Somewhere around this time each year, I share My Homeschool Day in the Life post. Quite a bit has changed in this past year, as I have begun to really make my children responsible for a lot more things. In the past, I held onto control a lot more, but letting go has made life so much more relaxing that I’m glad I’ve done it.
6:00 a.m. My alarm goes off. As is usual for the winter-time, it seems far too early. Surely it is actually the middle of the night! I lay there for what feels like a minute and the next thing I know it’s 6:20! I guess I had better get up.
I grab my robe, turn up the furnace, and set off for the living room after using the bathroom. I grab my favorite blanket and sit down on the couch to pray, do my Bible Reading, and do the “30-Day Encourage your Husband Challenge,” I’m currently working through.
7:00 a.m. This is the time I usually try to head towards the bathroom to start getting ready for the day. If it’s a day I shower, I shower. If it’s not, I start doing my hair, putting on my makeup, etc. After that’s done, I get dressed, if time permits. If not, I head straight to the kitchen to begin prepping breakfast for myself and the kiddos.
7:30/7:40 a.m. We sit down to eat. Today, two out of three children are up for breakfast but the third is still sleeping. I let my children sleep as long as they’d like, though they usually never sleep past 8:30 a.m. so it works for us. After I’ve finished eating, I read a chapter from the Bible. We’ve been reading through the Bible for the last 2.5 years or so. The kids generally have a question or two in the middle of it, so I try my best to answer. Sometimes I have no answers.
8:00 a.m. The three of us are finished eating and we all leave the table to begin our various chores, responsibilities, and getting ready. I have taken a real step back in the last two months with helping/reminding my kids to do their work. Instead, I set a timer that lasts until 8:30 a.m. I finally got tired of nagging the ones that dawdle and decided to leave in their hands. Turns out, that they are perfectly capable of doing it on their own and I am way more relaxed this way. My children have various responsibilities each morning. Obviously, getting themselves dressed and ready for the day is a big part of it. I generally get asked to help my 10-year-old with her hair and I take upon myself to wet my 7-year-olds. All have chores, but one chooses to do all their chores after lunch. ‘Nea practices piano. Lastly, they all do personal devotions. My 7-year-old currently uses a Bible Story App instead of reading. He prefers it and I’m good with that. I generally pick up the house or start a load of laundry during this time.
This morning ‘Nea only wakes up at 8:30 but she does manage to get most of her stuff done. She has to eat by herself and re-heat her oatmeal but she still gets ready for school on time.
8:30 a.m. The rest of us have our free time. The kids can play or do any projects that they might like to do as long as they leave Mom mostly alone. I use this time to Read the Bible and pray if I’ve slept in, practice piano for worship leading, exercise, or do a little reading. Recently, I’ve worked hard to create some new habits in my life. Each weekday, I strive to fit 4 basic things into my daily life; Bible Reading, Reading a book, Exercise, and some Blog Work Time.
9:00 a.m. ish We all gather in our Living Room to talk about what we read in our personal devotional times and begin our read aloud for the day. This year, we are studying World Geography so many of our read-aloud choices are based all over the world. I’m loving Jamie’s Martin’s “Give Your Child the World” as a resource for choosing these books.
We usually spend about 30-35 minutes at our read-aloud times. After that, we head downstairs to our schoolroom and begin our Table Work. I usually get ‘Nea settled into school work and then head right back upstairs with Dilly to listen to him read as well as read to him.
10:30 a.m. ish The kids get a 20-minute break to get outside to have some fresh air. I generally start on a few of my household chores during this time, answer emails, make phone calls, switch laundry or do lesson planning. Today, I wrote an email to my mentor.
After the 20 minutes are up, we often do our Bible Lesson at the Kitchen Table while the kids have a little snack. We love using Kenneth Copeland’s “SuperKid Academy Home Series” for Bible. They don’t always have snacks but sometimes they claim that they are dying of hunger, so Mom gives in. 😉 After the lesson, we are back downstairs for our table work. I work with my youngest two kids the most and am generally available to my oldest. When I don’t need to be helping anyone, I’m usually correcting work or planning ahead for another day.
