What's your typical homeschool day like?

[courtenay_e]

We're going to start to get serious about homeschooling soon. Dd is four and a quarter, and is reading three letter words just spending maybe fifteen minutes every few days with her right now. She is starting to ask for more time. I plan to do the library, a music co-op (in the fall), the zoo, we garden, we cook, we play outdoors every day that we can. But. What is a common day for you? How do you structure your life and homeschooling. I know that unschooling may be a little different. I hope to follow her lead on topics that interest her, but would also like some time, some time during the day, when specifically have it written in to work on "stuff" like reading and numbers.

So, do you get up, shower, eat, work on school, do housework? Or get up shower, do housework, eat, homeschool? When do you do your running, shopping, getting out to "field trips"?

I need some type of structure, or we'll never really get into the swing of it, and I'm curious about how those of you who have some structure to the way you do it DO it!

[Brisen]

Even though I'm far from organized, I'll give this a go. I have unschoolish leanings.

(What I'm about to write hasn't been happening lately, but there was a time when it was the norm... trying to get back to that now.)

I wake up early (I like to be up between 5 and 6) and shower, dress, get a snack. I do my personal, "cup filling" reading (scriptures, for me) and some writing with that, or journaling. Then I might do some stretching. (Sometimes I remember to do that before I shower). Then some housework -- often just catching up from the night before so we're ready for the day; sometimes cleaning out the tub; sometimes washing floors; sometimes decluttering and reorganizing a drawer or closet... depends on what needs to be done and how much time I have. Then I start waking the kids and making breakfast... the kids aren't usually hungry right away, so we do the whole getting dressed and other morning work first. Then it's clean up (we do much better with a big, usually hot breakfast... bacon and eggs, sausages and eggs, fried egg sandwiches, omlette, pancakes, French toast, oatmeal, something like that, so cleaning up sometimes takes some time) and we start school time. I aim for 9am.

We start off with singing, reading from our scriptures, and then I usually I read from a history book (a living history book, a la Charlotte Mason), each kid chooses a poem to read (if they want) and a story (which they always want). Then each kid gets some "mom time" -- time for a usually one-on-one activity that they choose. It sounds kind of corny, I suppose, but I do have three kids and I'm easily distracted. I find this is a good way to keep ME responding to their needs. I take out a couple of boxes from their toy shelves that hold more "school"ish stuff -- workbooks, mazes, dot to dots, puzzles, games, manipulatives, etc. But they can play with any of their toys and craft stuff. My only rule for school time is no tv/computer. If anyone is bored, I'll suggest an activity for them to do on their own or with me. If a kid has wanted to do something bigger or more involved, I might plan it for now -- dk#1 recently said he wanted to try making ginger ale, so I would probably plan to start that during our school time one morning, for example. If the kids just go off and play on their own, I'll work on my school stuff -- my history timeline, Hebrew, etc. I have my own piano practise time just before I start making lunch. We clean everything up before we eat lunch. That's the end of our official "school time."

I try to keep errands/field trips/playdates to the afternoon, but since I don't like to drive much past three, if we do something that will take longer we will leave before lunch. I just try to make sure we have our reading time in the morning. Oh, in the summer I'll also take us out for nature hikes or playground time before lunch, so we can avoid being outside at the hottest, smoggiest part of the day.

If we don't go out anywhere, after lunch time clean up we have quiet minutes -- everyone sits quietly for 15-20 mins, reading, looking at a book, playing gently and quietly with a toy, or (if you're the toddler) often nursing to sleep. Then we often read aloud again; if we do it's usually whatever chapter book we're working on. Or the kids will just play. I'll get stuff done; making phone calls or baking or catching up on housework... I try to give myself more time for studying here, but housework often interferes. When dh was coming home from work later I studied more, but we have dinner much earlier now. The kids like watching The Magic School Bus; it comes on at 4:00. If the day is going well, I'll sit and read or study while they watch, and once it's over, we'll work together to do a clean up before dh gets home. Then I start dinner. (This part of our day isn't going too smoothly, and I haven't worked it out yet. Too often, I just let the tv stay on while I clean up and make dinner. I would like to spend some time outside either before or after dinner, but things get a bit hectic.) Dh comes home at some point, usually between 5 and 6. We usually go outside for a walk or stay in and read after the dinner clean up. Then bedtime stuff.

So, while I do schedule time for school, I don't really schedule what we do in it, other than reading first, and a general guide to what we read (though it gets chucked out the window regularly; today, dk#2 chose a book, then dk#1 chose Harry Potter, which we read for the rest of the morning).

[Aura_Kitten]

WELL.... we're still developing a routine and curriculum that works for all of us but lately this has been working pretty well:

- get up; breakfast
- eat, talk, discuss the day's plans
- after breakfast: he works on whatever worksheets or paperwork he needs to do (manuscript practice, etc)
- play time, relax, wash the breakfast dishes
- outside play time for awhile...
- come inside, chuck the kids in a bath, cook lunch...
- eat, talk, reconnect
- free art or music time
- before dinner sometimes a movie or a video game
- dinner
- bedtime routine (PJ's, brush teeth, story time)

lessons and cleaning happen throughout the day, whenever i can steal a few minutes and whenever they're willing to help or pay attention.

i'd like to start including a morning prayer / meditation... because in the mornings i like to do yoga and ground myself but i haven't been getting up that early. and my son gets up early... it would be nice to be able to share that with him.

