A Typical Day

I always have numerous requests for an explanation of our school schedule. I've been reluctant to do this, because I really feel that every day is different, and most days I wish we would have accomplished more. However, I hope that this explanation will be interesting and a bit helpful.
It will include more than just our school items, because when you are homeschooling, you really are balancing home management along with school.

Our day starts with morning chores. Usually these are accomplished before breakfast, but if we wake up late, we eat breakfast whenever it is prepared, and then continue with these chores until they are done:
1. Bath & dressed
2. Hair done & teeth brushed
3. Scripture study & prayer
4. Make bed & tidy bedroom
5. Empty trash & hamper, & gather hangers
6. Tidy upstairs zone (A-Bathroom, J-Farm chores, C-Guest room, S-Bathroom, M-Hall)
7. Help your 'buddy' do their chores

After breakfast, each child has a kitchen assignment. The three oldest children rotate:
1. Dishes (do all dishes & put clean dishes away)
2. Surfaces (clear & wash all countertops & table, put leftovers away)
3. Floors (Put all clutter away & sweep. After lunch-mop, and vacuum the dining room)
Spencer-Clears the table
Mallory-Washes the chairs
Zach-Shakes the rugs

Our first part of school is devotional. We do this altogether. Usually a few of the older children will have finished their morning jobs before devotional, and started on their schoolwork.

Each of the children rotate a task for devotional:
Conducting
Song leader & opening prayer
Pianist
Lead us in pledge & patriotic song
School theme
Testimony
Memorization

Order/schedule:
1. We have our opening song (hymn or primary song), & opening prayer
2. We recite the pledge of allegiance, & sing a patriotic song
3. One child leads us in our school theme
4. Scripture recitation (every child takes a turn reciting our weekly scripture)
5. One child shares their testimony with us (I instruct them on the things that constitute an appropriate testimony, and I don't let them start with "I'd like to bear my testimony")
6. Memorization (child gets to recite whatever they are currently memorizing-quotes, poems, etc.)(if a child has a primary talk, program part, or scripture, we have them practice it during this time, each day, so they will be ready by Sunday)
7. Next, we recite a paragraph of our family motto, or another thing we are trying to memorize as a family.
8. I (Mom) usually take some time to share a spiritual thought, or something that I want to share with the children (manners, family relations, etc.)
9. Then we have "storied scripture" time. I have printed off Penny Gardener's "storied scriptures". I read a scripture passage, and the children draw a picture of what we are reading about. This is an excellent way to help them remember what we read in the scriptures. They write the title and today's date at the top of their picture.

They usually want to take a while to finish their pictures, so I often will read our history lesson to them at this time. Other days I will read it to them at lunch, or while we fold laundry.

That is how we start our school day. Then we go into our lesson time. The four oldest children do this rotation on their lessons:
1. Gospel study & journal (They do this by themselves)
2. Math (They do 'Teaching Textbooks' math on the computer. I help them if they need it.)
3. Language Arts & spelling (They do this at the dining room table with my help)
4. Preschool with the little ones (They take the three little ones-M, Z, & A, and do 'preschool time' with them for about 20-30 minutes)

The preschool activities are:
1) Cooking (they prepare a snack for the family),
2) Nature study (they all go outside and learn about something in nature)
3) Reading (They read from a scripture story book, then one of the children's read-aloud books, they also have a list of nursery rhymes & songs to do with the little ones)
4) Learning games/Activities (They have a list of different learning activities to do, puzzles, learning games, etc.)
During preschool time, they know that they are responsible for teaching the little ones to clean up after themselves, get along, etc.

Other lessons that the children are assigned to do are: Workbooks, Readers, Math drill sheet, handwriting sheet.

We do science and history together as a family. That will be the subject for a future post.

In the afternoon, the children have the following housework assignments:
1. Make sure all upstairs & downstairs zones are clean
2. Do your weekly job (M & Th-Bathrooms, T-Detail vacuum, W-Windows, F-Organize, S-Wash walls)
3. Do a job in the current family zone (ask Mom)
4. Straighten your shoe shelf
5. Laundry (Each child does their own laundry, plus: Aliysa-Mom & Dad's, Jace-all bedding, towels, etc., Courtney-Zach & Andrew's, Mallory-Abby's)

So, that is the way our housework and schoolwork are organized. It might sound flawless, but each day really is different. We have this plan so that everyone knows what they should be doing, but it isn't as though the children just automatically do these jobs on their own. It takes a lot of supervision and prodding at times.

There are many days that we don't do any schoolwork, and some days that we focus on schoolwork & let the housework slide a bit. It is amazing how little time it really takes to have children up-to-speed on academic subjects. I don't know what takes so long for them to do the basic subjects in public school. I'm not saying that to bash public school families, I just really find it astounding that children have to be gone six hours a day, five days a week, just to accomplish the basics, and then they even have homework sometimes! I don't know how parents are able to spend enough time teaching and nurturing their children when they are gone at school all day. It would be tough.

If I feel like the children are getting behind on anything, we just focus on that for a while. For instance, when we realized that none of the children were proficient with their multiplication facts, Bob called off school for a week, and told them we would be watching the Narnia movie (which they hadn't seen yet) on Saturday evening. Anyone who wanted to watch it would need to have passed off all their times tables. That was all they were supposed to focus on in school that week (of course, they still read books and did other unstructured learning on their own). The four oldest children all mastered them, and we watched the movie together after putting the little ones down to bed. Lately, I've noticed some of them are getting a little rusty on the times tables again, so I printed off a worksheet with all the multiplication facts on it, and I'm going to have them do it each day.

I'll do another post sometime that shows what our evening & bedtime routine are.

You might observe that I didn't write what times we do these things. I, with my 'schedule-everything-down-to-the-minute' personality, would love to say we do these things on a certain schedule, but it just doesn't happen. No matter how hard we try, there are inevitably things that keep us up late at night, and we sleep in. On those days, we focus on getting the basics done. Some people have remarked that that is the beauty of homeschooling, that it is so flexible. I love homeschooling. I am convinced that it is the best atmosphere for children. I am so happy that we can be together each day, and I can spend time answering their questions using the gospel.