For our family, schedules seemed to always make me feel like we were failing since something was always knocking us off track.

Routine is what works for my family. Also, the routine that works has been different in different stages. Right now my 2 kids are both in high school and what works for us is for me to give them a list of the required school work for the week and they do it on their own and show me when they are done, with the exception of our together subjects. I am putting our stuff together for next year and we will meet at 10AM with coffee/tea for bible, civics videos, poetry, and any other together subjects.

When they were just littles at 6-7 yo I anchored each subject to a part of our day that we already were doing so that when my little ADHD kiddos (or me!) got off track we could pick back up again with check points built into the day already. Read aloud history as they finished breakfast, then play time, handwriting practice after morning snack, then play time/outside, math after lunch, then play time, read aloud literature before nap, etc. It worked really well in those yearly years.

Eventually, as they became older elementary ages we had to change it up and do school in two blocks, morning and afternoon because it became to hard to get back on track when we had play time between each subject… even though that had been optimal when they were much younger.

So test is out and be ready to adjust to the needs of your kids as they change with age, and your own needs. It has to work for mama too.

What are you doing now for a schedule/routine, and how is it working for you? Let me know in the comments!