It has been a challenge these past few weeks working out a good schedule to balance our time. We have so many things outside of school that we all do. My son works 2 part time jobs with unpredictable schedules. He is a bagger at the local grocery and a host at a popular restaurant. His bagger job has fallen to only about one or two times a week, but his job as a host is Friday, Saturday, and Sundays until closing, which brings him home past 2:00 am on the weekends. Then on Wednesdays he is part of Adventure Scouting. My daughter is quite active with the church, sports (fall through mid-spring), and with Girl Scouts. She is currently working on her Silver Award. She will also start back up with her piano lessons. Then there’s my job as the Schoolhouse Store Manager, Proverbs 22:6 Academy, and my regular household and academic responsibilities. So with all these things going on I have found that there is only one way to manage it all with some sense of order. I put together a skeleton of a schedule to help figure a way to work everything in.

4:45 am – Mom wake up
5:00-8:00- TOS work
8:00 am –Wake up kids & breakfast
8:30 -9:00 am – Kid’s chores, morning chores
9:00-12:00 pm- School (in between doing school I do my various chores around the house)
12:00 -12:30 pm – Lunch
12:30-2:00 pm (or later depending on how they do) School
2:00-3:00 pm (After school)- score kids work
3:00-5:00 pm Run errands if needed or TOS work
Between 5:00-7:00 pm (depending on when hubby is coming home)- prepare supper
After supper- Exercise
8:00-10:00 pm- TOS work or computer time
10:00 pm- Bed time

Add into that my son’s work schedule (though he now has his own car and drives himself to and from work), piano lessons, Scouts, sports, and any miscellaneous stray appointments and outside adventures and you have a full, rounded out, busy life. And some people think homeschoolers live sheltered lives. Not! We just live life playing the balancing act like everyone else.