Mamas with one in school and younger kiddos at home

[MamaNae]

What is your schedule?

DS is starting school and I'm trying to work out when we'll do meal times and naps and everything else into that schedule for DS1 being in school.

I want to be able to do stuff with DD (library, walks, etc) and still fit in snacks and naps and meals. It's starting to stress me out.

I'm sooooo not a Type A person. I'm fly by the seat of my pants I'd be happy as a clam without a clock anywhere near me...so this whole having to be on a schedule thing is messing with my brain Yes, we've considered homeschooling but in the end DS1 is BEGGING to go to school so that's what we're doing...(yeah, I let him decide...we live in a town with the best school system in 70 miles so there was no clear BEST choice so in the end it came down to DS1's preference)

So DH is taking DS1 to school at 8:15 or so. We'll do a snack for DD & DS2 around 9 (breakfast at 7), lunch at 11:30, nap at 12:30-2, up and another snack. Walk to meet the bus at 3 (until we can get another vehicle and I feel comfortable driving with the kids DS1 will have to ride the bus home), come home, feed DS1, do play time with DS1, supper at 5, baths at 6:30, bed at 7:30.

And somewhere in there I gotta fit in STUFF for DD (and to a lessor extent DS2...he's only 7 months so he don't care yet)

Sooo, tell me your schedule? I'm stressing myself out!

[MaxCapacity]

Last year I had this situation, so I'll share my schedule with you. We didn't do STUFF every day. DS1 & DS2 got up at 7:15 & DS1 was on the bus by 8:30am. DS2 followed DS1 around while he was getting ready & ate breakfast after DS1 left. DD got up at 9am & ate. By about 9:30 we were ready to do STUFF, whether it be playing outside, watching a movie, going to the library or whatever. Because of ages, that was long enough for STUFF. We were home by 11:30 for lunch, but we had a car. You don't have a car, but you have more time to complete the stuff if you do the snack 1/2 hour earlier. We napped from after lunch until about 3-4pm & then DS1 got home a bit after 4pm. I made dinner while he was doing homework & the two littles either hung w/ me or watched a bit of tv while I was working on dinner. We usually ate by 5 at the latest. Play time for DS1 came after homework & dinner. We did baths/showers at 7pm & bed at 8pm. It really all fit well unless it was a shopping evening. Hope this helps a little! Mama, don't stress! It'll be fine.

[myfrugalfunlife]

I'm starting this as well-my dd was just excepted to afternoon kindergarten at the charter school we desperately wanted her in-but the afternoon schedule totally messed everything up-now my other dd will not be able to go to pre-school And my second one has speech issues and is pretty ant-social so she really needs to be in some sort of program with other kids. She's being re-evaluated later this month for the speech issues so we'll see what happens with that.

But for now my schedule is looking like this:
I wake up at 6am with dh like I do now and get ready/play on DS
Kids are up 7-8 and they get dressed/breakfast.
The morning will be spent doing homework if there is any and then playtime at the park etc. Lunch at ll (which is what it is now).
Then I will drop oldest dd off to school at noon and head home to put the other two down for nap. Then I will clean house/play on ds more lol!
Wake kids up at 2:30 and pick dd up at 3:15.
Head home and get supper ready/kids head outside to play.

I don't have a designated snack time-I have fresh produce out on the counter and my kids graze on it throughout the day.

Now this will change depending on my other dd's schedule with speech-if the school district finally sees the problem then she might be getting on a bus every day to do a special ed class. If the school still won't help us then I'll be bringing her to our local hospital to have an evaluation with a doctor and will probably have to do therapy at the hospital every week-hopefully during the time that my oldest is in kindergarten.

