A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool

I'm linking up to Simple Homeschool today to share a day in the life of our homeschool.  For those who are new here, welcome!  My husband Jesse is a pastor, and he sometimes works from home, sometimes spends time at church, and sometimes is out doing other things.  If he is home, he usually works in the living room (or up in our bedroom if the kids are too noisy). We have four kids: Jonah is 6, Matthew is 4, Hannah is 2, and Elizabeth is 1.

5:30-6:30:  The kids wake up.  If we're lucky, it's closer to the later time.  Usually it's early.  Jesse gets up with all of them.  Sometimes I get up.  Sometimes I sleep.  Sometimes I end up cuddling with a kid or two in bed for a bit.

6:30: Make breakfast.  About half the time it's muffins or something I've made ahead of time, and the other half of the time it's eggs.  We eat at 7:00, or whenever I'm finished cooking.

7:30-8:30: Breakfast clean-up.  I work on tidying up the kitchen, and everyone gets dressed.  Usually the tv has some PBS Kids shows on while we work on this.  Sometimes the boys will do a chore for me - sweeping or taking out the garbage.

8:30-10:00: After I'm ready for the day, we start school.  We used to have this golden time of Elizabeth's morning nap, and then she shifted to one nap a day, after lunch.  So now I alternate between teaching the boys and chasing the girls.  We do our morning time (calendar, Bible story, memory work, and hymn verse), Math, and Reading.  Once we finish those, everyone picks a book or two for reading aloud.  (You can read more about our homeschool curriculum here)

10:00: Morning snack.  After snack, the kids are free to play with whatever they want, and I'll do a bit of work on the computer, or in the kitchen, depending on what I have going on that day.

11:00: Lunch time.  We eat early, because the girls are about ready to go to bed.

11:30-1:00: Rest time.  The girls still nap, and the boys go up to their room for at least an hour.  They take turns picking the time.  I spend this (mostly) quiet time reading, working on the computer, or watching a tv show that I'm behind on.

1:00ish: Whenever rest time is done, the boys come downstairs and we do a bit of afternoon school.  This is where History and Science alternate, and we have one free day for errands and extras.   Since the boys are 6 and 4, we don't spend a ton of time on these yet.  It's more of an introduction to the big concepts of studying History and doing science experiments.  These are not my strong area, but I'm enjoying learning along with the boys.

After we finish school, it's more free play time.  In the summer, the boys will spend a good chunk of the afternoon outside, but since it's frigid outside right now, they usually settle in for an episode of Ninjago on dvd, or build with Legos.  Occasionally I'll let them play kitchen (letter K here), which they think is AWESOME.

3:00: Snack time, and by now the girls have been awake for awhile.  I'll usually have at least one helper in the kitchen as I do any baking or dinner prep, or maybe we'll run errands if we need to.

5:00: Dinner, and then the boys help with dishes on alternating days.  I no longer have to wash any of the cups, bowls, plates, or silverware, and I'm excited for the day when I completely work myself out of this job!

6:00: Clean up the rest of the toys, put on pajamas, brush teeth, settle down.

6:30: Family prayer time, a few snuggles, and the kids go to bed.  Yes, it's early.  Yes, we've tried shifting their schedule so they stay up later and sleep in later.  It didn't work.  So this is where we are.  They're starting to sleep better at night (finally!), so I actually don't mind the early bedtime at all.

After the kids go to bed, I do yoga and shower.  Jesse and I read our devotion and hang out together, until about 9:30, when we head to bed too.