Step 3--Assigning Days of the Week

For this step I've found it helpful to lay out a table with all of the days of the week for EACH student (you could do this for yourself for assigning household tasks or reading/work you'd like to do as well).
Look through your daily tasks and using the frequency you've determined, assign the tasks to the days you'd like to do these on. For example, I've got Nature Study 3x a week. The natural occurrence would be MWF, however I may want to do it on TTH and do a nature hike on F. It all depends on you and how you want your plan set up. One thing to take into consideration is that if you have many subjects 3x a week, you don't want MWF to be OVERWHELMING and then TTH to be fairly empty. This is extremely important also if you're hoping to have a light Friday, which I really enjoy. Friday is usually my day to get together at the park with my other homeschooling friends, so I don't want too heavy a load in the morning.

Here is an example of my layout:

Planners/Scheduling

I've been trying out the CM Organizer from Simply Charlotte Mason and although I do like many things about it, it's not fitting my specific needs. I've seen similar frustrations among other CM moms and am wondering what exactly it is that would make a good planner. If you have any insight you'd like to offer, please do so. I'm going to go have a cup of coffee (in hopes of perking up my foggy brain) and have myself a little brainstorm and see what I can come up with...then ideally, come up with a solution. Eventually I'd like to come up with a web-based solution (and put to use the skills of my past life as a web designer) that I can offer to other CM moms to remedy what seems to be a fairly significant problem (at least in my eyes).

Step 2--Alloting Time

The good news is that we all have the same number of minutes in a day, the bad news is that there are definite time constraints. One must prepare meals, clean up messes and get some much-needed rest. That's a given. Those of us with younger children will have more of those minutes dedicated to the care and nurture of the young ones, but each minute spent to that effect will be well worth it.

Now that you have your list of EVERYTHING you want to do, it's time to assign a specific amount of time for each item. For example, on my list I have the following items:
Morning Chores
Bible Study
Writing
Math
Lunch
Sewing

Now I need to go and figure out how much time we're going to spend on each item and put this in the "Duration" column. It's important to figure in transition time and to give yourself and your family a little amount of a buffer, so that if something spills or some disaster occurs (which happens quite often in a house full of young children), your schedule won't be completely off for the rest of the day. You don't want to allot TOO much time, however, otherwise it will become too easy for inattention to take over and for frustration to get a foot hold, and that's what we're trying to avoid! We want to keep that habit of attention at the forefront. I should also mention that one of the incentives of having a tiny bit of time left over is that when assignments are finished early, there is a bit of time as a reward, time to fill with whatever suits your fancy, even if it is only a few moments.

So now I have:
Morning Chores (30 minutes)
Bible Study (20 minutes)
Writing (10 minutes)
Math (20 minutes)
Lunch (30 minutes)
Sewing (30 minutes)

Make sure you assign an amount of alloted time to EVERYTHING on your list. At first it may seem ridiculous. After all every day only has so many minutes in it...but remember, not everything is going to be done EVERY day. Seeing the time also helps to set your priorities and realize how valuable time really is.

So you have your list and you have a specific duration for each item. Now is the time to determine how OFTEN you want each of these to occur. Certain things will be done daily ie: Lunch, chores, clean-up, etc. and others will be done a couple of times a week, some weekly, some bi-weekly and some monthly. Put this in the "Frequency" column.

Here is an example of my "brain storm":

Step 1--Creating a Workable Schedule

The key to this step is the word WORKABLE. If your schedule isn't workable, it's not going to work. Then what good is it? A schedule that works for your family may not work for a different family and vice versa. This step will take time as you analyze your needs, your wants and your goals. I like to consider EVERY aspect of my schedule (or my family's schedule, I should say) when laying it all out.

There will be many things to consider while developing your schedule and I highly recommend that you take a long look at every facet of your daily, weekly and monthly schedule. Take time to brainstorm every possible idea, desire, goal and add in all of the things that MUST be done (see my note on routines below, however). You can always remove things that just won't fit before creating the final product. For now just let your creative juices flow. I'll give you some ideas in hopes of stimulating more ideas.

What do I want to accomplish? Do you want to do daily nature study or a weekly nature hike? Do you want to incorporate a tea time? Do you need to focus more on academics and less on extra-curricular (or vice versa)? Do you need to be outside more often? Do you want to instill habits? Do you want to get your children and yourself on a better chore schedule? Are there different avenues you've wanted to explore but never thought you'd be able to find the time--such as exercise, handicrafts, or a class you'd like to take yourself or as a family?

What subjects are being covered? Obviously there will be the three "R's", some science, history, etc., but what about other subjects? Foreign language? Handicrafts? Home Economics? Art? Music? Composer Study? Picture Study?
There are so many subjects, so many fun avenues to explore. Again, do NOT limit yourself at this point, this is the time to develop a plan of ALL you want for your family, not only what is feasible at this time. Lord willing, as you become more established in a routine, as the children grow and develop and as you become more skilled as a teacher and home manager, your time and abilities will become more abundant.

Are there younger children that need to be addressed? What will they be doing while you're working on more academic topics with your older children? How will they be involved? Are you getting them into a chore/help routine? Are there projects, games, etc. that you can do with them in order to involve them? Make sure to remember the little ones and have them involved in as much as possible.

Chunk the "need-to's" into a simple routine. It's simple to start with a morning routine, an afternoon routine and an evening routine, since these revolve around the 3 meals of the day. This way we're not putting things like "Brush teeth", "Get Dressed", etc. onto our schedule. We can simply say, "Morning Routine", "Afternoon Routine" and "Evening Routine" and have those specified elsewhere so our schedule doesn't get too overwhelming. You can take time to think about those routines and even make a simple outline at this time just to get a general idea of how long this might take...or you may just want to keep in mind approximately how long these simple routines take you each day and put them down on your list.

So, get out a piece of blank paper and start writing!!! Sit back and visualize your "perfect" school day and your "prefect" school week. We'll develop more of a plan once all of your ideas are out of your head and onto paper. It's very helpful to create a table with the headings: SUBJECT, DURATION and FREQUENCY so that you can continue with the next couple of steps.