all a human being with needs of her own) to do the things that I love: French lessons, writing each day, reading, and exercise
- our weekly “TGIF” Starbucks run
Then I got the kids’ input on how they wanted their days to unfold (for some kids, getting math done first is the key to a good homeschool day, for others, it takes them more time to wake up so they start with an easier subject).
Then, I created a daily and weekly routine that included all these elements.
(Here’s another post on the process of creating a daily and weekly schedule for homeschooling from last year.)
The next step is to type it up into a neat table using Google Drive so I can print it out. I’m sure I’ll have to make some adjustments when it’s real-world tested, but having a flexible plan right off the bat lets my brain relax, and makes homeschooling this many kids much smoother.
A Homeschooling Lunch Menu
In an effort to simplify, I decided to create a weekly lunch menu. For some reason, figuring out what to eat for lunch during the school year is stressful. I want to provide something filling and healthy, but I don’t have much time to spend on cooking in the middle of a school day.
My brain is tired, y’all. Any way I can reduce decision fatigue is a win.
I gathered the kids up and asked them what they wouldn’t mind eating every day for lunch, and here’s what they came up with.
M: Rici e bici with a big green salad (we found this Italian recipe for rice cooked with broth, peas and parmesan cheese in a book called Everybody Cooks Rice, and it’s been a favorite ever since)
T: Croque Monsieur (a fancy hot ham and cheese, but the French name makes it much sexier, n’est-ce pas?) with fruit or raw veggies on the side
W: Tostadas (basically an open taco, it’s a flat corn tortilla served with ground beef or chicken, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream)
T: Bits ‘n Pieces. This is just what it sounds like, a little of everything. I served this once for lunch when I had random leftovers and the kids loved it. I put a big plate on the table with anything from hunks of cheese, olives, fruit, leftover meats, tuna, hummus, vegetable crudites, pickles, crackers, etc and everyone digs in.
F: Pizza. I buy frozen gluten free crusts at the store and add canned tomato puree, seasonings, mozza, green pepper, black olives, pepperoni.
Has your homeschool year already begun? What did you do to organize and simplify?
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