Approaching home education with purpose and meaning is a challenge. There are so many choices to be made: curriculum, time management, extra curricular activities, education methods, field trips, social activities and the list goes on and on…. One of the most important decisions that parents will make in their approach to homeschool/roadschool is how to govern their time.
Roadschool comes with its own unique set of predicaments. Chief among those difficulties: keeping school moving in a forward progression with an irregular schedule. When your home is constantly being torn down, relocated and set up again, how does anyone conduct a “normal” schedule?
Well, we’ve only been doing this roadschool thing for about 8 months. But, I have come to the realization that keeping a roadschool schedule is not that different than the homeschool schedule we have employed for the last few years (with a few necessary tweaks).
Before I create a schedule for our family, my first item of business is to identify our priorities. I do this by asking questions like:
- What activities are most important to our family life? (ex. family devotions, youth group or clubs, exercise, etc.)
- What areas are we weak and need to grow in? (ex. needing to eat healthier means leaving time to prepare healthy meals)
- What areas have been neglected that we need to carve out time for? (ex. making sure the kids are bathing regularly- just keeping it real, peeps.)
Next, I consider family needs:
- Are there regular activities that we need to carve out time for? (example: naps for babies, laundry, or piano lessons)
- Are their shared items that require a rotating schedule for the kids? (example: do they share books, a computer or a piano for music lessons?)
- Do mom and dad have shared resources that will require adjustments in the schedule? (example: do mom and dad share a vehicle that will require dropping one parent off at work or only allow for activities on certain days?)
Then, I make a time grid, either on notebook paper or on a computer spreadsheet and begin filling in the priorities, followed by specific needs. Here’s how my/our schedule shaped up for this year:
| Kid’s Daily Schedule | ||||||
| 7AM | wake up- get dressed, make bed, clean up bunk house | |||||
| 7:30AM | breakfast/family devotions | |||||
| 8AM | family work out (hike/bike/circuit train/etc.) | |||||
| 10AM | go to school destination (library/Chick-fil-a), eat a snack | |||||
| 10:30AM | all kids do MATH, | |||||
| 11:30AM | All kids work on Monarch assignments | |||||
| 12:30PM | LUNCH | |||||
| 1PM | Continue Monarch Assignments | |||||
| 3PM | Mom meeting (H-Mon, S- Tues, G- Wed., I- Fri) | |||||
| 4PM | Make corrections in Monarch & Teaching Textbooks, Complete Projects | |||||
| 5PM | Leisure Screen Time (IF schoolwork is done & room is clean) | |||||
| 6PM | Dinner | |||||
| 6:30PM | Clean up/dishes | |||||
| 7PM | Showers (H- Mon & Fri, S- Tues & Sat., G- Mon & Fri, I- Tues & Sat) | |||||
| & pack school bags for next day | ||||||
| 8:30PM | Get dressed for bed & brush teeth | |||||
| 8:50PM | into bed | |||||
| 9PM | lights out Gideon and Izzy | |||||
| 9:30 PM | lights out Sarah | |||||
| 10PM | lights out Hannah | |||||
You may notice that I have allowed two and a half hours each school day for a family workout. This was my way of addressing our need to excercise AND allowing time to explore varying destinations as we travel. Yes, we still have time on the weekend to spend a day or two exploring as a family, but this gives us daily chunks of time to take a bike ride, go for a hike, etc. (If you would like to see a glimpse of our first year of roadschooling, click here to watch our video, “Dear Kids: an Open Letter About Our First Year of Full Time RVing”)
Some people will look at this and feel it is hyperscheduling the day. I have actually made much more detailed schedules in the past (when you are teaching 4 different kids, in 4 different grades, in multiple subjects, it can get complicated FAST)! But my kids have responded REALLY well to having structure. They know what is expected of them and when it is expected. A couple of them have even thanked me for making a schedule for them (and that’s a big deal coming from kids 14 and under)!
Whenever I create a new schedule, I try to hold us to it for a 2-3 weeks before we lax and deviate. It takes a while for everyone to adapt to a new way of doing things, so it can take some time to discern if the schedule is working for us, or if we are working for the schedule. Sometimes, I can tell right away that we need to make adjustments. But once in a while, it takes time to recognize a bad day versus a problem with the schedule.
Whether we choose to homeschool year round or subscribe to a traditional calendar school year (we have done both), our family typically does school 4 days a week and uses one day as a “catch up” day. Now that we are traveling full time, we are using that “catch-up” day as our travel day. Ideally, we only travel one day a week, since it is time consuming to tear down, travel and set up again. The kids will have to do homework on the weekend if they are unable to complete their assignments on the regular school days or our travel day.
I hope that my method for scheduling homeschool/roadschool can be helpful to your family! If it is, please like this post by clicking the “like” button below and sharing it with your friends. If you have any questions or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave them in the comments below and I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Keep Doing Life Deliberately!
Trisha
Doing Life Deliberately 