[stephy4632]

I`m alittle nervous about being on a schedual as well. My oldest will be starting all day kindy in 2weeks ( I will be driving her too and from school ) So needless to say I HAVE to pay attention to time now. Also our youngest will be starting pre-k 3days a week and both girls are in gymnastic`s 2days a week (same class thank goodness) so I`m stressing more than normal as to how my day is going to work out. I`ll be watching the thread to see what others say

[myfrugalfunlife]

Originally Posted by stephy4632 I`m alittle nervous about being on a schedual as well. My oldest will be starting all day kindy in 2weeks ( I will be driving her too and from school ) So needless to say I HAVE to pay attention to time now. Also our youngest will be starting pre-k 3days a week and both girls are in gymnastic`s 2days a week (same class thank goodness) so I`m stressing more than normal as to how my day is going to work out. I`ll be watching the thread to see what others say

Yeah-I don't even own a watch right now Need to get one of those!

[MamaNae]

LOL! We won't do a lot of 'stuff' but stuff includes playing outside, going to the lib (only a block away and a half, I can walk there faster than I can get 2 kids into car seats, drive there, get 2 kids out of car seats LOL!)

Yeah, I have a watch I'm just soooo not a time person.

Nap can only be until 2 so that DD can wake up enough to come with me to get DS1 off the bus...it doesn't drop him at our house the bus stop is a little way away (less than a block) I 100% do not trust him to walk home alone (not so much I don't trust HIM but we had 3 attempted abductions in my town from around bus stops...they caught the guy but still). If we get another vehicle I will be picking him up from school.

Thankfully DH doesn't go to work till 9am and works in town so he'll be taking DS1 to school so I don't have to deal with that...Ugh, the very idea of bundling all 3 kids up in the dead of winter just to drive a mile stresses me out...but bus isn't an option because then he'd have to wake up at 6am to get on the bus at 7:30 and I don't like that.

[mcpforever]

Hehe! I LOVE schedules! They keep everyone happy and well fed and sane. I've had one since DS started K 3 years ago.

This year it looks like it will be:
6:00- wake up and snuggle time
6:15ish get everyone dressed and hair done
6:45ish breakfast followed by cleanup and any last minute preparations for DS1
7:15 load car and head drop DS1 off to intermediate school

7:45 this will vary from day to day, on some days we will hit the grocery store or do other errands that are possible to do at that early in the day, other days we will go back home. If we go back home it is free play-inside or out.

on MWF
8:40 load car and drop DD off at preschool
9:10ish get home and let DS catch the rest of Sesame Street while I get craft stuff ready. (and do chores and sneak in DS time!)

on TR
9:00 Sesame Street while I get craft stuff ready.

all days
10:00 craft time
10:30ish free play inside while I clean up craft stuff and get lunch ready
11:00 lunch time
11:30 clean up and free play inside (I usually get a request for dance music at this point) or errands that must be run later than 10

MWF
12:40 load up to go get DD

all days
1:00 is nap time
2:30 load up to go get DS1
3:00ish home and snack time followed by homework time free play time after

W
4:00 load up to go to DS1's Hands-On Science class (it is also possible that we might snack in the car and hit the park or another errand at this point in time)
5:20 back home and throw dinner on the table

MTRF
free play after homework until 5:00 (this is DS1's opportunity for his 30 minutes of xbox)
5:00 all free range 8 yo boys come to the kitchen to set the table for dinner

all days
5:30 is dinner time
6:15 is bath time
7:15 is bed time for DD and DS2 (we have an insanely long bed time routine that starts with the bath)
7:15 quiet time with DS1, we read together, talk together, do a little Bible study, work on things he really wants to work on, this year I may get him some special movies for us to watch together (ones that are appropriate for him but his younger siblings aren't ready to watch)

8:00 is time for DH and me!
10:00 is our bedtime-assuming we haven't already passed out somewhere


I don't find myself watching the clock too much. Once we get into our routine things just kind of flow in a timely manner through out the day. Last (school) year I only really had to pay attention to when to leave to go to drop DS off at school. This year I think I'll be very conscious of both sets of pick up and drop off times.

There are some days when I will pack a lunch for us and then head up to church (I do a good bit of volunteer work) after dropping DD off at preschool or go to the library with DS2 or go meet Daddy for lunch or whatnot. There are certain things that I really do at certain times, but I can be very flexible about what goes in between those times.