a day in the life: 12 and 9

As with so many moments in my life recently, I feel as though I just wrote a 'day in the life,' but here we are, one year later from the last post of this detail.

Last year, I mentioned a drawn out stage of transition. It is now more clear to me that I will probably always feel this way, because, really, all of life is transition. Some changes take longer, some happen in leaps. Changes are still happening here and I am doing my best to roll with them and simply be present with my children for who they each are, right now. This feels more complicated than it should be! I am present, but I have many flashes of memories of days gone by and many moments when I find myself considering what lies ahead.

Some things remain steady. We are still a family of sensitive/highly sensitive individuals, some of us anxious, as well. However, we have made shifts in how we are communicating about and handling these sensitivities and so much growth has happened in our family as a result.

We have been homeschooling for 4+ years now and I feel comfortable saying that it is difficult to post a typical day, because they all have their unique qualities. At the end of the day, when we share our thankfuls, our 'roses,' and our 'thorns' from the day, we share something different each time. Yet, the seeds of our homeschool were Waldorf, and so my goal is to always have some consistent rhythm to our days and weeks.

Some of the outside activities that my kids participate in are 4-H,  homeschool charter classes and activities, dance, music, soccer, and occupational therapy. This is a lot and I already have ideas of what will change next year. For now, though, I am deeply content that I have been able to change the day and times of some of the activities to free up longer chunks of time. This week will be our first having Fridays free of commitments.

Morning:
My goal is to be up well before the kids, so I can get a cup of tea, journal by candle light, exercise, and start the day before I have company. I feel fueled when I get this quiet time alone. (I am introverted!) At some point in the week, I do bits of planning; meal planning for dinners (breakfasts have a consistent repeating pattern and lunches are leftovers), lesson planning for the week, book requests from the library, printing needed materials, pay bills, etc.

The kids generally wake as daylight breaks, so this is getting earlier and earlier as we move toward spring. They are welcome to do as they like to transition into wakefulness. They aren't required to help make breakfast. We all come together for breakfast, because it is our family meal of the day. Afterwards, Dada heads off to work and we move into morning read-aloud. The books that get read during this time are all chosen by me. I select books that cover materials I want to bring to the kids. I can cover any subject through read-aloud. (This idea is all over the homeschool Internet! Cait talks about it as Coffee and Books, Julie talks about Morning Routine. Good stuff this snuggly book love time of day!) My kids still love picture books (and they can be the perfect length for a bite sized lesson), so I use these to introduce or expand on something we are learning. As I write this, we have just finished reading The Unfinished Angel, by Sharon Creech, as part of the Heal the World Book Club from the Martin family of Simple Homeschool. The book was outstanding, as were the study guide, 'mad libs,' videos, and other extras they included. We had so many Big Juicy Conversations (a Brave Writer term) about this book. (And I have a special fondness for Sharon Creech because she taught my brother, and for this book, because there is a Nicola in it!) We selected other books about kindness and healing to go along with this chapter book. I also sprinkled in poetry and several books about seasonal changes and time zones, to go along with the Journey North Mystery Class we are participating in for the first time this year. (It is wonderful and there are so many additional ways we are exploring science, math, and geography with this project.)

At this point, read-aloud time winds down and we all get dressed and ready for the day. Simple chores are done by all and then we head out for a walk. I try to really get us moving at this point, because I have one child who clearly needs to get wiggles out and another who doesn't seem to, but stays so much better regulated with lots of exercise.

When we come back in. we come together for lesson time, usually at the table. We might say  a verse first, with a little movement, and the kids are both hungry! (One child takes care of the rabbit hutch and the other makes a snack tray. They trade back and forth daily.) We work on math, writing, and sometimes other subjects. We are working together most of the time, sometimes on the same material (at different levels), sometimes on the same overall subject, but different materials.

Afternoon:
My kids are always hungry, so they are ready for lunch. I am trying to reintroduce quiet time on the days that we are home, because I need it, and my kids need a lot of unstructured play time, but the reality is we are a little over-scheduled so there often isn't time.

Evenings: I could copy exactly what I wrote last year for evening time, because we haven't yet made room changes or rearrangements to adjust to growing kids, with needs for separate spaces (they share a room - small house!), but some changes are in my plans for this summer. We try to have dinner by 6pm, we snuggle again together on the couch for bed time reading, and the kids are ideally in bed by 8:30 pm or so. Often it is a bit later. Dada gets home from work around this time, too, eats, and joins us for read-aloud. We are allowing natural changes to allow Lala Bug to have a little longer to read alone or hang out with us for a bit after her brother is tucked in.  My sensitive kids still need their sleep time protected and I selfishly want them both in bed so I can get a little wind down time and Hubby and I can have time before bed. When their bedtime slides toward 9pm, I end up in bed late, too, and they end up grumpy.

Mondays: Most Mondays we have our morning routine. After lunch we often have a 4-H activity. One of the Mondays, the 4-H activity takes the place of our morning routine, too. Mondays, late afternoon, Lala Bug has ballet.

Tuesday: Just this week, we have made scheduling changes, so this post will go live before we have experienced the week as I am posting it. Tuesdays start with read-aloud, but in lieu of lesson time, we head to soccer and then on to occupational therapy for both kids. I will be sneaking in lessons (maybe in the form of games) after we get home.

Wednesday: Our homeschool charter classes or activities day. (Classes happen twice a year for 6-8 weeks per session. This is alone time for me! The remaining weeks of the school year are activities, field trips, or holidays) In the afternoon, Lala Bug has ballet again.

Thursday: Lala Bug has weekly math club and Brown Mouse has drum lessons. (He switched from ukulele a few months ago, same teacher.) I think this will also be our library day.

Friday: Effective this week, this is a free day! I imagine us deep diving into exploratory learning, recuperating from the week, and doing fun field trips on this day.

Weekends: Family (extended included) and house DIY time. Sometimes we go camping (with or without friends) or to the mountains.

And as is life as a human with children, the days is full of questions, conversations, chatter, interruptions, upsets, bathroom breaks, and all the time zipping activities that make me both grateful and exasperated with homeschooling. It really is a privilege and amazing ride!


What does a day/week in your homeschool look like?

Here is a little more about our homeschool:
A Day in the Life with 11 and 8 year olds
Our Educational Journey
All posts under Homelearning