12:00 noon Everyone is wrapping up their table work and BJ heads upstairs to practice her piano. I stay downstairs to begin recording what we’ve learned, correcting, and putting away school work. I generally work on this until the last possible minute but don’t finish before lunch even then. Next, I head upstairs to warm up or make some lunch. We generally have at least a few leftovers. If there isn’t enough, I’ll either eat soup or make myself a salad and let the kids have leftovers.
12:30 ish We are usually finished with lunch and everyone begins to do their after-lunch chores. This is the time of day that I do the majority of my chores as well. Whether it be folding laundry, vacuuming floors, washing dishes (if it’s not the girl’s turn), doing house-cleaning, and office work, I have different chores for each day. It never seems like enough time, though, so I generally use Saturday mornings to catch up. (Well, sort of, I don’t think I ever really catch up.)
1:15 p.m. This day in the life happened on a Tuesday and on Tuesdays, my girls have piano lessons at 1:30, so we begin to get ready to leave. We use Tuesdays to visit the library, grab any groceries that we might need, do errands, or visit Grandma.
2:45 p.m. We are usually back home and we have our regular quiet time. This is something that we have all 5 days of the week. In this time, the kids are expected to do something quiet. This is especially hard for Dilly because he loves to be with people, so I’ve gotten used to him hanging around me at times asking me questions or talking. He also often goes outside during quiet time as well because he just loves outside. I use this time to work on blogging, to read, or to listen to podcasts.
4:00 p.m. It’s free time for the kids. Some days the kids will watch a movie, other days they will listen to an audio drama or play. This is the time that I allow them to have the freedom to do the things that they enjoy. In the summertime, I will often go for a walk or bike ride with the kids during this time. Right now, though, it’s kind of cold here, so we are inside a lot.
4:30 p.m. It’s generally the time for me to start our Supper. Today, I was making chicken vegetable soup with barley, so I actually started a little earlier. While I cooked, I listened to instrumental piano music and worked on this blog post a little bit.
5:30 pm. My husband is home and we sit down to eat Supper together as a family. It’s a nice time. We enjoy this time to chat about what we’ve done today. My husband has to leave the house by 6:00, so he and I spend just a little of time talking about our days. We try to spend some time after Supper talking each day, as he often has to work in the evening on business-related tasks.
6:00 p.m. My husband leaves the house and I begin washing dishes. The kids come upstairs from their rooms and spend some time playing Mario Kart. They’ve been having a lot of fun with this old game, lately.
6:20 p.m. I’m finished dishes as I didn’t have that many today, so I ask if any of the kids want to go for a walk with me, as I haven’t had my exercise today. My 10 and 7-year-old children come with me and my 12-year-old decides to stay home and have a shower. Dilly, ‘Nea, and I have fun going for a walk in the creek bottoms near our home. It’s a lot warmer than it has been in a long time and it’s awesome to not have to wear a scarf over our faces.
6:40 p.m. We are back from our quick walk. I’ve decided, at last minute, to go to an event my Dad is putting on to raise money for Haiti. I quickly rush to fix my hair and we get ready to get out the door so we can make it there by 7:00.
8:30 p.m. We leave the event before it is over as I know the kids will be tired if we stay too late. It was almost over and it was definitely an eye-opening experience for all of us. I’m glad I took the kids. Sometimes I forget the importance of exposing them to other countries and cultures.
The kids get ready for bed and are all in bed by 8:45.
8:45 p.m. I get dressed for bed, start writing this post, and now I’m watching a Ministry Broadcast. After I’m finished watching the Ministry Broadcast, I watch a little bit of YouTube. This is a habit that I tend to have and am trying to break.
10:30 p.m. I go to bed.
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You can check out my previous Day in the Life posts below:
My Homeschool Day in the Life with a 5, 8, and 10-year-old
A Day in the Life of our Summer with a 11, 8, and 6-year-old
My Homeschool Day in the Life with a 6, 9, and 11-year-old
*All Photos are my own*
