A Typical Homeschool Day

In order to dispel any notions of constant fun and games in the course of a normal homeschooling day, I thought it might be helpful to describe what a typical day looks like for us. Other families and houses will look totally different – perhaps some do manage to have fun all day long! Personally, I feel that it’s worth kids getting used to the idea that work isn’t all fun, so that they are more prepared for real life. In most of life, work is hard and requires diligence and perseverance to succeed!

Below is a (non-lock down) version of our schedule! To adjust to lock down, we have pretty much replaced any social interaction with extra walks around our local area and video calls with friends.

• 6.45 am
  • Breakfast
  • Clean up breakfast and begin chores
• 8 am
  • Run / bike ride for about 20-30min
  • Get Isabella (1 yr) to bed for morning nap. Finish chores.
• 9 am
  • We aim to start schoolwork by this time. Lately, the kids have been pretty good at getting on with some work even earlier, while I’m still getting Isabella to bed or getting some chores done.
    • We try to begin our time together everyday with a Bible reading, which at the moment is from our Easter reading plan. Sophia (3 1/2 yrs) usually joins in for this.
    • After Bible I first check that Sophia is happy playing or has some activities to do, then I usually read a short section from Story of the World, followed by a chapter of our current fiction book. During this time the kids will do some copywork or handwriting; anything that doesn’t require too much concentration!
    • Maths, writing, reading (including phonics), spelling and grammar are all priority subjects, and depending on the day will have a greater or lesser amount of time spent on them during the early morning.
• 10.30 am
  • Morning tea
  • Isabella often wakes up around this time.
• Late morning
  • Finish off the morning’s work plus do some extra topic studies on Science or Social Studies e.g. Plants, Countries or Spanish.
• 12/12.30 pm
  • Lunch
• Afternoons
  • A little more time may be spent on the academic subjects if required
  • Isabella has another nap at some point – I work it in around the activities
  • Activities vary and (depending on the time of year, and on how tired I am) may alternate between:
    • Art or craft (30min-1 hour)
    • Piano practise (ideally every day)
    • Walk with Granny
    • Game or fun activity
    • Social catch up with another family, for fun
    • Sport or other organised homeschool activity
    • Nature study meet up
    • Writing group (IEW) meeting with other families
    • Rotation Stations
  • Free time at home – usually at least some every day, sometimes for the majority of the afternoon
• 4.30 pm
  • I usually start dinner prep by this time
• 5 pm
  • Kids start big clean up and have baths/showers
• 5.30/6 pm
  • Dinner time
• 7 pm
  • Isabella’s bedtime, Scott reads to the kids.
• 7.30 pm
  • Sophia (3 1/2) and Jessica’s (6) bedtime. Grace and Alex read.
• 8 pm
  • Grace (10) and Alex’s (8) bedtime.

There are of course variations to this schedule. For example, every Friday morning we do swimming lessons, and occasionally there is a special event such as the Science Fair or Cross Country, which are well worth going to! Appointments and other life events get in the way sometimes, but we do our best to work around these. Also, interspersed throughout the day are plenty of fights, arguments and the associated consequences!

On the whole, I find it really helpful to have a basic routine/schedule in place, so that everyone knows what to expect! That, plus a dose of flexibility seems to work well for our family.