A Day in the Life of a Family of Homeschoolers

I haven’t done ‘a day in the life of ...’ post for over a year, so I feel it is over due!  This is one day in March, a typical school day from start to finish.

Early Morning

Bedroom chores, dressing and eating breakfast, followed by regular daily chores.  I only check bedrooms once a week as I kind of feel they are their own domains.  We do a deep clean each Friday and they are checked then.  For our daily chores the littles now pair up with an older child.  A6 buddies with C12 in the kitchen:

whilst B4 buddies with L12 in the bathroom:

T13 chores alone as he has lots of itty bitty chores and is better off doing them by himself:

9am: Maths and Phonics

T13, L12 and C12 do their Conquer Maths which still remains hands down the best curriculum we have ever used:

A6 goes over to my mum’s house for her reading.  A6 reads to mum for half an hour after which mum reads a chapter book to A6 for half an hour whilst she munches on raisins and a glass of milk:

B4 is often quite sleepy at this point, although not enough to sleep.  She has recently given up napping regularly taking maybe one a week, but she still has really tired patches.  She does a bit of drawing and colouring and then we snuggle down and watch Alpha Blocks together.  This means she is able to learn a little at the same time as having essential snuggle time:

10am: Morning Meeting

During morning meeting we have a snack of toast and tea (or in my case coffee):

I read from our Who is God? curriculum (the children complete any work in their work book during their quiet time), we complete one lesson from the Mystery of History volume 3 and I read a few chapters from whatever read aloud I am currently on.  This week we read about Watson and Crick as well as reading about Shackleton from our Polar Explorers book.

We chat about the day, what I expect from them and likewise what they need from me.  We co-ordinate our day so we are all on the same page, so to speak.

11am: Cover Story Writing curriculum/ FIAR

The older ones watch their video for Cover Story and create some Haiku poetry.  They all comment how brilliant this curriculum is and how happy they are to be one it:

The little ones complete their FIAR studies for Owl Moon and dissect owl sick:

12noon: Lunch

The chickens have been prolific layers over the last few days so we have some eggs to use up.  We have a simple lunch of egg and toast.

1pm: Quiet time

We all have quiet time for half an hour.  The littles play quietly in their room.  If they become noisy they spend the rest of the time reading silently on their beds.  The older children read quietly in their rooms.  The girls read the assigned history books, T13 has asked to focus on his science and so he now reads scientist biographical books.  He is currently reading about Newton.  I spend this time at the computer down-loading photos and writing up the next day’s post.

2pm: History or Science

We are on a bit of a science roll at the moment and this afternoon spent our time learning a bit about genetics:

and they wrote a timed essay under exam conditions:

Mean while the little ones were making the most of the wonderful weather outside by bringing in kindling and logs for the evening fire.  We always try to encourage a good work ethic and really love it when we see the children anticipate things that need to be done and do them without being asked.  On this occasion the littles were wheel barrowing their loads to the kitchen door and dumping the logs and kindling literally at the door way.  I resisted the need to micro-organised and instead praised them on their hard work.  The older ones and I transported all the wood to our baskets by the stove.  A good job jobbed:

After we finished we made an afternoon snack of pureed frozen fruit and yogurt (makes a soft healthy ice cream):

It’s obviously a serious business, snack time, if their expressions are anything to go by!

After snack L12 lets her food go down, whilst T reads his new series of books on the Young Sherlock Holmes and C12 practices her singing and piano up in her room.  The littles continue their play outside.

L soon joins them to practice her trampolining for the competition that evening.  T joins her, coming up with helpful ideas to keep her legs together and toes pointed.  I thoroughly enjoyed the brother and sister camaraderie.  T decids to film her doing her routine:

He then plays it back to her on his computer in slow motion so she was able to see for herself which areas she needs to improve in:

We spend the rest of the afternoon ferrying bodies about to lessons and then the competition (in which L12 came third and received a bronze award – not bad for her first competition!)

It was a good day, busy and happy – just how I like it!