How long does it take you to home school all your kids?
What does a typical day look like as a homeschool mom?
These are just a few of the different questions people sometimes ask me when they find out I homeschool. It’s for this reason I wanted to share what a typical homeschool day looks like for our family.
I want to start off by letting you know that almost every year I have been homeschooling our schedule changes. It never looks exactly the same year after year.
When I first started, I had a Kindergartner and a preschooler and we were done before lunch! This year we aren’t done with school until about 3 or 3:30 but it’s because I now have a 6th grader, a 5th grader, and a Kindergartner.
In total, it takes us about 4-5 hours on average to “do” school. If you look at the schedules down below you will notice that we aren’t doing school continuously from 7 to 3:30. There are a lot of breaks in between and that is the way it works for us at the moment. This is one of the beauties of schooling at home…. you can cater your school schedule to fit your family’s needs and lifestyle.
My Daily Schedule
My Daily Schedule
6th Graders Daily Schedule
5:00 to 6:00 am
Wake up, make the bed, workout for 30 minutes, shower and get dressed.
6:00 – 7:00 am
Take the dog outside and feed him, take my vitamins, make my coffee, sit down at my desk to read my Bible, journal and pray. The kids wake up during this time.
7:00 – 8:00 am
My two oldest kids begin their math lesson at 7am. They sit at their desk, log in to their computers and begin their math lesson. (We use Teaching Textbooks) I am usually starting laundry and helping my youngest to get dressed and do some simple chores. I am sometimes with the kids at their desk if they need help with their math work.
8:00 – 9:30 am
Breakfast Time. Either I make breakfast or my oldest daughter will make it. After we all eat we clear the table and begin our Bible lesson, our monthly read aloud and go over scripture memorization. My youngest will usually stay with us at the table and play with playdoh or color. We finish off by praying altogether. (Love this part of the day!)
9:30 – 10:00 am
Kids begin morning chores. They are responsible for watering the plants, making their beds, brushing their teeth and cleaning the kitchen. I am usually working on household chores at this time.
10:00 -11:30 am
I start school with my Kindergartner. We work through each of her workboxes together. We go over the calendar, read books, do puzzles, go over our letter and number of the day and sometimes we do art projects. My two oldest will sit at their desks (or sometimes take their work to their bedrooms) to work on independent work. Subjects that require little or no help from me. Those subjects are copywork, Fix-It Grammar, spelling, cursive, typing, and piano practice.
11:30 – 1:00 pm
Lunchtime. After lunch, everyone helps clean up then they have free time. During this time they either play in their rooms, read, play outside (when the weather is nice) or watch tv. (tv is limited) While they play I usually take time to grade their work and make sure they completed everything correctly.
1:00 – 3:30
We all gather at the kitchen table and do History and Science together. We take turns reading from our books and the kids work on notebooking pages . Sometimes we do projects or experiments. This is the time when we also work on art, music lessons and do Poetry TeaTime. Sometimes we take up the entire 2 and 1/2 hours and sometimes we finish early.
3:30 – 4:00
Free time for kids. I use this time to go to my room and recharge in the beautiful kid-free quiet of my peaceful bedroom. I usually read, browse online or take a power nap.
4:00 – 5:00
Kids start evening chores. They take out trashes, clean up their desks, fold laundry, pick up the schoolroom, their bathroom, and bedrooms. They also get their swimming gear ready for practice. I am also cleaning up and prepping for dinner.
5:00 -5:45 pm
Eat dinner, clean up and leave for swim practice.
7:45 – 8:45 pm
Return from practice. Kids get ready for bed. Brush teeth, get water, get their pajamas on and climb into bed. On most days this time before bed is Daddy time. My husband goes into each of the kids’ bedrooms and reads from the Bible. This is their time to connect with their Dad and talk about their day with him. There have been many nights when he is in one of the kids’ bedrooms for up to 40 minutes having some much -needed discussions. I LOVE that my husband does this and my kids truly treasure this time as well.
9:00 pm
The house is quiet! The kids are in bed and I am doing a happy dance all the way to the kitchen to get my tea or coffee and sit down at my desk and read and journal and work on this blog. I also make sure all school work is prepped and ready for the next day!
The Day is Done!
The detailed schedules I shared with you all is what Monday, Tuesday and Thursday look like for us. Wednesdays are a bit different because all three of my kids have piano lessons and we don’t have swim practice. Fridays we keep open in case we need to catch up on any work from the week and for field trips or going to the library .
Now that I have shared what a typical day looks like in our home and you’ve seen our nice-looking, printed up schedules, I really need to mention something so important! While I wish with all my heart that every day went smoothly and perfectly according to schedule, it simply does not.:)
Many times our days don’t go according to schedule. Sometimes my husband will call and I have to run an errand for him across town. Sometimes the kids get sick or I get sick. Some days all my kids get along wonderfully and we get all of our school work done and other days they are fighting and bickering all day and we maybe manage to get half our work done.
Despite knowing this I still think it’s important to create a schedule or some sort of routine that you and your family can follow.
I have included some links to other blogs that also discuss daily homeschool schedules.
I hope this gives you an idea of what it’s like to homeschool. Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you ever have any questions for me please don’t hesitate to email me at ourplaceofpurpose@gmail.com.
- https://pambarnhill.com/best-tips-creating-homeschool-daily-schedule/
- http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2018/01/updated-homeschool-mom-daily-schedule.html
- https://www.joyinthehome.com/how-i-schedule-our-homeschool-day/
- https://www.oursmallhours.com/our-daily-homeschool-schedule/
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