Homeschool Routine – A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool

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Many potential homeschoolers want to know exactly what they’re getting into before the make they jump into homeschooling. What is a typical homeschool routine? Follow me as I take you through a day in the life of homeschooling a 10 and a 7 year old. Based on ages, they’re in 5th and 2nd grades this year.

 

What is a Typical Homeschool Routine?

The truth is that we really don’t have a typical day in our homeschool. We are very active in our local homeschool community, so those events dictate how our homeschool routine will change each day or week. I try to limit our big group events to once a week, but that doesn’t always work. Events easily take an entire morning or afternoon, and it can be hard to reengage with formal school work when we get home. On these days, our focus is the event – anything else we do is the fun stuff like poetry tea times, music, art, and games.

 

 

Our Homeschool Routine When We’re Home All Day

On days when we stay home, our homeschool routine is fairly predictable. This is our 6th year homeschooling, so we’ve found a groove that works most of the time. It took a LONG time for us to find this groove, so don’t panic if you haven’t found yours yet. Take a look at the curriculum that we’re using for 2nd grade and 5th grade this year. You can also read about why I continue to use an all-in-one curriculum instead of piecing everything together myself.

 

It starts with breakfast

While the kids eat, I read from one of their BookShark read aloud books. My kids are close enough in age that I could combine them, but they love having their own books. Starting the day with a read aloud book helps me fit all the reading in. Check out this post for more tips for homeschooling multiple kids with a literature-rich homeschool curriculum.

After breakfast, they do a few quick chores and play while I eat and check on the garden. Giving them time to play in the morning helps us start the day with good attitudes.

 

Then we head to the couch…

Once we’re all ready for the day, we head to the couch for some morning basket books. I pick a few seasonal books to share throughout the month or a book or two that expands on a topic we’re covering in our curriculum. Sometimes the girls just pick out fun picture books.

Next, we dive right into history for my 10 year old. She’s doing BookShark’s Reading with History level 4 this year which covers the second half of American History. We’re tackling World War I right now, and these books do a great job of not covering up the brutality of war. They’re still kid-friendly, but harsh. I’m not crazy about tackling these tough subjects first thing in the morning, but my kids love history and still insist that it’s at the start of our homeschool routine each morning. So, right now we are kicking off our structured school work with war in the morning. Crazy, huh?

What IS a Morning Basket? Learn how to get started with this awesome routine.

 

Homeschooling is like a Tennis Match

Since we don’t combine many subjects, I bounce back and forth between the kids most days. It sounds a bit exhausting (and it IS some days), but it really makes the best use of our time at home. I start bouncing between them after our reading time on the couch is over. We also bounce all over the house. We DO have a dedicated homeschool area, but my kids prefer different areas for different subjects. We just grab our books and move…no special cart or basket needed.

Reading while cuddled up in bed? Sure!

Writing spelling words on the driveway? You bet!

Math problems while cuddling with the cat? Whatever works for the day.

 

Hard Things First

After our reading time on the couch, we like to tackle the more difficult subjects first while our energy and focus is best. Over time we’ve come up with a flow of subjects that allows me to bounce between them and tackle the hard subjects first. At the beginning of the year, I made a list of subjects and activities that each of them can usually do mostly on their own. I have these items ready for each of them to do while I’m working with the other.

We usually start with math and end with writing projects. Everything else falls somewhere in the middle. The order of the subjects changes most days because my goal is to use MY time most efficiently between my two kids. How much time is needed per subject / per kid often changes.

 

The Extra Fun Stuff in Our Homeschool Routine

What about art, music, and games? Many people who do Morning Basket time love to incorporate these during their morning time routines. However, I’ve found that if we do them early in the day, we’ll get so caught up in them that little else will be accomplished that day. Some days that’s perfectly fine, but we can’t do that everyday.

For us, it works best to do art, music, and games at the END of the day. It gives my kids incentive to complete their other work in a timely manner. These extras are also great for the days when we have group events. No one wants to do a math lesson after a morning out on hiking with friends, but they love coming home to a poetry tea time and games! And I DO count those days as full school days. Learning is happening on hikes, field trips, during poetry tea parties, and when playing board games.

 

The Fun and (Sometimes) Messy Stuff

We LOVE science experiments, but these can also quickly take over a whole day. I save all science experiments for the weekend when my husband can do them with the kids. This is fantastic way for him to be involved in a bit of our homeschool routine. We use BookShark’s level 1 science for my 7 year old and level 4 for my 10 year old, which are are open-and-go, so he can easily jump in without having been a part of the earlier lessons. These experiments often lead to more investigation, so I love giving them a large block of time without feeling rushed to move onto the next subject.

Check out my post over on the BookShark blog for more science experiment tips!

 

Independent Projects

We also LOVE independent projects! My kids will often come across topics that really ignite their interests. One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is allowing them to pursue their own interests. This year, my 7 year old is spending a lot of time building and coding robots. Last year her obsession was space. My 10 year old is all about fashion and interior design right now. For a few years, she couldn’t get enough of the Amazon Rainforest. These are great projects for those days when we have our homeschool group events.

Read more about how we incorporate independent projects in our homeschool.

 

Break Time

Now that my oldest is nearing the end of her elementary school days, I’m encouraging her to work longer before taking breaks. Depending on the length of the subject, which can change from day to day, she’ll usually do 2 subjects before running off to play for a bit.

If either of them finish a subject and are waiting for me to help them with the next lesson, they can play, work on a project, or jump ahead to a subject that they can do independently. So, break time just flows and changes each day. I don’t do well with time block schedules. We take as long as needed for each subject and break. We just roll with it.

 

I like to describe our homeschool routine as structured flexibility. Making the best use of our time at home allows us the flexibility to go on many adventures with our friends. Most days are a bit different, but we’ve developed a homeschool routine that keeps us on track with our structured school work while allowing time for lots of extra events.