A day in the life of homeschoolers

I get asked what a typical day in homeschooling looks like a lot.  Usually if I get asked the same questions more than 3 times, I turn it into a blog post so I can keep my thoughts straight and maybe it can help clarify things for someone else.

First of all, there is no such thing as a "Typical" day when you homeschool and if you ask 10 different homeschooling moms (or dads) you will not hear the same answer twice.  I almost guarantee that!  Homeschooling families have different visions of what their homeschool should look like.  Some want a higher academic standard, some want a religious base, some want to keep their children away from negative influences and bullying, some want their kids to pursue their own likes and follow their dreams, and some do nothing which is considered unschooling.  We do not fit any of those categories exclusively but we have a more eclectic approach.  We like to mix it up.  We do not use textbooks for everything and when we do, we pick and choose what we need, we do not fill out worksheets all day, and we do not school in our pajamas (not every day anyway), and we do not have the same schedule every day but usually school falls between 10 and 3.  We are not morning people.  Homeschooling is a very unique experience with many different ways and ideas on how to homeschool successfully.  You just have to know your kids and find the best way.
So typical homeschool day, never heard of one but I will give some examples of what our days look like.

Mondays, when the official school year is in full swing, we spend most of Monday at enrichment classes.  This means we have to leave our house by 11:30-12 (GASP)!!!  This sound hilarious but sometimes, even pulling that off is hard.  Before we go, we do math and Latin and if there is time, anything else I choose which is often just eating lunch.  We call that nutrition class.  We usually end up hanging out with an assortment of friends after classes are over at 4:20 at which point both my kids are starving to death and have to go to Taco Bell for bean burritos, nachos, and a Pepsi, otherwise they would both surely die from lack of food.  This is a lesson on hunger which I do not believe they have ever been starving to death but this is as close as I think they will ever get so I use the moment to explain to them that they are really just hungry and they know food is coming soon so they do not have to worry about it.  We get home around 6, and they either go outside, we go for a walk, or they use the computers for a bit.  After that a snack, movie, and bedtime which is pretty late here for us which probably explains the not being morning people.  So that is Monday.

Tuesday is not all that glamous.  We get up and start off with math around 10.  I give them the lessons and they do the work but I am handy if they need me.  If I am off somewhere busy doing something else, they totally take advantage and when I come back, there are a lot of nice drawings and I hear the piano which sound awesome but I know the math has not been done.  When the cat's away........After math, they are usually hungry (imagine that, my starving kids are hungry) so they either have lunch or have a snack (nutrition class) and then we do some unit study work from what ever unit we are working on.  We also work on science projects, try to grow something, dig something up, dissect something, moving making, LA activities, piano practice, photography practice, and individual silent reading.  They also follow their own interests at that point as well.

Wednesday and Thursday look a lot like Tuesday with the exception of Awana on Wednesday night, and we will often have group activities or lunches with friends planned for any of these days so that means everything gets shifted back a bit.  We also do a library run and piano lessons are on Thursdays and when we are out, we have to do the grocery shopping.  I used to go to the grocery store by myself and leave them with their dad but I found out how much they hate to go to the grocery store so now I take them with me because I can. Ha Ha!  We call this home economics class. 

Fridays are our day to play.  We go to homeschool ice skating from 10:30 to 12:30 every Friday morning and that is their ice skating lesson day as well.  The lesson is 35 minutes long and this counts as PE.  We do make it on time for that believe it or not.  After that, we always go to lunch with friends (nutrition class) and that is usually followed by a trip to Barnes and Noble or somewhere else.  We are usually gone until 3ish on Friday so that usually means the school gets done on Saturday because I am too brain dead from all the socializing.  Saturday school is no big deal here because we do what we have to do when we can do it.  We are out of the house a lot with our social events and extracurricular lessons so we have to allow time for all that fun time out and still get the school day done.  Even on Saturday.

So that is basically it.  We are required to do 4 hours of school a day, and I think we more than fill that obligation and then some with all of our outside activities.

Happy homeschooling!