This is my third day in the life post since starting this blog. You can check out my previous posts My Homeschool Day in the life with a 5, 8, and 10-year-old and A Day in the Life of Our Summer with an 11, 8, and 6-year-old. A typical day at our house involves me getting up fairly early. I do this about 4-5 days a week. The other 2-3 mornings I sleep in a little because I get too tired if I don’t.
6:00 a.m. My alarm goes off. I’m feeling pretty good this morning and don’t have much trouble getting up. I immediately put on my bathrobe, go power up my laptop, and get to work. I work on blog related tasks at this time of the morning most days. I love that the house is quiet and still and that I can focus completely on the task at hand. My favorite place to work in the early morning hours is on the couch under a warm and cozy blanket.
7:11 I call it quits so I can go and get ready for the day. This morning I do my makeup and hair before heading into the kitchen to start fixing some breakfast.
7:30 Two of the kids show up in the kitchen, but the third one must be tired this morning as she doesn’t show up until the rest of us are pretty-much-done breakfast. We go ahead and read the Bible without her. (We’ve been reading through the Bible for the last two years) I’m not picky about my kids getting up at a certain time, as I figure if they need the sleep I can let them sleep. We call this a homeschooling perk.
8:00 Most of us are done eating breakfast, so the kids head off to get dressed and ready for the day. I start the laundry, tidy up the house, open up the curtains, and keep the kids on task. Once the kids are finished getting ready for the day, they do their assigned chores. They do things like taking out the garbage, cleaning up the kitchen, sorting laundry, etc, etc. ‘Nea practices the piano.
8:30 ish We all head for our separate rooms. This is my favorite time of the day! I spend this time before we start school, reading the Bible and praying. The girls do their personal devotions during this time as well. Dilly just plays.
9:00 ish Our Room time is done and we generally begin our schoolwork right after. Today, however, I’m behind. The weekend was so busy that I didn’t get our Monthly schedules ready. I take this time to quickly finish the schedules. Thankfully, I had at least started them so I don’t have to do them from scratch.
9:30 I am finally ready for our school portion of the day! We always being our day with a weather check, talking about the date on the calendar, and saying our current memory verse. (The weather and calendar is mostly for the benefit of our 1st grader) After this, we begin our Opening Time. We use this time to discuss what we’ve read in our personal Bible Reading times and talk about who we are praying for. Lest you think this is glamorous, let me assure this is not. Sometimes it is beautiful, but a lot of the time it is short and sweet and to the point.
Lastly, our Opening Time includes read aloud time. We are currently reading “The Incredible Journey.” This book includes a lot of big words and my 9-year-old says that it’s really hard to understand, so I take the time to let her asks questions and to explain the meanings of some of the words. (Our opening time is usually around 30-40 minutes)
At this point, we head into our school room and get down to business. Each of my children has a planner, so they know exactly what is required of them. I don’t have any rules for which subject gets done first, as long as they finish all their work. My girls are required to choose things that they can work on independently to start, as Dilly generally begins with Reading Lessons or Math, both of which he needs consistent help with.
10:50 We take a break. This is the time that I usually send the children outside for 20 minutes, but today we are experiencing a blizzard so I allow them to stay inside. They ask if they can watch an episode of Magic School bus, so I allow them to as it’s about 20 minutes long. I clean off the kitchen the table that didn’t get done earlier, as well as wiping the bathroom sink and counter. I put the laundry in the dryer.
11:15ish We get back to work. ‘Nea finishes up fairly quickly, but Dilly and BJ work pretty much right until 12:00 or a little later. I start to correct books and cleanup. BJ goes to practice piano, ‘Nea begins to clean her room. For some reason, she is in the mood to organize and clean. This is highly unusual for her. Dilly is all over the place, generally bugging someone.
12:10ish I got side-tracked by checking my email and didn’t get the books all cleaned up. I head upstairs to get lunch ready. We had leftovers for Supper yesterday, so we have random stuff today for lunch. The kids eat rice cakes, peanuts, and pickles. I make myself a salad with cantaloupe and pecans. I also eat a handful of peanuts.
Next, I fold the laundry and the kids do their afternoon chores. Today, ‘Nea loads the dishwasher, Dilly clears the table, BJ sweeps the porch. I finish the table job by wiping it. I vacuum the upstairs and the downstairs as that’s my Tuesday job. The kids finish before me and BJ and ‘Nea both get into organizing and cleaning their rooms. BJ ends up helping ‘Nea which means it’s looking really good, as BJ is really good at organizing. They both even end up de-cluttering! I’m pretty excited!
1:15 We get ready to take BJ and ‘Nea to piano lessons. We live right in town so there was no point in canceling them. Sadly, the library is closed because of the weather, so we end up dropping off BJ, doing a few errands, and heading home for awhile until it’s Nea’s turn. We repeat the process until ‘Nea is done and then we are home for the rest of the day.
2:35 We are home and we all have Quiet Time and Snack time. This is a time that each child gets to be on their own and do whatever they want, except for screens. Today, Dilly asks to go outside (yes in the blizzard) and he actually lasts 20 minutes) I generally use the quiet time to work, read, sleep, or waste time on Facebook. Today, I wasted a little time on Facebook, read, and then slept.
4:00 My Quiet Time ended up being really long today, probably because the kids already had snacks. I can hear them talking quietly amongst themselves. They did really well not bugging me.
I put away the laundry I folded earlier. BJ and ‘Nea are still working on their rooms. Dilly is begging someone, anyone to go outside with him. He is sadly disappointed, as the girls aren’t excited to go out in a blizzard. He eventually finds something to do for awhile.
4:30 I start making supper which ended up being Chili Soup and fresh cucumbers tonight. I call my Mom to chat while I’m cooking.
5:15 My hubby is home early! I get ‘Nea to come set the table and we let the soup to cool for awhile. The kids all follow their Dad downstairs to his office to chat with him and ask questions.
5:30 We sit down to eat supper.
6:00 The kids all disappear downstairs. It was super quiet tonight-obviously they were getting along. They haven’t gotten along this well for a long while. It’s really nice. Bernd and I chat about our day.
I start clearing the table and washing the few dishes that don’t fit in the dishwasher tonight.
6:30 It’s a quieter evening. Everyone is off doing their own thing. Eventually, I get Dilly to come and I help him take a bath. Next, I help ‘Nea wash her hair. BJ handles her own shower. In between, we watch a couple of YouTube videos. With the baths and showers, it’s not long before it’s bedtime for the kids.
8:00 The girls decide to have a “sleepover” tonight, so they go to bed early so that they can have some time to chat before they go to sleep. Dilly goes and spends some time with his Dad. I have free time so I get ready for my online Book Club Meeting which is happening soon.
8:30 It’s Book Club Meeting time! I love that I can do this from home even though it’s a crazy stormy day.
9:00 I’m back to blogging work, after taking my vitamins, making my husband’s lunch, and putting on my pj’s.
10:15 I’m wrapping up my work and will be going to bed soon. I generally try to go to bed by 10:30, though if I’m honest I don’t always make it because I get side-tracked.
There you have it, a day-in-the-life of our family.
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