I have often wondered what other homeschoolers days look like. Homeschooling is so different for each family and the dynamics of the family create such variety.
I thought I would share what a day in our homeschool looks like in general. I promise not to sugar coat it. I hate reading posts where everything goes perfectly and you just wonder if that is really how it is and if you are really failing terribly for not being able to live up to the same standard.
5:50 am
I can hear my oldest in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher. I am sure he is intentionally making as much noise as is humanly possible as he stacks the plates back in the cupboards. I get up and tell him to be quiet so he doesn’t wake up the baby. He is up early so he can get some TV time in before it gets switched off at 7am.
I go back to bed.
6 am
I hear little feet running down the hallway. Now the baby is standing at my door screaming for me to let him in.
My husband and I lay there waiting to see who gives in first and gets up.
It was me. He usually gets up though so it is about time I take one for the team.
6:30 am
All the kids are up now. I swear they don’t belong to me, who gets up that early willingly? I feed the baby and make sure everyone else is organised enough to be quiet for another hour so daddy can sleep. He got home from work at 1am.
Time to get a bit of me time in and I head out for a walk through the neighbourhood. While walking past our new back neighbour’s house I notice that they have just installed a pool. I make a note to become friends with them.
7:30 am
By the time I get home everyone is up, dressed, fed and ready to start the day. They are playing in the living room while I catch up on what we need to get done today. Carter, our baby is screaming about something. He has a horrific high pitched scream/squeal. I am seriously concerned that someone might think we are hurting him! Oh he’s screaming because daddy won’t let him play in the unflushed toilet, trying to scoop out someone’s poop.
7:45 am
I call out 15 minutes until school starts. This lets everyone know they need to pack up what they are doing and come to the table.
8 am
School starts. First up is scripture study. We are studying from the New Testament this year which is exciting for me. I can’t wait to revisit all the stories and teach them to the kids again. Auron and Lili pay attention, Ammon plays with play doh but offers the answer “pray and go to church” for any and every question. Carter wants to sit on my knee but he is being a pain so I try to pass him off to daddy, screaming ensues. I give up and keep him and daddy takes over the lesson.
8:30 – 10:30 am
It is during these hours that I try to get two subjects in per child. I have block schedule that I go by but it is actually making me more and more frustrated as the weeks go on. I am now thinking of switching it up to a loop schedule. I think that will suit me better.
Auron is first up with math. It is easy math today that doesn’t take too much teaching on my part. He is off to complete the work I set for him, and will come to me if he gets stuck or needs clarification.
Lili gets out her math. Her lesson is the same as Auron’s just on a lower level. She was listening to me teach Auron so she sits down next to me to complete assigned problems.
Carter is being kept occupied with some blocks under the table and sitting in the washing basket.
Ammon has been begging me to please do his school work now. He takes a lot of time and effort since he is so young. I need to be right next to him working and offering encouragement. After 30 minutes he is done…well he wants to keep going but I am done.
Ammon will now go and play with his play doh, or magnatiles. Magnatiles are amazing. If you don’t have any definitely think about investing in some. They can keep him occupied for hours. Make sure you buy good quality ones like these ones. The cheaper versions can break easily and become dangerous if little ones swallow the magnets. The ones I linked to are screwed together so they are very safe.
Lili and Auron are finished their math work now and I check it to make sure they understood everything. Then I give them a grade. This is a new thing, but they have been asking if I can grade them like at school so I have been playing along.
Language arts is our next subject. Carter keeps trying to climb all over the table and has found a whiteboard marker that he has decided to do some body art with. I just leave him, I mean he is quiet and it will wash off easily, but please no one come to the door and see my neglected child.
Auron is becoming increasingly independent in his school work which I love. I will usually go over the work and the teaching then he is fully capable of completing the tasks associated with it. This cuts down how much time I need to spend with him, and can now allocate to younger children that still need more guidance.
Lili is doing great with her reading and today’s lesson is a basic review from the past lessons. Once we do the review I send her off to daddy to practice her reading.
For language arts I set the timer for 30 minutes each child. Sometimes we will complete one lesson, sometimes three or not even finish a lesson at all. Working to a time block has been much more efficient for my kids. They complain a lot less and really enjoy the work. 30-40 minutes seems to be just right.
10:30 am
It’s now about 10:30 am and we stop for a break. I use this time to check emails, watch some YouTube and mindlessly scroll through social media. Just being honest here.
We try to have a bit of a clean up after Carter and Ammon have been tornados. My lovely husband has done about three loads of laundry. That is his job. He asked me what he could do to be most helpful to me over a year ago. I asked him to take over the laundry. Now I have a laundry fairy.
