My Typical Homeschool Day with My Kids

Many people ask Home Schoolers, "What is your typical day like?” Many just shrug and say they don’t have a typical day. So today I decided to log my day. It had a few differences from a typical day, but on the whole it’s fairly average.

For the purpose of this article I have named my children Aaa, Bbb, Ccc and Ddd, in order from oldest to youngest. Aaa, Bbb and Ccc are male, Ddd is female.

I’m currently homeschooling Bbb (7^th grade), Ccc (5^th grade) and Ddd (1^st grade) while Aaa (10^th grade) is in school.

6:15 alarm bell goes off. I was in a deep sleep. I get dressed into t shirt and shorts, go downstairs and discover last night’s dinner not cleared away from the dining room table. I tidy the kitchen for a while, make hubby’s breakfast which is chopped fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice.

6:45 I quickly check emails just to see if I’ve sold anything (I sell books on ebay and half.com). Today I’ve sold one book, I make a mental note that I have to wrap one parcel ready for shipping before 2pm when the mailman comes.

I start a movie playing on my laptop, put headphones on and start rowing on a rowing machine that is next to my desk. My desk is in the kitchen. These days I seem to live most of my life in the kitchen.

7:15 Hubby eats breakfast, Aaa makes his sandwiches and they both leave the house. It’s a 20 minute drive to Aaa’s school and hubby takes him on his way to work.

7:30 I finish rowing and go back upstairs for a shower, make my bed and tidy my bedroom.

8:15 The kitchen is a mess, the dining room table is covered with food and dirty dishes at one end and partly opened mail at the other. I’d like to sort laundry, but the tablecloth is too dirty. I need to clear the table and change the tablecloth before I can sort laundry. Before I start on the table I mark yesterday’s schoolwork, find two clipboards and write schoolwork requirements for Bbb and Ccc. They each have a total of 7-8 subjects, but they do 4-5 of them each day.

8:30 Ddd appears, followed closely by Ccc. She’s not usually up this early. I generally wake Ccc up at 9am and leave Ddd to sleep in. That way I can sometimes get schoolwork time with just Ccc. They play a little while I tidy. Then I ask who wants breakfast. I quickly remove last night’s dinner plates and put their breakfast there instead. Ccc’s invented a new language. He requests his breakfast in his new language. I understand most of the words, but don’t usually speak it. Our family name in Ccc’s language is Doo. His name is Cock, his middle name is A-Doodle. So if I ever need him I have to yell Cock A-Doodle Doo. He thinks it’s hilarious. I usually just yell “Ccc”. He complains, and I apologize for forgetting.

8:45 Ccc’s finished breakfast, been given his list of assignments on a clipboard, and pile of schoolbooks and I’ve seated him in my teaching room. I have a dedicated room for schoolwork, but we hardly ever use it. Ddd is at the dining room table with food and a book. Ccc moves from the teaching room where there is a clear desk and puts his schoolbooks on top of the clutter on the dining room table. He’s not interested in doing his schoolwork and prefers to tease Ddd. I’m trying to tidy the kitchen to make room for the dishes I’m about to bring from the dining room. Ddd’s getting upset. She comes in the kitchen, sits on the floor with a book and three bowls of food: breakfast cereal, grated cheese and a chopped apple. The door between us is closed, but Ccc is still trying to tease her.

9:15 Ccc went back into the teaching room where he found a Dictionary, looked up words and answered some questions. He asks for help for the things he doesn’t understand. I wrap one parcel ready for shipping and put that along with the two I wrapped last night on the porch ready for the mailman. 10am is my cut off time, if I sell a book after 10am it goes the next day.

9:30 I tell Ddd to get dressed. She goes upstairs to get dressed, but when she comes downstairs dressed, her hair all messy and she’s not wearing any shoes. She has to wear shoes all the time to correct her walking. She hates to wear shoes because she prefers to walk incorrectly, so I send her back for shoes and to brush her hair. She informs me she’s already brushed her hair, but it doesn’t look like it. She wants her breakfast to stay in the kitchen on the floor in case she wants to eat it later. By now most of the breakfast is on the floor and not in the bowls.

10:00 I knock on Bbb’s door and tell him to wake up. I usually do this a few times before he gets up. Ddd is at the non food end of the dining room table with a schoolbook. I sit down next to her and Ccc sits down next to me. I get annoyed with Ccc because he puts his schoolbook on some food left from last night’s meal. I wonder who should have cleared the table from last night. I check the rota and notice it was Ddd’s turn. That explains why it wasn’t done properly. I chase Ccc back into the teaching room and clear the food end of the table. Finally it’s clear, but not clean enough to sort laundry. I load the dishwasher and start it. At last I can see some work surface in the kitchen. I usually try and clean the kitchen at night, but I was out last night. That’s why I didn’t make sure Ddd cleared the table.

10:15 Bbb appears. I give him his list of schoolwork to be done, attached to a clipboard. It has 6 items on it and Ccc’s has 4. They compare notes and complain that Bbb has more to do than Ccc. Bbb has some schoolwork from yesterday, Ccc finished his yesterday, but they don’t see that. Bbb sits in my recliner in the living room and starts his math. Ccc and Ddd are on the trampoline.

