Mother Series | Color-Coded Schedule | Part II

Today, I'm sharing A Mother's Color-Coded Priority Time Table (Schedule) + Free Printable. Mine. The goal of our Charlotte Mason-inspired schedule is to have a peaceful homeschool morning, plus time for my top priories: God, Family, Home, Home Education, Myself. The free printable is at the bottom of the article. Enjoy!

The Mother Series

This is the second article in our Mother Series. In this series, I will be sharing articles on planning so you can have a balanced and peaceful day. You can access all three articles here:

• Part I: A Mother's Homekeeping Time Cards
• Part II: A Mother's Color Coded Priority Time-Table (Schedule)
• Part III: A Mother's Companion: for a Happy Home, Volume 1

A Mother's Color Coded Priority Time Table (Schedule)

Why is a time table for mothers helpful? It makes life more purposeful and orderly. In other words, you'll have time for what matters most to you. And it doesn't take long to do! Just plan in this order (1) plan your priorities, (2) color code your priorities, and (3) make time for each priority in your time table. 

​Here's a look at mine . . .

Step 1: List Your Priorities

The top priorities that I chose are: God, Family, Home, Home Education. I could have stopped there, because that is a formidable undertaking alone. But I wanted to include Work, Fitness, and Mother Culture which I gave the category of Myself. 

Tip! Limit your priorities to 5-7 or less, so you don't get overwhelmed when planning. 

Step 2: Color-code Your Priorities

Assign a color for each priority and highlight it. That way when you are planning, you can highlight the time slots to see, which priority is getting more time. You can see where your time is going, and start directing it to where you really want it to go.

Step 3: Plan in Your Priorities

Now it's time to do the actual planning. You might plan in this order.

1. Set Meal Times
2. Early Mornings & Morning
3. Afternoon
4. Evenings
5. Reasonable Bedtime

Here's a walk-through of my current time table.

Early Mornings

Normally, I'm up around 5 am. As I planned this schedule, I wanted to make some changes, so I planned in a Power Hour. This is what I call my prayer and workout and water time.

The Morning Routine is next and consists of creating order as I get ready for the day. Things like

• making the bed,
• getting ready,
• leaving the bathroom clean,
• starting a load of laundry and dishes.
• time with God
• beginning the housekeeping tasks

When the children get up around 7:30 or 8:00, the quiet moments are over. It's a busy time with helping/guiding them to get ready and do their morning tasks. I'm going to try breakfast at 9:00 this year and include a Morning Devotional as listed at the free Kindergarten Booklist.

Mornings

Because our Kindergarten Lesson Plans + Schedule only take about 1 hour to complete (sometimes more depending on how we are pacing ourselves), much of the morning can include outdoor play. In the winter, our outdoor time is shorter as we are in the north.

Afternoons

​After lunch is time for a little rest and reading (mother culture) or time out for anything I want. This might include working in my home, working on lesson planning or caring for baby.

This is also afternoon occupations for my children.

• Creative or quiet play
• Listen to stories
• Lego's
• Puzzles
• Games, Arts, or Crafts
• Park with Daddy (when he gets home early)
• Occasional movie

Evenings

Dinner and the evenings are for family time and leisure. One change I'm making is a family exercise 3x per week. This might be as simple as an evening walk. Bedtime routine begins around 7:30 or 8:00. After the children are asleep, there is time for leisure or reading, then off to bed at a reasonable hour.

Implementation

To implement the time table, I'm simply going to add key changes of activity to my cell phone clock. When the bell rings ... the habits will form (in theory).  More on that later. :)

I hope this was helpful. To be sure, with a baby and kindergartner, my keep my time table flexible in my mind.  But having a general outline for my day does bring me a sense of purpose and direction. Less hectic, more peaceful.

If you have a mother's time table be sure to share below!

A Mother's Time Table {Free Printable}