Can you have a schedule when you're as lazy as I am?

*Updated

Julie asked what my two year old does for personal time. That is a good question because she doesn't have personal time and it's got me thinking about what I should be doing with her. Thanks a lot Julie! Just one more thing for me to do!!! She gets read to throughout the day by the kids and Mom and Dad but the rest of her waking hours she spends playing with us and terrorizing the house by getting into things.

If she were my oldest I would make a regular time of day to read scriptures (a couple verses) and other good books to her and discuss them. Maybe even have her color a picture about one of the books. I would never turn it into "school" time. I would make it fun and only do as much as she wanted to do. She really loves her Sign Baby cards, doing puzzles with us, playing with play dough and getting in the way when the rest of us are working on things. We have recently been teaching her to play board games. Of course a toddler only really needs to play and have books read to her. That doesn't change for a long time.

I'm really looking forward to the time when she stops taking naps and participates in Mom School. I'm sure she'll have a lot of new ideas for us!

Tami asked me what our schedule is like as home schoolers so here you go for what it's worth.

I'm actually not opposed to schedules but the truth is we've never had much of one because of Stranger's job. He works for the railroad and he is on call 24 hours a day seven days a week. He gets a call an hour and a half before he has to be at work so most of the time we are winging it. We can be sitting down to eat at a restaurant or in the middle of Church or on our way to a family dinner and he'll say, "I just got called to work. We've got to go." He's also coming home at all hours of the day and night so when we're in the middle of something it gets put on hold to welcome Daddy home. No, he doesn't get any days off. Not weekends, not evenings, not nothing. He gets a few vacation weeks and that's it.

So now that you understand his schedule I will try to explain ours. This last year I have been trying to work more on having a schedule for our day. These are not rules but guidelines and I've noticed that the closer we stick to them, the happier everyone is, especially me!

• I'm working on getting up before 7:00 in the morning to have personal time but that doesn't always happen.



• I suggest to the kids that they get up at 8:00 for their personal time. My 9 year old is strict with himself about this time but my 7 year old doesn't care. Sometimes she gets up and sometimes she doesn't.



• We have breakfast and then my 9 year old has his personal time (prayer, scriptures, clean room, comb hair, brush teeth, read, work on a project, etc.) My 7 year old doesn't believe in having separate personal time. She has note cards detailing her jobs and everything she wants to do and she gets started on them.



• My 9 year old starts his jobs at 10:00.



• I'm getting lunch ready and dinner in the crock pot by 11:00 and we eat at 12:00.



• After lunch is cleaned up we start our reading and Mom school (If Dad is home then it's usually Dad school.) and the 2 year old goes to bed for a nap.



• Between 3:00-4:00 we start getting ready to go to the gym.



• We often do our grocery shopping on our way home from the gym or stop at the library.



• We get home and eat dinner that is waiting in the crock pot (hopefully!)



• 7:00 the kids take their showers if they need them, get ready for bed and run around like wild banshees. You know how that goes.



• 8:00 they're in bed reading to themselves and thinking of reasons why they need to get up and tell me something.



• 9:00 lights out for them and I go to bed to do my own reading.



• 10:30 lights out for me.

I'm getting really good at helping the kids with their bed time but I'm still only about 4 out of seven on my own bed time.

If we have errands to run then we usually wait until Daddy is home to take us. I hate running around with the kids by myself and he loves to shop. It makes it nice because if Lovely falls asleep then one of us can sit in the car with her. I keep a list of errands we need to run so we can get it done all at once. Daddy gets mad if we run around and waste fuel anyway!

I am very strict about not scheduling anything in the morning or during nap time. That is our time to stay home as a family. If something comes up once a week I can handle it but it still bugs me.

Of course all of this will change as it gets hotter and we want to spend every day at the pool!

"The greatest maxim of all is that children should be brought up as simply and in as domestic a way as possible, and that they should be as much as possible with their parents, and learn to place the greatest confidence in them in all things." - Queen Victoria

In our home this means the kids don't play with friends every day and they don't participate in every outside activity that comes along. Just because every other child in America spends their days and evenings away from the influence of their parents doesn't make it right for us. The most important thing we can do as a family is spend time together.