A New Way to Schedule: Planning Your Homeschool Day with Young Children

Homeschool planning with young children looks different from homeschool planning with more independent children.

I’m in a few different Facebook groups for moms who are homeschooling young children, and some of the same challenges come up over and over again. 

“How do you homeschool with a baby?”

“How do you get anything done with a toddler running around the house?”

“Why won’t my three-year-old wear pants?”

While I don’t have the answer to that last one, I’d like to share some tips for scheduling your day with young children. Currently, I have a 5 year old kindergartener, a 3 year old preschooler, and a 14 month old. 

First, make a master list of all the things you would like to be accomplishing. I’ll put my list here as an example: 

• Get myself ready for the day 
• Kids’ morning routine
• Breakfast – preparing and eating
• Writing
• Reading
• Morning basket
• Read to 14 month old 
• Homeschool kindergartener
• Laundry
• Dishes
• General cleaning (bathrooms, floors, etc.)
• Exercise
• Homeschool preschooler 
• Bible study
• Lunch – preparing and eating
• Dinner – preparing and eating
• Snacks – preparing
• Spend one-on-one time with kindergartener
• Take vitamins
• Nurse 14 month old
• Errands
• Kids’ bedtime routine
• Shower
• Spend time with husband 
• Unwind – listen to calm music, read on Kindle Paperwhite, etc.

Second, think through what can be done while all of the children are awake. Again, I will include my list here: 

• Kids’ morning routine
• Breakfast – preparing and eating 
• Morning basket 
• Read to 14 month old
• Laundry
• Dishes
• Homeschool preschooler
• Homeschool kindergartener
• Lunch – preparing and eating
• Dinner – preparing and eating
• Snacks – preparing 
• Take vitamins
• Nurse 14 month old
• Kids’ bedtime routine 

Laundry and dishes could certainly be done more efficiently without the whole crew around. However, we are working towards building good habits and learning how to help around the house, so it’s important to me to do those things while everyone is present. 

Next, decide what can be done during naptime. Choose ahead of time what is your highest priority during naptime. Too often, we scramble about, trying desperately to squeeze as many tasks as possible into the naptime slot, and ultimately find ourselves more exhausted at the conclusion of naptime than we were at the beginning. 

Drawing from my list, naptime tasks include: 

• Any kindergarten work that wasn’t completed during the morning is first on the agenda. 
• Spend one-on-one time with kindergartener
• Reading 
• General cleaning
• Exercise
• Bible study

Be honest with yourself about what absolutely must be done alone. 

• Getting myself ready for the day – while I technically can do this with children underfoot, I really prefer not to!
• Writing – I am not able to think coherently enough to write when I’m around other people. 
• Errands – Partially due to the climate of our times, hauling everyone around for errands is a massive undertaking that I avoid whenever possible. 
• Shower – This is self-explanatory.
• Spend time with husband – We are big at-home date people. 
• Unwind – listen to calm music, read on Kindle Paperwhite, etc.

But wait, you might be thinking. What about having my Bible study time? What about exercising? 

More things can be done with children around than you might think! I have precious little kid-free time right now, so creativity is the key. My kindergartener is a pretty chill little guy, and he is happy to look at picture books while I read the Bible nearby. He also loves to exercise with me, so exercising looks like mommy and me videos from YouTube. I am not, nor will I ever be, a competitive athlete. I’m okay with that. 

Drop some things without guilt. In my current season, trying out new and creative recipes is not a priority. I prepare simple meals and don’t feel guilty about it. I rotate the same few dishes over and over again. My husband has taken over mopping and typically makes dinner once a week. About once a month, I send all of my children out with their father for an hour or two so I can work on deep cleaning and organizational projects. 

My scheduling and homeschool planning with young children ultimately comes down to three factors: 

1. Who am I caring for right now?
2. What can I accomplish within my constraints?
3. What is my highest priority out of the things that fit within this constraint? Do that task first. 

I hope this was helpful. Let me know what your schedules and routines look like!