Homeschooling routines.

Homeschooling routines change.  Frequently.  Some days, as soon as breakfast is over, I get Austin and Audrey to do their workbooks and be done for the day with 'official' homeschooling.  Because we are much more along the lines of Relaxed Homeschooling, homeschooling lasts from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to sleep.

Routine is good for children.  And we have certain things that ARE routine.  But workbook stuff?  Some days, like I said, it's right after breakfast.  Some days I wait until Audrey and Cody are down for naps to tackle harder things with Austin.  Some days they don't do workbook pages at all. 

Today, I knew it was supposed to rain.  So I had them all go outside for a while.  It was nice enough to be in short sleeves and they just went out and played for a good hour and a half.  This is also homeschooling.  They are learning how to play without gadgets and being entertained by something.  They are learning how to make up stories and engage in free play and use their imaginations.  I see kids in traditional school losing that opportunity for free play with shorter and shorter recesses and lunch times.  I see kids enrolled in extra curricular activities on a daily basis and then it's a rush to get homework done and eat dinner and get to bed.  That leaves very little time for self led play! 

Yesterday, Austin told me he had nothing to do.  Yeah... nothing.  I handed him a piece of paper and a marker and said, "Draw."  And he did.  And then told me he was bored again.  He didn't WANT to watch TV.  He didn't WANT to play the iPad.  The moment I said, "Fine.  Go outside!"  he did!  And he played outside, by himself for almost an hour.  A good part of that was on the swing, which he finally mastered.  (Meanwhile I was inside taking care of Audrey who had a fever and sore throat... but seems fine today.)

That free play is SO important for kids.  It helps them to assess what they have learned and absorb it into their brains and systems overall.  I know on the days my kids have MORE free play, they are MORE willing to do more workbook stuff.  Or other 'school' stuff.

Today, I got out the tangrams.  They loved them!  And that includes Cody!  He was able to do almost all of them as well!  And then I watched as Cody proceeded to sort the shapes into piles of the same.  This in itself was a child led learning activity.  Did I say, "Sort the shapes."  No.  He did it on his own, and was so proud to show me when he was done.  Did he do the whole box?  Nope!  And that's okay.  He did what he felt was necessary.  Austin learned that there were 20 puzzles in the pack and he put them back in order 1-20.  Again, another child led learning activity when he figured out they were numerical! 

Back to routines.  If I did the exact same thing every single day, they would get bored.  Do you like to do the exact same thing every single day?  Do you ever have a different breakfast, or a different flavor of coffee?  Do change your drive once in a while for a new view?  Do you have new projects at work?  If you answered yes to any of these, you also don't do the exact same thing every day.  Having a routine doesn't mean boring. 

Austin's routine is that he must complete 4 pages of math every day and we read 1 chapter of a chapter book every day.  If we miss a day, such as last week when Mark was home and we went on a picnic, we have to catch up.  Yep.  That sometimes means 6 pages a day until we catch up.  Know why?  It's important to show him that days off are fun and nice but that we need to stay on top of things and not slide back. 

Routine is also getting up, having breakfast, and getting dressed.  Part of that is sometimes getting to cuddle with me in bed.  Or getting ready to go the library for storytime.  We have bedtime routines and specific prayers we say together each night.   But the school routine changes every day.  There are very few days that we do something in the exact same order as the day before.  For us, this also is great to allow my children to go with the flow and anticipate change and be able to make transitions easily. 

Do you have any daily routines you'd like to share that work for you in homeschooling?  I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!