Raise your hand if every day is homeschooling utopia with your family. No? No hands raised? None here either! One of my most favorite things about my group of friends is no matter what kind of day I’ve had with my littles, if I tell my friends, at least one of them can relate. Good? Yup, they’re all cheering me on and sharing their highlights. Bad? Yup, they’re empathizing, encouraging, and helping me laugh about it. Friends are great like that, aren’t they? Over this school year, some of my friends have agreed to share a peek into their homeschooling days with all of us. As part of my Take A Look tour, one mom a month will share their A Day In The Life – the good, the bad, and/or the ugly! I hope you find their generosity and openness relatable and refreshing. If you just look closely, I bet you’ll see a little of your story there too.
10:00 AM Our language arts time typically begins with my older guys doing independent work, while my younger littles decide whether they want to “do school” today. Because, they are so young (four & two), I follow their interest here. If they want to be at the table with us, I give them something to do. It’s typical for my four year old to practice beginning writing skills and letter recognition three times a week.
Reading our weekly book from Before Five in a Row is designed to be special time for my younger two, but everyone usually gathers round. I love that even my older two are sweet enough at heart to enjoy the toddler books. I’m going to credit that as another benefit of homeschooling. 🙂
11:00 AM Each day brings a different nature study: a wildflower picked by my son, a bug loitering on our deck, or a trip to the zoo. While they’re beginning to sketch, I approach each one to talk details, “How many petals do you see? What colors are there? What shape are the leaves?” So far, we all love this time and they’re learning to look closely.
12:00 PM I always try to bring at least one of my littles into the kitchen for meal preparation. More than likely, I bring in the whiner who is “sooo hungry” they can hardly stand. While they wash and distribute the grapes, they can snitch a few. This helps them and me! 🙂
1:00 PM Our CC campus has not started yet, so I’m not sure exactly how this will look for us this year. But, I do have some easy review plans set up: 1) our notebooks, 2) our music, and 3) games. I’m going to share more about my game plans later this week!
While I get my littlest ones ready for nap, my older two are either reading or beginning their math work. I check their work and see if there are any new math concepts to be taught for that lesson. We use Saxon, but skip the meeting strip, because I honestly never really understood the point. I integrate the concepts of the meeting strip in other ways, which works for us.
& that’s it! At this point in the day, I usually take some time on my own to read, eat a snack or drink a cup of coffee before beginning dinner preparations. I try to remind myself not to expect this time to be a break from my littles, but rather a break from direct teaching. I want to appreciate them in each moment, even when I really just want to rest. Know what I’m saying?
If you were to be even a little closer during our day, you’d see and hear plenty of giggles, some screaming and fighting, balls thrown, tears shed, music danced to, eyes closed in prayer, and loads and loads of dirty dishes and laundry to be cleaned. Our days are full, our life is good, we are blessed.
Great to see how you do it! Thanks for sharing!
thanks, MS! 🙂
I love this, especially that the whiner usually ends up in the kitchen helping with lunch! 🙂
haha! 🙂 it totally works too : )
great idea – i think i’ll try that one today.
Amen, to the dirty dishes and laundry:) I loved this post, most of it is a typical day for us…I was laughing out loud at, if there is no where to go anything qualifies as dressed, even underwear and a superman cape..lol
oh, i love it! 🙂 capes & underwear here too!
What a lovely look into your day! I love how you get nature study in regularly. As much as I always hope for that, I have yet to make it happen =) Of course we always look at things and talk about them, but we haven’t been good about sketching or getting anything in a notebook.
thanks, amy! my littles really look forward to that time….one especially more than the others, because he’s quite a good sketcher. but, they’re all learning. 🙂
I’m so glad I found you on Simple Homeschool. We also enjoy Story of the World and Saxon Math. Thank you for sharing!
Erin, Thanks for dropping by!
This was so much fun to read. I love that you include nature study in each day. When my now 12-year old son was younger, we did the same. It was such fun.
Oh, thank you, I’m so glad. We’re in the midst of our cold winter months, so much of our nature study is from the inside looking out right now. But, we’re still enjoying it. 🙂
Love that you don’t wake your littles when they sleep. I am the same. Nature study is such an important part of life, let alone homeschool. I’m new to homeschooling and I’m so happy to have found you. I am loving this series! Off to find you on FB. I am loving your blog 🙂
I’m a lover of sleep myself, so I love to have it & to give it. haha 🙂 And I agree about nature study, but think this is something I missed out on growing up. I’m so glad to make it part of my children’s lives and now mine too!