I used to tell people that having a typical day in our house was atypical. However, I’ve come to discover that my kids are very much like me in that they don’t like change. We thrive on routine. Therein lies the key word, routine. We’re not strict schedule kind of people by any stretch of the imagination, but we do like a good routine. Especially my kids. If you do something once, you might as well plan on doing it forever. If you don’t, you’re likely to hear, “Why aren’t we doing X today? We always do X.” You know, because we did X one other time in the past.
We’re also homebodies…or, at least, I am. So, I try to schedule only one, at most two, days out of the house during the school day. I’ve found that, if we don’t get schoolwork done before we leave the house, we probably aren’t going to get it done that day. So, we try to stick close to home, most days, and I try to get all the basics done first thing.
Wednesdays are our “outside” days, in which we have music and co-op. Most other days are spent at home and run by this general routine:
I’m up and ready by 8:30 or so each day, having some time for prayer and Bible study, as well as a little computer time before I wake the kids around 10:00. We spend 30 minutes to an hour (usually closer to an hour) with the kids doing whatever is on their chore chart for the day and me doing whatever housework I need to do.
We generally start school by 11:00 and, if the kids haven’t already eaten breakfast, they’ll eat while I read the Bible lesson. Our Bible time consists of either a lesson from Bible Study Guide for All Ages or a devotional reading from Keys for Kids, studying the current Scripture from our Scripture memory box, and prayer. After this, Brianna (13) goes off to do most of the rest of her schoolwork independently: spelling, writing, grammar, Bible study, handwriting and math.
Then, I start working with Josh (8), Megan (7) and my niece (4). We work on reading with Scaredy Cat Reading System for the older two and various preschool goodies from the Internet with my niece. We also do grammar with Easy Grammar every day and First Language Lessons, Level 3 two days a week.
Once the kids are finished with reading and grammar, they work on math and handwriting independently while I fix lunch. I usually start fixing lunch around 12:30 and we eat around 1:00. We usually take about an hour to and hour and a half for lunch, with the kids watching a little TV and playing while I check my email and have a little down time.
After lunch, we all get together again for history and science, as well as any supplemental or hands-on activities that we may have in store for the day. Josh and Megan’s final activity for the day is music homework from the music class that we attend on Wednesdays. We’re usually finished with our formal, mom-directed learning by 4:00 or 4:30 and the kids have the evening to finish up whatever may be left.
So, there you have it…a typical day in the home of your friendly, neighborhood weird, unsocialized homeschoolers.
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On a typical day, Kris can be found blogging — A LOT — at her blog, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Thanks for that informative post.
Its been really helpful for me to see the routine other Homeschoolers have as we are struggling with ours at the moment. We really seem to be struggling to get going again once we stop. We are taking the rest of the week off formal learning whilst I figure out a routine that will work for us.
Have a great week.
Emma
Sounds like you found what works great for your family! I always love seeing what others are doing too. It’s amazing how we are different in some areas and the same in others!