schedules – Page 3 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Our 2025-2026 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine – Tons of FREE resources!

Published on April 26, 2025March 4, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog6 Comments

It’s that time of year again for us… time to get the next school year planned out. We technically finished up our 2024-2025 school year before Easter but I’ve been busy with the garden and such so I am just now getting around to making our new schedule.

It is always SO TEMPTING to take a few months off to just focus on this house but I know from past experience that this doesn’t go well and that it takes FOREVER to get a couple of the kids back into the school routine. You can read more about last year’s curriculum and routines HERE.

Having a little extra wiggle room in our schedule means that we can take off more time around the holidays and I can take a week off for new grandbabies too! We also love taking the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to just reflect on the reason for the season and it gives us time to do fun things with the family too.

Last year we switched to more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach and it was GREAT for the most part. We still have a couple of kids who just hate anything to do with math so that’s been a little challenging but we’re making progress. We’ve also really enjoyed using some of the FREE courses with Under the Home Homeschool.

A couple of the kiddos went with one of their big sisters and husband for the weekend so the house was surprisingly quiet… I used the time to sit down and get our new year planned out and organized. We will have an ‘official’ kindergartner this year too… sobbing quietly to myself… that means a little extra planning to include her but she already sits with us during school so it shouldn’t be too much of a transition.

Shyanne’s journey has been miraculous and to see her doing so many things that we were told she’d never do has been such a blessing in so many ways!

FREE Homeschool Planning Scratchpad

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Routines for the win!

Published on November 12, 2024January 12, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

Our routines keep us organized and reduce the amount of stress we have daily… Why not give it a try?

Make sure to start small and don’t try to overhaul your whole schedule at once… just a little at a time and don’t be afraid to make changes as needed to make it work for you. Even if something seems a little unconventional it might just be the right solution for you.

Here are some great places to start:

Getting Routines Started 101

Morning Routines

Kids’ Morning Routine

Weekly Routines

Put your Meal Planning on Auto-Pilot with the Perpetual Meal Plan for Winter – FREE Printables! (Updated)

Published on January 4, 2024January 12, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog23 Comments

Yay! I did it… my first big project of the year. I actually finished the Meal Plan that I’ve been working on and I wanted to share it with you. I know it’s not perfect and I’m sure there will be some changes made to it but it’s a place to start and I’m happy with that. These were inspired by The Dinner Calendar written by Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1915 but they have some modern recipes, most of which can be found on the blog. I love that I can pull/print recipes one time and be able to use them again and again over the next few months! The kids are also working on a list of muffins, oatmeal, quick bread, cookie, and dessert recipes as an add-on to this meal plan.

Why plan for the week or month when you could plan for the years to come all at one time? We have been using this for a week or so now and it has helped tremendously! I’ve also been able to simplify my Cozi calendar by using this meal planner… so nice!

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I don’t have enough time to get it all done!

Published on January 2, 2024February 21, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

How many times have you said this or thought this? How stressful does it feel when you feel this way?

Maybe it’s not that you don’t have enough time but maybe you have too much to do, too much to take care of, too many unnecessary obligations. When you have young kids that time can slip by all too quickly and in the blink of an eye your toddler will be towering over you with keys in his hand.

I know that things can get really crazy, really quickly around here and I’m sure it’s the same in other homes as well. The past week was a train wreck with us being sick and not being able to do many of the things we had planned to get done so now we are almost a week behind already for the New Year!

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Getting in the right mindset to simplify… setting up routines

Published on January 14, 2023January 11, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

It seems like our lives can get so hectic so quickly without us realizing it is even happening. I know that I seem to get one thing running smoothly but then ten other things seem to just fall off the track and then everything turns to CHAOS.

For me, the very first thing I need to do before starting this process is to find a little time for me & God… I often find that life feels overwhelming when I haven’t been able to have any quiet time for myself. I have tried getting up earlier but that just isn’t working out right now, I often would take a few minutes after lunch when the baby was down for a nap but our school routines have been out of whack since adding a new kiddo, when the time bedtime rolls around I am worn out. I do find little bits of time here and there to have little chats with God but I just haven’t been able to have my devotional time and I think that may be part of the reason that I am feeling so overwhelmed.

When something is frustrating me I often go to Him in prayer and ask Him to help me and show me ways that I can change or that we can change as a family. I ask Him to give me wisdom and guidance about the changes and things we need to work on so that they will benefit everyone.

Where do we start when it seems like everything is the problem?

We use this process in our home for a lot of different problems, part of it we even use for teaching the kids to make good choices. I’ll give a couple of examples of how we have used this system in the past.

1. STOP and identify the problem.

This might be the most difficult part of the whole process because sometimes it can be difficult to actually narrow down what the problem actually is when you are feeling overwhelmed. Many times there are multiple problems and sometimes the problems are not actually what we think they are. If you do find yourself with a multitude of problems then just try to focus on the biggest one first and work on ONE AT A TIME or you may find yourself even more overwhelmed and frustrated.

Maybe your mornings are very hectic and it just feels like you can’t get anywhere on time. What’s the problem?

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