11:00 I get all three children in the living room to read to them. I’m currently reading “Are you liberal, conservative or just confused?” It’s an Uncle Eric book. Bbb continues doing his math while I read, Ccc gets his box of Lego and Ddd has found a clipboard and is writing herself a list of tasks to do. It reads: hug mom, hug dad, go on the trampoline. Maybe I should soon start writing a list on a clipboard for her. She has about 6 books and I like her to do one page from every book every day. But I’m very relaxed about her schoolwork. She spends most of the day reading, she plays with sculpey clay, draws and plays with her brothers. Sometimes she gets one book and does multiple pages, so I don’t require other books to be done.

I read for half an hour and get multiple interruptions. I find it frustrating. Sometimes it’s a question about what I’m reading, but sometimes Ccc wants to communicate with Bbb about what he’s building. Sometimes Bbb wants to say something totally irrelevant. He’s allowed to do his math, but he’s not allowed to ask math questions. If he can’t do a question he’s meant to leave it until I’ve finished reading. He doesn’t, and I remind him of this most days.

11:30 I finish reading and tell Ccc to put his Lego away. I answer Bbb’s math questions

12:00 The Lego still isn’t away. He had difficulty putting it away and getting back to schoolwork. I put lunch in the oven. Bbb decides he doesn’t like what I cook and cooks his own. It smells good.

I take a short break after lunch. I take a few photographs for items I’m selling on ebay and upload the photographs to my computer. I’ll write the listings later.

1:00 Ccc is going to a friend’s house at 1:30. I threaten him that if he doesn’t do half an hour’s math he won’t go, but I’m not serious. I wouldn’t let his friend down. He usually messes about and then does a lot very quickly.

1:30 I have to get Aaa from school for a dentist appointment. Bbb has his list of schoolwork to do and I leave him in charge of Ddd. I give her a new DVD about a frog dissection and then she can watch Muzzy, a Spanish learning DVD. Bbb is to do his schoolwork while looking after Ddd. I take Ccc to his friend’s house and go to Aaa’s school to get Aaa. Usually Ccc and Ddd come with me to get Aaa. It’s a 45 minute round trip and they listen to a CD in the minivan. We’re currently listening to Susan Bauer’s Story of the World.

2:15 I drop Aaa at the dentist and rush to a nearby thrift store to look at the books. I get half way though looking at the books when he phones that he’s finished. That was way too short, I need at least half an hour to look to see if there’s anything I want to sell. I still manage to buy $5 worth of children’s books at 25c each, so it wasn’t too bad. I drive home, get Bbb and Ddd, drive to Ccc’s friend’s house, get Ccc and then we all go to the gym to exercise. Two days a week we all go to the gym to exercise, two days a week Ccc and Ddd do Tae Kwon Do and one day a week Aaa has a drum lesson, so I drive some combination of children somewhere every day after school.

3:30 Aaa and Bbb exercise on the treadmill and exercise bike while Ccc and Ddd do a PE class for children. I sit and read my book. Often by this time in the day I’m stressed. After reading for an hour I go home very relaxed. One friend once commented, “Only you could join a gym and sit and read a book,” but that is what I do, after all, I row at home in the mornings.

5:00 It’s Tuesday so Bbb makes dinner. They all have one day a week they make dinner. Aaa cooks on Mondays, Bbb on Tuesdays, Ccc on Wednesdays and Ddd on Thursdays. I of course supervise. Sometimes I plan the meal, but sometimes they choose. Today Bbb chose to cook tacos. He can cook them very well, but he makes a mess of the kitchen in the process. He’s learning to clean up after himself. My office is in the kitchen, so I sit and list the books that I’ve just bought while I tell Bbb what to do. My help for him is mainly verbal.

6:00 Ccc sets the table. Every meal they all have one job. Two help before the meal and two afterwards. I usually just make sure they do what is required. I’m going out for a meal tonight, so I sit at the table with them, but I’m starting some auctions on ebay that I’ve listed earlier. I list auctions when I can, but I start them between 6pm and 7 pm. Tonight Aaa’s job is to clear the table, Ddd’s job is to load the dishwasher. The table gets cleared, but she needs help with the dishwasher and I don’t have time to insist it gets done.

6:45 I leave to go out for a meal. I run a group from my church that meets every Tuesday. We’ve just finished a book so we are having a meal together. Bbb and Ccc haven’t finished their list of schoolwork so I tell them I expect them to do it while I’m out. In reality I expect they won’t do it and I will have to add it to their list tomorrow. I’ll also have to sort the laundry tomorrow. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Frequently I work with one of the children in the evening to finish their day’s schoolwork. If it’s not finished they have to work with me on Saturday afternoons which they hate. I hate it too so I try not to do schoolwork on weekends.

9:00 I get home and row for half an hour. I watch a DVD while I row. I really rarely watch TV or movies unless I’m rowing. If I find a movie I’m really interested in I row more.

10:00 I go to bed. The table is cleared, but the kitchen is a mess. I don’t have the energy to tidy it, I’ll do it in the morning.