A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Family

[Cootie Queen]

Do you have a daily routine? If so, what is it? How many hours a day do you spend on homeschool? How many days a week?

I'm desperate to homeschool my children but I know me, and I will need a very structured schedule. I am a 100% newbie here. I have no idea where to start.

Just start throwing tips at me. Please? :err:

[Lollipop]

:popcorn:
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[Ahavati]

Do you want to come over one day and we can go through our routine and you can do stuff with Kait and Dom?

Ours is insanely flexible. But usually it's about 4 hours or so. The boys are at a point they can do some on their own while I tend to the girls. Then I help them when needed. Kindergartners don't really need to do more than a couple hours. Sometimes we'll do a little in the morning and a little in the afternoon. (because of Chaiya being cranky lol)

If you need a schedule, just sit and set out a certain amount of time for each thing. But know that if you have a fussy day, or have stuff come up, it's ok to come back to it later in the day. With Ephram, I have to give lots of breaks. Because of the way he is, he gets overstimulated and just shuts down.

Like I said, we can have some "mock" school days if you want here! We still go through the summer, but about 3 days a week.

[Cootie Queen]

I'll have any kind of "mock" day you want. :creepy:

[mamablitz]

would love to hear some tips too! pweese

[My3Monkeys]

Our days vary due to the activities we are in. On days where we are home all day, we usually wake up, have breakfast, and start by 9. We usually start with math or language arts and then follow that by whatever one we didn't start with. We usually do an hour of each, have a little free time, lunch, and then back to schoolwork by 1:00. We do history or science in teh afternoon (sometimes both depending on what we are doing) and are usually done by 2:30-3:00. The schooled kiddos are 5 and 8. That only covers a couple of days a week though. On Mondays we have co-op, Wednesdays are park days, and Fridays are HS Girls Scouts so after we go there we usually fit in an hour of math and language arts in the afternoon. We also fit in reading time and educational tv shows in whenever. We are not terribly structured but it works for us :)

[ChickenNoise]

We do K12 and love it - I need the base line to make sure everybody is keeping up with at least the bare minimum :err: (although my 1st grader is well above 1st grade after only 4 months of homeschooling so yay!).

Mon-Thur: we pick 2 subjects and do 5 lessons in each. Takes about 2 hours, usually after breakfast. Later in the day, we do a practical lesson pertaining to her daily lessons (this may be a movie, library trip, museum, outside adventure, etc)

Fri: Field trip day - whatever floats our boat that she can get something out of. She has already completed more than enough lessons to meet her weekly quota.

If she seems to have too much spare time and isn't playing nicely throughout the day (she becomes destructive when bored), I will have her do some bookwork, handwriting, journal entries, or study island (or other internet learning games for school aged kidlets).

[Cootie Queen]

I'm loving all the tips and schedules. Thank you so much! Keep 'em coming. :)

[*Elf*]

Our schedule that will be in place this fall when we start back up. (I do a little every day now but not a whole ton, Math , Writing and Reading during the summer)

I'll give you basic timeline, but it won't always fall directly into each slot if one subject goes over. (And next year I will be doing 3rd grade, 1st grade and PreK )

(And for the record, I hate this schedule but necessary for us as it gets school done before my husband leaves for work so I can have some assistance with the younger two)

5 - devotions for me

5.30 - exercise and shower while B wakes up the children (clothes set out night before and Breakfast already ready)

6 - breakfast and clean up

6.30 - help T with Math, then L with Phonics, then R with alphabet (L and R will do handwriting while not actively with me, if T finishes Math in time he will do handwriting as well)

7 - Bible with all of them

7.30 - Language arts with T, Spelling with L, Phonics with R (when not busy with me, they listen to Spanish CD/cassettes)

8 - Science with all of them

8.30 - Spelling with T, Language arts with L, I read to R (L does flash cards with R while I'm with T and if T is finished he then does flashcards with Q)

9 - History with all of them

9.30 - Critical Thinking with T, L reads to me, R looks over the book of the week and points out letters, tries to read, etc..... (Boys do lapbooks, notebooks or any other work not already done.)

10- Geography with all of them

10.30 - T reads to me, L does fun educational games, R does Art (they switch when not with me)

11 - B has to leave by 11 and it is now lunch time and clean up

Afternoon is reserved for science fun, educational games, field trips, appointments, watching a Veggie Tales, etc.... They will all be getting a nap in the afternoon and then dinner at 3.30 and another meal at 8 then baths and bed before DH gets home at 9.00

I still have to tweak it some but for now this is my plan of attach and what I did this last year (minus having to add in R)