Do you have a daily schedule where you list out the time that you have blocked off for school? I am curious to see how you are fitting school and housework in and how much time you are actually spending doing school?
My Response:
Here is our day- all times are “ish” and open to change whenever I deem necessary!
7:45am Kip leaves for work.
7:45-9:00am Kids have free play in the living room.
7:45-8:30 I fix myself a glass of ice water, rustle up some breakfast for myself (kids have already eaten with dh earlier), check email, etc.
8:30-9:00am Start or switch laundry, check dinner menu and do anything necessary, clean up breakfast dishes, straighten and tidy kitchen, study and bathroom.
9:00am-10:30am Kids pick up living room to a company-ready state (takes about 5 minutes), then upstairs. Everyone gets dressed, brush teeth and hair, bathroom, make beds and tidy rooms (takes 15 ish minutes). Once finished we go to the schoolroom. Nathan and Savvy play while Mary and I do Language Arts (Explode the Code, Sight words, BOB books), Math. Then I call Nathan over and they both go through their memory work. Then we go sit down in the easy chair and I do their History Read Alouds and we check our calendar/weather/seasons.
10:30-11:30 Kids are outside playing. Sometimes Savvy is with them in our fenced in back yard, sometimes with me inside. I do a laundry switch, any necessary dinner prep, email/computer, if Savvy with me I may read to her, etc.
11:30-12:30 Lunch- make lunch, eat, kids help with clean up.
12:30-1:00 We are supposed to go back upstairs to the schoolroom at this time and do our extras- some days it is science, some times it is a weekly Art or Geography lesson or finishing History read alouds. We have missed this the last couple of weeks but I plan to get back on track with this. I’ve been doing these at different times of the day but need to move them back to this time slot.
1:00-4:00 Kids are napping. I am getting dinner ready, sweeping the kitchen floor, taking a nap, email/computer, laundry, etc. This is generally the only time I talk on the phone- I try not to be on the phone while the kids are awake.
4:00-5:30ish Kids up- bathroom, drinks, shoes, recomb hair, etc. Usually outside to play BUT sometimes inside with something special pulled out of the toy closet.
5:30-6:00 Kids in the living room watching a video. This wayKip can walk in the door and have a few minutes to go to the bathroom, take off his work boots, unload his pockets, get a drink before he is bombarded with children. 
6:00-6:45 Dinner and clean up.
6:45-7:45 EVERYONE, including Daddy, upstairs. Kids are pj’d, brush teeth, bathroom, etc. Then all to the schoolroom. Kip does handwriting/drawing lesson with Mary while I do piano practice with Nathan. Then we switch. Read aloud 1 chapter of our current “fun” read aloud (“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” right now) and then family devotions. We sometimes go over our memory work for a second time also.
7:45- kids are in bed.
Some keys to keeping the house neat & tidy:
I use gates. My kids are not given free reign to play in any room they want or to drag out all their toys at once.
Downstairs, they only play in the living room or at the art table in the kitchen. Upstairs they have VERY few toys in their rooms and until recently they had none at all in their rooms. We’ve recently allowed a few things in their room that were either a danger to Savvy (dollhouse has small pieces that are choking hazards) or that I didn’t have another place for (Train Table in Nathan’s room). Also, they are now 5yo and 4yo and can pick up a mess on their own. There are only Quiet Toys in the schoolroom and they are never in there without me. We pick up the room before we head downstairs at 10:30. No playing allowed at the 12:30-1:00 time slot and only Savvy plays in the evening- other kids are busy with handwriting and piano so there is very little to clean up.
Essentially, by 9am, the downstairs portion of the house is company ready and stays that way the rest of the day.
We also converted our hallway coat closet into a toy closet. Dh put shelves in and changed the door knob from one that just turned to one that has a key lock. 90% of their toys are in that closet and they can only get them out with my permission and supervision. This is a *really* big help in taming the toys.
I hope that helped you some- to see what we do all day. Again, I am not a clock Nazi- all times are approximate and we change them to suit our needs when necessary.
