How do you schedule?

I have not participated in the Heart of the Matter meme in a while. I really like them because they challenge me to think about our homeschool and encourage me to make improvements and enjoy this homeschool journey. Here is Friday's meme...

We want to know how you schedule your lessons and your day to day activities. How do you decide what to teach each day. Are you a morning or afternoon schooler, or does school in your house span the entire day? Please share your methods.

We started out this 2007/2008 year fairly structured with a good schedule and we followed it better than I had expected. I am not by nature a very organized person nor am I one to "follow" any real daily schedules though I thouroughly enjoy the idea of them and especially making them. As of right now we do not have any laid out daily schedules and where a part of me likes this (the lazy part of me :0) there is that other part of me that knows I really need to lay some sort of daily plans down. Last year I planed everything out and left our the dates that we knew we would be out of town but being in the ministry it has been difficult to stay in line with our schedule and I know that this is how it goes and that it is one of the huge benifits of homeschooling, tweaking and rearranging. I planned out 42 weeks in all studies minus all of the weeks off, which were rather sporatic at times. This year is going to be different. We are not going to be taking as many weeks of family/holiday mini vacations because of our current position with our church. So instead we will do a 3 weeks structured and more formal and 1 week relaxed, hands on, field trip learning to make the last 3 weeks really come to life in their little minds and my own :0).

Considering how I decide what to teach each day I am always sure to include math, history and reading in our daily schedule. Science always, whether planned or not, gets it's time in our day so I don't worry about it plus we love science so there is no need to. We also enjoy spelling and copywork is not something that we really ever fret over so it is usually simply done. Grammar is something I started this year but ended up dropping it half way through but will begin again this coming year but again it is never a struggle. I tell you, my Superman enjoys all subjects to a certain degree, the only thing that he struggles with is the not being able to spend the time he is wasting on these subjects playing with his toys and outside.

We have typically been morning schoolers but we are going to transition to an all day schoolers with less formal education and more living education aka Charlotte Mason philosophy. We are currently in the begining of our summer and since we were not able to finish some of our studies we are going to continue casually with them until August. HERE is our year at a glance for 2007/2008 and one of our daily schedules HERE, these were our in the year schedules and here is our little Summer Schedule (not charted out) that we will begin to loosely follow this Monday:

6:00 (I am going to work down to 6:00 by 15 minute increments, starting with 7:00am) This is my block of Morning Quiet Time where I will first get dressed, wash face and apply make up and then start coffee but begin with water as I spend some time in prayer and in the word.
6:45 Turn on the radio and grab a cup of coffee, check email, bank account, bills and other things and if time allows enjoy a few pages of a current book and then begin a quick straighten up along with laundry.
7:30 While laundry is going begin breakfast for soon to be awaking family.
8:00 Instruct/train boys to make bed, get dressed and find themselves ready to serve and eat. then they will take turns washing dishes and clearing table every other day with some assistance.
9:00 Finish up laundry and then have a little family Devotional
9:15 Outside nature walk/study time.
10:00 Play a math game Outside if not to hot or windy other wise at the table.
10:30 Spelling time with words taken from current reading books and other while T-Rex has a 15 minute sit still training time (and this will vary according to his current struggles)
11:00 FREE PLAY
12:00 Lunch, clean up and discussion on our memory verse
1:00 Music time and family play time!!
2:00 Rest hour... while Butterfly and T-Rex rest/nap Superman and I will quietly read, create and just enjoy some alone time. :0)
3:00 Superman will enjoy some time to do puzzles and various other kinds of quiet play(Tuesday and Thursday 45 minutes of video game time) while I learn Latin from Memoria Press and do other needed activities.
4:00 Book read aloud time with small snack
4:15 Everyone is up and given a special 30 minute video time while I start dinner
4:45 A special clean up time to prepare for Daddy to arrive home from studying, this includes faces, hands and feet cleaned up along with a nice and tidy house with joyful attitudes.
5:00 Family dinner and table prepping time (all littles will be envolved) while daddy is given 30 minutes to just enjoy being home without any expectations!
5:30 Dinner and Discussion and then family clean up.
6:15 Desert and History with Daddy! and then family free time!
7:30 Bath, pjs, clean up and family worship.
8:00 Bedtime for all littles!! Special clean up time for Momma.
9:00 Creative and Planning Time for me! Hopefully I will make good use of this time to make special fun things along with important things and plan out things for the next day or week!
10:00 Night time routine and then some scripture reading and prayer with Expresso before I call it lights out!

I am excited to get started with our new homeschool schedule. I pray it fits our little family but of course there will be a lot of exceptions as life comes in and rearranges our pretty blocks of time :0).