Today I thought I'd talk about a day in the life of our home-school. Of course, our days vary. A week would be a more accurate representation. And then there's the difference between what I aim for, and what actually happens. Since what actually happens is, well, what actually happens, that's what I'll tell you.
So here's an example of a random day.
6:20am - stumble out of bed and do 20 minutes of scripture study (I try to get up at 5:30 and work out. I do this about 50% of the time - in which case I start my Gospel study a little earlier than 6:20am)
6:40am - start breakfast. Realize I don't have time to make what I had planned on making, so do oatmeal instead. :-)
7am - feed family.
7:20am - family scripture study, led by Josh, followed by by family prayers
7:40am - Hannah heads for school, I head for the shower. Give kids quick reminder to do jobs while I'm in the shower.
8:20 - I'm ready (including said my morning prayer and perhaps had time to sneak in a few more minutes of my Gospel study) Organize the troops. Inevitably, someone didn't do their jobs. Ask them what they were doing for 40 minutes. Get the little girls ready for the day, while keeping older kids on task. My older kids have specific jobs to do (breakfast clean-up, laundry, etc) during this time.
9:30am - start morning devotional which includes everyone choosing a primary song they'd like us to sing.
After morning devotional we either do more family work (if there is too much mess for me to stand), or we head upstairs and start school.
Schoolwork involves reading aloud (this is usually a history-based book), a math lesson and math practice, spelling and/or writing. By the time we've cycled through the basics (which includes a break for snack) everyone's ready to stop for awhile. Send the kids outside for "recess". I usually hop on the computer to check email, pay bills, etc. Sometimes I have to pick Hannah up from school then, or run her to Sherwood Oaks (she plays the piano weekly at the convalescent home)
Lunch is at noon, followed by rest-time for the little girls. The older kids each have a job to do after lunch. The next two hours we all read, work on projects, play, etc. If there was something I didn't get a chance to finish from school, we finish then. Around 2:30pm we are usually ready for our afternoon activities. Sometimes a child has a class or activity. Sometimes I find myself babysitting some extra children. No school goes on during these later afternoon hours.
Around 4pm I start fixing dinner. At some point here I make the kids do a quick pick-up of the house clutter. We eat by 5:30 (unless it's soccer season in which case all bets are off). After dinner the three older children have specific evening jobs. I get the little girls ready for bed, read stories to them, and they play with Dad. Post dinner is when Josh helps Hannah with her math (she works independently from about 11am to 3pm on her schoolwork). Little kids are in bed by 7:30pm. Older kids often spend the evening reading, playing together, coloring, hanging out with Dad, etc. until 8 or 8:30.
Josh and I are in bed between 9:30 and 10pm.
So now that we have a basic schedule, I'll follow-up in a future post with what I do with Kenna and Natalie during the school hours (which, by the way, is different than what I did with Hannah and Brynne when they were little). I'll also talk about how I choose curriculum for the older kids (at some point).
I will also add that when they were little, we all pretty much woke up at 7am. Josh got ready for the day, we had cold cereal for breakfast almost every morning, and our days started much later. It wasn't until the last few years that I started cooking breakfast every day. We used to eat at 7:30, so I fell out of bed at 7 to start breakfast. This year I've had to get up earlier in order to accommodate Hannah's earlier departure time. It used to be, if I was running late on breakfast it didn't matter - Josh would sometimes not even leave until 8:30. But Hannah has to be out the door at 7:40. That is a firm deadline to our family time in the mornings so I HAVE to be consistent. Getting up that early was a challenge at first, but honestly I do find that our days go better when I am up and dressed before breakfast. I just don't always have that luxury (I have to wait my turn to shower!!).
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