School, homework, sport, music lessons, journeys, appointments… The family schedule fills up fast. What if, this year, you also planned the moments when nothing is planned?
When you prepare for a new school year, the lists grow longer: school supplies, activities, timetables, journeys, homework. Then come the questions about the year ahead. How will the new class go? Will your child struggle with anything? Will extra support be needed?
These are fair questions. But amid everything we try to anticipate, one thing is often forgotten: free time, the time that appears in no schedule.
When a week turns into a schedule
The school year has barely started and the pace picks up again. Children go from school to homework to activities. Parents juggle work, family logistics and their own commitments.
Little by little, every slot fills up. Sometimes so well that there is little room left for what is written down nowhere:
- a meal that lasts longer because nobody has to rush off;
- a walk, a board game, a film watched together;
- an hour spent chatting, about nothing in particular;
- a Sunday morning with no plans.
In short, time together with no other purpose than being together.
The paradox: planning time so as to plan nothing
It may sound contradictory. If we want to keep room for spontaneity, why plan it?
Because in a busy week, what is not planned is the first thing to disappear. One more activity, a rescheduled appointment, homework that runs over: free time is always what gives way.
Of course, this is not about writing “Tuesday, 7.30 pm: spontaneous family moment”. The question to ask yourself, as you organise the year, is simpler: have we left enough space?
In practice, this might mean:
- keeping one evening a week free of activities, as far as possible;
- protecting certain Sundays;
- setting aside some family time once a month;
- resisting the urge to fill every remaining slot.
Every family will find its own balance. What matters is to treat these moments as real time, not as time “left over”.
Leaving room for the unexpected
A schedule that is 100% full has another drawback: it cannot absorb anything unexpected. And a school year always brings some surprises.
- a sick child who has to catch up on a few days of lessons;
- a test announced at the last minute;
- a timetable that changes, a journey that gets longer;
- a family matter that needs your time.
When the week keeps a few free slots, these surprises fit in without upsetting everything. Without any margin, every setback becomes a race against the clock, and it is often the child’s sleep or morale that pays the price.
This margin helps with schoolwork too. A pupil who plans their study time with some slack copes better with a busy week than a pupil whose every evening is already taken.
Time for the family, and for each person
Keeping free time does not mean the whole family always has to be together. It can also mean letting everyone catch their breath.
- Time as a couple, without talking only about the children’s timetables.
- Time for yourself: reading, exercising, seeing friends, or doing nothing at all.
- Time alone with one of your children, for a real conversation.
- Time for the children themselves, with no lessons, no training, no homework and no organised activity.
This last point matters especially. Unstructured time is when a child plays, invents, gets a little bored and learns to keep themselves busy. It feeds imagination andindependence, two qualities that also help at school.
These breathing spaces contribute to family balance as much as everything we organise with care.
How can you tell if the schedule is too full?
There is no ideal number of activities: it all depends on each child’s age, temperament and energy. A few signs can still alert you:
- your child is often tired or irritable by the end of the week;
- homework gets done late in the evening, in a rush;
- your child no longer wants to go to an activity they used to enjoy;
- family meals become rare, or always rushed;
- you yourself feel you are running from morning to night.
In that case, it is better to lighten the load than to keep going at all costs. Dropping one activity, combining journeys or postponing a commitment may be enough to breathe again. Sleep, especially for teenagers, deserves to be protected first.
Planning everything does not mean filling everything
Of course, preparing for the year still matters. Having the right supplies, checking timetables ahead or spotting a school difficulty early saves a lot of stress later on.
But planning everything does not mean filling everything. When you organise the new year, one question deserves a place among all the others: in our organisation, where have we left room for ourselves?
The answer will differ from one family to the next. One evening a week, one Sunday a month, a few hours here and there: the exact formula matters little.
A successful school year is about learning, progress and projects. It is also about all those moments that never appear on a school report and that, a few years later, are often the ones we remember best.
Support that gives time back to the family
When school takes over the whole house, it is often because a difficulty is settling in: homework that drags on, arguments over lessons, whole evenings spent catching up.
At My Sherpa, we believe good academic support should also bring calm back into family life. An educational advisor chooses a coach suited to your child’s needs, for private tutoring at home anywhere in Belgium or online. Spotting a difficulty early and putting the right support in place at the right time also keeps school from spilling over into everything else.
