Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Daily Schedule
Creating a Daily Schedule for your Homeschool
Creating a daily schedule makes consistent homeschooling so much easier. If you don’t have a plan for your day, you likely won’t get to half of the things you want to.
I become idle quicky without some type of routine in place. Hence, we came up with a Kindergarten Daily Schedule that helps us all stay on the right path in our homeschool and in my duties as a homemaker.
It’s important to know that any schedule won’t happen perfectly every single day. These times that I share in our daily schedule are an average of when we do certain tasks. But you can always give or take 30 minutes to an hour to the schedule.
What’s more important is that you do things in the same order and not necessarily at the exact same time each day. You can think of your daily homeschool schedule more like a routine or a rhythm than a strict timetable.
If something comes up and our day gets shifted around, I can usually borrow some time from our ample time spent out of doors or skip the loop subject for the day if absolutely necessary.
Remember, you’re not just a homeschool teacher, but a mother with a home to manage. You likely don’t have a cook, a grounds keeper, a nurse or a governess on hand so most of the daily work naturally falls on your lap.
Life is busy and unpredictable. Your willingness to be adaptable in homeschooling is key to maintaining your peace.
Our Kindergarten Homeschool Daily Schedule
We are a Charlotte Mason homeschool family. That means we are a Christian family who prioritizes a rich education filled with Bible, beauty subjects, good literature and a lot of time spent out of doors, especially for the early years. Oh, and of course the basics like reading, writing and math.
Currently, I have an 18-month-old, a three-year-old and an almost six-year-old who is my kindergarten student so, my schedule reflects our family’s season of life. As my children get older, our schedule will change.
If you want to know more about our homeschool curriculum for kindergarten, you can read my Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Plan on the blog.
Here is our daily schedule. I’ll be sure to tell you what my kids are doing and when I find time for homemaking, reading good books and computer work for myself.
A free printable PDF version of this image will be available for download at the bottom of this post.
Morning
Our mornings are productive so that our afternoons are full of leisure and play. We tackle most of our homeschool and homemaking tasks in the morning.
6:30 AM - Mom’s Morning Routine
My kids are all generally still asleep when I wake up. Occasionally, the baby is up as well but not most of the time.
I fix my coffee and have my Mother’s Morning Time in my pajamas. My morning time consists of reading my Bible, reading a Christian non-fiction book or devotional and reading some poetry. For example, right now, I’m reading:
Bible: The book of James in the New Testament (one chapter a day)
Devotional: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis (one section a day)
Poetry: This Day: Sabbath Poems Collected and New by Wendell Berry (one to three poems a day)
Then, I get ready for the day and start on breakfast before the kids wake up. I’ll unload the dishwasher while I’m cooking and listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video while I do it.
8:00 AM - Breakfast & Morning Time
My children will usually start waking up by 7:00 AM and I will help them get ready for the day. I will play our local Christian radio station in the background while they free play until breakfast is on the table.
By 8:00 AM breakfast is ready and we’re all at the dining room table. We will say a prayer and I will read our Morning Time books to my kids while they eat. This ensures that my kindergartener gets to listen to all of the stories while the little ones are quiet and eating. But of course, the books are good for them, too!
Our Morning Time consists of Bible stories, poetry and literature. Right now, we’re reading:
Bible: The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sarah Lloyd-Jones
Poetry: The Complete Book of the Flower Faeries by Cicely Mary Barker
Literature: Five Minute Stories Treasury: A Timeless Collection of Favorite Stories, Tales, and Fables for Children
You can learn more about Morning Time by reading my blog post Morning Time for Beginners.
Breakfast for my kiddos is simple: eggs and cinnamon toast, cereal and a banana, pancakes and bacon or oatmeal.
After breakfast, my five and three-year-old will bring their dishes to the sink.
8:30 AM - Music & Movement
After breakfast, I will turn on our Ambleside Online Hymn and Folk Song for the month (folksandhymns on YouTube).
