Work It In Wednesday: Two Hacks for a Smoother Homeschool Week {5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop}

I am not quite ready to start planning for the 2018-2019 school year out yet--we won't start until the beginning of September and not full until after we attend the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of September. But even though I haven't started the actual planning, there are two things that I know will be included in our plans--our 4 1/2 day school week and our Mandatory Monday Morning basket. It's taken us a few years, but I've come to learn the value of both of these Hacks for a Smoother Homeschool Week, and I'm going to share them with you today as part of Work It In Wednesday of the 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop.

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Why A Mandatory Monday Morning Basket?

I know that I am not alone in dealing with reluctant learners every single Monday morning. I think it's the same whether your child is in public school or homeschool! Monday rolls around and school is the last thing they want to do. But school needs to get done. Our Monday's are even more crazy,

HomeSchool Office: Manage Your Home and School Online! {Product Review}

Scheduling. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it when it's done, but sometimes hate the process! I have found a routine that works for me with pencil/paper planners, but I'm always interested in trying new methods. When we were given the opportunity to review HomeSchool Office from Lord Heritage, I was skeptical about it, but was willing to give it a try.

Product Information

Lord Heritage HomeSchool Office is an All-In-One Christian based program with all the things you need to plan, organize and manage your homeschool. The program can be used with any curriculum, in any state, in any home, with any number of students for one affordable all-inclusive cost ($79 for the year), with the availability of a free trial. With one program you can schedule your home AND school for your entire year.

With the ability to create reports, log projects, maintain a grading system as well as create high school transcripts, you will be able to have everything you run a long term successful homeschool. And, because it is online, you will always have access to it 24/7 on any computer! You can view some product features and purpose as well as some sample pages. We were given a full year access to HomeSchool Office in exchange for our review.

How Did We Use This Product?

We received our free subscription with log-in information via email and I was able to log right in and start looking through it. I started by learning more about the reasoning behind the method they used called POWER and I'm going to share how I used this product as I talk about each section.

POWER is an acronym standing for the following:

P is for Plan. Lord Heritage believes that God is all about planning as evidenced by scriptures in the Bible. He likes things to be planned out from beginning to end and Lord Heritage believes that parents should follow that same principle with their children's education. They cite Jeremiah 29:11 as part of their reasoning. Because of this, HomeSchool Office is heavy on the planning aspect of homeschool, and make it possible for me to:
*Plan subject goals and objectives *Build a master schedule *Setup lessons *Create projects for home or groups *Lay out my school budget
This is where I needed to start setting up this program to work for me, and all of this can be done when I click the Plan tab at the top of my dashboard.

From this screen I set up all the subjects we are doing for each student and once that is done, I am able to click the little icon at the far left of each line for the subject to schedule all the lessons.

You can see that you can easily change which student you are working with using the little drop down menu, AND you can
plug in how many lessons there are in your curriculum so it will keep track of your progress.

Once I have this portion set up, I can move on to scheduling the actual lessons...

You can see how specific I can be for each lesson. This shows what our history lessons look like. I have them detailed out, including how long it should take. I can change the order of any lessons easily. The first green check indicates that it's been completed, the second one that it's an active subject. It is easy to plan my school days with the school year plan:

Once I clicked on this screen, I went through each month of our school year and clicked on the days I intend to have school. It will tell me my total number of days at the top. Once this is done, I can move on to my master schedule.

Here is an example of what it looks with one student's master schedule (Little Britches). I can pick the color I want for each student's schedule.

I click on a day and then I click on a time and I can pick the subject (from the list of subjects set up previously) or an event to add and note the time it is done.  If it's something that takes all day, I can click the top and add an all day event. This is the master weekly/daily schedule. I learned through trial and error that you have to set this up for everything to work and you need to have your subjects set up before you can work this properly. There is no copy and paste available so you have to set up everything individually. At the top you see "choose calendar". This lets you set up MULTIPLE children's calendars or add in a separate calender for the times outside of school. You can change the color to keep them visible.

Here is a master calendar with a second child's schedule added in for Monday

If you want to see each calender separately, simply click "choose calenders"--and the little window that opens allows you to click a calendar as visible or not. You can choose whatever color you want for each of your calendars (ie. children).

