If there is anything that homeschooling has taught me it’s that we don’t have a typical day.
The flexibility of homeschooling happens whether you embrace it or not because homeschooling is your lifestyle—-which is to say that it’s a part of your everyday life and that means interruptions from sick children, a husband, household emergencies, chores, neighbors/friends etc.
Don’t get me wrong. I like a color-coded schedule. I like a plan. But this year I’m going to embrace the fact that I don’t always get to make the plans and that my perfectly color-coded schedule may need to serve more as a guide or a goal as opposed to a rigid timetable of what needs to be accomplished when. Otherwise I might also be missing out on the opportunity to enjoy my child’s education alongside them.
Our school day usually begins between 8:30-9AM and from there I go about tackling our studies from my list of subjects I want to cover each day. Four days a week I also drive children to various activities which tends to break up my day. I give myself one day a week that I don’t have to be anywhere at a certain time—-that is Friday. In an ideal world I would have both Mondays and Fridays open as Mondays are my preferred days for field trips. Unfortunately that didn’t work out so well with 5 kids that I try to have one on one time with each week.
We eat lunch at 11:30am.
The children have quiet time from 1-2:30P and during that time the boys generally have assigned reading. Sometimes I read with my 6 year old daughter in her room but mostly I take the time to prep for the afternoon or have a little quiet time myself.
After quiet time I continue teaching or we swim (PE) or do a craft together (art).
We have dinner at 5:30P so I try to finish up our school day by dinner time. Now that we are studying Classical music I’ve taken to playing some classical music during dinner and we discuss the pieces. But when Daddy is home we try to avoid this and just enjoy having dinner with him.
Since my children have never been to traditional school it’s not uncommon for us to fit in some school on a Saturday too! I try to do longer projects on Saturday or tackle those subjects we weren’t able to get to during the week.
Our school day averages are:
2 1/2 – 3 hours for Third Grade/8 years old
1 1/2-2 hours hours for 1st grade
1 hour for preschool
What do your homeschool days look like? Share in HOTM’s Not-Back-To-School Hop.
Nice to hear that other moms don't have typical days!
I've tried going with the flow more … but tend to get so distracted and let too much slide. I use a color-coded schedule to thereby keep myself accountable. I've only been using it a few weeks and so far, it has helped. 🙂
If there is anything I've learned though about homeschool families is that our days are anything but typical! 😀
Sounds like a great day! We used to have a fixed schedule, but it just doesn't work for us. We prefer a flexible routine that allows for all those unexpected things!
I love Fridays, too! Our ONE day that no one has an activity and we don't have to go anywhere!
Have a wonderful year of learning together!