Weekly Wrap-up ~ A Day in Our Schooling Life (15, 8, and 6)

Over at Simple Homeschool, we have been invited to post about a day in the life of our schooling day. We homeschool a 15 year old 9th grader and a 6 year old 2nd grader. We also have an 8 year old 2nd grader who is in public school. Here is what our typical day looks like:

6:30 a.m. ~ I start my day before everyone else. Ideally I like to get up at 6:00 a.m., but I've gotten lazy as of late! I get up and have my quiet time with the Lord and spend a little time on the computer. Then I get in the shower and get ready for my day.

My Bible, devotional, glasses, computer, books I'm reading, Homeschool planner, and more.

8:00 a.m. ~ Eli is up, but not too excited about it. He has his breakfast, watches a show on t.v., and then gets ready for school. Before he leaves, he reads his book to me while I am making his lunch.

9:00 a.m. ~ I have just dropped Eli off at school, and I come home and get Dawson up for the day. While he is showering, I feed the dogs and straighten up a bit.

9:30 a.m. ~ Usually by this time Dawson is eating his breakfast on the couch while I read our current read-a-loud. Right now we are reading Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. I call this class "Lay on the Couch in PJ's while Mom Reads to Me 101". He has an A+ in this class.

This is my favorite time of the day. An ease into our day, and time to learn together.

10:00 a.m. ~ If we are watching a history video, as we are now (North and South), we do it around this time. Brynne has typically woken up by this time and is eating breakfast and watching a video, playing her 3DS, or playing with the dogs. A lot of times she is doing all three at the same time.

Historical fiction videos have been an enriching part of our history lessons this year.

11:30 a.m. ~ Our video and discussion time is over. Dawson and I discuss his assignments for the day and he usually retreats upstairs to get started on his independent work (Algebra, Grammar, Critical Thinking, Literature, History assignments). And it's time for Brynne and I to get started with her work.

She always starts her day with her Grammar assignment, Copywork, Handwriting, and Spelling.

12:00 p.m. ~ It's time for lunch. We usually eat for about 30 minutes. Sometimes Dawson does some kind of work while eating. Today it was watching more of our North and South video. Brynne likes to eat her lunch in her and Eli's room. She was watching Beethoven on her 3DS (LOVE the 3DS!). She has been learning about Dogs for the past couple of weeks, so has watched lots of movies about dogs in her spare time.

Dawson's favorite lunch of homemade mini-pizzas.

And Brynne's staple of life: macaroni and cheese.

12:30 p.m. ~ Dawson heads back to his Independent Work. Brynne and I move into her Unit study. Right now we are studying Dogs. We read books, do activities, typically learn an Idiom, discuss class and breeds of dogs, watch videos. If we have U.S. States assignments for that day (we usually work on it a couple days a week), we do them at this time, as well.

We ALWAYS have a dog, or two or three or four, with us.

Brynne's Missouri notebooking and mapping pages from this week.

1:30 p.m. ~ Usually around this time, Dawson and I have come back together for any other work we need to do together. Typically, it's Biology. We either read, do experiments, have discussion, work on projects. Here is where we also do any group art assignments, if we are working on them. Brynne is usually doing her independent reading during this time, as well.

2:00 p.m. ~ Brynne and I end our time together doing her Math assignments. Sometimes we do our MEP book lessons. Sometimes we do Living Math. And sometimes she does math games on the computer.

2:30 p.m. ~ Dawson finishes up his Independent work by about 2:30 p.m. every day. At the end of the day, Brynne usually plays some computer or iPad games. "ABCya" and "Stack the States" are her two favorites.

In the afternoon, I usually start dinner preparations. I also do any housework that needs to be done.

3:30 p.m. ~ I pick Eli up from school. He and I come straight home and do any homework he has. We are usually done by 4:30 p.m. I have got to where I then give him and Brynne their baths, unless they are playing outside. After baths, I get all of the bedtime rituals done and finish up dinner.

This was his hardest spelling test this year, and he got a 100% on the Pre-test!

5:30 p.m. ~ We have dinner when Rick gets home. Then the kids usually head upstairs to play while Rick and I retire to the couch and watch television and/or read until 8:30 p.m. when the kids go to bed.


This is pretty much what our days look like, if we are home. But, of course, we are not always home. On Monday afternoons Dawson has guitar lessons. On Fridays we have Homeschool Co-op in the mornings. And we might have other activities and field trips. Like yesterday, Brynne went to the library at 4:45 p.m. to read a book to a Therapy Dog. This is definitely an activity that we will do every month. Our library was definitely my Favorite Resource of the week!

Brynne got to read to Tasha, a German Shepherd. We learned about German Shepherds last week, and have been learning about all of the different working breeds this week. She read two books to Tasha.

School for us certainly does not just happen between 9 and 2:30 each day. Sometimes it's earlier. Sometimes it's later. Sometimes it's on the weekend instead.

Our philosophy is that School is everywhere all the time. Learning has no beginning and no ending.

And sometimes school is "work" and sometimes it's "relaxing" and, maybe even, "fun". As I look back at the pictures of Dawson in this post, his day(s) look pretty relaxing and, maybe even, fun. I never could get a picture of him actually doing his independent work this week. And, on this particular day that I took the photos, we decided, at the last minute, to just finish the North and South series and move the other assignments to another day. Yeah, we can do that.

We are also linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

and Favorite Resource this Week at Learning all the Time.