Attempting an alternating week schedule

This is a scheduling/planning post. If scheduling/planning is not your think, feel free to skip this one.

So my daughter started boxing last month. This is great because she REALLY needed some regular physical exercise and this activity provides that, while also allowing her to see a good friend who is at a different school. Of course it also means I have another two activities to figure out every week, on top of an extra martial arts practice for my son, who is preparing for his red belt (!!) test.

We usually figure out a weekly schedule and stick with it. For example, all fall my son went to martial arts on Monday and Wednesday. I also went on Wednesday (same time as my son) and Saturdays. My son had soccer practice on Friday and games on Saturday.

I have staff meetings every other Tuesday and one professional development meeting a month on Wednesday. And of course other things come up, like my monthly allergy shot and other appointments.

I liked this schedule well enough, and I probably wouldn’t have thought to change it, except that my son was missing the only two high belt extra lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we never went to martial arts on those days. So during the winter break, I decided I’d start bringing him on Thursday. And since he doesn’t like to go twice in a row, we’d stop going on Wednesday. This was kind of a bummer since that was the one time a week we could train at the same time. But I was so stoked to have my early release afternoon on Wednesday to run, so I thought it was probably worth it.

Except it really is nice to train at the same time… so when they announced (a couple weeks ago) another high belt lesson on Mondays, I wondered what I should do. Should I taking him on Thursday so he could get two high belt lessons a week (and get to keep running on Wednesday)? Or should I switch us back to our Wednesday double dojo day? My daughter’s new boxing schedule also impacted this because they go on Monday and Thursday, which meant I could never help with the transportation.

Then I wondered, what if one week I did one thing, and the other week did the other?

And then I plotted out an insane alternating week schedule that allows us to go to the dojo together some weeks, and allows me to run at 1:30pm on my early release Wednesdays some weeks. This is the schedule:

	WEEK “A”	WEEK “B”
Monday	W at dojo B at boxing (I drive?)	W at dojo (I drive) B at boxing (E drives)
Tuesday	Staff Meeting	RUN
Wednesday	W with grandparents RUN	Double dojo day
Thursday	W at dojo (I drive)	W with grandparents B at boxing (I drive)
Friday	W at soccer	W at soccer
Saturday	Double dojo morning (I stay long – H picks up W)	Double dojo morning (I stay short – W waits for me)
Sunday		RUN

As you can see, it’s either crazy or genius or both. (It’s probably not genius). It’s complicated in and of itself, but it’s even more complicated because there are carpools, and grandparent afternoons, affected by this. On the old schedule my son always got picked up by his grandparents to spend the afternoon at their house on Tuesday, because I have my staff meeting every other Tuesday. Now he goes to their house on the Wednesdays that I run, and the Thursday of the next week, so that I can take my daughter and her friends to boxing on that Thursday. We also have a carpool to the dojo on Mondays, but that hasn’t been as consistent. On the days they take the boys to the dojo, I’d like to take the girls to boxing.

And of course, this all works fine and well when my district follows it’s every-other-Tuesday-staff-meeting schedule, which ALMOST always happens. But of course next month it doesn’t happen for some weird reason, and I’m not sure how I’m going to handle it. I also have the kids’ physicals scheduled on a Wednesday next month…

But it’s not like our weekly schedule didn’t need to get moved around every once in a while. I’m sure I can move things around on this schedule too. And some things, like my runs, can be moved around (or skipped) easily.

The good news is my in-laws are super flexible and don’t mind me changing the day they pick up our son. I just have to let them know on Monday what we need that week.

There are other points of flexibility too. The kids can miss a martial arts or boxing class here or there. I can miss a run. Things can be moved around.

This is our second week of trying out this new schedule. Last Wednesday I took the boys to the dojo and I went to class too. It was nice to get our training all done at once, but getting there on time was stressful and biking home in the dark with two boys on the bike is not my favorite. Yesterday I got to run, it was beautiful out and I very much appreciated the time in the sunshine. I also appreciated spending the afternoon with my daughter while my son was with his grandparents. Today my friend is taking the girls to boxing while I take my son to the dojo. Next week I’ll take the girls to boxing on Thursday while my son is with his grandparents.

We’re making it work, and this alternating schedule might give me the best of both worlds. Or it will make my head spin until I puke. We shall see.

How do you make your schedule work? Do most weeks look the same, or do you alternate or otherwise change things up?