I will bring out the keyboard for my kindergartener to practice piano or do a lesson. We are using Hoffman Academy’s online free lessons.
Then, I’ll play a playlist of our favorites while they dance and play with our child friendly instruments.
I’ll also play one or two folk dances for kindergarteners so they can get their movement out in the morning. You can find a lot of these on YouTube by searching “kindergarten folk dances”.
I use this time to get breakfast cleaned up and the table cleared for homeschool.
9:00 AM - Housekeeping Hour and Free Play
After their music time is over, I will turn the radio back on or play our Ambleside Online Composer for the term in the background while we complete an hour of housekeeping tasks.
I work on cleaning one room a day and invite my kindergartener to help in age-appropriate tasks.
For example, I clean the living room on Tuesdays. She dusts the furniture and occasionally, mops if she wants to. She has the option to listen to an audiobook during cleaning time as long as she is helping.
My kindergartener typically only helps for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then, she plays or draws until schooltime.
I’ll give my three-year-old a warm rag to wipe things off with or she’ll just play instead. The baby is either playing or, more realistically, on my hip as I clean.
10:00 AM Homeschool Hour - Daily Lessons
It doesn’t take a lot of time to homeschool a kindergartener. Less than an hour, really. We’ll do our core homeschool subjects during this time: reading, writing and math. Each subject only takes 10-15 minutes, and she does well tackling them all at once.
Again, you can see our curriculum resources on my Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Homeschool Plan blog post.
While my oldest is doing her schoolwork, I will bring out an activity for my three-year-old that she typically only does during school hours. This is a rotation of play dough, kinetic sand, a DIY sensory bin of beans or painting supplies.
The baby is usually playing independently. If desperate times call for desperate measures, I will bring out some pots and pans, give him an early snack or just carry him on my hip while I’m helping my kindergartener.
10:45 AM - Snack & Picture Book
After lessons, everyone is ready for a snack. We gather at the table again and I will read a picture book that both my five and three-year-old can enjoy.
I’m selecting books from Ambleside Online’s Year 0 Book List along with “living books” I find at our local library.
Snacks are usually something simple like fruit, peanut butter crackers, pretzels & dip or yogurt.
11:00 AM - Out of Doors
We’re all ready to be outside at this point! I let my kiddos play, wide open, and get all of their energy out. We have outdoor activities like a playset, trampoline, mud kitchen and a garden so my kiddos have no problems finding something to do. We invest in big ticket outdoor items on Black Friday and give them as one collective Christmas gift.
I bring my laptop outside and work on a blog post or edit a YouTube video while they play. I have small children and a lot of interruptions are just part of this stage of life so I anticipate it to avoid frustration and squeeze work in between interacting with my children.
What if the weather is bad?
If it’s too hot or too cold, we will break up outdoor play into 20 minute increments. 20 minutes outside, 20 minutes inside.
A sprinkler, kiddie pool and popsicles can help out in the heat of summer. Hot cocoa breaks are a real treat in winter so there is always a silver lining!
If it’s storming, we will break out the board games, spend more time on a read aloud, play dough, art or free play. We adjust as necessary.
Afternoon
Our afternoons are slow and leisurely. Giving us all time to wind down from the productive morning and focus on the unique things we each love.
12:30 PM - Lunch
Everyone is ready to eat again after playing hard outside. We all eat lunch together and I don’t do read aloud books during lunch so that we can have some meaningful conversation.
Lunch is never complicated, it’s usually either some form of pasta, sandwiches, carrots with ranch, fruit or leftovers.
1:00 PM - Loop Subject
Loop subjects are school subjects we tackle on a weekly rotation and aren’t necessary to do everyday.
Monday: History (Picture Books)
Tuesday: Artist Study (Ambleside Online)
Wednesday: Science (Picture Books or Nature Study)
Thursday: Composer Study (Ambleside Online)
I like to begin and end the “school day” with something fun and beautiful. We start the day with morning time, do daily work in the middle and end with a fun loop subject.
