This is what a typical stay-home homeschooling day looks like for us. As the girls have gotten older (Little Bug is 5 and in Kindergarten and Sweet Pea is 3 and in preschool), I have found a routine better suits our needs instead of a schedule. Our days happen in three chunks: Morning, Afternoon and Evening.

This year I am planning to have three days per week of instructional time at home and two days per week for activities and outings outside of our home such as, science experiments at Grams and Gramps’ house, Library Story Time, Ballet, activities with our Homeschool Group and play dates with friends!

This was our day on Monday, July 28th, 2014.

Morning

My alarm goes off at 7:30am. For years now, I have wanted to wake up before my children and have a set time of the morning when I read my Bible. I have finally accomplished this and I was only able to accomplish this after Dave decided he wanted to have a morning quiet time too! His alarm goes off at 7:15am and he gets up pretty soon after that and goes into the living room to have his quiet time with the Lord. I stay in the bed and read my Bible. Before I leave my bedroom, I like to make the bed and get dressed for the day.

After Dave’s quiet time, he starts making breakfast for the girls and then gets them up at 8am. Little Bug dresses herself. By this time I am finishing up my morning routines and putting laundry to wash if it is Laundry Day. We eat breakfast and Dave does a devotional with the girls most mornings while they are eating. When I am done eating, I start on whatever chores I need to do that day. This day was Monday which is Laundry Day. Once the girls are finished, they have Sibling Play Time while I clean up the kitchen from breakfast and do a chore (I moved laundry from washer to dryer). They chose to play in Little Bug’s bedroom. Dave goes to our bedroom where his office is set up and begins his workday around 8:30am.

After I am done with my morning chores, I gather the troops and everyone meets on the couch for Bible Time. This begins our Morning School Time. I read the Bible story for the day and then we read books together. We enjoy reading the science and history books we check out from the library during this time. I love this part of the day with my girls. It’s a great way to start our days. We do this most every weekday unless we have to be out of the house early.

Sweet Pea’s school time happens after Bible/Reading time. Right now, we are finishing up her ABC School and she got to paint her Letter P with purple and pink paint. She will begin Ready-Made Preschool Level 1 in August. During Sweet Pea’s school time, Little Bug either joins us if she is interested in what is going on (she is always interested if paint is involved!) or she plays on her own in the playroom. It takes about 30-40 minutes to complete Sweet Pea’s preschool for the day.

After her school time, Sweet Pea goes to her room for Room Time so I can do All About Reading Level 1 with Little Bug. We spend 15-30 minutes on this. (Because we only do AAR 1-3 times per week, we did not do AAR on July 28th, but we did on July 30th. So these pictures are from our lesson on July 30th. If we don’t have a phonics lesson, Little Bug does Room Time too.)

After Little Bug’s phonics lesson and Sweet Pea’s Room Time, it’s usually around 11am and time to go outside! The girls enjoy playing in our yard, riding their bicycle/tricycle, playing with sidewalk chalk and going on walks in the neighborhood. We also enjoy talking to our neighbors as we see them outside when we are out.

When we come in from playing outside the girls chose a 30-minute educational DVD to watch while I prepare lunch and do a chore. On this day, I moved laundry from the washer to dryer and got the girls’ clothes folded and then I made lunch.

Afternoon

We sit down to eat lunch around 12:15pm. A little before 1pm I take Sweet Pea to her bedroom for her naptime routine. To begin our Afternoon School Time, Little Bug chooses an educational activity to do while I am laying her sister down for a nap. She chose to watercolor paint. I read two books to Sweet Pea, she drinks some water and I sing “Jesus Loves Me” and lay her down for her nap. She sleeps from 1-4pm. Little Bug and I do about 1.5 hours of her Kindergarten work (including handwriting, Math and a 30 minute Read Aloud time) and then the last 1.5 hours of Sweet Pea’s nap is also Rest Time for Little Bug and Mommy. (Sidenote: Yes, I know Little Bug is holding her pencil incorrectly. Handwriting Without Tears pencils supposedly “guarantee” to make children have a correct grasp on their writing utensils. Well, it didn’t work for Little Bug! She insists on holding the pencil that way.)

At 4pm naptime and Rest Time are over. Our activities vary at this point in our day. We might: have Free Play, go outside, read books, play games, do a craft or run errands while we wait for the clock to strike 5 o’clock. I typically do some more chores during this time that I can include the girls in (folding laundry, dusting). Since this day was Laundry Day, I folded more laundry while the girls played. Little Bug puts away her panties and all the pj’s.

Evening

Dave emerges from his office around 5pm and it’s Family Time! A variety of things happen during this time, but on a typical evening, when we are at home, we eat dinner together (cooked by Dave!) and then follow that up with playing, going for a walk in the neighborhood, playing games, sitting outside while the girls play and occasionally going out for a Frozen Yogurt treat. On this night Aunt Amanda came over for dinner and the girls had so much fun reading a book about the Human Body with her while Daddy serenated us all on the guitar! I love the way the evening sun shines in our home during this time.

Around 6:45pm it’s bath time for the girls which Daddy is in charge of. I often use that time to get a chore done before the end of another day. Some nights I don’t do a thing during this time and just relax! On Laundry Day, that’s when I put up all the folded laundry. After baths, the girls each pick one book and we all sit together and read their books and then Daddy reads a Bible story. By 7:30/8pm, both girls are tucked in and Dave and I get to enjoy time together until we turn out our lights by 11pm.

I love my life and I feel extremely blessed that this is my life! Our days are not perfect all the time by any means. There are days when it seems all the girls do is fight! There are days I want to pull my hair out by lunchtime. There are days this routine just does not happen for whatever reason. But I realize these days are precious and fleeting and I want to savor them before they are just a memory.

- Elaine