O is for Order. The next menu is Order. Lord Heritage cites 1 Corinthians 14:40 as God's admonition to do things orderly, and uses this to encourage parents to keep things orderly in their school and home. They provide these tools to help me do that:

*Schedule lessons

*Integrate home & school activities

*Setup important reminders

*Create customized lists

Because I only have one student, my calendar looks a bit boring...so I'm going to share a screenshot from Lord Heritage of what your calendar under the Order menu could look like with more than one child and extra events added in.

Here you can see that you have the ability to change this to view your calendar by month, week and day. It shows you everything you've imputed via your Master Schedule, but here you can also add in events like birthdays, ball games, lessons and appointments. You can also set up reminders for these things at the same time. To the right you see where you can set up things like a chores list. Simply click "list" and then name your list. Once done you can click "item" and add items to your list. This will in turn show up on your CHILD'S work schedule when they log in. 

W is for Work. Lord Heritage cites John 17:4 and says it is important for parents to impart a good work ethic in our children. Here are the things that the work menu offers:

*Provide student access

*View/print individual schedules

*Follow daily lessons

*Manage to do lists

This is the one menu that my child can access when he logs in. Everything else is only available under my own administrator log in. 

It is in this menu that he can print out his daily schedule and see his lesson plans. It will also have whatever list I created--usually a chore list--for him to see, and complete. I can have him add chores to his list too, or have him make a NEW list. As he completes them he can hit "clear" and it will cross it off for the day. The same chores will keep showing up unless you make changes on your own "work" menu. By clicking "day list" (at the top of the calendar) he can see all his subjects for the day. He can do a week list as well. By clicking "print list" it will print him off a detailed list of each subject AND the lesson I set up for it. 

Here is what the printed day list looks like--a list like this can offer independence for the child in knowing what needs to be done each day. The chores do not print out on this list.

He uses this same page to note his completion of the things on his list, by clicking each item:

Doing this, pulls up the whole lesson and any notes that I have made. Here you can see that this is Grammar and it says what the lesson was and my instruction. He can make notes about it himself. Once it's completed (which this one is) he clicks "complete lesson" and it will show up as being complete on my end. There is also the option to push or pull a lesson--meaning, moving it forward to the next day (with the option to combine it with what is already there) or to move it back a day--something that can only be done in future events. This is a nice bonus, but you HAVE to do it before the day is over otherwise the program will simply mark this lesson as being completed.
E is for Evaluate. Matthew 28:20 is the scriptural reference for this menu, and Lord Heritage encourages the parent to do this as a way to maintain a personal relationship with their child and to encourage them as they meet goals. Here is what this menu has to offer:
*Manage requirement for state compliance *Oversee daily attendance *Track hours per subject *Maintain grading per subject
It is easy to see that this menu is all about keeping records--especially grades. Because we don't do grades for our homeschool, I am going to share a screenshot from Lord Heritage about what entering grades looks like.

It is pretty self-explanatory, but if I would need any help, the support page for Lord Heritage offers step by step instruction on how to enter grades into their system. I think this would be a very helpful system, if grading was desired or required for a family's homeschool.  The attendance is pretty simple to use. If you DON'T click anything, it will automatically assume that you had a full day of school following the school plan you set up. But if you didn't have that, you need to come and make revisions. (you can fix past days too!)

In this example, I have Little Britches set up as having a scheduled day off, but have Baby Britches as having a half day. What a nice way to take care of all my students in one screen. The options for the attendance are "full day, half day, absent, scheduled day off." If you click "subject hours", you can revise the time your student spent on each subject--otherwise it will just use the time you allotted when you originally set up the subjects. This would be more geared for the high school level when you need credit hours. R is for Report. In quoting Romans 14:12, Lord Heritage reminds that Christ held himself accountable, thus as parent teachers, we should desire to prove the work we say we are doing. Thus the menu for Report helps me: *Comply with state regulations *Customize reports *Generate transcripts
Because I do not need to do this in my state, I didn't use this menu, but did play with it a little bit to see how it works. Here is a screenshot of it from Lord Heritage

From this you can see that you are creating grade reports. You can determine how much you want on your grade reports by clicking a check box on the list. You are printing out information relating to each quarter. Once this is set up, you can view and print your report and have it to add to a portfolio or for any other need. The transcript tab is much more concise, simply asking for the student/year for the report, the graduation date and whether or not a diploma was received. This is where all the information entered in the subjects and attendance related to credit hours can come into play. Though I don't need it now, I can see where this would be very handy down the road for those needing to print out transcripts. The final aspect I will mention is that the home page for the program allows you to write messages to each other. You can type a message to your child and they can type one to you. Your child will also see any reminders that they have set up.

