As a homeschooling mum of three, I thought I would share some ways how to create a calm homeschool day, even with a flexible routine. If you want to learn how we do it, keep reading.
For context, I have a 6 year old daughter, 4 year old daughter, 1 year old son and am 33 weeks pregnant with our fourth baby.
We have been homeschooling for almost a year now, so I don’t claim to be an expert. However, I have learnt the art of creating calm from chaos and it comes down to two things.
Expectations and rhythms.
These two things are what help bring calm to our home most days. There are of course days where my toddler is extra clingy or we did not sleep very well the night before, so there are certainly exceptions. However, I believe these two words, ‘expectations’ and ‘rhythms’ are what help get us back on track for a successful homeschool day.
What I will cover in this post
- Why rhythms work better than routines in homeschooling
- How to create a calm homeschooling day
- My favourite homeschool resources right now
Why rhythms work better than routines in homeschooling
I learnt about the word ‘rhythm’ when I came across a podcast called Rhythms for Life by Rebekah and Gabe Lyons (podcast here). I fell in love with the term because it is so much more sustainable and consistent than the word ‘routine’.
Rhythms have a natural flow and pattern to them. Whereas, routines are more structured and rigid.
When it came to deciding how I wanted to structure our homeschooling day, I never wanted our day to feel rigid. I wanted it to have a natural flow and pattern. I feel that this works really well, especially with little kids.
This means that there are certain anchor points in our day. My children expect to have breakfast first thing in the morning, then they expect to have some play time before we begin homeschool. Then my children expect there to be some breaks in between learning and they expect to be finished with homeschooling by the early afternoon.
These anchor points help my children to know what to expect throughout the day. It does not mean that we have a rigid routine where certain things are done at certain times, however, there is a natural flow to our day that is expected.
I also find that having a rhythm over routine gives me some grace for when I need to get some things done that may interrupt our homeschooling. This may look like attending to an urgent email or putting a load of washing on the line while it is sunny outside.
There is more flexibility to rhythms than routines, which is why I prefer having a rhythm.
How to create a calm homeschool day
As I mentioned earlier, a calm successful homeschool day looks like setting up expectations and rhythms for your children.
I would like to preface this by writing that if you are a routine-driven person, then a structured routine may work better for your family. For me, I find having a structured routine sets me up to fail when the day has not gone to plan. A routine may work better with older children, but I find that rhythms are much more flexible and achievable with little ones.
Let’s talk about expectations…
As a bible-believing Christian, I am a big fan of setting the tone for our home. As the mother and primary caregiver, it is my job to instill expectations that are required of my children and expectations that they can require from me.
For example, I have raised my children to be responsible for mess in the house, even if it was their sibling’s doing, I expect my children to clean whatever mess they see. They know that this helps me and is training them to become responsible people who look after their home and belongings.
In turn, my children expect me to look after them by providing them with nourishing food and setting up rhythms that leave them feeling rejuvenated and not tired or overstimulated throughout the day.
If there is no rhythm or flow to the day, then children will often act out and not comply. I know this because I have seen it in my own children!
Let’s talk about rhythms…
I will share in a little more detail what our rhythms look like during a typical homeschool day:
- We wake up and have breakfast
- My kids will get dressed, brush their teeth and tidy their rooms
- My kids will have some play time while I read my bible and get ready for the day
- We usually begin homeschool at around 8.30-9.
- We will start with prayer, handwriting and Maths
- Then my kids have a break and morning tea
- We finish our homeschool morning with literacy, reading and either science, history, geography or art
- We will have lunch, then I will put my son to sleep
- During his nap, my girls will have quiet play time while I work on my blog/do some housework
- Then, when my son wakes up, we have afternoon tea
- The kids will either play outside or watch some television
- Then at around 4.30pm, I prepare dinner
- We eat dinner and get ready for bed
- My kids are usually in bed by 7.30pm.
As you can see, we have some regular times that we stick to throughout the day. However, what I love about rhythms is that they will change depending on the season we are in.
For example, I found if we left completing Maths too late in the morning, my daughter would not be as engaged. So I found that changing our learning around to Maths in the morning helped her to focus more. As reading and literacy work come more naturally to her, we could leave these lessons to later in the morning.
As much as I like to finish our homeschool day before lunch, it does not always work that way. So if we need to finish some work after lunch, we will do so during my son’s nap time.
When our fourth baby comes along, our homeschool day will probably change again. However, this just takes some tweaking to our rhythm and it will feel calm again.
So, I find that setting up expectations and rhythms have been a gamechanger to not just our homeschool day, but our lives in general. Our children feel safe and more relaxed when they know what to expect, and while it may take some work on our part, it is most definitely worth it if it means a calm day for everyone.
My current favourite homeschool resources
Dot stickers for toddler entertainment and fine motor skills practice
Teach your child to read in 100 lessons
Electronic drawing board (a favourite for all my kids!)
More on the blog
Gut-friendly yoghurt unicorn slices for kids
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