Our Homeschooling Schedule

There are countless ways you can run your day. Countless schedules and activities. If this is your first year homeschooling, it can take some time to find what works best for you and your family. Reading different stories and listening to what works for your friends can give you a great idea of how your day can go.

When I first had my son, I was a stay-at-home mom for his first year, as we only had one vehicle at the time and lived too far outside of town to be able to walk to work or place our son in a daycare. As our situation changed and we found ourselves in a position for me to work again, I went back to being a preschool teacher and I was lucky enough to have my son be able to go with me. As the years passed, we had our daughter and when she was about two years old, I left my job to be an at home mom and homeschool our son who was going into kindergarten.

It was a huge change for our family. Aside from that quick year of me being home with our first born, I had always worked, and we had not really considered me ever leaving my job that I enjoyed. As the time drew nearer though, we realized that homeschooling was what we really wanted to do. We made up our decision, which was made even easier by covid. It seemed a no brainer. We had spoke about homeschooling our kids, for a couple years but had never truly weighed the options. Let me tell you, though it was a very hard decision and a life changing one to make, it was absolutely the best one!

In the first month of homeschooling through a local charter school, we soon found our stride. I based our daily schedule off of my classroom schedule, with a few tweaks of course.

Let me start by saying, allowing my kids to wake up on their own made a HUGE difference. We were all so much more relaxed and ready to tackle what the day brought us. Our puppy is now the first of us to wake. When she does, her and our older dog go outside while I get them their breakfast and make my coffee. By the time that is done, and the dogs are back inside and I am getting myself ready for the rest of the day, our son (6 years old) is usually the first up. He is soon followed by his little sister (4 years old). They are allowed to slowly wake up and watch a little show while I finish getting myself ready and making breakfast.

After breakfast they get dressed and we begin our circle time. This consists of:

· The Pledge of Allegiance

· At least one book (sometimes a fun themed one to go with the season or an educational picture book)

· We go over the calendar

· Do music and movement

· Talk about any important holidays or events coming up

· And practice sign language.

They then sit at the table and begin their work. I do their lesson plans sometimes during the weekend, sometimes the week before. It really just depends on what we had going on. When one is working on a paper, craft or assignment they don’t need my attention on, I assist the other. Originally when our daughter was three and still taking naps, I would break the day up with lunch and then her nap and my son could find a quiet activity and have a bit of a “recess”. Since then, neither one of them take naps now and they both prefer to eat while they work and get their schooling done at the beginning of the day, so they have the entire afternoon to enjoy and play. I do know some families that prefer to break it up with snacks, lunches, naps and play time. If this works for your family, great! Like I said above, it may take a bit to find the right routine. I also know families where the children in fact learn and focus better in the evenings, just before and during dinner time. Mix it up and see what works.

In the end, we usually spend about 4 – 5 hours doing school. Some days it goes quicker, some days we add more lessons to the daily curriculum. There are also days where none of us are, “feeling it”, usually because we are battling a small cold or bug. Those days, we see where we are at and how much we can do. There is no sense in pushing through these days and try and get everything done as the kids are unfocused and do not retain much. Those days we try different tactics and see if we can work through it or see if it is going to just be a rest day. We do not have many of these days, but it is ok to. Don’t be afraid to take these days, they won’t hurt anything or disrupt their learning, as they would not have gotten much done anyway that day. Again, this is different for each family, you might find that these days only cause harder days in the ones to follow, if that is the case, feel it out and see if just lessening the workload for everyone or having a slower paced day might work better.

You will definitely have days where the kids are just not into the work, that is totally normal and they would get that way however you planned your day out, no matter the curriculum, no matter the school. Let’s face it, we all have these days.

Some ways I help my kids work through it is:

· Adding extra protein and fruit to their breakfast and snack.

· Make circle time extra engaging and fun

· Take a few breaks between subjects and to little exercises, stretches, or yoga

· Take them outside

· Switch up the location, instead of at the table, let them choose a spot in the house

· Some days we even break it up by running our errands in down after half our schooling is completed for the day then once we return, we finish the rest.

These days do not happen too often, but when they do, you will know and you may feel discouraged, especially since kids can have these days, several days in a row. Just plug through. It WILL get better and usually after the weekend everyone is back to their normal selves.

Now, since our daughter is not yet in Kindergarten, I use my curriculum I made for my classroom, for her. I have two small totes for each month. One has crafts that her and her brother do, the other is filled with fun and interactive activities or “centers” that I made over the years. They all work on fine motor skills, gross motor skills, numbers, counting, colors, shapes, letters and beginning sight words, as well as special activities themed to that month or season. Each month has a theme. It keeps it exciting and new.

*I will later post a blog about my preschool curriculum for those interested. The age range is 2-6.

If you do not wish to make a curriculum for your younger children that is totally fine. There are lots of curriculums out there for all ages. One curriculum we add to ours, for both our son and daughter is The Good and the Beautiful. It is a Christian based curriculum and can be found online. Also, Pinterest will be your best friend if it isn’t already. Our charter school is fantastic and provides a wide range of curriculum. It does have a preschool option as well, but our daughter did not make the cut off.

Here is a simple breakdown of our daily schedule:

· I wake up, feed the animals and get coffee going

· The kids wake up and turn on a show

· I make breakfast

· The kids get dressed

· We begin circle time

· They begin their homework and work until its done. We usually finish around 12:30-1:30

*The timetable does vary depending on when the kids wake up and how much of a workload, we have that day. Science experiments and extra crafts make the day go a bit longer.

The rest of the day we choose what we want to do and what we need to get done.

Remember, you can add whatever your family is interested in, into your curriculum. Spice it up and have fun and remember that even when the actual, “school” part of the day is done, the kids are still learning. In the afternoons, my daughter and I cook the dinner together. She enjoys it a lot and has learned so much through helping me. The kids ask to help out around the house and our son really likes to paint animals, while our daughter is learning to sew. They also get to spend more time with family and learn from them as well. They have done wood working, gardening, farming and even learned a bit about bee keeping just from being around their grandparents more.

There are so many perks to homeschooling. It is definitely not for everyone, but it can be so rewarding and so much fun. I love being able to see the progress my kids are making emotionally and academically. One thing I get asked a lot is, “what about socialization?”

Our Charter school offers one half day a week where the younger kids get to go to the school and enjoy a fun and educational filled morning. The older kids get to do two full days. My son looks forward to these days every week and my daughter cannot wait to go. We also do playdates, and our son is in gymnastics and our daughter is in dance. All of this offers plenty of socialization opportunities and they have both made incredible friends over the last couple of years.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you found it helpful, please leave a comment, send me a message or share the link so others can have a look.