A Typical Day in Our Homeschool, Part 1

We intend to get up early. Our last name is Early, for heaven’s sake. The parents who are ostensibly running this homeschool believe “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Wait, we believe half of that maxim. Engineer Husband is great with the “early to rise” part, and I used to be good at “early to bed.” But now it seems that this homeschool/home is open twenty-four hours a day. The four teenagers/young adults don’t believe in bedtimes at all; they just fall into bed as the Spirit moves them. And Engineer Husband usually puts the four younger urchins to bed after one more drink of water, one more snack, a second toothbrushing, one more story, a prayer for each urchin, and “play-me-a-tape-please.” And that’s all before they get into bed the first time.

I can hear the comments already: “You were going to blog about a typical day in your homeschool, and you’re already writing about bedtime.” But I have learned that our typical day starts the night before. If none of us makes it to bed before midnight, then we can’t very well rise with the chickens. And typically, we don’t. We also don’t have any chickens. So a typical day in our homeschool starts around 8:30 or 9:00 A.M. –or later sometimes.

1. Morning jobs: Each of my eight children, including Eldest Daughter who is home from college this summer, has a morning job which is supposed to be completed satisfactorily before breakfast. Dancer Daughter’s job is to make breakfast, so she at least must finish her job before breakfast. This morning we had muffins (from a mix), fruit, and milk.
2. Breakfast is rather informal, but I do try to keep the food in the kitchen or the dining area and out of the living room. Everybody finishes their jobs, eats, and generally tries to wake up before
3. Bible reading and prayer. We’re reading Proverbs, a chapter a day, right now. Last year we read Psalms, the year before we used Greenleaf’s Guide to the Old Testament. I’m planning when we finish Proverbs to start through a harmony of the Gospels. Each of the eight urchins, except for the youngest, has his own day to pray aloud for all of us. Then, in theory, we start the day’s schoolwork.

Oh, by the way, I decided to write this ?-part series as a result of a call for articles on homeschooling at My Three Pennies/Choosing Home. Go over and check it out if you’re interested.

6 thoughts on “A Typical Day in Our Homeschool, Part 1

  1. Pingback: Semicolon » A Typical Day in Our Homeschool, Part 4

  2. I’m looking forward to parts 2, 3, ?. I love reading about other homeschooling families and their “normal” days. I enjoy knowing that no one is really normal — so that makes us okay!

  3. Thanks so far for you record of you day. I’m just starting to figure out what our days are going to look like this year. I have finally given myself permission to start our day at 8:00 since thats when we usually get up. I read all these scheduling books aobut how mom needs to be up early and I’ve tried again and again but to fail each time and get discouraged. Then it hit me. It’s my homeschool. I don’t need to listen to others and be discouraged because I can’t get up at 7:00. Now to read your other entries!
    Susan

  4. I hope you don’t mind that I dropped in here. I’m probably not the kind of person you’d expect to find reading your blog, and yet I really needed to read something just like this tonight. I’m debating whether to home-school my 5-year-old son. Public school kindergarten is miserable for both of us, and I’m sick of crying each night after I put him to bed. I’d considered homeschooling before he was born, but the older he’s grown the more his personality seemed too drastically different from the kind of child I thought would respond well to homeschooling.

    Turns out, I had a notion that all parents who homeschool are happy, unnaturally calm and infinitely patient sorts who cheerfully look up from kneading homemade bread to drill their preschool-aged children on Latinate conjugation.

    Yes, I realize I was a little off. Please don’t be offended — it wasn’t homeschooling parents I was doubting: it was my self.

    Your post is helping me see that there’s no standard of perfection out there, that our kids will be better for having been with us because we’ll try harder for them than any teacher will.

  5. Pingback: Semicolon

Comments are closed.