Learning their rhythm...

I remember when my kids were babies and I couldn't fathom the idea of scheduling them. I didn't think I was the best person for telling them when they were hungry or tired. Instead, I looked for clues in their behavior, like rubbing their eyes and yawning or searching frantically about while smacking their lips. Eventually, I noticed they would fall into a rhythm, feeding at pretty well dependable times (excluding growth spurts) and napping at regular intervals. We learned we could push the "schedule" earlier or later without causing much distress, simply by keeping the routine around the eating or sleeping predictable.

And while that always worked with my babies, somehow as kids have grown, I have relied more on the arbitrary decisiveness of a written down schedule and the ticking of the clock to determine when we eat, sleep, play or school. The very thing I never would have imagined doing for my babies is the very root of our daily struggle... staying on and finishing the schedule. And it isn't for lack of trying to clearly think through the day, I have thought and pondered and scribbled and formatted our schedule a million different ways in the last 10 years. Yet, we still haven't been able to find the ever-illusive "well planned day".

The last few days I have watched my kids specifically looking for ways to streamline our schedule. I noticed a few things. Some wake up easy and early. Others wake up slowly and later. When the early ones have to wait on the later ones, we lose their most productive time. When the laters are needing to slowly wake up, the earlies are rushing them because of how long they have awaited their downstairs arrival. Compounded in this observation is that this year we started trying to wake everyone up at the same time, 7am. Those later sleeping kids tried really hard to comply but began  struggling to maintain a happy attitude in the afternoons and were found falling asleep during any car ride after 3pm. And 7am was never early enough for the early kids.

I also noticed that when everyone is fresh and cheerful at the beginning of the day, they play more sweetly together and they really seem to relish being with one another. Yet, by the time the afternoon rolls around (when I have scheduled them to enjoy happy playing with their siblings), they are full of "being with people" and need a break. I can't really complain, that is something I feel too. Then the evening comes, which we have designed to be family time, can be overwhelming to those kids who are full of "together" time and would rather look for a closet to hide in and get away for some time alone than play a game.

And then, I had an "ah-ha" moment. It was an alarming idea to my Type-A self, but I decided to try an experiment with our schedule. I shared my idea with the kids and we are experimenting with it a little this week and officially will adopt it for the month of October next week.

Bedtime isn't changing, everyone will be in bed with the lights out by 9pm. However, I am not waking anyone up anymore. If I felt we had a child who struggled with being motivated to get out of bed, I might not be able to do this, but none of my children have proven to be sluggards, some just need more sleep than others.

Breakfast will no longer be scheduled, and we won't wait on one another before anyone can eat. Instead, it will be self serve upon waking, and to my children's shock, they may come down and eat before room chores lest they wake a sleeping sibling. Following breakfast, they will have their personal devotion and time in God's Word. Then, each child will work on their independent studies (handwriting, copywork, vocabulary, math, etc).

After completing their independent work, they will have free time, the more efficient they are with their time, the more free time they will have. This has been the plan before, but somehow, the free time being all the way in the afternoon was not a motivation. My hope is that the children who need to learn how to be more inwardly motivated will flourish under this schedule. So far, the last couple of days have been promising.

They aren't free forever, though. I call them up to do their room chores at 10am, and we have family Bible study at 10:30am. Then we have a little workout and stretching (honestly, I am trying to tire them out so they can sit more easily during our family school time). Family school follows, which is where I read aloud from history or geography or literature selections and the kids narrate back, or draw, or write reports.

Daily chores start happening while I make lunch, and we all sit down to read the "Proverbs of the Date" as we call it. We bless the meal and while we eat, we listen to some Lamplighter Theatre, lunch is a delightful time now, and since I am not reading and children aren't all talking at the same time, it is relaxing and refreshing as well.

After school we finish up with Mommy-led lessons, pull out the computers for typing and math practice, and finish up everything that looks, smells or tastes of school. The afternoon is free for the children, I make a coffee and prepare for dinner.

Our new schedule may seem long and draw out, but the last few days have truly been delightful, and we are having less conflict with better rested children. We are doing a better job at finishing school at a reasonable hour, and because of my mornings being free from teaching, I have gotten a couple of days of much neglected weed pulling done.

One challenge for me, and my Type-A-ness, is trying to find a succinct way to make this new, more flowing schedule into a cute chart for the refrigerator. But I have not doubt I will figure it out. :)

How do you creatively address scheduling challenges?