Since my daughter is only in kindergarten, we don’t do any form of narration after history or science readings. I just read her the picture books and let her soak it in. She has the option to copy any picture book illustrations during her art time later in the day.
The three-year-old and baby are both ready to get down from the lunch table so they are both playing on their own while we do this. Occasionally, the three-year-old joins in but I never require it.
If the day has been out-of-the-norm, this is the time slot we are most likely to skip. That is why we only do loop subjects four days a week in case we need a catch up day.
1:20 PM - Out of Doors/Nature Study
We head back outside after our final lesson of the day. Since this is our largest amount of time spent outside, this is when we’ll do nature study simply by naming the world around us.
We have some local field guides to help (mostly me) with identification of birds, mushrooms, butterflies, flowers, insects and trees. My kindergartener has a notebook she can draw pictures in if she wants but I will not require it until she is in formal schooling when we get to Ambleside Online Year One next year.
2:00 PM - Teatime/Naptime (then back outside)
The baby is ready to take a nap around 2:00 PM. He will sleep for around 20-30 minutes. I will fix a teatime snack for my older two and read a book if they want. We catch up on Morning Time at teatime if for some reason it hasn’t happened yet.
One day each week I will take advantage of naptime and film a YouTube video.
After teatime/naptime, we go back outside.
I will bring a book outside with me while the kids play. I get most of my reading done in this stretch of time. I occasionally get to sit down with my book but since I still have such little children, I’m often reading and following them around at the same time.
4:00 PM - Art Time/Handicrafts/ Free Play
My kindergartener loves art. So, I make sure that she has time to draw or paint each day. After we come back indoors, I will set my oldest two children up with art supplies while I prep dinner.
They can do art, play independently or help me cook dinner - I leave the options open for them to choose.
Evening
Our day is winding down and there isn’t much formality or strict schedule at this point other than bedtime.
5:30 PM - Dinner
We finally sit down to dinner at 5:30 PM. It’s another meal reserved for meaningful conversation, no books, screens or background noise.
6:00 PM - Family Time
After cleaning up dinner, our schedule is free. Free play, board games, family TV or hopping in the vehicle for a ride around town or an evening walk - whatever we want to do, we do.
7:30 PM - Bathtime & Read Aloud
A quick tidy up of toys happens before bathtime. Then all the kiddos have their bath and I will do read alouds.
I will read a short picture book for the little ones first while my oldest is getting ready for bed. (Goodnight Moon, Llama Llama Red Pajama and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? are favorites that I could recite from memory at this point)
Then, my kindergartener and I will snuggle up with our current chapter book read aloud. We read one chapter each night if the chapters are short, if not I will split a chapter in half and find a good stopping point.
Early chapter books we’ve read:
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
8:00 PM - Bedtime
The five and three-year-old are in their rooms by 8:00 PM for bedtime but they may take 30 minutes or so to fall asleep. Their only rule is that they don’t come out of their room unless they need to use the restroom.
I will put the baby to sleep after read alouds.
After the kids are all in bed, my hubby and I finally get to spend quality time together until I go to bed between 10:00 and 11:00 PM.
and that’s our typical daily schedule!
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Download my Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Daily Schedule in PDF form, below!
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Dear Homeschool Mama,
Our family isn’t perfect, and our daily schedule doesn’t happen exactly within this time frame each day. But it does typically work in that general order. Having a schedule in mind helps you remember your next step and can prevent you from spinning your wheels.
If something isn’t working, don’t force it. Kindergarten is not that serious, folks. It’s a great time to establish good habits of learning but your kindergartener does not need to be college ready, especially if you’re following Charlotte Mason’s method of education.
Your family’s needs are different from ours, and you don’t need to copy what we do exactly. But I do hope it has provided you with an inspiring idea or two in planning your own daily schedule for homeschool and homemaking tasks.
Happy homeschooling!
Humbly,
Haley
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Other homeschool posts you might enjoy:
Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Plan
FREE Charlotte Mason Homeschool Daily Rhythm Cards
