A Typical Day in Our Homeschool

In our homeschool, I do not schedule a certain amount of time for each subject.  I have found that it is easier to work with blocks of time.  This way, I do not feel rushed to get finished with something by a certain time and the children are not watching the clock all day.  Our school week is Monday-Thursday leaving Fridays for field trips, errands, and other activities. Our schedule goes a little something like this:


I get up between 7:00 and 8:00 every morning.  My children are not big breakfast eaters so breakfast is fairly simple.  We have things like pancakes, waffles, muffins, cereal, oatmeal, and toast.  I get breakfast for the children that are awake when I get up and the others (the oldest two) serve themselves when they wake up.

After breakfast we have morning chores.  I clean up breakfast, straighten the kitchen, make the bed, start a load of laundry, and take care of any small quick chores that I have time for in the morning.  The children get dressed and ready for the day and take care of their animal chores. 

Then it is time for our morning school work.  These are subjects that we can work on together. Our school day starts at 9:30.  We start with P.E. and it lasts about 25 minutes.  After that we do our Bible reading for the day and a chapter of whatever our morning read aloud is.  We do our poetry memorization and then Nick is excused to go upstairs and work on his school work.  Lily, Christian, Anthony, and Alex and I do the geography and science portions of E.C.C. (plus any extras I add in) while Emmie reads, colors, or plays quietly.  We finish up between 11:15-11:30.

The lunch/recess portion of our day lasts from 11:15-12:30.  I make lunch for the children and they eat and clean up.  Then I eat my lunch while the children have recess. While they are having their recess, I get to read mine too and read for a little while. The children go outside as often as possible but if it is really cold or storming they build LEGO or do other indoor activities. 

Our afternoon school work is lasts from 12:30-2:30.  This is the hardest part of my day because it is when the children work on their individual subjects.  Nick and Alex can work completely independently, but everyone else needs help and guidance from mom.  I go over Emmie's work with her first and get her started on her worksheets.  Then everyone else works on their math.  We sit at the table together so I can help as needed.  This is the time of day when the most patience is required!

After math, we read our afternoon read aloud and then I work on spelling, reading, and language arts with the boys while the girls play quietly. When the boys are finished I work on language arts, reading, and The Book of Animals with Lily.  When she is finished I go back and work with Emmie on any other hands on activities or stories that go along with her lesson.  Once a week we also add in an art project in the afternoon.

The children have free time after their school work is completed.  The boys play their video game and the girls watch a show on TV.  I fold laundry in the afternoons on the days we are home and work on my blog.  Other cleaning chores are completed during this time as well until it is time to start getting supper ready.

We used to eat supper at 5:00 exactly.  But Art works later now then he used to and the children's activities on Tuesday and Wednesdays make us get home later.  I try to have supper ready by 5:30 but even with the later time Art doesn't eat with us often.   During soccer season I feed the children much earlier and heat up something for Art when we get home.

Our bedtime routine starts at 8:00.  I read aloud from a chapter book for the boys and a picture book for the girls.  Once the children are in bed, they do not have to go straight to sleep.  They are allowed to read for awhile until they are ready to go to sleep. I try to have all my work done by 9:00 so I can spend a little time with my husband before he falls asleep.


What does a typical day look like in your homeschool?

Happy Homeschooling!

Our Week in Review (December 19-25th)

Merry Christmas!

This week we have been on Christmas break.  Art is on vacation and has been home with us and it has been wonderful getting to spend some time with him.  We have been keeping the children busy this week working in the yard and getting ready for Christmas.

Monday I had to be out of the house for several hours to take Chelsea to a doctor appointment. The children watched Christmas movies and played games while I was gone.

See the Light has some wonderful Bible Story themed art DVD's.  I had ordered The Gift of Love (about the birth of Christ) last week but wasn't sure it would arrive in time for Christmas.  It came on Tuesday so the children watched the story and completed one of the art projects (there are 3 on the DVD) called Away in a Manger.  This was the first time Emmie has ever completely followed along with one of our art lessons all the way to the end.  Lily, Christian, Anthony, and Emmie did a great job!

Wednesday Art issued a leaf challenge to the children.  If they could get all of the leaves cleaned up and taken care of by 3:00 then he would buy them milkshakes from Sonic.  They were finished by 2:00.

Then they started building some kind of structure outside.

Our baby squirrels did not make it.  It had seemed like they were doing very well and then all of a sudden they weren't.  One died Wednesday night, the next one Thursday night, and the third one early in the morning on Friday.  It was very sad.

Friday I had an appointment to get my hair done and afterwards needed to go grocery shopping.  I did not want to go to Walmart the day before Christmas Eve, but I didn't have a choice, we needed food. Nick went with me so I wouldn't have to do it alone and I so appreciated that!  It was raining and the store was crazy!

Christian made some cute Christmas crafts.

Saturday was of course Christmas Eve.  The children think its the longest day of the year but for me the day flies by!  We baked cookies, cake, and pies.  We cleaned and wrapped presents and before I knew it it was time to get ready for church.  We went to the 6:00 candle light service had a snack and put children to bed.  Then I wrapped more presents and got everything ready for Christmas morning.

The children are not allowed to get out of bed before 6:00.  But, I started hearing them talking about 5:30.  Right at 6 they headed downstairs.  They were so excited!  Presents were opened and breakfast was eaten.

Later Chelsea and Cody came by and more presents were opened.  Christmas lunch was served and cleaned up and the rest of the day was spent relaxing.

I hope you had a great week and a very Merry Christmas!