[hsingmamato3]

We get up about 7:00, have breakfast & get dressed. At 7:30 we do chores (about half an hour) then we sit down to schoolwork, math first usually at 8:00. At 10:00 they take a 15 minute break and bath to schoolwork until 12:00. At 12:00 we have lunch & clean it up. We go back to schoolwork at 1:00 and finish up at about 2:30. At 2:30 we correct the day's work, catch up on what we didn't get finished during the day and read together if we still have time. At 3:30 or 4:00 we do more chores and about half an hour later the girls are free to play outside or do whatever they want.

If only we could stay on task all day every day!

This year we only did half days on Wednesday because the girls had swimming lessons. We also lost every other Tuesday & Wednesday because the girls would go visit their bio-father.

We also only do half days on Fridays, saving Friday afternoon for longer "catch up" time or for field trips, library, visitng friends, baking etc.

[courtenay_e]

Thanks to the mamas who have responded so far! It's helping to give a picture of what can be done...

anybody else!?

[beanandpumpkin]

Here's what I strive for... this happens a couple of times per week, maybe. The rest of the time I just wing it. Life is much easier, though, when I stick to the plan.

7:00ish: we all get up

from 7-8 or 8:30 I do my personal reading, unload the dishwasher, make the bed, eat breakfast, drink coffee, tell the kids to get dressed and make their beds, feed them breakfast, check my online stuff (lots less than normal recently), start a load of laundry, say goodbye to DH (not necessarily in that order!).

8 or 8:30: "school." We do a devotion, and then something that I have planned. At 5 and 3 years old, it's nothing terribly complicated most days. A game, reading a book, and a math worksheet is more than enough, imo. We're usually done by 9:00ish.

Then I get in the shower, get dressed, pack up a lunch (if we have a playdate or park day, which is most days), do a quick pickup of the house, switch the laundry. Most days we leave the house by 10:30ish. During this time, sometimes the kids play, sometimes they watch TV, Justin sometimes plays a computer game.

Most days we're home from our playdate/activity by 2:00 or so, and the afternoon is spent playing, doing some more cleaning (this is when I'll clean the bathroom or sweep/wash the floors, vacuum, put the laundry away, etc), painting, making playdoh, or other messyish things. Now that it's hot out, we won't go outside until 5:00 or later, but during the cooler months (we live in FL) we'll spend a good chunk of time outside.

A few days per week, my niece (10 months) comes over at around 4:00 to be babysat while my SIL works. Those days I try extra hard to get all cleaning done before she comes! The days we don't have her, though, sometimes I'm vacuuming at 5 or 6:00.

While I'm making dinner, sometimes the kids will take a bath, other times they'll play, and take a bath after dinner. DH will come home between 6 and 7 most of the time, so some Daddy time gets squeezed in there too.

The kids go to bed around 8:30, and I try to go to bed around 11:00, though sometimes I'm up later.

So that's what happens about three days per week. Other days, though, I spend too much time on the computer or reading in the morning (blush), and things get put off. Those are the days that I end up popping in a video and begging the kids to please just be quiet while I scramble to get housework done in the afternoon. Or if I don't run the dishwasher before I go to bed, then it's extra work in the morning, and that tends to throw the whole day off. I'm one who would like to live by my whims, but realistically, I know my day goes much better when I stick to a routine. The kids seem to do better with a rhythm as well.

You can read about more of our days at my homeschooling blog, if you want to. I think it's something every family needs to iron out themselves...not a one size fits all. Just like you did when your first child was a newborn, you need to adjust to the rhythm of your life and plan accordingly. Of course with kids, you never know what's going to happen, so you have to plan (or not!) for that too.

[catgirl]

I'm hoping you'll get a wide range of replies, because there are people here ranign from school-at-home to radical unschoolers! The thing is, YOU can do it however works for your family!

Here's what works for us - and it doesn't always happen like this, but it's what we aspire to:

7 ish - I get up, exercise, start getting breakfast, read the paper if no-one else is around

Ds (7) gets up at some point and usually plays with Dad (who works at home at the moment) till I call him for breakfast.

8.30 We do language arts activities of various kinds. That could mean handwriting, playing Rummy roots (a card game for Greek and Latin roots, which he loves), reading a poem, discussing its form and writing our own, him dictating a story - you get the idea.

After 30 - 60 minutes, depending how involved we get, we take a brief break while I put in a load of laundry, make a couple of business calls, feed the fish or whatever. Then we do math (we mostly use Shiller but we also have a wonderful program called Wildridge Math and Music which we sometimes do instead, or as well), and again it depends on how far we want to go. This usually takes 30-45 minutes. I try and remember to do a couple of minutes of Hebrew reading at the end (he's at the sounding-out stage) but it doesn't always happen.

