Our Homeschool Day in Pictures

Our homeschool day starts with breakfast. I wake up (around 7:30) and eat breakfast before the kids wake up, so I can make this time productive. I wake up any sleepy heads at 8am. That's when our day begins. While they're eating their oatmeal (or whatever Kyle made for us), I read our Bible study. I read a Psalm, a Proverb, and whatever verse Pastor Jesse preached on the last Sunday. By this time, everyone's finishing up eating. Then we go over our memory verse a few times. Finally, we practice whatever poem we're working on.

After breakfast, I plop down in a kitchen chair to supervise table chores. I just sit there, but I am accomplishing much. The children stay on task when I'm present.

Maya and Isaac don't get easily distracted, but everyone else does. ;)

Maya will one day be sorry she didn't take the sponge rollers out of her hair when I asked her to. I tried to warn her. {giggle}

Daniel and Lydia are still responsible for the dishwasher, but now they are responsible for the silverware too. (I always make them wash their hands first. ;) )

Ok, now back to school. A lot of this happens simultaneously, so pay attention:

Round one:

Isaac has the least amount to do on this day, so he helps Daniel and Lydia with their 2 pages of phonics worksheets. (Get Ready for the Code.) Julia-the-Funky-Headed supervises, but doesn't help at all. She never helps anyone come to think of it.

While Daniel and Lydia are doing their phonics, I'm supervising Elena and Chloe's Latin lesson. (Maya and Isaac used to do this, but they kept mispronouncing the words, so I decided to have them wait. Reading and writing first, right?)

While Elena and Chloe are doing Latin, Maya is upstairs reading along to Robinson Crusoe while the audiobook plays. Her comprehension is very good, but her phonics is coming along very slowly. I decided not to hold her back from good literature.

Round two:

Maya is still listening to her audiobook; Elena and Chloe have finished Latin. Elena is now in my room doing long division. She cannot handle any distractions at all during math, but I figured out she also gets lonely being banished to my room, so I work out a time when I can sit with her.

While I'm supervising Elena's math, Lydia and Daniel start on their chores.

While Lydia and Daniel are doing their chores and then getting dressed for the day, Isaac is doing copywork. He is a perfectionist, but as a boy, he hates handwriting, so this takes him awhile.

While Isaac is doing his copywork at the table, Chloe's doing her math drill. She's currently taking a break from multiplication until she gets all her facts down.

Round three:

Elena has finished her math quickly, since I'm there and she's not distracted. So now, she reads Mother Goose to Daniel and Lydia. Each of the big kids get a day to read to the littles. We're taking our time working through Ambleside Year 0.

While Elena's reading to the littles, Chloe is doing her reading. She loves biographies, so I picked up a bunch of Christian Heroes for Young Readers. She loves these.

Elena has chosen Elsie Dinsmore, and Isaac has chosen The Frog and Toad Treasury. (But they're not reading right now.)

Isaac and Maya are taking turns doing math drills and getting dressed for the day.

Lydia and Daniel are now done with their school for the day. They're now upstairs playing while Elena does her copywork.

Ok, now the rotations part of our school day is over.

Daniel and Lydia are playing upstairs or outside, and I've just put Julia down for her nap. It's now about 11am. I gather the four big kids and we do our history and/or science readings. (Maya was taking the picture.)

We're wrapping up medieval history, and I'm reading The Whipping Boy. The kids are loving this book! After reading this for about 20 minutes, I'll switch to a picture book (currently Peter the Great) or nature study (currently Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 4).

They narrate back to me what they remember of the story after I read and we'll stop after each place I read about and I'll have them point it out on the map, i.e. "Peter the Great visited Venice. . . (Do ya'll remember where Venice is? Right, Italy. Isaac, show us where Italy is.)"

If you have a big map handy, it literally takes seconds to teach geography.

Later that night, around the dinner table, I'll ask: Who can tell Daddy what happened to Prince Horace and the Whipping Boy today?

Because they're creating a relationship with the book, they'll be able to tell you about Prince Horace a year from now. They haven't just memorized the dates and names in medieval history, they've actually learned it.

After reading time, we take a break and all have a snack.

Now it's about 11:45. I help Isaac with his phonics lesson (he does a lesson out of ". . .100 Easy Lessons", then he reads a chapter out of a Phonics Pathway reader.)

While he's reading to me, Maya is starting to prepare lunch and Elena is doing her reading upstairs. Chloe is getting dressed for the day.

When I'm ready to help Maya with her phonics lesson (She does the same thing he does), Isaac goes to get everyone else, so they can begin setting the table for lunch.

Lunch happens when all the school is done. Usually by 12:30.