Here we are. It is March 17th, and on most Tuesday afternoons at 2:50 pm my girls are in rest after a full homeschool morning while Laz naps, and I am standing at the corner waiting for CJ to arrive home on his beloved bus route. But on this Tuesday, CJ, like many of your children, is already home from public school due to closures. Thankfully, this transition to having another kindergartener home has been quite smooth for us because we were already a homeschool family. However, many families have been suddenly thrust into homeschooling, potentially also while working at home or managing other small children at home. Teachers have done an AMAZING job of providing so many resources for kiddos, including worksheets, daily schedules, and online lessons, but I know it can still be hard to see the “big picture” of a homeschool day, piece by piece.
We have been a family of routine since Lydia was a baby. I am hopelessly type A, and I. fail miserably at spontaneity. Thankfully my kids also thrive on routine and predictability, and they could probably list this schedule off to you themselves.
Our schedule
7:30 AM Wake up and do morning habits
8:15 AM Breakfast with Hymn study
9:00 AM Family Chores
9:15/30 AM Family School Time
10:00 AM Individual School Time
11:00 AM Free Play
11:30 AM Cosmic Kids/Other PE or movement activity
12:00 PM Lunch with Stories Podcast
12:30 PM Free Play
1:00 PM Table Time/Sensory Play
1:30 PM Read aloud time and in rooms for rest
1:50-3:30 PM Rest time with books, MeReaders, audiobooks
3:30-5:30 PM Free Play or crafting/ Outside Time/ Dinner Prep
5:30 PM Dinner with devotional from Daddy
6:30 PM Family Play with Daddy
7:00-7:30 PM Shower and Reading before bed
7:30 PM Boys in Bed
7:45 PM Girls in Bed
The Breakdown
The highlighted portions above are really what I would consider our “school day” from about 8:15-1:50 when we have educational content mixed with playtime and “specials” type activities at home. I’ll create another post with specific curriculum resources for each of these portions of the day, but for now here are some more details of each part or the “school day.”
Breakfast and Hymn
I get up walk the dog, get dressed, drink a pre-game cup of coffee, and prep breakfast. This makes it super easy to just come downstairs and start our day. We listen to hymns on our iPad at breakfast. I give the kids the words the first week because even the non-readers like to pretend to follow. We listen to it twice at breakfast for two weeks, trying to memorize the words, talking about their meaning, etc. Then it goes into our “review” rotations, and we pick two “review hymns” to listen to each day also.
Family Chores
We spend just a few minutes in the morning with each kiddo doing a different chore. Some of the chores that have proved to work well so far:
-emptying the dishwasher
-loading and moving laundry in washer/dryer
-emptying the garbage cans in bathrooms/bedrooms
-wiping down table after breakfast
-cleaning the powder room toilet and vanity (for the older kids)
-dusting the playroom
This is complicated for me by having a toddler also. We would fold and sort clothes, clean upstairs bedrooms, etc. but he is a destroyer of worlds and not trustworthy in some spots of the house. Someday those will be added back in too, and this may not be an issue for you if you don’t have any toddler people.
Family School
This is time when we do school activities that all the kids can do together, no matter their individuals level. Sometimes we are having rough days (i.e. the “togetherness” is not working out) and parts of this time get cut. However, during this time we typically do 5 things:
1. Reviewing our letter and number of the week
2. Practicing our memory verse and read our Bible story
3. Have “Calendar Time”-going over day of the week, reviewing the month and season, talking about the weather
4. Do our Enrichment Activity by reading and doing the next activity on the roll of notecards (we get books from the library to help us with these also)
-Read a poem
-Picture study/look at a beautiful piece of art for 1 min
-Pray for missionary friends
-Review old Bible verses
-Composer study/listen to music from specific composer
5. Read our Read-Aloud or Five-in-a-Row book and any supplementary books or extension activities
Our school area of the playroom for family school
Individual School Time
Right now Five-in-a-Row, which I’ll share about more in the curriculum post, covers the science, literature, and social studies we do for each week during family school time.
Since my kiddos are only in preschool and kindergarten, that leaves only
-Writing (or letter study for the PreK kiddos)
-Math
-Reading/Phonics
I’ll link all the resources we use for these in the curriculum post. The program we use right now for K for writing encompasses both handwriting and elements of writing, so when I say writing I mean both of those.
Table time/Sensory Play
Each afternoon we clean up the playroom before rest time and “wind down” with table time. The kids have option to do various sensory activities including sensory bins (rice, beans, pasta, etc.) , play-doh, or slime; dry eraser books; sticker books; or simply to color. We listen to some music, and they just take 15-30 min to pretend and create. My sister-in-law is queen of sensory bin ideas, and we typically plan to prep a new bin every other week or so in correspondence with our Five-in-a-row plans. But if sensory play and making bins isn’t your idea of a good time, or if you are afraid of the mess, my kids also love the classics of play-doh and dollar store slime just as much!
Grace.
If you are homeschooling for the first time, a repeat time, or (maybe you feel like this) the last time, give yourself grace while we wait out these days at home. This is a “typical” day for us, and honestly, most days aren’t “typical.” Most days are messy, despite my type-A longing for a consistent rhythm. Throw them outside all morning on the nice days and inspect nature and play in the dirt. Just eat up this time together. I am not good at giving myself grace or making space for rest, but I am learning that this schedule isn’t everything. While I hope you find it helpful. I hope mostly that you find rest and joy with your little people while you have this time.
The Grayt Adventure 