11 am
Back to the grind. Carter goes down for a nap! Yay! Spelling is practiced, copy work is done and handwriting practice complete. Auron gets annoyed at me because I send him back to do all his handwriting again. It is sloppy and not his best effort. I require best effort for handwriting because they both need to improve drastically in that area so I won’t put up with sloppy work any longer when I know they can do better if they put a little effort in.
12:30 pm
LUNCH TIME! Daddy has already been prepping some lunch fixings for us while we finished off our work. Today we are having one of those grazing platters that are all the rage these days. When in reality I need to get rid of all the little bits and pieces in the fridge and pantry to make room for grocery day. The kids love this kind of lunch though.
Everyone enjoys an hour or so of free play. Ammon is enjoying digging in the dirt outside. I try to tell myself I haven’t finished the back yard landscaping because he loves to play in the dirt and rocks so much but the reality is that we are just too lazy. We have used flimsy plastic sandpits in the past but a friend has offered us their old sandpit that is a beautiful solid wood one like this. I can’t wait for Ammon to have that to dig in. Sandpits are one of those things you should really just pay more than $10 for. Lesson learned.
1:30 pm
Carter wakes up, daddy leaves for work. Carter stands at the door and screams….remember horrific high pitched screams for a good 30 minutes refusing to be picked up or comforted in any way. He is very much a daddy’s boy and hates when daddy has to leave without him.
Today we were going to do history but my mind is fried and Carter has suddenly developed a fever and become exceptionally clingy.
I call it a day and we settle down for me to read some of our read aloud. This is one of our favourite times of the day. I usually do it in the morning as part of our morning basket but I just forgot the whole morning basket thing today. It happens more than I care to admit. I wish I remembered because things just flow better when I get it done.
Reading aloud to kids is so important. You can read about why here. Currently we are reading the Nevermoor series which we are loving so far.
2:30 pm
I try to get in a bit of my own work. I tell the kids I am going to shut the door and not to disturb me unless someone is dying or the house is on fire. Carter and I hang out in my room. He plays with the blocks on my bed while I try to work on the laptop. Then he wants to watch what I am doing, climb all over me, bang on the keyboard and sit right on my lap. Nothing is going to get done.
Little notes start appearing under my door. “can we turn on the tv?”, “Ammon is eating chocolate chips” etc.
3:30 pm
We walk across the road to the playground to burn some energy. Carter just sits on me and cuddles. It’s moments like these that make the hard stuff worth it.
The kids make friends with some other kids. You know unsocialised homeschoolers and all.
4 pm
We head home so I can start dinner. The tv can now be turned back on.
I have to cook dinner one handed because Carter in refusing to be put down and I can’t handle the screaming.
Okay I really need to use two hands so I give Carter and icy pole and that keeps him happy enough for me to finish up making dinner.
5 pm
Dinner.
“I don’t like that”
” What is it?”
“Will there be dessert if I eat it?”
JUST EAT YOUR FOOD!
Seriously some nights you would think I was trying to poison them.
“hmm it’s actually not bad”
“Can I have more please?”
“Mom can you save some for me to have tomorrow?”
I think I may be going crazy, do we really have to do this every night?
5:30 pm
Clean up. Everyone has jobs to do after dinner. These range from clearing the table sweeping the floor, stacking the dishwasher, cleaning bathrooms, toilets and bedrooms. Everyone then picks up the living room.
There are ALWAYS arguments over who isn’t doing their share.
6 pm
Wind down time, kids who want baths or showers have them. I am too tired to give Carter a bath so he gets a wipe down with a washcloth instead. I am sure that counts and being washed. I give him another does of Panadol and put him in his pj’s. His fever has come down but he is pulling on his ears so will get daddy to take him into the doctors in the morning.
6:45 pm
Prayers and story time. Everyone is in bed and I go round saying good night to everyone. I try to have a quick little talk with each of them about what they enjoyed about the day etc.
Auron will read in bed for a while. I am not sure how long he reads for but he is asleep when I check on them at around 9 pm.
7 pm
SILENCE. BREATHE. SIT.
I just sit on the couch for awhile and stare into space and decompress a bit.
Now it is time to do all my work. I write, write, write, write some more. Then reply to emails, plan any sponsored Instagram posts, organize the next days work that needs to be completed and do some menu planning.
11 pm
My own personal scripture study and quiet time to pray and journal. I crave this time and wish that my kids didn’t get up so early so I could do it then! It is one of the best parts of my day.
11:30 pm
Finally I have no more commitments for the day and I can just relax. I will usually watch Netflix or YouTube or read for an hour or so.
12:30 am
Hubby gets home from work! We spend about 30 mins talking about the deep things in life….no usually we just talk about weird things our kids do.
We pray together then finally about 1am it’s bed time. Only 5 hours until we repeat the process!
