Homeschooling in Real Life

I keep getting asked how I "do it all" so I thought I'd write a little about that.

For starters, I don't "do it all." Any type of schooling (public, private, home, or a combination) is going to leave something out because perfection does not exist in this world. And I have a housekeeper so someone else cleans my house twice a month.

But here's how our typical school day goes:

We start school by 9am. We begin with circle time: prayer, calendar, and during everyone's kindergarten year we say the Pledge of Allegiance so they all learn it.

Next is Nora's preschool. I read her a library book (usually off the Honey for a Child's Heart booklist) and we go over a concept. Right now we are doing letters. Some days we read an alphabet book; this week we are using large felt letters that she can trace while we say the letter name and sound.

Then Sophie and Nora play while I do math with Annie and Jacob.

Then Annie and Jacob do "sustained silent reading" (go read the Ramona books if you don't know what this is!) while I do Sophie's math and Nora plays independently.

After that we all do handwriting together, working on age-appropriate levels. Nora's goal for this year is to learn to write her name. Then we do memory work together (Bible verse, history facts, and poem). This is more for the older kids but Nora and Sophie can join in.

Then Annie and Jacob do spelling and grammar.

Recess for 15 minutes. Whew.

It is usually about 11am by this point. After recess, I do Sophie's kindergarten program (Five in a Row) with her. The other kids often want to listen in.

Next is one-on-one reading lessons with the older three children.

If we have time, the older two kids do history or science (we alternate days) to finish up our day. Then lunch. Sometimes we have lunch and then do history or science.

After lunch we read-aloud our literature book (medieval lit this year) and then our fun chapter book (right now, C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair).

Then quiet time for two blessed hours. Mama collapses for about 30 minutes and catches up on email and other messages, then gets her chores done.

After quiet time comes tea time (snack and poetry reading).

Then it depends on the day: piano practice, ballet or gymnastics class, or free play.

That's pretty much our 9-5.

Of course, life never goes as planned. The first morning of school this year, the dog threw up. Then Nora was sick the second day. We have field trips about twice a month. A foster parent friend has a crisis. There are always interruptions. We just pick up where we left off and try to make it up by the end of the week.

All the little moments add up to lots of learning and I love getting to be part of it!