What is my typical day like?
I had someone ask and didn’t think I could fit it in comments LOL! So here goes…please keep in mine that we are flexible as we have a baby, and unforeseen events daily it seems that cause us to veer off course, but Steady as she goes is my moto! Often you’ll hear “Back to boxes!” coming from me (every few minutes it seems)…especially with the boy who has taken to ‘disappearing’ between boxes, or when we have to stop an activity because the baby has opened a drawer and emptied its contents all over the school room. Wednesdays are different as the girls have dance from noon-2, so we just start earlier to accommodate this. And I’ve kindly spared listing the billion times a day I save my baby from choking hazards and falling off the stairs to her death. Oh and the 3am feedings that we still do because I can’t stand to let her ‘cry it out’. But…with all that said, here’s our ‘plan’ for each day, and I really DO try to follow it! Okay, are you ready?
8:00: Read 1 Psalm & shower for mom as I can’t function with out one
8:30: Breakfast/dishes/toss in load of laundry and/or start dishwasher
9:00: School bell rings (yes, I really have a bell courtesy my mom! They LOVE it!)
9:00 – 10:00: Group time, we all do the following together:
- Calendar, days of week, months of year, counting calendar/hanging pattern chains by each day, put up new weekday discuss yesterday and tomorrow.
- Bible: Pray, Sing songs, do bible study, discuss, review
10am – Workboxes, everyone starts at the same time…this is immediately followed by what I like to think of as organized chaos ;o) (It typically takes us 2 hrs or so to go through our 10 boxes, some days more…)
12noon: Lunch! Followed by outside play, and a few moments for me to do dishes and gather what little sanity I have left before moving on…I also load boxes for the next day during playtime and swap out my laundry to the dryer. Baby goes down for nap.
1:30pm: Science or Geography & fun stuff, this is when we do our Expedition Earth activities and I usually save crafts, art projects, science type experiments etc for this time. (We may also run errands if needed around this time after the baby wakes up of course!)
4pm: Chores like laundry, we have LOTS of laundry, It should be done by now, so we all fold and everyone puts away their own stuff! I usually have my 6yr old help my 3yr old, if she doesn’t want to I will, I don’t make her. (This is different for each family, but I have a chore chart posted in my kitchen and I pay .25/chore. So if someone wants to make money, they’ll go see what needs to be done and do it! This has helped me out a lot! Friday’s are prize day and we go to the dollar store and let them buy something with their earnings,then some goes to Jesus and some goes to savings.
Some kid friendly tasks:
- Swapping clothes from washer to dryer
- Setting the table for dinner
- Emptying the dishwasher (5 and 6 yr old)
- Making their beds
- Feeding the dogs (2 of them!) and cat (1 of them!)
- Sweeping the kitchen floor (my 5 yr old is excellent at this!)
- Cleaning dishes after meals (my 6 yr old just started this, everyone brings their own plate from table to counter and she washes and puts in dishwasher)
- Vacuuming (Really more for the 6 yr old, but I’ll let my 5yr old do his room…he likes it)
- Dusting: Give them little dust rags, or Clorox wet wipes and turn them loose!
5:00pm: Start Dinner…
5:45pm: 10 Minute Tidy: This is where I set a timer and everyone runs around like maniacs cleaning up anything can they find so when Daddy comes home the house is a clean and serene oasis, and he thinks its like that all day ;o)…sorry honey, the secret is out…please don’t come home any earlier than 5:50 unannounced or my reputation will be ruined forever.
6:00pm: Dad enters & asks “So, what did you do all day?” I say “Not much, just lounged around and ate bon-bons.” Dad quizzes kids to make sure I’m kidding.
6:10ish Dinner/dishes/sweep kitchen floor (Seriously, how does it get destroyed after 1 meal?)
7pm-7:30: Bath, family devotions & bedtime – Clean up playroom, take baths, go to bed! My 2nd grader saves her reading assignments to do with Dad after the others have gone to bed so she stays up an extra 30minutes or so. If I didn’t get to box loading earlier, she’ll help me now since she likes to.
8pm: Free time for mom and dad….sit down, sigh…blog…laminate…work for church etc. and praise God we made it through another homeschool day without burning down the house! Aside from hanging out with my husband here are some of the things I do during my “free time”, I also try to do this during playtime if there’s a lull. I know this sounds a little crazy but I was definitely spending too much time on school stuff etc, so having it broken down has helped me not only get it done, but have actual FREE time at night with my husband:
- Mon: Work on letter stuff for next week
- Tues: Print letter stuff
- Wed: cut/laminate letter stuff…then wonder why I’m doing all this work for prek ;o)
- Thurs: Work on workbox schedule for following week
- Friday: Gather materials for following week.
- Weekends: Family time!
10ish: My devotion time…nice and quiet, and I’ve settled down from all the madness of the day. Then I go to bed and pray for God to order my steps for tomorrow that I might get everything done HE wants me to do, and not spend time on stuff that wastes my precious time!
