A Day in the Life
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I’ve been busy this week and haven’t had a chance to jump into the *Not* Back-to-School blog hop, so I thought I’d do so today while I had a few minutes. This week’s theme is: A Day in the Life, another great choice in the “things homeschooling families wonder about other homeschooling families” category.
Earlier today, I was thinking that our routine really hasn’t changed much from last year, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it actually has. While the general routine is still very similar, we’ve added quite a few things and our days have gotten quite a bit longer. That’s not a bad thing, though. It works with our schedule and the kids aren’t complaining, so I take that to be an indicator that the workload is in line with their abilities.
Although we don’t worry too much about actual times, our days do seem to fall basically in line with the following:
8:30 – I get up, shower, and get ready for the day. Brianna, my oldest, is usually up by this time as well. She generally uses this time to begin her independent work, which is most of her work these days — though lately, she’s more likely to be using this time to read the Twilight books. I (because, yes, I am totally hooked, too) get them at night and she gets them during the day. 😉
9:00 – 10:00 – My quiet time. I pray, read my Bible, check my email and blog.
10:00 – 11:00 – I wake the younger two kids and everyone checks the chore chart. While they work on their chores, I do mine — laundry, housework, etc. The kids get their own breakfast when they’re done with their morning routine.
11:00 – 12:00 – We start with Bible study, prayer and Scripture memory. Then, Brianna goes off to work independently while I work with Megan and Josh on language arts. They do Daily Grams, Easy Grammar and Writing with Ease (you can find links to the curriculum we use here).
12:00 – 1:00 – Josh and Megan do their math and Explode the Code independently while I fix lunch.
1:00 – 2:00 – Lunch. The kids watch TV while they eat and I use the time to catch up on email and read the blogs in my reader.
2:00 – 2:30 – Silent reading time. Everyone selects their own reading — anything is fair game — and we all gather in the living room to read. I’m hoping that this will foster a love of reading in each of the kids and it’s a nice way to get back into “school mode” after lunch.
2:30 – 3:30 – Again, Brianna works on her own. I play a reading game with Josh and Megan, then, they each have one-on-one read aloud to me. Whoever is not reading has computer time where they practice their spelling words with SpellQuizzer, their math facts with Quarter Mile, or a variety of math and reading skills on JumpStart.com.
3:30 – Whenever We’re Finished – We all get together again for geography, history, science, and art. We don’t do art every day, but we do typically do geography (which only takes about 5 minutes), history and art.
After we’re finished for the day, we all typically go off and do our own thing for awhile, as we unwind. Supper tends to be a fairly late affair around here, typically around 6:30 or 7:00 and I try to check the kids’ schoolwork in the evenings, after dinner (my least favorite part of homeschooling).
So, what does a typical day look like at your house? Did you link up with the *Not* Back-to-School blog hop this week?
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
If my kids slept in every morning…oh, what a life it would be! 🙂 HA!
{no, I'm not jealous or anything}
🙂
Jolanthe
Thanks for the peek into your day! I just love seeing how each family organizes their days…
That was a fun read. It's interesting to see how others do it. You are obviously all night owls! We are up and moving by 6:30 or earlier, and that's with no alarm clock (especially at this time of year when it's light by 5:00 where we live).
@ Sue — Should I tell you that the thought of being up by 6:30 AM made me gasp out loud? 😉
Kris, I'm glad to see that someone else likes to run on a later schedule. I keep reading all these schedules where everyone is up and running at like 7am, and I keep thinking, oh my word! Haha I am not a morning person. My schedule with probably look something like yours one day.
too busy to blog cause your reading……. yep.
I did this exact same thing this week! I love taking a peek into other people's lives; thank you for sharing about your day and please go and take a look at ours – it has lots of pictures 🙂
https://veronastrauss.com/verona/a-day-in-the-life-of/
I'm an early bird too – up between 5 and 6:30, but I love to have some of that time to myself before the day starts for everyone else!
I love that there is someone else who starts their day later in the morning. The earliest we start school is 10 but typically we start around 11. We finish up around 4 with dinner around 6/6:30. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Great schedule, but did I understand that you wake your younger children at 10am?!?! How in the WORLD do they stay asleep that long? We're lucky if ours stay asleep past 6am. Of course, we also start to bed by 8pm and usually they're all asleep by 8:30 or 9pm at the latest. I'd love to hear what time yours actually fall asleep…that probably makes a big difference. I'm SO not a morning person, so the fact that my hubby and three little ones ARE makes it hard some times…
~2Shaye
P.S. I've not yet joined in on any homeschooling blog hops or carnivals. I would love to get with the program in the next month or two!
I love your relaxed schedule! That's the beauty of homeschooling – doing it when you can. I've been toying with shifting our whole schedule an hour later…hmmmm, later would be lovely!
You wake your kids at 10? Wow! Are you posting a weekly wrap up this week? I've actually got something to contribute.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/kristenph
Our homeschool day can be found at:~
https://homeschooling4christ.blogspot.com/2009/08/our-school-day-with-ace.html
Thanks for sharing your day.
Blessings,
Jillian
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Enjoyed your post. I participated in it too.
For Jolanthe I'd say if you want your kids to sleep later keep them up later at night. Works for us. I'm happy to have kids who read in bed silently for an hour and doze off between 10 and 11 (or midnight for my 12 year old) if it means they wake up after 8am (or 9). And I love that now my 12 year old reads for at least an hour before stepping out of bed. That way I get to sleep until my body wakes me up (usually around 8 or 8:30am).
😉
I am so not a morning person but I hate starting school too late in the day. Usually by 8am we are hitting the books. And I too dislike correcting work except for the fun creative stuff. I love to see what they are going to come up with.