Today’s Blog Hop on the iHomeschool Network is all about “A Day in the Life of Homeschooling”. Since our first week was last week and I’m still trying to iron out everything and figure out a schedule that will meet all of our needs, my post today is going to be the schedule-in-my-head-that-I-think-will-work-but-only-time-will-tell! In a few weeks, once all the wrinkles iron out, and we fall into our rhythm for this year, it will be interesting to see how close this schedule-in-my-head is to our reality!

I’m not going to include many specific times because I don’t feel that information needs to be shared on a public site, so I will just stick with sharing what activities we will plan to do during certain non-specific times of the day!

So, here goes:

7:30am: My alarm goes off. This is a big change for me as I am trying to make myself get up half an hour before the girls. I am not one of those jack-in-the-box people who pop out of bed the moment the alarm sounds. I have to have time to wake up a little before rolling out of bed. So, in reality I’ve only had about 15 minutes before time to go get the girls up. Just in one week of doing this (and there were still 8am roll out of bed days for me!), I can see the phenomenal difference even just 15 minutes of getting out of bed before the girls makes on my mornings! The mornings I’ve managed to get out of bed before 8am, I’ve been able to get dressed, start a load of laundry, fold laundry from the day before, and essentially just get a jump-start to the day. It truly is an amazing way to start the day and when I go to get the girls up I feel like I am already ahead of the game!

8am: The girls wake up. Get dressed. Do Morning Chores. Eat breakfast.

And then a slew of activities take place, depending on the day. Even though I am a very structured person and keep my children on a schedule/routine (whatever you want to call it), every day is different! While we do have several time slots in our schedule that are “set in stone” and we rarely deviate from those times (like meal times, nap time and bed time), other slots in our schedule are very fluid and are filled with a variety of different activities on any given day.

Morning activities include:

• Bible time in the morning after breakfast. I want to start this habit early with my girls. After Bible time we read a few books together. I am thinking about doing Sweet Pea’s Learning Time before she goes to Room Time.

• Room Time: Both girls still play independently in their bedrooms for 60 minutes. I may shorten Little Bug’s room time 1-2 times a week in order to get a teaching block with her in the morning on days we are not home during the afternoon due to other activities. I also use this block of time to check email, start a load of laundry, write blogs and start a crock pot meal cooking for dinner.

• Outside Time: My girls love being outside, even when it is sweltering hot outside. Doesn’t phase them in the least bit. By this time of year I am always so ready for fall and cooler weather!
• TV Time: While I prep lunch, Little Bug watches TV for 30 minutes. Sweet Pea usually hangs out with me in the kitchen and helps me “cook” or does puzzles or does her own thing playing. I also do chores at this time.

Afternoon activities include:

• Lunch: We sit down to eat lunch together around noon.
• Around 12:30 or 12:45, I take Sweet Pea to her bedroom to read to her before her nap. While I am doing this Little Bug is either finishing up her lunch or playing in the playroom.
• 12:45/1pm Sweet Pea is in bed for her nap.

• I clean up what is left to clean up from lunch and then this will be Little Bug’s main school time with me (about 45ish minutes). To read my post on our curriculum choices for 2013-2014 click HERE. To see our homeschool area click HERE.
• I am still trying to figure out what we will do on what days. That is just something that will take a little time to iron itself out, but I am thinking in my head it will be something like this: Ready-Made Preschool three days a week, Saxon Math K & Hands On Thinking Skills two days a week. RMPK is meant to be done 4x/week and Saxon Math K is meant to be done 3x/week. However, if I do it like they suggest, we will be done with lessons in March/April and I’d like to carry on through the middle of May. Going at a slower pace may just be the perfect solution to make our school year a little longer!
• At 1:45pm we read books before Little Bug goes down for her nap at 2pm. I spend the first 20-30 minutes of naptime doing a chore, if needed, and then I relax usually by writing blogs and reading until naptime is over. And lately, a lot of naptime has been spent researching curriculum and planning for our homeschool year.
• Another factor that I will have to consider is Little Bug is 4 years old and, within the year, she is most likely going to be giving up her nap altogether. She already skips nap every so often because “I just wasn’t sleepy Mommy”. When she does drop her nap, she will still have a “Quiet Time” on her bed for (I’m guessing) 1 hour. We will just see how all that pans out because an awake Little Bug is never a quiet Little Bug so I am not sure how long she can realistically quietly lay in her bed reading books. All that to say, probably soon, I will have this WIDE OPEN slot of time that used to be “naptime” that I will need to fill for Little Bug! Most likely, I will add in some more school during that time because it will be the perfect time to work with Little Bug while Sweet Pea naps. I am thinking I might try All About Reading with her when this time comes. At this time I am not sure if I will start her on the pre-reading level or Level 1.

