Organizing Our Homeschool- Part 3: Large Family Charlotte Mason Scheduling

I know, I know! Some of you are not ready to start school and that is ok! However, for our family we have found a Sabbath calendar works best for us, which means we start in July. So I have to give this some thought before many of you.

When I first started homeschooling I used a semi-box curriculum. Everything was laid out, and it was a great way to start. I still highly recommend it to those who like a little more structure and want things pre-planned for them. However, Im a rebel. At least thats what I think it comes down to. After 4 years at university where I was taught to make my own lesson plans, not how to use a curriculum, for elementary education, I began teaching kindergarten at a school that neither allowed printable, worksheets, or curriculum. All had to be hand coordinated by the teacher. All this makes me struggle with following other peoples plans.

So as we entered our second year homeschooling I knew I needed changes. I was embracing a more Charlotte Mason method of teaching and leaving behind many traditional methods. However, I didn’t know how to make this work with my large family and lots of littles. The forms and Parent Union Schools schedules are appealing and a great place to start. However, as I mentioned I have lots of littles and am a rebel. So a strict time table does not work for me.

I tried to be the free-wheeling just go with the flow mama, but that didn’t work either. We rarely accomplished all we had for a week. I tried looping and it worked in some respects, but that got confusing because I lacked the space to organize it in a useful way. I tried writing down everything we accomplished in a day, but began to forget to do that so we were lost again.

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Finally, this past February I attended a retreat for Charlotte Mason couples, and learned from the keynote speaker, Nancy Kelly, about a different type of routine. Her 4 part rotation is actually the perfect combination for our family. It allows me to schedule all that needs to be accomplished, but also allows me flexibility.

School time-tables are usually drawn up with a view to give the brain of the child variety of work; but the secret of weariness children often show in the home schoolroom is, that no such judicious change of lessons is contrived.”

Charlottte Mason, Home Education, p 24

Nancy utilizes this rotation of lesson to help support her classroom. She uses these four parts: family gathering (liturgy of the day), individual studies (books and things), work at table (pens and pencils), and masterly inactivity (wise passiveness). Go check out her wonderful post here for more details on how she implements this routine.

For us we have made some modifications, as I believe all families must depending on the stage of life they are experiencing. We have lots of littles and need lots of grace with our schedule. While I was pregnant, I had a difficult time sleeping until about 6am so we would start later than I preferred. It was a necessary change. We also cut a few subjects to accommodate my physical needs at the time.

We will have four sections much like Nancy’s schedule, but modified to fit the needs of my year 5 (form 2, age 10), year 3 (form 1, age 8), year 2 (form 1, age 6.5), preschooler (age 5), toddler (age 2) and infant. Also, my husband is a pastor and we live on church property in a parsonage. Thus he is often home for midday meals, and randomly shows up disrupting our schedule. Thats ok.

So here is how we plan to implement our schedule this school year, based on our experience last term.

Morning Time (all together)

Family Worship (20 minutes)

• Hymn
• Prayer (child led)
• Read scripture & narrate
• Hymn
• Scripture Memory
• Kids Christian Song (ex. Deep & Wide, Oh Be Careful, etc)

Morning Loops (40 minutes)

• History (daily)
• Movement (daily)
• Poetry (daily)
• Beauty Loop (daily but on rotation)
• Foreign Language (alternate Spanish and Latin)
• Arts Loop (daily but on rotation)
• Science (daily)
• Doxology (daily)

Independent Work

Early Years (15-20 minutes)

• Read a story
• Offer craft/arts activitiy
• Offer manipulative play
• Baby Care

Form 1 (45 minutes)

• Piano Practice
• Phonics
• Math
• Copywork

Form 2 (45 minutes)

• Piano Practice
• Grammar
• 1 Written Narration
• Studying Recitation
• Copywork
• Begin Independent Reading (Science, History, Literature)

Table Time

Form 1

• Repetition Practice
• Math Instruction (15-20 min)

Form 2

• Math Help (if needed)
• Finish Independent Work
• Dictation (10 min)
• Grammar (10 min)

Family Instruction

• Geography (2x/week)
• Grammar Reading/Intro (1x/week)

Catch-up Time

Form 1 (30-40 minutes)

• Read any literature, science or history specific to their form with mama
• Narrations
• Finish any uncompleted tasks

Form 2 (45-60 minutes)

• Finish Independent Readings
• Narrations (2-3 written narrations per week/oral narrations daily)
• Read Plutarch with Mama

Lunch

Afternoon Occupations

• nature time
• nature journaling
• handicrafts
• drawing/painting
• piano (if not completed)
• free reading
• free play

For the last term this schedule suited us very well, so we will continue to follow this through on our next term. How do you schedule your school days? Are you more rigid or free-wheeling? I’d love to hear how you make your homeschool schedule work for your family!