I've read a lot of homeschooling blogs and sites that set out daily schedules. I can see the advantage to using that sort of scheduling -- certainly helpful for homeschooling younger kids where predictability is so important, and probably a great sanity-saver for a mom homeschooling multiple kids.
But because we came to homeschooling first as a reaction against a school world that C had come to hate, our goal from the outset was to have the continuation of her education look and feel different to her.
At first, I envisioned that we'd be at the kitchen table by 9am, sorting out what her tasks were for the day, etc. Of course, C's migraines --which were still recurring frequently at that point -- usually hit in the morning and she wasn't functional at all until after lunch. So that went out the window.
It also became apparent that with C so resistant to the idea of anything that seemed even remotely connected to the idea of "school," if I planned to sit down and talk about "school" or its optimistic synonym, "learning," she'd show up cranky and determined not to enjoy it.
So, our "schedule" such as it is evolved in part by necessity due to the migraine thing, and by my wanting to step back and let C come to the learning when she was ready. That's what we've used over the past year, and it's worked well. Better and better all the time, in fact.
Each Monday (or Sunday evening) I give her a lesson chart for the upcoming week. It sets out each subject and it has each subject broken out into suggested work for each day, but C knows that it's up to her to decide how to use the daily work so that she has all of the work done by the end of the week. It's up to her to keep track of what she's done and what is left to do as the week goes by. In reality, I see that C pretty much follows the daily chart. But -- to my "likes to feel like she has options" kid, it's important to her that she can choose when she does what. There are quite a few days where she'll get involved in something and enjoy it and keep going so before she realizes it she's finished the week's reading or watched a full set of video materials, etc.
I also stopped worrying about what time C gets up. Some mornings she wakes up with a migraine and goes back to sleep. Others she'll lie in bed and read a bit before getting up. (And I never complain about reading, ever.) So, she gets up at her own pace, has breakfast, and then she starts in. Although in the "institutional school" days she'd dread doing homework and procrastinate and fuss and make herself miserable about the mental weight of the work still to be done, now she seems to have realized that if she just does the work, she'll have the time afterwards to enjoy and work on her own fun things.
And, most amazingly to me, more and more often I see that the line between "work" and "fun" is getting blurrier and blurrier. She'll enjoy a Teaching Company lecture so much that she'll listen to it again while she's drawing. I'll find her lying in bed reading her World History book just be cause she became engrossed.
Of course, C may not realize that I do have a scheduled lesson plan and I'm keeping track, too. I've learned not to get to wedded to a schedule, because as soon as I do, something requires changing -- a sick day or two will throw things off, or I'll want to let C learn more about something she's loving so I'll let her take more time with a subject. I remind myself that flexibility is key, and if learning is taking place -- and more importantly, if ENJOYMENT of learning is happening, then the schedule doesn't matter so much.
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