Scheduling a large family can either make or break you. It is such an intricate part of being a large family momma. One of the most common questions is how you get it all done? Simple answer is I don’t! There is the secret end of story!
But serious as a mom to 14 children who also is usually pregnant or nursing. Homeschooling and homesteading there is alot to do in a day I need a plan. I have tried all types of systems that some have worked some have not worked.
You may say that I am an organized free spirit. I love having a plan but I also love breaking that plan. That’s clear as mud. I may want to do to the park today or bring the kids to the lake. Someone may need an extra-long snuggle or get a boo boo. Those things always come first. On the days I need direction and have oodles that needs to get done and it seems not enough time in the day to get it done then here comes my schedule! The best thing with block scheduling the way I do is you can pick up wherever you need to.
Overscheduling Burnout
Over the years I have grown to learn somethings about myself. One of those being I do not do well being overscheduled. I know you have all probably tried a schedule that depicts when to get up, get dressed and brush your teeth down to the very min. That is not for me. I do better with rhythms like do these thing before breakfast. These before lunch ect.
Sometimes I think people are turned off of schedule because they are trying to over schedule. Putting every little detain in and feeling like a failure when it doesn’t turn out the way they expected.
Maintaining the House
So to start a schedule like this I need to get somethings in order. Things like making sure the areas of the home are cleaned. I mean my house may usually look a bit well like 14 people live here. But I try to maintain some form of cleanliness. So it depends on the season how we choose chores. We like to keep our chores the same for awhile. No set rule on how long but rather until it is not working anymore. This time and most gardening and heavy garden season I need people who know there jobs well. Winter can be a time of training but when I’m busy I just need areas done without much fuss.
Voting- This time we had a little fun I wrote down all the rooms
Daily
- Kitchen
- Front room
- Dining room
- Bathroom up
- Bathroom down
- Halls
- Livingroom
- Garage
- Dishes
Twice a week
- Garage
- Stock cabinets
- Laundry
- Porches
- Water hightunnel
- Mow & weed wack
- Straighten books
- Toys
Voting for Chores
So The next thing I did once I had the list was to give all the children a scrap of paper. You could also use a white board or something. I have a bunch of scrap paper! So I would name out a chore like Kitchen then everyone would vote on who would be the best in this area. Then we would drop the answers into a bowl and mom would tally them up. The winner was the winner of that chore. There name would be exclude in the next area. We did 2 separate area daily and twice a week. SO most people had 2 chores one for daily one for bi- weekly.
Now we that we have a chores situated I needed to figure out when we were going to do these chores. SO I need to start my schedule.
Scheduling
First I knew I wanted to laminate the board itself so I could use double sided tape. So I decide to start the schedule at 8 am. This give people free time in the morning to get dresses, read Bible, check emails, work on business and of course drink coffee.
For us breakfast is not everyone sit at the table. Breakfast is made and little kids eat breakfast. Older kids with animal chores usually do the animal chores then come eat. We have Bible right after breakfast which allows for people who may not have finished breakfast the opportunity to do so.
So first I schedule Bible as it is number 1 then meal times. So once those are scheduled I figure in other things. My older children all wrote down things that were important for them to do on a daily basis. This allowed time for my children who are pursuing entrepreneurial things to do so. As well as children or young adults to do training or schooling.
Babies and Toddlers
Babies and toddlers need to be with momma alot. They need that one on one attention. To feel accepted and loved by thier family. When scheduling to make sure that those specific needs are met. I am wanting to get my one year olds nap schedule more consistent. SO she will be with momma at specific times so I can work on that. Other times I make sure that babies and toddlers are scheduled with a teen or young adult.
Just remember babies and toddlers do not know how to follow a schedule. There are times when you will need to drop everything and attend to your baby or toddlers in need. That’s ok life goes on the schedule can be put aside.
Opportunity for Schooling
Part of schooling is being open to all opportunities for learning. It is also having available times to give children time with you as mom or dad or older sibling. I give additional times for math and reading. I approach that time as hey I am available for read if you want to work on that? They can choose their curriculum, to read a beginning book to mom, mom can read them a story, they can listen to an audiobook , they might want a computer phonics game or they may just not want to do anything. All of these choices I am perfectly ok with.
