What does it look like to try and homeschool preschool and kindergarten when you have three boys four and half, two and half and one? Chaos! But, a good chaos because guess what?! School gets done and play happens. What’s my secret? Routine!

I don’t know how many blog posts you have read on this topic. I am sure it is a lot. But, I do know you have probably already heard that children thrive on routine. Well, mine are no different. I was struggling every morning to get out of bed, because duh who wants to get out of bed, and get things accomplished in the day.

So, I decided I needed a plan and routine. I started simple with making a goal to get myself and all three boys dressed with three brushed. This seems small but still takes an adequate amount of time with helping everyone and changing diapers. I read a blog about the mom uniform and decided that I would start doing that. I loved the author’s reasoning and thought it would be something small I could do for myself. I’ll have to find the blog and link it later to share.

After we get dressed and brush teeth, we head to the kitchen to get breakfast. I am still working out how to get them breakfast more efficiently but when it’s all ready we sit down and I will do one subject of school with my boys as we eat. All three are there, they have their food and their attention span seems to be the strongest at this point that is why I started incorporating into this point of our day.

I have started to incorporate the Charlotte Mason way of thinking in that leaving them desire more rather than using all their energy that I possibly can to get as much school done as possible. So we will finish and they get free play time while I clean up breakfast and head to handle some work or getting the baby down for his nap.

After I have the baby down or it’s been about an hour, I will start prepping lunch. I have three boys so, of course, they are ready for food again at this point. We get lunch on the table and do another subject of school. Again, I have started cutting back so they aren’t burnt out. Quiet time comes for all three of them after lunch. My oldest dropped his nap way too early and will just play with his toys or listen to an audio book while he does his quiet time.

My second son is on the cusp of dropping his nap and will lay in bed yelling he needs to go potty at me for an hour. He still needs naps so I haven’t transitioned him to toys every quiet time yet, but we are getting there.

During their quiet time, I will do another stretch of work or handle some chores around the house. This gives me a much needed break from the children, more so than the first, and I can decompress from the constant stimulation.

After quiet time, I will sneak one more fifteen minute stretch of school but for the most part I leave the afternoons for play and free time or for us to go out to errands, the park, speech, and other things around town.

Truly this routine has helped me feel more accomplished and organized. The children have a sense of how their day will go.

There is a lot less complaining the more they get used to the routine. The first couple days of transition you will face resistance but stay the course because once they are in it you will see all of you starting to thrive.

I hope you enjoyed this post and got a few ideas to incorporate into your routine. Let me know if there is something you think I should start incorporating below.