Crafting Your Own Timetable

Or On Playing with Post-its

As Cara shared about her timetables last week, we thought it might be helpful for each of us to discuss timetables in our own homes. We’re all at different places with them, which maybe you’ll find encouraging.

Note: I don’t have a large family sitting around a table doing work together. I have three children; one has graduated, so I’m only homeschooling two. There are large age gaps and special needs, which has led to us doing many things separately. However, my goal has always been to share the principles with my children about why we do what we do. This scaffolding process looks different for different families and persons within those families, which is how it has worked out for us. (Shameless plug: In The Middle edition of Common Place Quarterly, Dawn Garrett has more to say about this scaffolding in her article “The Changing Personhood of the Middle Years.” Grab yourself a back issue.)

I have already shared how I have revamped the timetable for my younger son, but I also have a 14-year-old son. He grew up watching his big sister come alongside me to make her timetables; in his mind, this became a special rite of passage. He expressed interest to me last summer that he wanted to try his hand at making his schedule, so we spent a day fleshing out some of the principles surrounding the timetable and having him set up how he wanted to do things. Maybe we’re just a bunch of nerds over here, but we have always enjoyed this. It’s fun to look through books and put a plan together. Plus, this process has always involved post-it notes. How can that not be fun?

The timetable can be intimidating, but what matters is the ideas behind it: the short lessons and varied subjects. These are the most important takeaways I discussed with my son before we dived into his booklist for the upcoming year.

After that, we looked at the books and schedule. We went through each book individually, and I asked him, “Do you think you could complete what is scheduled for that week in one sitting?” If so, he put one Post-it on the book. If not, he put more. For example, he decided to read Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves and Westward Ho! three times a week to stick to the schedule. He put three sticky notes on these books, each with the book’s name on it.

Some books we added in, some books we switched out, but the process was the same. He would look at the book and decide how much he could do in a week. When deciding this, there are several options. First, you can divide a book by the number of weeks you’re working with and do that many pages a week. This is helpful if you want to finish a book in a term. One book I added to his booklist was Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science, and he ended up scheduling himself 15 pages a week to finish it in a term. The second way is to read a book for a set time each week. This is helpful if you add an extra book and aren’t so concerned about when you finish it. This is how we’ve scheduled books like On Writing Well and How to Read a Book; set a timer for 15 minutes, read what you can, and we’ll finish it when we finish it. A third way is by chapter. This year, we added in Drawing Physics, and with the shorter chapters, he said he could do three chapters in a sitting just fine. This is great for books you want to read in a year but aren’t worried about finishing them in a term.

All of the Post-its he put on these books were the same color. These were his readings. Our next step was to put all his non-readings on a different color of Post-it. Spanish got three post-its, Greek got two, and we included everything from handicrafts to hymns to recitation to math.

Then he sat at the table and started putting them in the desired order for what he wanted to do each day of the week. He was very methodical about this; it was sweet to see (enter here a sentimental something that comes to a mother when she catches glimpses of her children growing up and caring). He covered our table in his Master Plan, alternating blue and red post-its. Once he was happy with his arrangement of readings and non-readings, he opened up a spreadsheet and typed it into a weekly schedule. He added his extra-curricular activities to his schedule, and I also reminded him to include Mom Meetings. (This is when I can listen to his narrations, have grand conversations, see his notebook entries, etc. He has asked for more independence and responsibility. Because I am often being pulled in a million directions and, quite frankly, forget, this helps me hold him accountable while ensuring we connect. This is just as important as all that learning. We aim to do these meetings daily around the same time, but sometimes they happen in the truck on the way to jiu-jitsu, in the evenings while I’m making dinner, or the next morning over coffee before we start the new day.)

From this point, I edited the AO schedule to reflect any changes we made, switching out books, changing page numbers, etc., and printed both of us off a copy. I made myself a folder to hold a copy of his weekly schedule and book schedule, and he pinned his copies on the cork board in his room (how his sister would do–older siblings, take note), ready to begin. He could see what subjects he was doing every day and refer to the edited AO schedule to see what he needed to read/do for each subject.

To further scaffold this for him, I also compiled a folder including blank maps for his map drills, recitation pieces for the term, lyrics to hymns and folksongs, and keeping sheets for him. (Keeping sheets is how we do notebooking in this season in our homeschool. He keeps track of people, dates, events, things, and words he wants to commonplace while he reads with this sheet. He then uses the sheet when different notebooks are scheduled to record his entries.) This helped him to have everything he needed at his disposal, and he wouldn’t have to interrupt his morning to find something or ask me where something was.

This was his first year having this much responsibility and independence, and so far, I am happy with the results and proud of his hard work. This has helped him with time management and makes him appreciate his free time in a new light. He learned not to overestimate what he could do, which helped him grow in confidence as these books got bigger and the material got harder. Crafting his timetable has helped him learn to take ownership of his education. And with this, he is learning to care. This is a good place to be on the cusp of his high school years.

Mariah Kochis 2024