A day in our home and homeschool~

All around the internet you will see people documenting a day in their homes.  I have to be honest.  I {love} those kind of posts.  Sometimes they inspire me or give me new ideas.  Some day-in-the-life posts make me want to get up and do something.  (Kind of like the way that I always want to bake something after reading a Little House on the Prairie book.  {smile})

I don’t know that this post will do any of the things above but it was fun to put onto paper our blog what we do on a typical day.  I’m sure I’ll look back one day with fond memories of our sweet but busy homeschool days.

~~~~~~~~~~

6:30 ~ My day begins with quiet time and a cup of coffee.

  There’s just a wee little problem with that…it was supposed to start at 5:30.  I overslept after staying up to talk to David the night before.  I’m not complaining though.  I love the late night talks we squeeze in at the end of the day.  Since I’m running late, I skip my morning shower.  Did I mention…

I love my morning showers?  Oh well!

David starts cooking some pancakes for breakfast.  I take over while he finishes getting ready for work.  He kisses us goodbye and heads out the door while the three little ones eat their breakfast.

8:00 ~ The big boys wake and quickly eat.  Then all of the kids set off to do a morning chore, put away folded clothes, pick dirty clothes up off of their bedroom floors, and brush teeth.  If they have finished all chores in a quick fashion, they get a little TV time before school.

I flit around the house and start a load of clothes washing, take some pancakes out to the chickens, straighten our bedroom, and help assist as needed on morning chores.

After a quick check to see if morning chores have been completed and done well, I punch the kids’ chore tickets.  (This is a new system we are using and if it works well, I’ll write about it  later.)

9:00 ~ School begins!

First, I meet with the older three and discuss their independent work.

Then, I head to the kitchen with the two little ones for their school time.

 working on sight word “the” and drawing pictures in shaving cream

Baby boy heads to the living room to play some computer games and Sunshine Girl (Kindergarten) follows when she is finished with her school work.

I rotate amongst the three older children and teach/make corrections with each as needed.  We try to cover as many of the core subjects as we can before lunch. 

11:00 ~ It becomes apparent that we need a little break and it is beautiful outside!  We head out for a little sunshine.

 

While the kids play, I talk to the chickens, check for eggs, take care of laundry, and prune the grapevines.

11:30 ~ We head back inside and the little ones play with blocks.  The older kids and I work on our Bible study of Matthew and read about Martin Luther.  We hear David come home and he begins making lunch.

After we finish our Bible time, I head off to take that missed shower and the kids either finish independent work or have free time before lunch if the work is all ready done.

Lunch is eaten and then everyone pitches in to help clean the kitchen.  They receive another hole punch on their chore cards.

David heads back to work.

12:30 ~ We have D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read) time.  Even I sit down to read.  It is nice. {smile}

1:00 ~ Our Littlest Man is tucked in for a nap in Mommy & Daddy’s room.

Sunshine Girl goes to the living room to watch Veggie Tales.

The older three kids work with me on our joint subjects (Geography, Science, and History). 

Then I again rotate amongst the older three to finish any core subjects that weren’t finished earlier.  We end the school day with my 8th grader and I doing pre-algebra. 

2:51 (exactly) ~ We finish school and I send everyone off to a quiet place for 30 minutes of down time.  Then I hear Little Man call to me from our bedroom,

“I’m not tired today!”

He did not take a nap! {laugh} So he joined the older kids in the living room and watched a little TV.

Usually during this time, I’ll read some blogs on Google Reader or read a book but today I decided to go out and take care of laundry.

That’s when I was sidetracked and decided to make a wreath out of the grapevines I had cut earlier.  I decorated the chicken run door with the new grapevine/English ivy wreath.

I was quite enjoying myself outside when I heard a little voice say,

“Can we come out too?” 

The thirty minutes of quiet time were over and it was very pretty so the kids came out to enjoy the nice day too.

4:00 ~ I headed back inside to start dinner and make a little snack.

The kids ran in and out as they played and stopped for some popcorn along the way. 

 

I pulled out some ingredients to make some Angel Biscuits and before I knew it, I had a kitchen full of people who wanted to help!

So everyone had a little hand in making our dinner that night.

5:00 ~ From here on, it becomes a bit of a blur.  David came home.  We ate dinner.  Some kids had baths during this time.  Then David and the kids went to church.

I stayed home and worked on folding laundry while I watched Biggest Loser.

I wanted to squeeze in some exercise too but still had a big pile of laundry to fold.  I decided to stop in the middle of folding and just exercise.  This year, the whole Biggest Loser show is about no excuses so I decided to not let this be my excuse.  I even have proof…

Not the best picture but this is me after the exercise (and still sweaty) while watching Biggest Loser.

After that, I went back to folding laundry.  (But feeling really good!)

David and the kids came home.  We got the little ones to bed.  I was actually supposed to work on school stuff and maybe squeeze in blogging time but I was tired.

 I spent some time talking and joking with my two older boys before they went to bed.  I love those times with them too.  {smile}

After all the kids were in bed, Dave and I talked while we finished up the kitchen.  Then I headed off to bed and read for a while before turning in for the night.

 

This is a typical sort of stay at home school day for us.  We have a few days a week where our routine changes so that we can head out the door for swim team practice.  But no matter what our days look like, we try to fill them with learning, laughter, and love.