Homeschooling: The Back to school meeting

Every year, I sit with the kids before we start school and discuss our school routines. I normally have a routine sketched out before we sit down. This usually comes from the previous years routine and some notes I made at our "end of year meeting". The end of year meeting is normally a quick talk with the kids about what they liked about their school year, what they disliked and what they would like to see changed or added to the next year. I make notes of those things, either on paper or in my head and then sit over them for the summer months.

This year our Back to School meeting lasted well over two hours! It was a great time of discussion and revelation with the kids and I think I got more from this meeting than I have ever gotten in the past. The reason the meeting was so successful, may be because we are much more relaxed and rested coming off of this summer than ever before either. We watched copious amounts of TV (I know, bad for you, but relaxing non the less) and generally rested. WE had water park day once a week and several play dates with friends. We planned nothing and did nothing most days, and I do mean NOTHING! We barely left the house except for water park days, church days and weekly shopping. I am actually looking very forward to beginning our school routine.
I set a relaxed and friendly tone for the meeting, I brewed some tea for everyone and we sat in our freshly cleaned living room (I always THINK better when things are neat!) and chatted about the new school year. We discussed everything from screen time (time in front of the TV and computer) to wake up time and lunch routines, evening routines and outside play. We discussed projects they would like to do. Some very productive decisions came out of the chat and the kid's ideas to solve problems were plentiful. I gave them a good bit of leeway in solving the problems that they had last school year and was open to their ideas. Of course some things are not going to change that they would like to see change but isn't that always the case?

Some things they created solutions for:
*morning routines taking too long... sometimes due to laziness/slow work performance and sometimes due to oversleeping...so they will move some of the routine to an evening routine and try to work with that.
*snack time mid morning... this has always been a problem for me. Breakfast and lunch are so far apart, that we need a 10 am snack but I would forget frequently to prepare the snack in time, so it was either skipped which left us grouchy or fixed too late which disturbed lunch. The kids are going to try having "Kid of the day" (our program for managing many things in our home) choose and prepare a simple snack at 10 am. This idea to me was genius.. the snack can be chosen the week before and tacked onto my weekly menu, if any prep needs to be done they can do that either the Saturday before or the evening before, though most snacks will only need to be placed on plates and glasses of water made.
* lunch time clean up and break.... too many problems to name with the way we were doing lunch and handling a break. Our core subjects and one on one time with mom are all done in the morning with interest led and fun subjects happening in the hour or so after lunch. I've tried several routines for handling lunch that gets the lunch made, kitchen cleaned and everyone gets a half hour of free time before regrouping for those fun subjects. We have had no luck getting this down. The kids came up with a great routine with some suggestions from me: Lunch together while listening to our Spanish CD. Clean up together, then 30 minute break.

I am eager to see which solutions they found will work in practice and which ones will need tweaking as we go. I am hoping that since they were such a big part of the planning of the flow of our days that it will be an easier transition from the lazy and relaxed days of summer back to our "school" routines.