Isn't that a lovely photo? I also adore that scripture!

So when did I input everything? Once I got the initial stuff set up--which I had to take a couple days to do that once I found how detailed it needed to be, I was able to get myself on a goal to spend Sunday evening, programming in all the lessons for a unit. I typically did a week's work at a time, even though I could have programmed it in MUCH further out.  First thing each morning, I had Little Britches log in and view his daily list and print it off. At first he'd go in at the end of each school day to note what was completed, but once we figured out that it would mark things complete once the next day started, he only went in, if something needed to be pushed forward. Though I set it up, we didn't use the chore list.

What Are Our Thoughts on the Product?

Little Britches:  "I like being able to print out exactly what I need to do for the day. It's a little confusing to know what to do when I log-in to mark what I did or didn't do. But after a bit I figured it out. I sorta like it, but I sorta of don't. It's a LOT more to do, than what I used before, and I don't like having to go in to mark everything off or say that it got moved. I'd rather just check a box like we did on my other schedule paper." My Thoughts: The idea is a great idea. I love the POWER acronym and its biblical foundation. I think that this program is a great way to get all your daily activities corralled into one spot. To be able to get all your kids assignments together in one place as detailed as you possibly would want. I like that it's possible to set up a curriculum in detail from beginning to end based on the school year. I like that the program will even calculate how long everything will take you to finish and guides you through how much of it you have left. I think this is useful when you have pieced your curriculum together and aren't sure how long it will take you to finish.  I like that you can cater it to match your own school year plan and set up your own daily schedule. I like that you can set up each child's schedule right down to their lessons in detail. There is the ability to enter grading for your child and to keep track of attendance for all students in one spot (if you need it). I also think it's cool that you can print progress reports and transcripts based on all your information, if you need them. I think it's nice that my students can log in themselves and print off their schedule. I like that their schedule can include in depth information about the lessons they need to complete and that they can log in and note whether they completed it or not.  I think that with the Lord Heritage Support page it is fairly easy to navigate through setting up the programs, especially for the ones they give information about in the support section. I love the dashboard homepage photo banner and scripture--I just wish it changed daily or I could create my own.  That being said... I did NOT enjoy this program at all. I felt that it was labor intensive to set up, even WITH the instructions. I found it very complicated and it was difficult to figure out what was what in regards to the tabs and the scheduling, because nowhere does it tell you what order things needed to be done--although after the fact, I realized that if I had worked through it in the order of the acronym POWER, I could have done it pretty well. I do not think the program is very user friendly. There are way too many steps needed to get everything set up. There was no way to "copy and paste" if you had the same assignment repeated, rather you had to you manually enter every single lesson for every single subject for every single day for every single child. Pain in the butt. And I only have TWO children. I can't imagine the workload to get everything entered if you had more--one of my friends has currently 8 children she is actively homeschooling. Oy! It would take her a week, just to get 1-2 days of lessons done for all of them! It would be much easier if there was a way to "repeat previous lesson" in the schedule. The same would be true for when you have multiple students working on the same subject or lesson together. As it is now, you have to go enter every single student's assignments separately no matter what.  I liked that I could program a day's worth of work for Little Britches, but it was a pain to have to go in and mark things completed--or if they weren't completed, to make sure to remember to "push" all the assignments forward. It was just a lot of extra work, especially when I don't really have to keep records or portfolios of my student's projects, lessons and assignments.  But then if you don't go in and state whether or not you completed it, it marks it as complete as soon as the day is past...which means if you DIDN'T complete something, you as the teacher have to go in and change it in the subject lessons menu in your own administrative log in. More work. 
I like the option to make chore lists...but with smaller kids, it's not THAT useful. Maybe it would be for older children though. The same was true for the project and budget tabs within the Plan menu. They just aren't relevant for me and there wasn't a way to see HOW to use them. It would have been trial and error and no homeschooling mom has the time to just sit and go through a trial and error process. This product made me frustrated more than anything. Overall, I found it complicated and tedious and so not my style. It was and is a VERY GOOD program...but it's just NOT for me.

Would I Recommend this Product?

