Our Daily (Homeschooling) Routine

I have mentioned on the blog a few times that we are homeschooling (whether that means for one more year or many more years, we are still unsure). We plan to take it one year (and child) at a time and do what we think is working best for the family. I mentioned Logan's first day of school back in September, but haven't updated on here much since then.

I had a friend (who has no children) ask me a while ago, "what do you actually do in a day?" I don't think she was trying to be rude or blunt, I think she was just genuinely curious what it looks like to be a stay at home mom. So I thought I would post an update here with what a "typical" homeschool day looks like for us in case anyone is interested, and also so that I will have something to look back at in the years to come.

We generally do school about 3-4 days a week at this point. We always take Mondays off because I babysit my niece and nephew. Sometimes if a week is really busy, or we have a lot to get done I will take one more day throughout the week off as well.

Here is an idea of what our days look like at home before Dan comes home for dinner. I would call this more of a routine than a schedule because every day is so different. We keep things very flexible and if plans change I don't stress about it.

7-8 Wake up and have coffee/ milk for the boys. Play and read books.
8-9 Clean up the kitchen, and make breakfast. The boys usually "help" with this
9-9:30 Eat breakfast together and get ready for the day.
9:30-12:30 We usually head out if we are going out for the day at this point. We do swimming, library reading group, errands, play dates, and any other visits with family and friends around this time in the morning. On the rare occasion that we stay home, I usually try to get some cleaning and organizing done. Sometimes Logan will watch a show or play an educational game. Eliott usually follow me around and destroys whatever I have cleaned up. :)
12:30-1:00 Eat Lunch
1:00-3:00/ 3:30 Eliott naps and Logan and I do school.
3:30-4:30 We go outside most days, but when I am exhausted or the weather is exceptionally bad we will watch a movie together (lately we have been watching little house on the prarie) before I make dinner.

At the beginning of the year, we did school in the morning because that was when Eliott took his longest nap. Now he is napping for a good couple hours in the afternoon so we focus on getting school done then instead.

1)We usually start with our pledge, prayer, and a "sign" of the day from our sign language book.
2)We do a bible lesson next. Some days this just means working from his cubbies book for the awana club that he does Friday nights. Other times we use this storybook Bible. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for one for a special kiddo in your life.
3) English/ Reading. I usually choose two of the following to work on each day so that they are spread out throughout our week. I use the Abeka letters and sounds k-5 workbook, level one stories that he reads out loud to me, vowel blending flashcards, and having him sound out small words and write them out for spelling practice, sometimes I have him write out a funny sentence or work on thank you notes for penmanship practice.
4) Extracurricular activityThe day that I recorded last week was an art day (we like the abeka k5 art book but there are a million other good options for art projects). However, on other days throughout the week we do cooking, gym, or a science experiment in this period of time.
5) History We were doing a study on George Washington with books from the library.
6) Math We use the Abeka k5 Numbers skills book. Like our English, we mix up our math activities and do about two per day. Our math activities tend to be his workbook, working with clocks/ time, recognizing patters, addition and subtraction activities, and our 1-100 number recognition sheet. Some days we will play "store" and work on giving the correct change for each transaction.
7) Science/ Social Studies On the day that I recorded we were doing a study on different types of bridges and how they are built. I let Logan choose what type of bridge he wanted to try to build and he decided on a suspension bridge. We built it out of a cardboard box and craft supplies.
8) Fun Reading Most days we read a library book or two until Eliott wakes up. Sometimes we are a little behind, and we end up having a crazy little one year old running around as we try to finish things up.

I am always interested to hear how homeschooling moms juggle multiple children's school schedules at once (especially when there is a baby/toddler involved). I am hoping Eliott continues to take nice long afternoon naps throughout the school year next year too.

Here is a little video of some of the activities we did on one of our school days last week.