I know it sound like they will never learn but in all honesty the learn so much more! I have done so many styles but child led schooling allows them to learn what they want when they want to. When they do choose to learn on a subject they are so passionate about what they are learning. They simply soak so much in! More then I could ever force them to learn. Plus no more arguing over schooling. TO me this style is a win.
Forever Learning
Just think we as adults do stop learning when we stop schooling. If we want to learn something we can either continue to be ignorant like hey I don’t know how to do a,b, c or d or we can choose to learn. There have been studies showing that people continually learning have less cases of dementia. I tend to never tell older children they can’t do this or that. Instead I might approach there desire with more questions to help them determine if they want to try something new and how they want to try it.
Because of this my children have alot of knowledge! But it is never ending knowledge because they understand HOW to learn.
Putting it all together
So then I make a mess of my workspace. All of my children are assigned a color I will do more into detail about this in another post. But for now just note that all my children know there color. So I laid out the meal, then meal prep, Bible and personal Bible time. Then I laid out napping and momma time with baby. Next I took my 3 older girls and marked off times for them to have business and training.
Getting in the groove
Part of Scheduling for a large family involves doing what you already are doing. We already kind of have a groove to our day morning consisted of a project of the day. After lunch is always nap or quiet time as we read out loud. Animals like to be fed so I put in there feeding times. Then adding fun times and child care into the day. Our evening are usually the games, movies, reading so instead of making a specific I leave it general.
So find your use what you already have established then work around that. Using what you already have will help you to keep and maintain a new schedule. Instead of making a totally foreign schedule which may stress you and your children out.
Choosing your groove and your style is going to ultimately work best.
Big Family Big food
If you have a large family I’m sure you go through ALOT of food. SO scheduling a Large family must include scheduling food! If you do not have a large family just think what if you were to have a dinner party of 15-20 tonight? Then for every meal after! So we need a food plan. Especially making about 95% of our food from scratch it takes ALOT of work! I love freezer meals, my instant pot, and a well laid out plan.
So these are items that we need on a regular basis. So each week I will take a square in that persons color and assign a food for that person to make. These items are made usually on Thurs then others on Sat. Lets go over each item
Summer cooking list
- Quick bread – this time of year we make 6 loaves a week this is 2-3 breakfasts or snacks
- Bread – this is gluten free bread we do not make this every week but we do make 6 loaves at a time then freeze 4 keeping 2 out for use
- Tortilla or cornbread- This is an as needed item
- Biscuits- as needed again
- Greens for salad- going to the garden and getting green for salad to last the week. Also greens for breakfast like Kale and eggs ect.
- Egg/tuna or chicken salad- Usually we make one of these a week then have it for 1 lunch then my hubby will have the rest in his lunch
- Large Pasta- We usually have pasta salad with grill stuff but we will also bring a bowl somewhere that week. WE usually will cook about 5 lbs of pasta then divide it.
- Big Pot Friday – If we are going to a church game night potluck then this will be marked
- Friday dessert- Same as above we bring dessert as well.
- After church meal Sunday- If we are going to a church that does pot luck after then we do the same as Friday this would be made on Sat though not Thursday.
- Granola- In the summer we eat alot of granola on yogurt
- Granola bars or Pb balls – for snack as needed
- Brownies or sheet snack like crisp or cake or any bar recipe
- Hummus or guac as needed
- Hardboiled eggs as needed
- Blessings meal is any meal that we would give away. Someone have a baby, helping a ministry ect.
Days we go out
Ever go to leave and no one has shoes on they can’t find them. Hair undone and jackets missing? Ever get to church to realize that you have a baby and toddlers and no diapers or bottles? You need a plan just like I did. SO here is what I came up with.
These are the things our family struggled getting together so each marker indicates who is getting what when we are heading out the door.
I hope this post on scheduling blesses you. Here is a video that goes hour by hour into our day!
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