Yes...and No... I would recommend this product to anyone who is seeking a scheduling program where they can set up all the subjects WAY in advance even down to assigning lessons, and even determine the amount of time it will take to finish any curriculum. I would recommend this product if you are looking a single program that will let you schedule multiple students onto one calendar. I would recommend this product if you want something that will schedule your DAY as well as your homeschooling. I would recommend this product if you are seeking a program that allows your student's independence in keeping track of their own work. I would recommend this program if you like to have all your ducks in a row and love scheduling in micro. I would recommend this program if you have a set routine for your day without much deviation. I would recommend this program, if you want what you've scheduled for your student to be easily turned into transcripts and if you are regularly needing to enter grades. BUT. If you have a schedule that is not "set in stone" and fluctuates a lot, it's probably not for you. If you aren't concerned about setting up lessons,,,days, week, months in advance this might not be for you. If you are looking for something quick and simple to set up a scheduling for your students, this probably isn't going to work for you. If you are seeking a system where you can set up multiple students at once for ONE lesson, this isn't going to work for you. If you work on unit studies or with a Charlotte Mason style, you will probably want to pass on this one. If you are NOT wanting something religious based (think of the never changing cover photo with a scripture) you will want to pass. In my opinion, unless you are a type A, everything in order and everything in its place, minute details, stick to the schedule kind of person...I really don't think this is going to work for you. I am NOT a type A person, I like freedom and I like to be able to change things on the fly whether the time we do something or what we are doing without having to worry about fixing a schedule on a computer. I like being able to just simply ERASE and rewrite--or just draw lines and arrows.  So this program, frankly drove me nuts! Will I continue to use this program? No. I just can't handle the devotion to schedule and micro-management that this program requires. It required way too many steps to do what I've been doing successfully with pencil and paper in my regular homeschool planners. In fact after using it as it's designed for 4 weeks--I honestly just couldn't handle it any longer and had to give it up. Not a good fit at all.

Want to Learn More?

We reviewed HomeSchool Office from Lord Heritage along with 79 other reviewers. You know my thoughts on this product, but why not see how it worked for the other families?!
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Well, this program did not work out for our family, though the concept was great. I will continue to use my method for scheduling that has been working for us this year, unless something else comes my way again!

The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner (Product Review)

I recently reviewed a book which invigorated me to make some changes in my daily time management. But it can be tricky to know how and when to start. Imagine my thankfulness when I was picked to review The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner by The 7 Minute Life™...a planner specifically designed to help with time management..and in just 7 minutes! Would this be the answer to my needs?

Product Details

The 7 Minute Life™ is a company all about redefining time management. They believe in that in three simple steps: Prioritize, Organize and Simplify they can help you make changes leading to the time management everyone dreams of! They provide time management tools including forms, checklists, audios, videos, and more!

One of their top products is the The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner ($24.95). This planner is different than others which have you just list your commitments and obligations...this planner helps you prioritize your commitments, plan out how you are going to fulfill your tasks, and does it all by breaking it down into bite size pieces of just 7 minutes of your time per day!  The company believes in the success of their product to help you with time management so much that they are offering a 100% money back guarantee! If you don't see a positive change in your life in 30 days of use, you can send it back for a full refund!

You can check out their great video to show you how it works...

I was given The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner to review for my own use.

How Did I Use the Product?

As soon as the planner arrived, I spent time just looking through it to see what all was included. I was impressed by the sheer volume of sections and yes, rather overwhelmed! LOL! Fortunately, the beginning of the planner is a guide on how the planner can be used and steps for going through the beginning pages.
I freely admit that I jumped right to the Daily Progress Reports because those were the #1 thing that I was interested in.  After I checked them out, I went back to the beginning and started working through the introduction pages all about setting goals, prioritizing my values, documenting my strengths, identifying my purpose in lie...and then more goals. Pages and pages about setting goals and planning for the future.
At this point I rather gave up. I am just not into this kind of thing nor did I feel like it was useful to me as a planner in the capacity of NOT being in a business scenario. 
I jumped ahead to the monthly Calendar and filled out the dates for the months through the end of the year. I skipped the next section "Meeting Planner" and got right to the "good stuff" of the Daily Progress Report. I was excited when i looked over the two page section (the above is page 1) for this portion. I liked what I saw, but saw things that I could and needed to adapt for my own personal use.  Here are a few sections that I revised...

I changed the voice mail portion to grocery list/menu.

I made this section to include Get Well cards too.

