Schedules are for traditional schools. If you’re trying to keep schedules in your homeschool and feeling frazzled as you do it, you might be making homeschool harder than it needs to be. What you need are homeschool routines.
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What are homeschool routines?
Here’s the difference. Schedules look like this:
- 7:00 wake up
- 7:30 breakfast
- 8:00 kids start spelling
- 8:30 math lesson
Routines look like this:
- wake up
- eat breakfast
- when kids are ready for the day, have them start spelling assignment
- next is math lesson
Routines are flexible, while schedules are rigid.
And we know that homeschooling goes so much smoother when everything about it is flexible, including your time management.
Because sometimes the weather interrupts your day (impromptu snow fort, anyone?)
Sometimes the dog throws up on the carpet or the kids throw up on the couch. Yeah, those days are fun.
Some days the math lesson is easily understood and successfully completed in 30 minutes tops. Other days, we’re all still crying after 45 minutes of trying to find x.
If you use rigid schedules, then the first hint of falling of the bandwagon might leave you stressed, frustrated, and feeling like your day has been a disaster (even though it hasn’t!). You might always feel behind.
But, if you use routines, then you have built in the fabric of your time the realization that life will happen. You are homeschooling, of course.
What Routines Are Not
Routines are not willy-nilly. They are not “just do whatever you want, whenever you want” types of plans.
Rather, they are general flows to your day. And you have to communicate them well to your kids if you want it to work properly.
So, ask these questions to see if you have established routines:
- do your kids know what to do when they wake up?
- do they know what to do after they eat breakfast?
- do they know what to work on if you’re not able to help them?
- do they know where to find their assignments for the day?
- do they know generally how the school day flows?
There is no one right way to homeschool. Some of you do morning time, some do tea time with poetry, some of us have very independent high schoolers who work a lot on their own. But you can still use routines to keep a sanity, clarity, and order throughout your school day.
>> Find the entire Time Management for Homeschool Moms series <<
Creating the Right Environment for Homeschooling
No matter your homeschooling style, you’ll want to create the right environment at home for homeschooling to thrive. What does that look like? This episode will walk you through it!
Listen to episode 295 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast.
Rhythms Over Rigid Schedules: Motherhood in Changing Seasons (HWM 330)
Motherhood isn’t about following a perfect schedule—it’s about finding rhythms that flex with life’s constant changes. In this episode, we explore why rhythms bring peace, stability, and freedom when strict schedules just won’t hold.
Today, I want to share an idea from a book I’ve been reading that has really stayed with me. It’s called Beyond Mere Motherhood: Moms Are People Too by Cindy Rollins.
Cindy is a longtime homeschool mom and writer who has spent decades thinking about how mothers can cultivate lives of wisdom, beauty, and growth while raising children. This book isn’t a how-to manual for childrearing—it’s about the mother herself. About who we are as people, even in the midst of diapers, dishes, and daily chaos.
One passage in particular grabbed my attention, and that’s what I want to unpack with you today. Cindy writes: “Being a mother means I do not know when I will be needed. It is not just lack of discipline that makes my days uncertain; it is the reality of motherhood.”
Listen to episode 330 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast!
(coming soon!)
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6 Ways You’re Making Homeschooling Harder Than It Needs to Be
I think we definitely have a routine over a schedule and I like it that way. I love the flexibility of homeschooling.
The flexibility of homeschooling is amazing!!