What does a TYPICAL homeschool day look like in our home?
I want to give you a picture - a TRUE picture - of how an average day plays out.
Some background:
My children are 14 (Classical Conversations Challenge I) and 11 (Classical Conversations Foundations and Essentials). I am a work at home mom (the blog, SQUILT, and social media consulting) , so while I'm not juggling a larger number of children, I am juggling work responsibilities throughout my entire school day.
I try to strike a balance between independent activities, hands-on activities, and activities where we are together (read alouds, etc...).
It's never perfect, but I find that having a PLAN in place is essential and being FLEXIBLE is key. I rely on and try to give a lot of grace, too.
*This day in the life is the day AFTER our community day. You will notice some scheduling time for my oldest and some more independent activities for my youngest. Each day will look slightly different during the rest of the week.
Consistent Morning Time
Morning Time happens each day. I created a simple morning basket - and I cannot tell you how much I love starting every day this way!
Our basket includes a devotional, Foundations memory work review, any memory work my Challenge I daughter has, an art book, and SQUILT. We also watch CNN Student News during our morning time.
Ideally we try to be at the kitchen table between 8-8:30 a.m., but I have to be flexible with this.
The important thing is that morning time HAPPENS each day.
There have been some days where morning time is one of the ONLY thing that has happened (you know THOSE kinds of days).
Independence in Challenge I
After morning time my daughter gets her "command center" (her fancy name for her binder which includes her copy of the guide and folders for all of her work) and completes her planning sheet for the week.
After some struggles through scheduling in Challenge A and B, my daughter is almost fully independent in Challenge I. (You might be interested in my posts about Challenge A and B... they were written after completing those years and hopefully can help you if you are in the trenches.)
Those struggles were BY DESIGN, and in hindsight I can see how God blessed us with time management failures and struggles.
I am AMAZED at how well and easily my 14 year old can plan and execute an entire week of school work.
Here you can see her completed planning sheet, research she is doing for a paper on the history of the piano, and cookies! She has a sweet friend in class who lost his grandfather last week and she wanted to make his family dinner and cookies.
I checked in on her several times during the day, listening to a poem she was memorizing, assisting with a math problem she was having, and just lending general support.
I love that she had many things to accomplish in a day and she got up and made a plan for the day, and accomplished everything!
Focus on Different Subjects on Different Days
For my son, certain things happen every day... those are morning time, math, and piano practice.
On this day in the life, we focus on history and geography.
I find that by having a good memory work review each day, and then expanding just a bit upon certain areas of the memory work on subsequent days, we get a good balance for the week.
---->> If I had more littles running around the house I would be very secure knowing that on certain days THE MEMORY WORK IS ENOUGH! <<----
We recently added a large white board to our school area, and it's helpful if I write out what the schedule/accomplishments are for the day.
- Morning time consisted of normal things in our morning basket, and we also added in a slideshow on YouTube of Giotto's art.
- Grant takes the Veritas Self Paced History course online. I LOVE this because it is 100% independent. He did two lessons, and then the assigned reading for the day. He also printed the Cuneiform alphabet from the Veritas course and wrote secret Cuneiform messages. Grant also decided a Cuneiform presentation would be great for our next community day, so we began brainstorming about that.
- Saxon Math 6/5 Lesson 100 was completed.
- Map tracing was completed (using our Geography Notebook)
- We watched a Drive Thru History episode for fun with our Right Now Media subscription (through CC)
- 4:45 were piano lessons (with a quick stop to pick up mom's new glasses beforehand!)
This day (which is a Wednesday) is not a day where we do Essentials (IEW writing and diagramming sentences/copying grammar charts).
Essentials days are Thursday and Friday in our house.
I pray this information has been helpful to you.
Talk to me about your homeschool day. Do you follow a structured plan? Do you allow more time for interests to lead the way? Leave me a comment below and let me know.
We're all different and each homeschool has a unique flavor and strengths. That is one of the things I love most about homeschooling!
Collage Friday
Join me on alternating Fridays for a wrap up of the week - or just to share pertinent thoughts that have been rambling in your head during the past week.
Be sure to include your photo collages!
Then, visit other bloggers that have linked and leave them a supportive comment. I love the Collage Friday community!
Add your link using the widget below. Additionally, if you'd like to join further, use the hashtag #collagefriday on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
