Our Homeschooling Day

I have really enjoyed doing a Day in the Life posting each year. This is really a perfect point in our school year to do so- we've worked out the kinks by now and eliminated or changed anything that wasn't working, but it also helps me to notice anything else that might need freshened up.


Ender is 7 this year and having a 1st/2nd grade year. Ezra is 5 this year and in Kindergarten. Ellie is 9 months old now and adds an interesting aspect to the day (mostly keeping paper and other goodies out of her mouth!


Each of our days is a bit different. Brian and I are both in client-based work, but my hours are set. His are set too, but it is a really screwy schedule rotating schedule that takes a full month to go through one round of the schedule. This actually allows one of us to be with the kids all the time, aside from a few days per month that our schedules overlap a bit. That's when my mom swoops in to save the day.


6:30/7:00 I am up and prepping for the day. I sometimes don't get this time on my own if the sleep is more important, but my day goes noticeably better when I do.


Ellie wakes between 7:00-7:30 and she has a bottle and breakfast. If she's up early we hang out in her room until the boys join us.


7:30 The boys get up. They have a "morning routine" that they are in charge of completing, including breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dressed and making their beds. I make breakfast for them about half of the week, and they do frozen waffles, pancakes or cereal the rest of the time. I try to make a big batch of waffles and pancakes ahead of time to freeze for the mornings I need them to be more independent. My morning routine involves starting a load of laundry, making sure the kitchen is clean after breakfast and cuddling the baby.

8:30-9:00 We aim to "start school" around this time. We don't have all day to school, so for now in this season we must start "on time" if we are going to get our state required hours in.


During this time the Ender works on anything he can do independently or with minimal supervision. I'm right there to answer questions or to listen to some reading, but mostly Ezra and I work together on phonics, reading and math.

Around 9:30 Ellie goes down for her morning nap and the boys and I get to work on the things we do together- history, science and memory work.


By 10:30ish Ezra is done for the morning and he gets to go play. Ender and I stay at the table just a little longer to work on Language Arts- we review spelling, writing rules (we're learning about punctuation and capitalization right now), practice copywork, etc. I also look over his work from the morning if I haven't already checked it and we talk about any corrections that need to be made.


By this time it's usually about 11:00 and Ender heads off to play too. Ellie is usually up by now and so is Brian. He takes over with the kids so that I can run on the treadmill, take a shower without interruption and get ready for work. Brian takes care of lunch time and supervising chores the boys are responsible for.


Early afternoon sees me at work for the rest of the day. I will be back out of the studio in time to help with bedtime.


In the afternoon the boys follow up on anything they need to finish. Ezra reads out loud to Brian, and both boys practice their memory work again. They usually do a short math drill on xtramath.org and Ezra usually plays a bit on starfall.com. Brian takes care of the kitchen and laundry on my long teaching days, which is such a blessing. Otherwise afternoons are pretty free for them to do whatever they'd like. A few evenings a week Brian manages the runs to soccer or baseball practice and church. I usually finish in the studio just as they are getting home.


At this point Brian heads to work if he is on-shift and I manage bed time with the kids then spend most evenings with Netflix and knitting if I do not need to follow up on any work issues.


If Brian is off-shift we tackle kid bed time together. Usually we both have a little bit of work to follow up on but then the evening is ours.

You can see our past years here:

2012

2011

I know our day isn't the norm for homeschooling families, but we make it work. 

How do you spend your homeschooling day?