I changed the Daily Contacts to Daily Chores

It didn't take much--eventually I just didn't bother crossing anything out and just used it as I intended. I really try to stay on top of using this portion--especially the 5 before 11 section as I felt it was something new that I could totally use right away to help me with time management.
I haven't used my planner enough to hit the Monthly Progress Report, but I'm getting there soon. I like the concept of it and hope it works as I think it will.

What are my Thoughts on the Product?

I think this planner is a very high quality product. From the time I first flipped through it I was impressed with it's detail and thoroughness relating to every aspect of planning or list making that was included. I love that it is spiral bound and that it has a protective cover. I also appreciated the inner pockets where I could put things like important mail or bills for me to remember to deal with later.
I really felt almost overwhelmed when I was flipping through it...so much inside! So much blank spaces for writing! But the planner as a great "how to" guide at the beginning to walk you through the steps to maximize it's potential usefulness. 
Pros: *spiral bound w/plastic cover to protect *smaller 7.3" x 8.5" which fits better in a large purse or in a bag *"how to" guide at front to help you get started along with links to more resources *Excellent for goal setting (personal, financial, work, etc) and planning long term changes *Daily Progress pages to record  *Monthly Progress Reports to analyze how you did over the month *Undated, but with calendars you can create for reference *Can record daily habits like exercise, sleep, diet and water intake as well as reading and mediation *can record daily spending *Allows recording of networking, voice mail, appointments and mailing out handwritten cards *pockets on cover to hold envelopes or receipts *Unfinished task pages to fill in *Meeting Planner pages *Blank Note Pages
Cons: *Concept and design geared towards someone who works in a business setting--irrelevant for me *Extensive goal setting and planning pages beyond anything I would use or find useful *Only enough daily reports for 90 days (or 1 quarter of a year) *Need a new planner every 3 months--at $24.95/planner this works into $100 a year *Had to make a lot of adjustments to make it work for me
In summary, there were several things that I absolutely loved! My #1 thing that I took out of using this product was the importance of setting 5 high value things to get done before 11am every morning. Planning these out the night (7 minutes!) before gives you a goal to accomplish the next day. I had a great sense of "I did it!" when I could check each one off before the clock hit 11am. My 5 before 11 list could be anything from: 1. Bible Study 2. Wash Dishes 3. Do 2 loads of Laundry 4. Call dentist to make appointment 5. Email Jill about article
to  1. Bible Study 2. Make Grocery List 3. Set out meat for dinner to thaw 4. Sew curtains for classroom 5. Write Blog Review

But the goal is to always make these be the high priority things that have to be done at the start of your day. I love this concept because I am so guilty about "forgetting" to do something I promised I would do. This takes care of that.
The next thing I liked was the portion at the bottom of the Daily Progress Report to keep track of water intake, sleep, exercise, reflection, reading and the meals that get eaten through the day...and then the final step to look at my day on paper and answer "Did I do what I said I would do Today?" There really is power in a check mark!

If I could redesign this planner as a "best fit" for someone like me, I would take out the extensive goal setting pages as they are far more geared to the business world (IMO), but it would be okay to leave a few for the personal goals. I think the place where you note your strengths can be useful, but it isn't something I would want in a planner. I like the mental clutter list to write down all the things in your head that you need or want to do. The place to note unfinished tasks is useful too--I'd like them to be near the daily progress report. I also would love a thick fat full year version!
I think it would be cool to have a business and a non-business version of the planner because I think there would be an equal number of people drawn to each type.
I did appreciate that at the end of the book there was a note that if you became a fan of The 7 Minute Life™ Community you can download additional forms to help with time management for FREE. This includes a birthday calendar, travel checklist, weekly progress report, monthly progress report, daily task checklist and more.

Would I recommend this product?

Yes and no. I would absolutely recommend this product to anyone who is involved in the business world whether in an office or at home. I think it is very valuable and the method that it teaches could seriously improve time management and mental focus relating to your job. It really is useful for keeping everything from goals, to budgeting to networking to contacts to voicemail to planning--to even daily exercise/water intake/sleep/spending all in one place.
But really it was too much "extras" for someone like me who is not in the business world and just wants a great daily planner for dealing with the nitty gritty of home/homeschool/life. I found myself not interested in all the hardcore goal settings, and altered many of the business related pages to fit my needs--which was just an extra step to do every day. 
Will I buy another one, once this one runs out? No, I do not see myself doing so. I just had too many "wasted" un-used pages (the sections that were geared towards business) to make it a worthwhile investment. But I WILL still be using these concepts (like the 5 before 11) in the future.

