If you're in any home ed Facebook groups, you'll know that this question comes up a lot. Sometimes because children thrive better with set routines and sometimes because parents need them, for one reason or another. Personally, I found that I had to make the move from a more free-flowing approach to a more structured lifestyle because that's what my two youngest  wanted. At the time, it really wasn't my idea of what Home Ed should look like, especially after having taken the autonomous route with my eldest 😊

But how to introduce a happy rhythm when they were only 7 and 3?
After some trial and error, we finally found a flexible routine that worked for us that pretty much stuck through the remaining Home Ed years. Having a regular, familiar pattern certainly made it easier when it came to the more focussed study need for GCSEs and beyond. But would you believe that my first successful starting point revolved around that wonderful tradition of elevenses? 

That's right 😊 At eleven o'clock, every morning that we were at home, I served up a tray of hot drinks (hot chocolate for them and Earl Grey for me) with a plate of cake or biscuits. While we enjoyed our elevenses, I read aloud from a chapter book. At first, it was a little tricky because I found that they'd finished eating before I'd finished reading the chapter and they'd start climbing on furniture and tumbling like puppies. Surprisingly, they were still listening to the story alongside this physical activity, but it was all far too distracting for me. How on earth was I supposed to remember all the voices when in between telling them not to jump on the settee?

So what did I do? How did I balance their need for activity with my need to be able to focus? I made sure that there were some quiet activities on hand for when they had finished eating and drinking. In those early days, I found that jigsaws satisfied their need to be 'doing' while listening and satisfied my need to have a certain level of stillness while I read to them. After a few days, I realised that we had successfully taken our first tentative steps into an intentionally established daily routine of formalised learning and (apart from replicating the school six-week holiday one summer) we never looked back 😊

Of course, structure isn't for everyone and I take that into account when I'm writing my resources. Even though I include schedules, these are intended to be suggestions only. It's my hope that you take what you want and need from each pack to enhance your child's learning journey. Because they are written for family learning, you'll be able to revisit the packs as they get older and enjoy any activities that you missed first time round. You can also repeat activities that they enjoyed first time round (volcano buns, anyone?)

I'd love to know how you home ed. Do you have a routine or are you more free-flowing? Drop me a line or pop into the Picture Book Explorers group on Facebook 😊