At around 10.15 or 10.30 we all go out if the weather's nice. Either ds rides his bike and I run, while my Mom (who lives with us now and helps me a lot with stuff like dishes and laundry folding) walks, or if dh is available he plays soccer/T-ball type stuff with ds while my Mom and I walk. If it's raining, I try and get ds to dance in the living room to a CD (sometimes stuff like multiplication rock, sometimes whatever..)

When we come back he usually wants a snack, and then at about 11.30 we do piano practice, for about an hour - he's very serious about piano and often stays at the piano after we're done. This is a larger chunk than a kid this age would usually do, and I sometimes feel we'd do more science/history/other stuff if we didn't do piano - but it's really his "thing" and being able to do this is one of the benefits of homeschooling!

12.30-1.00 ish I shower, then get lunch, or vice versa. Afterwards we might play a game, or do violin for a bit (something he wants to do, but it often gets left out), or do a science experiment, or go play with the neighbor kids, or he might read or send emails to family while I rest.

Usually in the aftenoon he has a physical activity like ballet or town sports (this is a kid who needs enormous physical outlets!), or a playdate. On Wednesday afternoons I teach violin (and all day Sunday too - he goes to Hebrew school on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and then does stuff with dh).

On Fridays we do history (with SOTW) and then study the week's Torah portion in a children's version, instead of language arts and math. That works better for us than doing it in the afternoon - he really enjoys the history when he's fresh. He likes to go to Torah study at our synagogue with me on Saturday mornings so this makes him feel like he's doing what the adults are doing!

So that's us - we work fairly fast and intensively on the heavy stuff but get it done quickly and have a lot of flexibility within a general plan - a plan which maybe abandoned for a number of reasons (including "it's a fabulous day, let's go to the beach"!). This works in this family with this particular child, who likes structure because paradoxically it gives him a sense of control. It works for me too, actually, because I feel reassured that I'm covering certain things that I think are important.

[UnschoolnMa]

We are in the radical unschooling camp I do believe.

My Dd (12.5) usually is up for a couple hours before me. When I wake she is often on the internet, and has already made coffee and had breakfast. She usually gives me the computer and heads off to take a shower around 10 or 11 am. (Which is just after I get up lol) Ds sleeps until noon usually. We do house work intermittently, take turns using the computer, go to the library, run errands mostly on Tuesdays, head to the park if Dh has time, etc.

The evenings we make dinner, watch TV, read, and Ds likes his video games. Sometimes the kids will play the drums or guitar in the garage.

[courtenay_e]

Catgirl, are you following the Classical Method? I'm interested in this...my grandfather spoke greek, latin, hebrew, irish, french, german, spanish, and english. He could basically figure out any language a little (enough to get by), and knew our language SO well because he spoke the languages of its roots. I'm very interested in not only teaching them in the manner of the CM, but teaching them the languages as well...I speak french fluently, but not greek, latin, or hebrew! How do you teach greek and latin? Do you speak them, or do you use Rosetta Stone, or another way of teaching it? At what point did you start teaching the ancient languages? I speak and sing to them in french occaisionally, but not really enough for them to learn it by ear...I know I should start. I was considering perhaps speaking to them in french for the first half of every day, and english the second (their daddy doesn't speak french, so would be lost!).

THanks for the responses, most of you kind of look like I was thinking we would frame our days...I'll take more, though, any input is appreciated!

[Dar]

Our days are all different, depending on my work schedule, Rain's work schedule, and Rain's activities. We do have Fridays off for the summer. Monday through Thursday I'll be working 8-12 and getting home probably shortly after Rain wakes up... then she'll either have a dance class or work Monday through Wednesday... Thursdays she'll probably go with me to my job at KU for the afternoon, and hang out there, and then she'll have voice lessons that evening. Most of our evenings are free, though. We do housework, um... well, not often enough.

dar

[momto l&a]

IMO your dd is too young but some kids do seem to thrive on a routine.

For us we do school work when we have a block of time for it and dd wants to do it.

My oldest is so excited to be doing schoolwork that she wants to do the book work all day long.

[courtenay_e]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

IMO your dd is too young but some kids do seem to thrive on a routine.

For us we do school work when we have a block of time for it and dd wants to do it.

My oldest is so excited to be doing schoolwork that she wants to do the book work all day long.

Yes, she thrives on routine, and is begging me to learn. She, as I mentioned, has already figured out how to read (she's still on the small stuff, two, three and now four and five letter words), so I figure I'll give her what she needs to keep her interested and excited.

For what it's worth, both my husband and I (as well as both of my siblings) figured out how to read by the time we were three...mostly on our own, from being read to so much. My siblings and I were all in advanced classes or we were bored to tears...so I'm not surprised that she's ready to get going at four and a quarter. I guess it's a family trait.

I wouldn't push if she weren't ready, but I also won't hold her back because I don't think she's ready, if she's telling me she is!