Want to Know More?

I reviewed The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner ($24.95) from The 7 Minute Life™.
Now that you've seen my review on this product, why don't you head over and see what my other crew members think about it! For more information about The 7 Minute Life™, make sure you check out The 7 Minute Life™ on their various social media outlets! Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/The7MinuteLife
Twitter - http://twitter.com/allyson7minutes
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/the7minutelife/
Google+ - http://plus.google.com/+AllysonLewis7/posts
You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/user/AllysonLewis
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Thank you for stopping by to check out this product review...I hope you will come back and see me again soon--I've got a recipe going up later this week as well as a review on My Student Logbook which I'm very eager to share with you!

A Day In the Life

This week for the *Not* Back to school hop is all about our schedule! I'm so excited to blog hop and see the different schedules moms are working with! It always gives me new ideas for tweaking my own schedule...something I do weekly! LOL!

So the past two weeks have had basically the SAME schedules because we were working on our first unit which was a 10 day one. Now that we are in a new unit, our schedule has changed...so here is a basic rundown...

7:00-8:00am 

Baby Britches wakes up to nurse then I get up (usually at 7:45)

8:00-8:30am

Little Britches wakes up, gets dressed and does chores

8:30-9:00am

Baby Britches and Little Britches eat breakfast while I do a load of laundry/make sweet tea/unload-load dishwasher/get bread dough going in bread machine

9:00-9:15am Bible/Calendar

Prayer and Stretches then we do our bulletin board calendar. Then we work on our Scripture Memorization w/copy work.

(This lets me pull out the things I'll use for the morning lessons)

9:15-9:45 Spelling/Grammar/Reading

We review our letter for the week (this week letter Ss), we read scriptures about our topic (The Sun/Jesus is the Light of the World) and do some worksheets related to the letter

9:45-9:50 Potty Break/Snack

It's at this point that things start to vary depending on what the curriculum has for us to do...

9:45-11:00 Math/Science/Social Studies/Geography

I fill in this time with whatever the curriculum has for the day...so we might work on math w/worksheets and manipulatives or it might be science experiments...or we might check out our map w/worksheets for our geography...or ...you get the picture!

11:00-11:10 Recess

11:10-11:30 Art/Tactile Activity

I like to save our art for our last subject in the morning before lunchtime...so we usually do our art project which ties in to whatever we are studying or we use the time for a tactile activity...like the Cuisenaire Rods or making pictures with things like sticks/leaves/rocks...or practicing letters with salt or shaving cream...that kind of stuff.

11:30-12:30 Lunch/Naptime for Baby Britches

12:30-1:15 Quiet Time
I let Little Britches play with his toys or manipulatives or whatever as long as he stays quiet. It gives Baby Britches a good nap atmosphere. I like to blog or read a book or get ready our afternoon lesson.

1:15-2:00 Five In a Row
We finish off our school day with our Five in a Row book that we are rowing w/activity
(We are finishing up Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel)

2:00-Bedtime Nature/Playtime!
From this point on, school is over and I turn the monkey loose! He usually calls up his papaw to come and get him so they can do farm stuff...if he can't get ahold of him, he just goes outside to play and enjoy life on the farm!

MY AFTERNOON SCHEDULE
2:00-3:15 Housework

3:15-6:00 Piano Lessons
I teach piano, so all week, I have students coming in during this time slot. Some days I have several other days I have just one...so anytime NOT being used for piano is being used doing housework or cooking or whatever needs to get done.

6:00-7:30 Dinner
We eat late here on the farm...

7:30-9:00 Playtime/Get ready for Bed
Little Britches is allowed to play outside until 8:15pm. Then he has to come home and get ready for bed...he and Baby Britches take baths together and then Little Britches plays while I get Baby Britches fed for the night and in bed. And both boys are typically in bed by 9:00pm.

9:00-????
Mama time!!!!
I love this time because it allows me time to just do whatever I want to do. I usually use it for pleasure reading and paper crafting--two of my hobbies!

So that's our "usual" schedule. Thursday and Friday can be different because my hubby is home from work and that always throws things slightly off--and Friday's are lighter days so we do more tactile activities and science experiments since those are what Little Britches loves the most.

Thanks for stopping by!