Day in the Life:Homeschooling a 9th, 7th, and 5th Grader

Today at Share Your.. we're looking at a typical day in the life.  As homeschoolers we rarely have a typical day.  Some days we're out of the house all day for a field trip.  Other days we have plans to meet up with friends and only work on a short day of schoolwork.  Some days were home all day long and working on school for hours.  It just depends.



On this particular day I woke up at 5 am.

My husband has been getting up early every day for almost 2 months now to work out and while I often wake with him I don't work out until later in the day.   I pulled out my computer and worked on a few things for my blog; updating old posts and linking up my current posts.  I check e-mails and double checked to see what time the school/shop fair was that we planned to attend (if the snow held off!).

6:00  I get out of bed and head downstairs.  The table already has all the boys' schoolwork set out.  I try to do this each night after dinner so we're ready even if I am running behind in the morning.  One pile for each of the boys and one pile of work that we'll cover together.  My husband leaves for work and Evan wakes up and immediately goes to the xbox to play with some of his friends who are also on-line.



6:30 I head upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day.  Since we're most likely heading out this evening I curl my hair and put on makeup.  Then I head back downstairs and eat breakfast-- today it's caramel rice cakes with peanut butter and some red seedless grapes.  I start on the grocery list as we're just about out of fruits and I used the last of the fresh veggies to make a huge salad (that should last another 2 nights).  I'm ready early today and spent extra time looking up science experiments on Pinterest.

8:00 I head back upstairs to make my bed, brush my teeth, and make sure the older two boys know it's almost time to start school.  I also run to the basement and throw a few more logs in the woodstove; with snow and rain and low temps in the forecast for the next 4 days I need to keep it going.  I check the weather app on my phone and try to gauge if our postponed hike from Monday will actually happen today. It looks like the snow will hold off.

8:30  I call the boys to start school and they all prepare and eat breakfast while I read aloud two chapters from our latest book-- The Hypnotists.  Since not everyone is done eating by the time I finished, I also read aloud the next chapter from our science book and we talk about what supplies they need me to buy so they can make a model of the Earth's layers.

9:30 I finish helping Alec with his story of Paris and Ian with his Algebra before turning my attention to helping Evan write his story.  This is always the hardest part of my day; dividing my time between helping all three boys with writing and math.



10:30 Evan and I head up to his room to work on spelling.  He has a giant whiteboard we use to go along with our spelling program.  The older two boys work on reading and using Duolingo to practice French (for Alec) and German (for Ian).

11:15 Everyone is done with their schoolwork and since our hiking group has backed out of hiking with us the boys and I headed out by ourselves to get in a short hike before lunch.  We hike for 30 minutes and I work on getting my 52 Frames shot for the week.  It has been so long since our schoolwork has gone smoothly enough to be finished up by lunch and I am loving it!





12:30  We arrive home and everyone makes their own lunches. I throw a few more logs in the woodstove then heat up leftovers from dinner while the boys eat sandwiches, yogurt, fruit, salad, etc.  I pull out my new book and begin to read the first few chapters.  The boys head off to watch TV during lunch (an occasional winter time treat!).



1:00-3:30 We each make sure to exercise for another 30 minutes in some way.  We also clean just one room in the house each.  I find that if we each clean one room each day we have a completely clean house by week's end.  There's a lot of downtown between cleaning and exercising where the boys work on various things like cleaning out the turtle tank, reading, emptying out the dishwasher, coloring, working on model cards or crafts, etc.

It seemed like every time I walked passed him today Evan was reading his new book

3:30 Our school day is officially over and the boys get their TV's, tablets, and video games back.  They are in the habit of setting a timer when they use the Xbox and take turns playing video games with their friends.  When it's not their turn to play they usually are in their rooms watching tv/movies or playing on their tablets.  I take my laptop to my room to visit fellow bloggers I linked up with in the morning and leave comments. I also watch a bit of TV (right now I'm binge watching Sex in the City).  I made sure my blog posts for the next few days are all set and scheduled to post.  I also re-brush my hair and check my makeup before heading back downstairs.  I throw a few more logs in the woodstove and make sure the house is mostly picked up.

5:00 Typically I'd be having Evan help me make dinner while Alec would be setting  the table at this time but with the shop fair on and the snow holding out Alec, my husband and I get ready to head to the high school and check out what they have to offer.  Alec is really interested in their culinary arts program and I'm anxious to see if he thinks this school would be a good fit for him.  I have mixed feeling about the possibility of him going to a "real" high school.  Either way I know Alec will do well but I'll sure miss our homeschooling days together if that's what he chooses to do.

