♥ Family Lifestyle ♥ Travel ♥ Homeschool

I’ll just start by saying that this is a schedule that works best for me and my family. I’m not the type of person that enjoys a very detailed and strict schedule. I like to keep things flexible with plenty of room for spontaneity.

I’m just saying- you’re not going to see every 15 to 30 minute block of my day being dedicated to something. You know who you are.

Nothing wrong with being super detailed. It’s just not me.

That schedule I just showed you. Yeah, that’s not me. I do like to have things written down though. I like to make lists and check them off as I go. If it’s something I naturally do and won’t forget to do, I don’t see the point of writing it down. For instance, I know that I make breakfast each morning and make my husband’s lunch each day. That’s not something I’m going to bother writing down.

**The planner I use is My Big Happy Planner**

Okay, let’s get started.

MONTH

First, I look at the upcoming month and write down all of the big important dates like birthdays, activities we’ve booked and things we’ve RSVP’d to. This is just a general idea of what the month will look like and a quick glance of the “must-do’s.”

MEALS

Next, I make a list of all of my go-to easy dinners. You may be wondering what happened to breakfast and lunch. Those meals don’t require much planning for us. Breakfast is almost always eggs, rice and tomatoes. And lunch is something that’s light and quick. Our lunches are more like snacks to hold us off until dinner.

Then I assign a dinner for each day of the week. This way I can do a quick look over and see if I’m missing any ingredients. Also, this isn’t written in stone. If I suddenly don’t feel like making dinner, we’ll go out and pick something up. This is really more of a guide to help me feel more organized. Let’s face it, being a stay at home mom, and a homeschool mom at that, can be overwhelming. It’s nice to have a schedule to reference to every now and again.

HOMESCHOOL

Depending on your preferred style of education, this might be way too unstructured for you. We lean heavily towards child-led learning also known as unschooling. (If you’d like to know more about the different styles of homeschooling, click here.) The only activity we know we’ll be doing each day is practicing handwriting. That’s the only thing you’ll see written in our weekly schedule regarding homeschooling. All other subjects depend on what the kids are currently interested in.

CLEANING

Tidying up is never ending when you’ve got little ones around.

How do you want to start the day?

I like to wake up to a tidy family room and a kitchen that has no dishes in the sink. I absolutely hate waking up to a dirty house and starting my day off with chores. So, in order to accomplish this, I make sure I clean up before going to bed. The last thing I do before heading up is make sure all of the dishes are washed and put away and that our family area is tidy. It makes my mornings so much more relaxing.

On the side of the page, in the Notes section, I write down the areas of cleaning I’d like to focus on for the week. This week I’d like to declutter our kitchen countertops and purge our cabinets.

Sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms are an ongoing chore. I don’t bother to write those down since it’s something that gets done throughout the day.

And because I sweep throughout the week, vacuuming has been designated as a once a week Thursday chore.

Laundry. I’m going to try something new with laundry. Instead of unsuccessfully doing it throughout the week, I’m going to designate Friday as laundry day. Starting Thursday night I’ll start washing loads and on Friday I’ll focus on getting them folded and put away. Wish me luck!

This is what my weekly planner ends up looking like:

It may look pretty empty, but these are just our must-do’s. All of the empty spaces will be filled with spontaneous activities and lots of time spent with family.

Summary:

1. Month– Start by planning out the month. Write down important dates and activities.

2. Meals– plan out the week starting with dinner ideas.

3. Homeschooling– what do you want to see accomplished each day?

4. Cleaning- what are your daily chores? What are your weekly chores?