Confessions of a Homeschool Mom: Our Daily Routine - or lack there of...

(This image is NOT our routine, it's just for visual pleasure)

This is a topic many people ask me about so I thought I’d touch on it here in my blog.

WARNING: this might disappoint you!

To be honest, I LOVE routine. I love having predictability and times for everything to happen as it helps me feel less frazzled and scatter-brained throughout my day. But in reality, a routine is something that hasn’t been steady in my life over the past 10 years.

Even before we decided to homeschool, developing a routine that we could stick to was very hard simply because we were in our family-building stage of life.

If you have children, you remember the chaos that comes with sleepless nights from infants, toddlers and even young children. Those sleepless nights, partnered with the daily needs of the children, the house and just life in general, create a recipe for the perfect storm in which routine and predictably are anything but welcome.

So when we decided to start homeschooling, as desperately as I wanted a solid routine, it was nowhere in sight.

The beginning of my homeschooling journey started with me working half time, meaning I was only actually homeschooling my kids 3 & 2 days a week, depending on the week. This in itself made a routine in our homeschool days very challenging.

Half way through that year I became pregnant with our fourth baby and, well… need I say more?

Baby number 4 is now 2 years old and FINALLY sleeping through the night for about the past 2 weeks (after going through an incredibly challenging sleep regression for 6 weeks which left me 4 hours of sleep per night- and that wasn’t consecutive).

So it is JUST NOW that we are starting to find some sort of routine in our days.

Here’s what we’re working with right now. I say, “right now” because I am very aware that with the changing seasons and growing up of my children that this routine is temporary and subject to change most likely sooner than later:

• 5:00 AM: wake up (because my husband’s alarm went off and I can’t fall back asleep so I might as well get up) and workout.

• 7:00 ish: breakfast

• 8:00 ish: do stuff I want to do before starting homeschooling such as filling in my day planner, meal prep, baking, or just mindlessly sipping coffee while staring off into the abyss.

• 9:00 ish: start homeschooling. This currently consists of our daily Bible verse, sometimes a faith-related story, followed by math for all 3 kids.

• 10:30 ish: snack because we’re STARVING!

• 11:00 ish: literacy for all 3 kids

• 12:00 ish: lunch followed by Simon’s nap and free time for the kids while I clean, write this blog post, nap with Simon or again, stare off into the abyss and think about all the things I should be doing but don’t want to.

• The rest of the day: do whatever. That could include attending a homeschool co-op, going on a a field trip, learning about something the kids have shown interest in, doing a fun craft, going to the library to get new books, doing a science experiment or just taking it easy, followed by supper prep and then attempting to survive the busiest part of our day, the evening/bedtime routine.

So even though I have struggled to find a routine that we could stick with over the past 10 years due to the changing seasons, it doesn’t mean I didn’t give it my best shot and drive myself half mad attempting to accomplish this task.

The lack of routine first left me feeling a lot of stress and anxiety. Not being in control of my day-to-day was a HARD pill for me to swallow.

But, eventually, as my faith and relationship with God grew stronger, I realized that I was never actually in control and I learned to trust, through hindsight, that His plan was and always will be better than any of mine.  This allowed me to let go of reigns and going with the flow (so to speak), became much easier and more comfortable.

So now, even though we do have somewhat of a routine, I’m far less worried about enforcing it and much more comfortable following my children’s lead and taking each day as it comes.

With all of that said, this is another thing I LOVE about homeschooling, the ability to adapt our days to our life and not have to worry about adapting our life to the expectations of the outside world. It’s wonderful!

Now I’m curious- are you a person of routine or do you manage just fine waking up and taking each hour as they come?

I really would love to hear from you in the comments below!

As always, thanks for taking time out of your life to read my thoughts.

God bless,

Sarah ❤️🥰❤️