• 4pm: Nap time is over, and this is when our days really get random!
• After naptime and before Dave gets home from work, we do lots of different things like: run errands, more outside time, play in the playroom together, read books together, play games, do chores together etc.
• I’ve thought about maybe doing a structured learning time activity that both girls could participate in during this time. I am loving what I am reading about Five in a Row. This time slot might be an excellent time to row some books with the girls 1-2 times a week while we are waiting for Daddy to get home. I am also seriously considering incorporating BFIAR into Sweet Pea’s Learning Time after the New Year.

Evening activities include:

• 6pm: Ideally, I like for us to be sitting down to eat dinner together at 6pm. But it’s usually anywhere from 6-6:30pm.
• 6:30-8:30pm: Daddy Time for the girls. I clean up the kitchen. Dave gives the girls a bath. Sweet Pea is in bed at 7:30pm. I might do some chores that didn’t get done earlier in the day for whatever reason. Dave reads to Little Bug. Little Bug is in bed at 8:15/8:30pm.
• As soon as Little Bug is in bed, I take Pup for a walk and/or fold a load of laundry to clear my mind from the day so that I can have my Quiet Time with the Lord. It helps to prepare my mind going into my time with the Lord and a quiet walk or mindless activity like folding laundry really helps me to focus my attention away from the day’s activities so I can focus on what the Lord might want to tell me that night. I am doing the Chronological Bible Study with a group of girls from church but during a two week break due to back to school activities, I came across the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory method and have started doing this. I struggle with Scripture Memory, even though I know it is imperative that we hide God’s Word in our heart, but this method is absolutely amazing at getting you to put the Word of God in your heart on a daily basis. It only takes five minutes a day and all you need to get started is a library index card box with 41 dividers. I will be writing a post about this more in detail soon. I am loving this method. It really is genius!
• 10:30pm: My bedtime. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! I guess I should say my ideal bedtime. It is a curse, I tell you, to be a night owl! I am trying trying trying to be going to sleep by 11pm, especially since my alarm is now going off at 7:30 and I require a lot of sleep! I think my ideal sleep schedule would be 12/1am-10am. Haha! Try telling that to a 4 and 2 year old. Not going to happen. Going to bed “on time” is such a struggle for me! I see my role as “homeschool mom” as my job and if I had a teaching job at the public school, I would have to be getting my rest to function and teach well. My girls deserve the same and even more! I really am striving to develop new habits in myself this year so that I can be on top of my game for my new role of “homeschool mom”. But it is OH SO HARD going against what your body naturally wants to do! I can be dead tired to the world at 4pm but 10pm rolls around and I have all the energy of the universe. It is nuts…and a curse to anyone with small children!

And, that’s our day. Some areas are already worked out because it’s what we’ve been doing for a while now and it is still working to meet the needs of our family at this season in life. The other parts will eventually work themselves out in time and within a month or so, we will all be in the new rhythm of our homeschool schedule…and I can come back to this post and see how similar my brain and reality actually are!!

Please note:

I’ve been meaning to say this for a while now… My blog posts contain absolutely NO affiliate links. I do not make a penny off blogging. It is simply something I love doing and something I do to hopefully encourage others who are going through infertility, adopting, are parenting and/or homeschooling! The links I provide in my posts are strictly there because I like what I am linking to and the link is there for your convenience!

- Elaine