Yes, my kids have a schedule. And it has made me a nicer mom. And a better mom for that matter. Now there are clear expectations and there’s not as much whining and complaining.
Our whole day down to the minute is not scheduled! That sounds like too much stress for my kind of mothering haha. But we do have a schedule that needs to be completed before they can play. And it totally depends on their age!
Our schedules are also different during the school year and during the summer. During the school year it looks a little something like this:
- Make Bed
- Get dressed
- Eat Breakfast
- Brush Teeth
- SCHOOL (for my school age child)
- Piano practice (6 and 7 are after school)
- Chores
- PLAY TIME
For my toddler, it’s the same except he has no school or piano practice. He gets his chores done in the morning before he’s allowed to play.
At night the schedule goes like this:
- Jams
- Brush teeth
- Read scriptures
- Read a book (our daughter has to read one to us and we read one (or more) to her)
- Prayers
- Good night sleep tight.
My husband inserts wrestling between reading books and praying.
During the summer there is no school, so I get them workbooks from Costco for the grade they will be going into. So my daughter has a 2nd grade one for this summer and my son has a preschool one. My daughter has to do one page in math, reading, writing everyday and she can do more pages or more subjects if she wants to! (Which she often does). I haven’t looked through my son’s, but I imagine we’ll do one page for sure and maybe more if it goes well.
I love that we can all rely on the schedule and they know what has to be done before we can play or ask for a snack or what have you. It makes me less of the bad guy all of the time because the schedule is king! Haha.
Don’t go away- we’ve got more parenting posts for you!
-Tara
What do your typical days look like with your kids?