So that’s our schedule for what its worth, hectic, but ordered. Hey, you asked!
Thanks for posting your schedule! Love the workbox idea for organization. I also have 4 kiddos (2nd grade, K-3, 18mo tiny tot and 4mo baby)…talk about being pulled every direction at once! Since you've gone through tiny tot stages, how do you get school done w/them around? It's a very grabby hands/all attention on me age. For us with a baby also, it makes helping the other two very difficult. Any tiny tot/baby advice? Also, I see that the kiddos go to bed between 7:30-8:00pm. When do they wake up? Mine are up by 6:30-7:00am and the 3yr old wants breakfast right away. Thus causing everyone to eat at different times and the madness of unorganization to begin our day.
I’m curious about this, too!
Erica, Do your kids go straight to sleep when you put them to bed? What time do your kids wake up? My kids are up way before me (oops!) and ready to eat very early.
I love your schedule!! I just have one question. WHEN do you make dinner?
Caroline: I usually start dinner around 5pm or so, earlier on nights when we have swim lessons. But typically I start around 5pm and we eat around 6pm :o)
wow, this is amazing! =D Love it! I'm definitely going to follow your example with my homeschooling!
Wow, this is awesome! Love it! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Wow! Thank you for sharing! I may have missed this but where do you get your lesson plans? I don't home-school yet, so I don't know how it works. Thank you : )
Kimberly: Depends on which lesson plans you're talking about. The lessons for my LOTW stuff come in the purchased version. Lesson plans for other subjects come with the curriculum I buy for each subject.If that doesn't answer your question feel free to email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot) com
Quick question,
Do you do one load of laundry every day? If so, is that how you keep it manageable?
Love your schedule! I like the idea of 10 PM devotion. I was trying to do mine in the morning, but found that it wasn’t getting done well or regularly enough!
Thanks,
Connie
Connie: Yes, I do 1 load everyday. I put it in right before breakfast, change it to the dryer whenever it beeps or i notice it is dry, then have one of the kids fold it after school during chore time. Everyone puts their own laundry away except the baby, I do hers and mine and my husband’s. Some days it ends up being 2 loads depending on the craziness of the day before. We do swimming twice a week so that results in extra towels and suits that need to be done twice a week. Ugh…laundry….
I know this is an old post, but I just found it and I have a silly question: When do you blog?? It seems like your day is filled! 🙂
Usually at night :o) Depends on whenever I can find a minute, but my day is pretty full LOL!
Oi Erica. Saudações em Cristo.
Moro no Brasil, na cidade de João Pessoa e tenho acompanhado o seu blog e sua incrÃvel rotina com 4 crianças. Você realmente está de parabéns, rs..porque eu tenho uma rotina corrida aqui. Sou mãe de 2 meninas de 7 e 4 anos de idade, esposa de pastor, missionária facilitadora no PEPE (Programa de Educação Pré-Escolar) que funciona em nossa igreja, além de ensinar na Escola BÃblica de 9-11 anos. Aqui no paÃs não podemos ser homescholling, a lei não permite. Mas tenho me inspirado em sua homeschooll. Obrigada.
E agora lendo sua rotina, também vou fazer algo parecido para sobrar mais tempo para meu Deus e minha famÃlia, que amo tanto.
Bençãos.
Rossandra
Caro Rossandra,
Obrigado pela atenção! Meu Português não é bom, mas eu queria dizer que eu estou contente você está encontrando meu blog útil! Eu sempre gosto de ouvir como Deus usa o meu blog para abençoar outras famÃlias! Em Cristo, Erica
Voce fala Portugues??? Que legal!!! Por essa eu nao esperava 🙂
I just found your website, and it’s been so inspirational for me. My husband and I just started thinking of homeschooling, and the whole idea for me is very overwhelming. I can’t imagine my children in public school, and private Christian schools are so expensive! But I thought I give homeschool a try and see how it goes, if it doesn’t seem to work for me, we can sacrifice and do private.
But your blog makes it sound so manageable, although when I see all you do all day I get tired just to think of doing all that! Do you have someone who cleans your house for you? I can’t imagine having do do ALL that school prep, teaching, AND clean & cook!!!! Oh…AND find time for devotion/prayer/bible study! Wow! Maybe it’s easier as you’re doing it?
LOVE your school room!!!
One question-I’m sure you’re plenty busy to respond, but if you have free time and see this, it would be greatly appreciated!
–My husband and I are originally from Brazil, and we speak Portuguese-only with our 18 month daughter (I’m also due in Nov), and I our plan was to speak only Portuguese to our children, and once they start “school” they would pick-up English easily. But now homeschooling will make that more confusing. Do you have any experience, or seeing people who were able to teach their children in both languages? So that they are fluent in both languages? Any advice is appreciated! 🙂