This is a sample of our typical homeschooling day…
8:15-9:00am True and Brave alternate practicing piano and their Spanish homework
9:00-9:30am Spelling and Latin (Latin takes about 10 minutes)
9:30-10:30am Math
10:30-12:00pm Writing, grammar, and reading
12:00-2:00pm Lunch/play
2:00-3:00pm History/science (we alternate the days)
3:00-4:30pm Spanish with Grandmama (read about it here)
Above is the guideline we follow three out of five days of the week. One of the other days, they go to school all day, and on another, school is woven between swim, piano, and dance lessons. The great thing is that we have a lot of flexibility, and so sometimes, we do school in my bed (as seen above).
You might ask what the younger two are doing during this time, Soul is usually working on some simple alphabet or counting activities, and Glow is napping. Say what?! Yeah, Glow is 3 years old and she still takes two naps a day. It’s the strangest thing to us, but we’ll gladly take it. She naps between 9-12pm and 2-4ish. She’s been the best at napping, and if she doesn’t get her nap, she’ll start complaining that she’s tired. We are pretty amazed at her napping abilities. When I go to get her from nap, most times, she’s still sleeping! If not, she’s quietly playing by herself. It’s almost like she needs the break from all of us too. HA!
Now, your next thought is probably, “What time does she go to bed?” The kids start getting ready for bed around 7pm, in bed by 7:30ish, and they have quiet reading time until 8:30pm. You’re now wondering, “What time do they wake up?” It varies… Soul’s usually the first one at 6:45ish, and the rest of them between 7-730am.
Anyhow, I usually start cooking around 4:30pm, and we aim to have dinner at 5:30pm. The girls are pretty good at entertaining each other while I’m in the kitchen, but I probably should start getting them involved more. The days are full and by the time 7 o’clock rolls around, I’m exhausted and ready to zone out. Lights out for me a little after 10pm, and I wake up at 5am to do it all over again (Ben and I workout before the girls wake up). So when do I blog? I do it after dinner. Ben cleans up and gets the girls ready for bed, and I take care of the things I need to online, then I chill out with a book or a show on Hulu (I watch Scandal and Blacklist).
You can read a post about our curriculum choices here.
Thanks for posting! I have always been curious about homeschooling schedules. I’m a teacher, but dream of homeschooling my kids one day! : )
You are one busy mama! But with a life so full of joy 🙂 Thank you for sharing your schedule. I’ve always been fascinated by supermoms who homeschool and do it all. I can’t believe that you manage to workout, be a teacher, be a mom, be a driver, be a cook, and blog in the evenings! You’re amazing!
Circus & Bloom
♥♥♥
hahaha insane is more like it!
what a busy, but fun day! you are a rockstar
xx nikki
http://www.dream-in-neon.com
this is really lovely to read about 🙂 i try to do learning things with my 3 year old but she has no interest in it! she’ll love to paint or something for a week and then abruptly not like it anymore it’s certainly a challenge but probs normal. your girls are great!!
My 3 and 4 year old is the same… I just make sure to let them have lots of play! Soul is starting to have more structured instruction, but she can only take so much.
Wow your days are really full! We usually finish around 12pm then have lunch. We are done for the day. I dont have any energy to start school again once rest time is over! Good for you!
p.s.- California has a certain number of hours a day that you have to school the kids right? Is that why you have full days?
Thanks
Katie
http://www.lemonheadpress.com
Maybe our days are full because my kids are older? We don’t have to do a certain number of hours, but the curriculum we follow does take up that much time.
I’m so impressed. : ) Way to go, mama!
I’m really impressed by the rythme of your day. I would love to have the same kind of journey but in France we ate dinner at 7 :30 pm or even 8pm so the kids won’t be able to go to bed until 9 pm. 5 pm is almost our snack time !
It’s great to read you and the way you raise your children.
Nathalie from Paris
Wow! So interesting! Do you family dinners, or do the children eat first and you together as a couple? I’m so structured and I really feel that helps our family stay on track and keep that good rhythm.
So fun to see your schedule!! Especially the after school stuff, like dinner, blogging, and going to bed early. That’s awesome!
You are truly a super mom! Do you have any advice on starting early homeschooling on toddlers? Is this age too early?
I’m not one to be quick to start kids early. I think kids need to be kids and have plenty of play, so I never pushed having to learn things too early if they didn’t show interest. I think all kids will eventually learn how to read and write, so I just went at the pace I thought fit them. I never did any specific learning activities with my kids as toddlers, but just made sure they had lots of time to explore and play. I think they learn so much from just doing that, and they will be plenty time of organized learning later.
I’m so glad I found your blog, is beautiful and you do homeschooling too, my son is homeschool too.
Have a great day!
X
Thank you! I hope you visit again!
Thank you for sharing about the schedule. What school do they go to on the day that they go all day? I didn’t know that there were schools like that.
They are part of a local charter school. They have the option of going one or two days. I chose the one since two would take away too much of our own curriculum we do at home. Where do you live? If in SoCal, I have a couple charter schools I can recommend!
Hi! I liked reading this post, it was very informative. It sounds like the girls have a great school schedule!
I was thinking that you might be interested in the cookbook ‘Pretend Soup’ for the younger girls. I grew up with it and it’s a great way to get younger children involved in the chicken. Here’s a link to it on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Pretend-Soup-Other-Real-Recipes/dp/1883672066
I will look up that recommendation! Thank you so much for sharing!
ha oops my phone autocorrected kitchen to chicken!