"School Days"

When my wife and I were married, we were always very flexible in deciding what constituted a "school day." It was generally built around our work schedules, but even that was followed only occasionally. Now that we are divorced I find it easier on everyone to keep things more stable. We still have the opportunity to move things around at will - if we didn't, we would be passing on one of the great benefits of homeschooling. But in general, everyone knows what everyone is going to be doing on a given day. I have found that questions lead to unnecessary tension in our new situation.

My oldest lives with me full time, so she is basically on my schedule. She does her school work Monday through Friday and goofs off over the weekend. My younger daughter's schedule is somewhat more complex. Monday through Friday while I'm at school, Katie and my 4 year old son are at their mother's home. They spend Wednesday and Thursday nights there, and I pick them up Monday, Tuesday, and Friday afternoons. They are with me over the weekend (Confused yet? No worries, me too). I have arranged things so Katie has one day off from school during each parent's two full-time days. In other words, Katie has Wednesdays off from school with her mom, and Saturdays off with me. While this breaks up her weekend, it seems to work for everyone, most importantly, her.

The only real problem we are having with our current schedule is that Katie doesn't know how much homework to do at each parent's home on her split days. As a result of this confusion, when I pick her up at 5:00 on Monday for example, she may have all her homework done or she may have only just begun. The issue is that she spends more time at my home even on those days, but much of it is eaten up by sleeping, eating, and getting ready for either her day or bed.

Anyway, that's how we do it (or at least try to do it...) Any comments? What have you found helpful?