Review: To Have and to Hold by Betsy St. Amant, Becky Wade and Katie Ganshert

Book Description :

"Love Takes the Cake: A September Wedding Story by Betsy St. Amant Charlotte Cantrell is always the baker; never the bride. When Will, a regular at Charlotte’s bakery, catches her attention, she can only hope that he is the reliable man this single mother has always hoped to find. The problem is that he’s regularly stopping in to buy cookies for another girl. But when Charlotte is hired to bake a host of wedding goodies for a difficult bride and finds out Will is the best man, she has the perfect opportunity to get to know him better—and find out how serious Will is about this other girl in his life.

The Perfect Arrangement: An October Wedding Story by Katie Ganshert Amelia Woods is a small-town wallflower and the proud owner of Forget-Me-Nots, a quaint flower shop. Her love life has always been a bit lackluster—until she ends up in an embarrassing fender-bender with handsome Nate Gallagher. Meanwhile, Amelia’s younger brother, William, has proposed to his girlfriend. Amelia would be excited except she has evidence that the fiancée is not who she says she is. It seems Nate is the only one available for any advice-giving, and he’s good at it—and pretty fun to talk to too. As Amelia works to craft the perfect flower arrangements for other people, she begins to wonder if real love is better than the dream. And if it is, will Nate still be interested when he learns who she is?


Love in the Details: A November Wedding Story by Becky Wade When Josh returns to his hometown of Martinsburg, Texas, to help his best friend get married, he didn’t intend to run into church wedding coordinator—and ex-girlfriend—Holly. He can’t help but pine after the girl he never got over. Holly broke up with Josh years ago in an attempt to ensure his future success. But she loved him then and still loves him now. As she helps him plan his best friend’s wedding, she longs to be with Josh but doesn’t feel worthy of his big-time lifestyle when she is more comfortable in her smalltown world. Will Josh and Holly be able to keep things as they are when their true feelings threaten to surface at every turn? "

To Have and to Hold, Three Autumn Love Stories, is the newest book in the second Year of Weddings novella collections.  These stories feature ladies that work behind the scenes to make the perfect wedding for others.  The stories do not tie to each other in any way besides the idea that each person works in the wedding industry.  If you have read other novellas by the authors you may recognize some of the characters but you do not have to read the other books in order to enjoy and appreciate these.  These are quick, light hearted reads that are predictable but have the happily ever after endings that you will enjoy reading.  Because they are novellas they do not have as much detail as you would get in a full length novel, but the authors do a good job of fitting in enough details to make you feel like you are part of the story. I loved the first Year of Weddings collection and think that looking at the perspective of people in the business adds an interesting element. 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to the FTC regulations.

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 15

It was not a typical week in our homeschool this week.  But we did have a lot of fun, some excitement, some time with friends, and a Christmas party to attend.  We did get some school work done too.

Week 15 in our Homeschool

P.E.: We did two days of Family Time Fitness.

Bible: We read about gypsies in Windows on the World.  Our memory verse was Matthew 11:28.  We read Matthew 10:21-Matthew 11:30.  In Hero Tales we read about William Tyndale.

Read Aloud: For our morning read aloud we read 4 chapters of William Booth.  We finished our afternoon read aloud, Snow Treasure.  For our evening read aloud we started reading The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson. 

Poetry: We finished working on memorizing the poem Persevere.

E.C.C: We finished up France this week.  We read some information on France in Children's Atlas of God's World.  We reviewed the locations of the countries in Europe.  We did a notebooking page on French money and another one on famous landmarks in France.  We made models of the Eiffel Tower out of LEGO.  In the science portion we read about the Balance of Nature and Describing Living Things.

Art: One of the things we did not get to this week.

Apologia Astronomy: Didn't get to that either.

Language Arts: We did not do Fix It! Grammar and Lily did not do language arts either.  Anthony and Christian copied the poem Certainty.  Nick completed a lesson on sentence diagramming.

Spelling/Reading: In AAS Level 3 the boys finished Step 16.  In AAR Level 4 they finished lesson 38.  In AAR Level 3 Lily finished lesson 6.

Math: Nick finished lesson 14 in MUS Geometry.  Alex completed two lessons in Teaching Textbooks.  Lily, Christian, and Anthony completed 3 lessons in Math Lessons for a Living Education. 

MFW Creation from A to Z: Emmie completed the lesson on "I" for insect.  She did her drawing page, blend ladder page, and made an insect badge.  We did not do any of the other suggested activities, but we did do some other things.

Lily and Emmie made some cute Christmas tree ornaments.

And Emmie and I made this Christmas 5 senses book that I found on Pinterest.

Other Activities this Week:

Tuesday the girls had gymnastics. 

Wednesday We had an opportunity to get together with some friends we haven't been able to see in awhile. 

Thursday was an exciting day.  The tree came down and we found the baby flying squirrels.  They are still alive and doing well (I think.)  They are eating and appear to be healthy not that I have any knowledge of what that means for a baby flying squirrel.  We are keeping them warm, feeding every 3 hours, and keeping them clean. I am very surprised that they are still alive.  I thought after the fall from the tree that they would not survive the first night.  Alex has been helping me feed them at night. He feeds them at 11 pm and 5 am and I feed them at 2 am. 

Friday the girls and Nick went for a haircut.  The girl that cut their hair straightened it before she cut it.  Emmie really likes her hair straight because it feels longer to her and doesn't want her curls to come back. 

Friday night we had a Christmas activity to go to.  We were supposed to be going caroling on a hayride, but about an hour before it was supposed to start it started to rain.  The hayride was cancelled but we still sang carols, just indoors.  They had some games and refreshments too.  We had a really good time.

Saturday the girls made this cute nativity. It was over 70 degrees out and they all spent time outside.  The tree continues to be a fun play area.  When we woke up Sunday morning it was only 20 degrees!  Crazy weather!

What is left of the squirrel nest

I hope you had a great week!  We are on Christmas break for the next two weeks.

Happy Homeschooling!