5:30-7:00 We spent the whole time talking to two of the teachers in the culinary arts program and did a quick walk through the school.  It sounds like a great program.

7:30 We arrived home with take out pizza and finally sat down to a very late dinner.

8:00 The boys cleaned up the kitchen and then scattered to their own rooms.  I put out schoolwork for the next day.  My husband began watching ZNation so I headed upstairs to watch some more Sex in the City.


9:00 I said good night to the boys and everyone headed to bed (the older two can stay up as late as they want as long as they're quiet and respectful of everyone else; they usually choose to watch TV in their rooms).  I watched a few episodes of Blackish before falling asleep. 

Comments

  1. And a good day was had by all . ..
    I'm actually encouraged by this post, because I continually feel sheepish about letting my #4 son sleep as late as he does, but now that I'm only homeschooling one boy, it doesn't take nearly as long so there's no need to haul everyone out of bed at 7:00 just to get moving on 4 levels of school as I used to do.

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    1. I remember my pediatrician asking us a few years ago what we'd do when the kids were teenagers and wanted to sleep in and I replied "let them sleep; do school later in the day?" Seemed like sleep was much more important than trying to school them they they're half asleep.

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  2. This post embodies why I love homeschooling. I am slowly learning that there is no perfect way to homeschool and that I need to stop and enjoy the process more. I am so glad I found your blog. :)

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    1. There really is no one right way. I've even found what works for us changes drastically from some years (or days or weeks) to others. It took me a long time to get to a place where I felt more comfortable going with the flow and while I still have days I stress a bit I'm finally far enough into it that I can see how well our approach has worked. I guess I always feared that while homeschooling seemed to work for so many others it might not work for us... but it does!

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  3. You make it sound easy! I know I'd be awful at homeschooling, but you actually get time to yourself, which is nice! I want to rewatch Sex and the City! Great show.

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    1. There are definitely hard days but for the most part we are finding it pretty easy. Our first few years we had a lot more struggles between the boys not wanting to do any schoolwork and me not trusting in the homeschooling process trying to copy schooling at home. It's pretty ironic that now they really want to do more traditional schoolwork and they were able to pick up right at grade level for most every subject.

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  4. What a wonderful day. I love that you all got outside for a hike.
    Blessings, Dawn

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    1. Oh me too! We still try to get out at least once a week... even if it's a little colder and icier than I'd like.

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  5. What a great post! I loved looking into what a day of your life looks like. I love that you homeschool! I know it takes a lot of patience!

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    1. Thank you! There are days it definitely tries my patience but for the most part everything mostly just flows (now).. I don't know if it's the boys ages or the years and years we've had together but our days do flow pretty easily from one subject to the next right now and I am loving it.

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  6. a wonderful day! Thank you for bringing us along. I always enjoy having a peek into how other families spend a day in the journey of homeschooling.

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  7. I enjoyed reading about your typical, not-so-typical day! I admire your style - seems like you are teaching the boys way more than what's in textbooks!

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    1. Thanks! I definitely try to only use our books as guides and add a lot of life learning into our days.

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  8. I enjoy reading about other people's "day in the life." It looks like you had a wonderful day and Yay for getting school done early. :) I love that you have everything set out the night before so they can get started right away in the mornings, even if you're not ready. Also, hugs to you as your boy looks at highschool. I know it has to be kinda hard. Thanks for sharing with us at #LiveLifeWell.

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    1. I just love those days we get our schoolwork done early. They seem to happen less and less the higher up in grades we go. It's a bit hard looking at high school with my boys but I do want them to know what all their options are so they can make the best choice for themselves. The culinary arts program he is looking at sounds absolutely amazing and I know they'd teach him so many helpful skills for running a kitchen and managing a restaurant.

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  9. I think that it is so awesome to have a glimpse into the lives of others and how they fashion their days! It is nice to see that we all work through our days differently, but the same as well. Thanks for sharing!

    Thanks for linking up @LiveLifeWell!

    Blessings,

    Amy

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    1. Yeah, there is that same but different feeling and I too find it fascinating to read day in the life posts to see how others organize their days.

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  10. That Liane Moriarty book was my first by her, and man was it a trip! I hope you share your thoughts with us when you're finished :)

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    1. I do a monthly re-cap of all my books at the end of each month. I did like this book but it wasn't my favorite Moriarty book. That was Big Little Lies.

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