Homeschool Schedule & Fall Family Rhythm

Do you enjoy the start of a new season? I really love fall and the comfort of beginning our homeschool schedule after a busy summer. We usually start school in early September. Our routine naturally transitions into structured school mornings, cozy afternoon reading time, and weekend movie nights. Here are a few things we do to create a fall family rhythm with our kids.

School Mornings

We ideally begin our homeschool mornings at 9am. I start with praying for our day and reading a chapter of the bible with our kids. Next, we do history, which usually involves reading a chapter of Mystery of History. We are currently learning about the middle ages! After this, our kids go to their desks to complete their workbook lessons for math, language arts, spelling, and handwriting.

Tea Time after Lunch

Next, our family eats lunch around 12:30. After lunch, we often have tea time with hot tea or lemonade. I serve tea alongside scones or cookies. Additionally, I often read a chapter of a storybook out loud while we drink our tea. Alternately, our kids may rest in their rooms and read their own chapter books. By enjoying some quiet time after lunch, our family has a chance to regenerate after an active school morning.

Screen Time after 2pm

We save screen time for after 2pm. “Screen time” includes using any screen for watching YouTube, Netflix, playing learning games, or Minecraft. My girls love doing drawing tutorials they find on YouTube. We also use BrainPOP for learning games. Furthermore, our kids often connect multiple Minecraft accounts so they can play on a realm together. We typically limit screen time to an hour and a half on open afternoons.

Extracurricular Activities

Each quarter we allow our kids to choose one or two extracurricular activities. These can include soccer, swimming lessons, gymnastics, and piano. We frequently group our kids together to keep our schedule simple. Our kids have done several seasons of soccer, group gymnastic classes, and swimming lessons. We also explore afternoon art and science activities at home.

After workbooks, we often do kids science projects at home like making these heart shaped borax crystals!

Homeschool Schedule

A regular schedule is very helpful to create a productive, happy home.

9:00 am – Begin school with Bible and history

10:00 am – Begin workbooks: math, language arts, spelling, and handwriting

12:30 am – Lunch time

1:30 pm – Tea time and reading books

2:00 pm – Screen time or extracurricular activities, YouTube art videos, playing outside

Fall Family Rhythm

These are the guidelines I’m using to keep our family organized this fall. Establishing a fall family rhythm also helps me plan our schedule when friends or family invite us to hang out during the week. Overall, my general rule is that we are available to do fun things after 2 pm!

Occasional Field Trips

Sometimes field trips are scheduled during the school day, and I consider these opportunities case by case. If we are invited to a great educational opportunity, we can shift our schedule so that we can go on the field trip. After all, flexibility is the beauty of homeschooling. Otherwise, our family really does benefit from having predictable, calm, homeschool mornings.

What about you? If you homeschool, what guidelines do you use to keep your kids productive and organized?